Morning news
May. 29th, 2008 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustThe next morning, Barbara, our host at St Margaret's Cottage, checked that we had plenty of coffee and could not possibly eat any more toast, and then pulled up a chair and joined us for a chat.
We told her that we had been on the beach at Dingieshowe, watching the oystercatchers diving into the sea, and she told us about the diver among the wrecks in Scapa Flow, who had seen a cormorant pass by 30 feet down.
We asked about the concrete construction we had noticed on the Churchill Barriers (causeways linking a series of the islands): were these new? Which provoked an entertaining disquisition on how the old blockships, which used to act as breakwaters, were at long last sinking, and instead of replacing them by towing other derelict ships into the same position, the council had consulted consultants, who recommended an artfully shaped concrete wall to deflect the waves. Only this acted instead to redirect the waves straight up into the air, so that a large wave was liable to fall back down from a height, and if it landed on a car could smash its windscreen.
Fortified by a sense of being up to date with the essential gossip, we headed off to the Trading Post to stock up on basics, ready to move into self-catering accommodation on Hoy. Then there was just time for a quick visit to the Round Church at Orphir (now no more than a fragment of curved wall, but an unusual building and a favourite of mine), before it was time for the ferry.
We told her that we had been on the beach at Dingieshowe, watching the oystercatchers diving into the sea, and she told us about the diver among the wrecks in Scapa Flow, who had seen a cormorant pass by 30 feet down.
We asked about the concrete construction we had noticed on the Churchill Barriers (causeways linking a series of the islands): were these new? Which provoked an entertaining disquisition on how the old blockships, which used to act as breakwaters, were at long last sinking, and instead of replacing them by towing other derelict ships into the same position, the council had consulted consultants, who recommended an artfully shaped concrete wall to deflect the waves. Only this acted instead to redirect the waves straight up into the air, so that a large wave was liable to fall back down from a height, and if it landed on a car could smash its windscreen.
Fortified by a sense of being up to date with the essential gossip, we headed off to the Trading Post to stock up on basics, ready to move into self-catering accommodation on Hoy. Then there was just time for a quick visit to the Round Church at Orphir (now no more than a fragment of curved wall, but an unusual building and a favourite of mine), before it was time for the ferry.
