Enough!

We did manage to get out yesterday and enjoy the sun and lack of wind for a while. We did not go in the Land Rover and so went not to Cata but instead to Backaskaill, where the tide was on the way out but being a little lethargic about it. Luckily there was just enough sand to walk on.

The camera came with me, though not to any good effect.

One photo is fast becoming a cliché with me so I’ve been amusing myself in mixing this instance up a little

The recent high tide had brought down much of the dunes. There was no point in hunting for archaeological finds however as these are recent accretions that are being eroded and all that is being thrown up is an indecent quantity of plastics. Luckily we now have plastic recycling available in the village, allegedly. Clean up can begin long before Bag the Bruck and next time (and every time) we go down to Backaskaill we may take a sack and gather some bottles to drop off at the recycling point.

I did try to grab an arty shot of the ribbons of plastic in the sand but it looked far less effective in the camera than it did to the naked eye. I’ve stuck a filter on it to tart it up a bit but it still doesn’t work as it is the PoV that is wrong – the lovely effect of the streaming across the sand is lost. My streamers look a lot less streamer-ish and far shorter in this shot than the ones that I saw.

I did not find any interesting detritus worth featuring in its own photograph, just mountains of tatty plastic bottles. Why, oh, why will folks not dispose of this stuff responsibly. Better still, get your water from a tap. You know it makes sense.

Yes, OK, guilty as charged – I do buy bottled water from time to time, usually if I need a bottle. I then refill that bottle from the tap and use the bottle until it will no longer serve. Until now that bottle has gone in the rubbish bin – I feel deliriously happy now that I can send it for recycling once its time is done. We try to be responsible about pop bottles too (I cannot stop ‘im indoors from drinking the stuff, alas) and use a Sodastream. It rankles that the concentrates come in a plastic bottle of their own!

This used to be a beautiful planet, now so ugly. I swear a disproportionate amount of plastics is washed up on my beautiful island. It’s not fair.

Sorry for that digression, back to our walk!

The sun moved rapidly across the sky, dropping all the while and headed behind some cloud. I spent an inordinate amount of time in attempting to capture some “God Rays” but Nell did not mind as by now there was much more beach to run around on.

It was becoming chilly without the sun and the light was going quickly, despite the early hour.

I like this shot:

Today the bad weather has returned. It is grey, wet, wild and windy – but not yet as bad as it is going to be. This morning’s boat sailed and the shop says that we have bread, milk and fruit and veg for now. This afternoon’s boat was cancelled. Looking at the forecast we shall most likely have a repeat scenario tomorrow. Later in the day we have a Yellow warning for Wind, and another for the following day. We may expect wind speeds up to 80 mph. There is a Yellow warning for Rain on Thursday for Shetland but this does not yet extend to Orkney.

If the weather goes as predicted this will be our worst storm of this winter.

I am trying hard not to moan about the wind and the weather. When I think of friends and family enduring the flooding in Yorkshire and elsewhere, I realise how very lucky we are but all the same, I am ready for the wind to stop. Really, I am.