Sheep don’t care about dressing gowns

December in Orkney: It’s all wind, wrapping paper and existential Christmas musings.

After a beautifully calm few days the wind has picked up again! I could hear it from my bed this morning but it’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of security in the belief that it's not actually too bad. This is helped by the initial shelter you get when you first walk out of our front door. Our wee cottage is a long-ish narrow thing, one room wide, four rooms long but with the outhouses and barn, it gives the whole ‘property’ an L-shape, so depending on the direction of the wind, it can be quite sheltered. That is until you try to walk around the old barn and get smacked in the face with gusts of around 65mph. It gets a bit wild.

After a turn around the garden avoiding the handful of sheep seeking refuge along the fence lines, I decided to take Kiki up the lane. One of the advantages of being down a lane and having no close neighbours, is that it doesn’t matter that I’ve chucked on a waterproof over my dressing gown and am trying (failing) to coax the dog up the lane, the only thing to see me is the sheep and they are neither fussed nor that interested. Thankfully, Kiki dragged me back home to the comfort of breakfast (her), tea (me) and a snuggle by the radiator.

It seems likely that the day will be spent inside, no bad thing as we need to crack on with Christmas. It’s very early for us as we usually wait till the weekend before Christmas to ‘deck the halls’ or in our case, the living room, but we already have the tree and I’m trying to stay ahead of last posting days.

My main mission is to get the gifts wrapped, the relevant cards written and all packaged up for a trip to the postal office in the morning. We’re very fortunate on Hoy to be served by a shop with a Post Office that is open every day the shop is. As well as groceries, sweet treats, gifts, random DIY bits and pieces and fuel, they also manage all the island deliveries. It was one of the key selling points for choosing Hoy, that and the fact we get between 3 and 5 ferries a day to Mainland.

Last posting days don’t really work here in that everything takes at least an extra day, possibly more. My nephew turned 17 yesterday (mind boggles at how time flies), so I popped his card in the post in time for Wednesday’s collection - that’s 2 extra days. It hasn’t turned up yet, but that could be more to do with me screwing up the postage than anything else. I bunged a couple of first class stamps on it to cover the large letter-ness of it, but maybe it was a package…should have taken it to the Post Office… Anyway, here’s the message from him:

“Card is yet to come, think its because you live in the arse end of no where”

Quite right, I do! And I bloody love it.

It’s been a busy and social couple of weeks for me, which even a a few months ago is something I didn’t think I’d ever say. It started with a day for myself on Friday 29th November which disappeared in a whirlwind of shopping, a haircut, chores, a trip to the Christmas shop, lunch with a friend - yes an actual FRIEND - and then the one task that dominates every trip to mainland - the food shop, where I’m usually sweating and panicking that I won’t get out of the shop in time to make it to the ferry. So far I’ve always arrive at least 10 minutes earlier than the designated time because I tell myself it takes 30 minutes to get to the pier, whereas in reality, if no tourists or tractors get in the way, it only takes 20. When I came home and unpacked the goodies, I realised I’d successfully bought myself lots of presents but hadn’t managed to get much for anyone else, which is why I found myself on Mainland again on Thursday.

This was a more relaxed trip, I decided to go to Stromness instead of Kirkwall and it was an utter delight, it’s smaller and prettier with some awesome shops. We don’t really do family Christmas presents anymore, kids excepted, but it’s nice to get a few bits to pop in with the card isn’t it? Then we had the Christmas Fair here on Hoy yesterday where all the islands makers and creators have the opportunity to sell their wares. It was fab, lots on offer including beautifully carved hardwood candlesticks, quilted decorations, beautiful photography and gorgeous knitted jewellery. Safe to say money was spent, gifts were gathered.

That hasn’t been the only community activity I’ve attended. Last Saturday I popped in to the old headteachers house which is going to be renovated to create community housing, on Sunday it was a consultation on the Lifeboat Museum and Monday was our book club Christmas party. The fair yesterday highlighted how much starting the book club has benefited me, I knew so many people there and had a lovely time chatting to them all. It’s been a completely selfish affair, I like reading, I like talking to people about books and I want to meet people and get involved with the community more. Turns out, that’s kind of why most clubs start!

So today I find myself with my heart full of Orkney and the community, whether we’ve been accepted or not yet is another thing. It is accepted that we are here, I am getting more involved in community activities and so I’m hopeful I’m on my way to proving to be a useful member of the community.

Christmas feels like an odd tradition to me, I was raised a Catholic and in my younger years we went to mass, did all the kneeling and praying, the whole thing. But as we got older, even my mum lapsed and it became more about family get togethers, drunken games, way too much food and, of course, presents. These days, I still celebrate it, it’s hard to avoid, but nowadays, it feels more like a time to indulge and rest.

I know it’s not like that for everyone. Not everyone celebrates Christmas of course and not everyone finds joy in it. Are you a Christmas-er?

Hannah 🧡

Bonus question for my fellow writers:

Do you write and then let your post rest?

I usually bash something out in Notion then pop it into Substack and email it to myself. An hour or so later I’ll read it, tweak it and then add photos. Then I test again, correct any further typos I notice and schedule it. Once it’s published I notice about 5 more typos, or sentences that make no sense which I’ll either edit or just leave depending on my mood! What’s your process?

Stromness