Inspiration

What a wonderful summer it's been.  There's just a hint in the air that the season is changing now. If you are reading from Australia or New Zealand, are you suddenly noticing the longer days and the sense of spring again?  I love how time and seasons gently shift on.

And then, meanwhile, the long hot British summer of 2025 rolls on. We left the blog in high summer July (and for those that missed it, a colour reveal for our rendered walls at Westness - a much anticipated choice).

A month has passed and we've seen some fine things.

P A R T   1 :   B O T H I E S

Charlie and I had a lovely long weekend at the bothies on the west coast.  For a while we had thought we'd sell them when we found Westness, but the last time we were there, collecting Nancy, we realised that we loved them too much to do that - and there was also that sense that the landscape and whole atmosphere is so different from up in Orkney.  So for the time being, we've decided to hold to them. We probably can't do too much with them when we have the big house project to come at Westness, but for now they are perfectly happy without being touched.  We get our water from a bucket, from the spring, and the compost loo is a different bucket - it's basic - but it works, and that's fine.

What has bubbled up is that the tiny stone cottage opposite ours came up for sale and we have been able to buy that. It's the Old School House - it was once the school room for a long-vanished village - together with the tiny school master's bothy to the right.   Now it's used as a shed and floods in the winter and has no power or water, so we can't do very much with it... but it's a magical spot - and it means we can protect our view!   Seeing as it's rather close across the water, maybe you can understand how happy we were when that came to pass this summer.

Here's Sibyl contemplating how happy she is at the bothies!

You couldn't quite see in the mist and haze, but there's the most amazing view of the Paps of Jura.   And they get the sunset.

Coffee the next morning...

A low tide walk over to the new bothy....

Followed by the Tayvallich Gala - here's the dog parade!  Plenty of jollity.

The next morning we were up early off to Jura for the day, seeing our friends Flora and Theo.

Dramatic skies and beautiful seas....

As you approach the waters of the Gulf of Corryvreckan, the sea goes very strange.  We've never crossed the Corryvreckan at the precise time and tide when the full whirlpool is raging, but the water is filled with mini whirlpools and areas that are eerily flat calm.

The next minute you're in raging seas.

Wild goats on the beach on the west coast of Jura.  The landscape is strangely reminiscent of New Zealand.

Arriving at the Glen....

Such a magical house.

We had a wonderful lunch with many friends and then it was time head home. Nancy on the beach wondering if she'd rather live here forever....

A walk the next day...

The beautiful ash trees seem to have survived ash dieback up on the west coast.

So many mirror-calm days this summer...

And then after the happiest few days we were off again, back to Orkney...  We left at dawn.

An amazing sunrise.

P A R T   2 :   O R K N E Y   A N D   M E Y

And then on the ferry from Gills Bay to St. Margaret's Hope.

The haunting deserted houses on the Isle of Stroma.

Home to Westness. Here's the farm next door with a serene sea on our walk that afternoon.

Nancy!

Evening swims every day now.

Evening seal - and we now have an otter visiting regularly.

Crazy flat seas the next day.

Skies as if they're painted by Ravilious.

A few days later we were back onto Mainland for the Mey Highland Games at the John O' Groats show ground.  Absolute heaven.

H. M. The King hands out the prizes.  Wonderful for such a tiny games!

Jesus loves you!

Looking back from Caithness to Orkney.

After the games we had a fantastic visit to the Castle of May and its beautiful walled garden. It's a wonderful place to visit - restored and revived by The Queen Mother and now cared for by a trust - but The King is doing the most incredible things in the garden, as you can imagine.  Open most days - and if you are touring this coast of Scotland, there's a fantastic converted coach house where you can stay.

Looking back to Hoy from the walled garden of Mey.

We were back early to Orkney the next morning....

Home for lunch....

Charlie's garden looking at peak (before the storm...)

It's incredible to scroll back to the blog in April - when this was just an overgrown field.

Late summer in the woods.

We had to get back for this!!  The Rousay Show!!! The most anticipated event of the year.  Sadly because we'd been at the Mey Games, Charlie hadn't entered this year.  Our neighbours had one more year without Charlie's arrival....!  But it is just so good.

Prize giving afterwards!

And then the next day.... Storm Floris blew in.

Winds were 85 mph - I took some videos for instagram that evening, but I realise I didn't take any photographs outside.  The wind was howling with a strength we haven't seen before - even in winter - but inside we were cosy and  happy.

We'd been meant to have been going down to London that day but all the flights were cancelled.  Charlie inspecting the damage - thankfully very light - the next morning... and then we were off on our replacement flight.  Down to London for a day and then - Sweden!

P A R T   3 :   S W E D E N

We were staying for week with our friends John and Beata, and Luke and Duncan.  Here are Charlie, Luke and Beata rocking a good look as we took the tiny ferry to Beata's house.

It's called the 'Cabbage Head' - because of the shape of the rock it's built on - which I think you can just about see?   The house has been in Beata's family since it was built in the early 19th century and, wonderfully, is now jointly owned by hundreds of cousins all descended from the original builder.  Fantastic!

And as a result, inside, nothing has changed.  It's the most beautiful house you've ever been in - like living in a museum.  No bathroom at all - you wash in the sea - and the loo is a long drop.

A completely magical place.  We were here for three very happy days.  Little trips out, absorbing the beautiful Swedish architecture...

Drinks in the evening sun. Swims all day long.

Delicious meals.

Reading.

Long lunches with this as the view.

Here's a painting of the house from 1901. 

We stopped at Gunnebo, the remarkable 18th century estate by Gothenburg, now - amazingly, owned and managed by the local authority in Mölndal  - which has been restored to the highest levels over the last 30 years.

The gardens, on arrival, are magnificent.

Many of the buildings are newly-built re-creations of buildings that had been lost decades ago.  This one was built in the 1990s.  Everything is done to the highest standard using only authentic materials and techniques- nearly all building materials from wood to nails to plaster is sourced and made on the estate.

The main house is a fine Neo-classical mansion built for the prominent merchant trader John Hall in the late 18th century - incidentally, an Englishman from Hull. He was obviously trading well.

Interior vistas.

Our wonderful tour, by one of the talented team working on the building crafts here, Andreas, ended at the most recent project, the re-creation of the Orangery. The original building lasted only a few decades, but all the architects design drawings still existed in archive.  This building was completed (still, a tiny bit of work to go) two years ago. The quality is sensational.

The plaster grotto is in the left hand end of the the pavilion. The right hand door leads to the pink panelled room which is the foyer to the glasshouse.

A happy group shot on departure.   A wonderful visit - you must go if you can.

Then we arrived at Beata's family farm for the happiest few days....

Walks in the forest....

An amazing crayfish party....

An amazing night filled with laughter. The next morning the sun was bright and the air clear.  But it was the day we we were leaving....

Beata had fixed a visit to the incredible Finn Juhl House - now itself part of the wonderful Ordupgaard Museum complex on the outskirts of Copenhagen.  This could all be a blog in itself.  Here are just two photos as a taster.

The Edwardian villa is filled with a fantastic collection of 19th and 20th century Danish and French paintings, beautifully displayed - a brilliant visit.

We had the happiest night in Copenhagen, for Luke' birthday... and then at sunrise the next morning, Charlie and I crept away early to catch a flight back to Edinburgh and then home.

A N D   H O M E .

We arrived back in Rousay to sparkling clear waters and blue sea.

A haar fog rolled in over Westness.  Our trees have been burned to a brown crisp by the storm of Storm Floris. It suddenly felt like Autumn.

But as always on Rousay, the sun came out soon. The weather changes every minute.

It was the Rousay Regatta weekend, huge hilarity with the Children's raft race; becalmed sailing races around the island of Wyre, and the most brilliant night of music and much drinking and laughter down by the Pier.

The next morning I had to leave to head to London. Flat calm seas over Orkney again.

The week has passed, busy days in London are over, and I'm on my way home again now.  A Happy Bank Holiday weekend beckons!