A stunning coastal campervan morning here at Scapa Bay. The bay is a semi crescent, flattening out on the eastern side, curling away from me to the west. I have the bay to myself for the moment. Sun rising behind me, playing onto a blue sky with scant grey and white clouds. The sea a bright blue with a tinge of green. There is the usual North Sea chill, but feels more bare able in the sunshine. A few gulls dotted around patrolling the water line. The isles of Flotta and Hoy on the horizon. Soft light beige coloured sand, dotted with drying seaweed, the water cold, lapping and clear, an almost picture perfect last morning on Orkney mainland. Yesterday was a day of contrast and transitions. The weather transitioned into a beautiful June day, with cloudless skies, turquoise seas and warm temperatures, from a gloomy and somewhat grey start, we began our transition from island life to thoughts of returning to the mainland and the pause to my Orcadian Saga. To be continued as they say. Also this campervan morning staying in the gap between what one of my favourite authors Jeanette Winterson calls “Chaos and Shape “. The chaos of travel and the shape of the destination of mainland Scotland, being in the space of Orkney for a wee while longer. A lot of the last few weeks has been getting used to being in the gap between chaos and shape and being comfortable with it and the experiences, opportunities that lay within it.
The famous Orcadian poet, recently discovered on my travels George MacKay Brown writes :
“ Without the story - in which everyone living, unborn, and dead, participates - men are no more than 'bits of paper blown on the cold wind . . .”.
A visit to the local museum allowed me to put some context into these few words and also realise how much remains to be discovered and understood. The uniqueness of the isles tales and history. It’s marriage to stone, sea, saga, stories, legends and poems. Opening the gap between chaos and shape to take it all in and perhaps to inform the shape to come. Lovely days people.
“ I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.” Alan Watts.
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