Sunsets

There have been some gorgeous sunsets over the last week or so. Of course, now that the clocks have changed I can't get back from work in time to catch the sunset over the sea, which I so enjoyed watching on the rare occasions when we saw the sun this summer. However, I've managed to catch the sunset in the countryside a couple of times. Beautiful.

In Remembrance

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

I always find these lines - from 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon, very moving.

Some Troup gannets

Some late season gannets from Troup Head. Not this late in the season of course - there's no gannets left at Troup at all now, but they should start to return in a few months. These photos were all from mid August, when a lot of the chicks had fledged and many of the gannets had already left.

There was lots of preening going on, as the birds all made sure their wings were in the best condition for their months wintering at sea.

Those that were left ranged from the 'punk haircut' chicks which were well on the way to being fully fledged....

... to those who looked as if they were about to take off from the cliffs at any moment, and were regularly exercising their wings.

Meanwhile, there were still some very young, fluffy chicks too. I was wondering whether they'd fledge in time before the first of the winter storms arrived.

The gannets' bright yellow heads were fading fast, and there were still a few fights going on...

... although not nearly as many as previously as so many gannets had now left that there wasn't the same pressure on space, or the same likelihood of encroaching onto a neightbour's space as the birds came in to land.

Musical Maggie

I first saw Maggie Adamson perform at the Orkney Folk Festival Open Stage in 2007 (it seems like no time ago, doesn't time fly....) At the time she was only 15, but blew us (and the rest of the audience away) with her playing.

Here's a Youtube clip from the previous year (yes, she was around 14 then!) - I think this was one of the sets she played in the Open Stage - which she won in Orkney that year.

I managed to catch her and Brian Nicholson playing at the Tall Ships event in Shetland this summer - another great concert. She's just won the prestigious Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship - it's by invitation and, as such, is considered to be the premier fiddle competition in Scotland - so many congratulations to her for this well deserved victory.

A possible solution

Thanks to my friend Sian I may have a solution to my blogging problems, and may be able to start blogging again...... Fingers crossed. Of course, Sian may be the only person still bothering to read my blog by now, as everyone else may have got fed up of the lack of updates and given up! I'll give it a try over the next few days and see how it works out.

Blogging difficulties

I've been having huge problems getting any new blog entries written as Blogger sadly seems to have become rather unreliable. So meantime there will be no more blog entries until things improve, as I just don't have the time to spend on this just now. 5 hours for one blog entry is just ridiculous! And it's still not right as the font size seems set on small no matter what I do, or change...