St Magnus Festival II

The recital by brass quintet "Pure Brass" exceeded expectations!  The quintet are a young group of professional musicians who gave a brilliant and, at times, witty, recital.  My personal favourites were the Fnugg, wonderfully executed, and I had NO idea a tuba could make those kinds of noises! Another fun piece was "the Reform of Rank Bajin" which included members of the audience being serenaded (um.... not sure if that's *quite* the right word for having a trumpet thrust in my right ear?!). Other more serious pieces were great too.

And the folk on Hoy made everyone welcome as usual, with lifts from the pier to the Hoy Kirk, via the cafe for tea and cake.  On the boat journey home we could hear the seals calling, a perfect end to a perfect evening.

And on the ferry over to Hoy we saw Dave MacLeod who had, the day previously, completed the ascent of St John's Head cliffs. Breaking new ground as that particular route hadn't been climbed before (and that is the limit of my climbing knowledge!).  He is either a very brave man, or completely bonkers! Either way, well done to him. Dave's description of the climb can be found on his blog here

One of my blog readers commented that I portrayed the Orkney landscape as soft rolling hills.  Well generally it is, though there are some high points around the coasts, and the island of Hoy has a hill just a wee bit shorter than a mountain! I must post some pictures sometime..... Graemsay though is definitely low lying with the highest point being just 65 feet!

Here are some of the Hoy Hills from Graemsay, but the cliffs that were climbed are out of sight....