Karen arrives

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In the same week as I started at the NoB shop, our dear friend who is also our bookkeeper turned up to visit. She had booked herself into a local bed and breakfast as we currently barely have room to sleep ourselves! This was her first visit to Orkney and unfortunately despite the time of the year she was greeted with wind and rain. Not a good start as she had left Suffolk in the middle of a heat wave!

Still showing great stoicism Karen who had driven up in one go was not one to give up touring the island. We drove her round on the first day to show her the lay of the land and then she set off exploring as well as booking a tour around Stromness. She had time to visit the Ness whilst I was there, but it was a very cold and wet day and at the end of it Karen joked that she was looking up ferry times home !

One of the evenings we booked to visit a ‘fireside tales’ session at the bed and breakfast place Karen was staying at. We all sat in a peat smoke filled room and listed to Orkney tales of ‘fairie folk’ ‘selkies’ and other folk creatures. The presentation of these stories was acted out in a most mesmerising way by the lady of the house whilst her partner had given us a brief history of the house and the area and the specialness of its location. It was quite a memorable evening and we left around eleven smelling of peat, so when we got back to Mill Cottage I topped off the evening with a nip of Laphroig!

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