A White Christmas....

... is almost certain for Orkney!  We had more snow showers last night, and freezing temperatures overnight so no thaw (and no change in the water shortage situation either!).  Above is the Graemsay Hoy Low Lighthouse taken by a friend from Stromness just outside the town.

The frost has been extraordinary for Orkney. It was absolutely stunning on Wedsnesday - ice crystals standing like miniature forests on every surface.

Frosted lichen

Miniature ice forests on the stone dyke

More ice crystals

Willow branch

Frosted rosehip

And take a look at this YouTube video of the Orkney Winter Solstice 2010 taken by someone called "Red Orkney". RO must live just outside Stromness as you can see the Hoy hills and Hoy Low lighthouse on Graemsay, plus the Hamnavoe coming in and out of Stromness Harbout and our wee Graemsay ferry too.  The photograpy is stunning!

Wishing you all a Happy Festive Season however you choose to spend it.

Winter Solstice

Today is the Winter Solstice and I greeted the sun rise this morning as it rose above the croft at Windreck on Graemsay at 9.10am.  The rest of Orkney also saw the lunar eclipse this morning but our wee island was shrouded in thick freezing fog so I saw nothing. This was a special eclipse, falling on the Winter Solstice so I was sad to miss it. But I imagined the moon turning blood red through the mist, and thought of all the people over the millennia who saw this as a sign that the Ancient Gods were giving fertility back to the earth again. However I consider myself lucky to have enjoyed last night's rising moon, stars, and still air, listening to the geese calling from near the shore, and then watched the sun rise on the solstice - magical!

Hoy High Lighthouse emerging from the mist

Sandside Bay