Come for a walk where I live

Phoneography Challenge: My Neighborhood

To kick this off, grab your phone and head out the door. That’s right — get on your feet and go outside to explore — and document — where you live

OK. I have to take my DSLR. I was planning on using a pocket cam but it’s broken. To keep in the spirit of the thing, I shall stick to point and shoot mode. I shall crop, to keep the page load time under some kind of control. I will not “improve” the images in Lightroom or Photoshop, but I may do a little filtering as I might have done, if I were a phone and Instagram user.

That’s fair, yes?

Looking down Kettletoft Bay towards the harbour

This is the view shot from my gateway. On my island there are two small villages. We are going to amble down to one of them, Kettletoft, this morning and we are heading for the harbour. You can see the pier buildings in this shot, right of centre, in the distance. It’s a glorious morning, sunny and one of those rare calm days that come along from time to time.  It’s a bit nippy, though, so wrap up warm. I’ll just set the bread to rise while you are finding your  coat.

Ready?

The tide is pretty much in, so we shall likely not see any seals today

Notes are in the captions, so do mouse-over the gallery images to see where we are and what we are seeing.

Turning right,

A slight uphill, fields on both sides

there  is a short incline to the top of the road.

Scene on the way:

Wild geese on the left-hand field, looking across to How Farm

Spring!

Milestone, remanants of last night’s hailstorm in ditch bottom. The milestones here are interesting and were used to calculate haulage fees from Kettletofy, in the days when the ferries berthed there

Bit of fluff

Neeps – fodder for sheep over-wintering in the field on the right. You may call them Swedes, or I htink in the US, these are Rutabagas?

Soon we reach the junction, with a view over Bea Loch. With a better lens we might be able to spot the wild swans.

At the junction, we turn left

Turning left, towards Kettletoft, we continue with a slight incline as far as How, then it is a straight downhill to the village and the sea.

Up to How

Scene on the way:

Mossy stone dyke

Shadow on stone

Fish box

The Daffs at How are coming on – soon be Spring

I’m out and about early today – that is the School Bus

Further down the hill, there is a daff almost out – beaten down by last night’s hail

Old metal tractor wheels

Ceramic insulators on the overhead power lines

A rare bit of colour

Monday is washing day

The Butcher’s Shop aka “Jean’s” – is a small general store,no longer a Butcher.

The sign says it all

Our bank…

… opens Tuesday, weather and planes permitting

A little detail

In the village:

Our remaining hostelry

The Post Office

The old weighbridge, and a real old-fashioned British Telephone Kiosk

The harbour is around to the left. Some scenes by the harbour:

Detail from the weighbridge

Always makes me want to sing The Bear Necessities

The rear of the weighbridge, with telephone box and a view of the now-closed Belsair

Harbour steps

Tulip

Harbour-type-stuff

Lobster creels

The ferries used to berth here

Detail from harbour building – fish crates stacked inside window

Detail from harbour building – this door is a favourite subject of mine

Lobster boxes

Harbour-type-stuff

Harbour-type-stuff

Harbour-type-stuff

Time to head for home?

Scene on the way back:

Chimneys on the Belsair

Post Office Detail

Kettletoft Hotel Detail

I was wrong – we did see seals

A friendly cat on a wall

Three starlings on a chimney pot

The road home

A blue gate at How

Back at the junction, we turn right and take the coastal road that goes to the other village, Lady.

Turn right

Back downhill to sea level

The Windswept Acre is in sight

As we reach home, the morning plane comes in.

Islander plane – morning service from Kirkwall

It is still early – we have only been gone an hour. 116 frames shot and about 50 inflicted on you. I hope you enjoyed the trip.

Home

Now, the bread dough has risen and I must get it into the oven, if you will excuse me.