Our car is now 8 years old and needed some minor repairs so last month I took it to the garage in Stromness as there is no vehicle mechanic on Stronsay. There is an opening on the island for any enterprising vehicle mechanic worth his/her salt, I am sure that there is more than enough work maintaining and repairing cars and agricultural equipment to support such a venture. And there is a 3 bedroomed detached house with a large garage for sale just down the road - offers over £82,500. Taking a car on the ferry costs £26.20 return plus £11.60 return per person (£5.80 OAP) so it is not a cheap option and many people prefer to do their own servicing or just "let nature take its course". Maureen decided that she would not accompany me on my car servicing visit thus avoiding having to brave the perils of the deep and tempting Fate yet again. Instead she opted to stay at home and do some work even though I tried to bribe her with a bar lunch in the Stromness Hotel. In the event the crossing was made on a flat calm sea. Several of the "regular" travellers remarked that it was extremely rare to have flat calm sea around these parts and even rarer to have flat calm sea on both the outward and return journey. It must be the season for unusual events because on the previous day the haulier who takes freight and post between the Stronsay and Orkney Mainland saw a pod of killer whales off the island of Shapinsay for the first time despite commuting on the ferry 4 or 5 times a week for over 12 years. After arriving back on the 6:00 pm ferry on 22 June I barely had time to have a bite to eat before going straight out again because as part of the St Magnus Festival an ensemble from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra was putting on a concert in the Stronsay Kirk at 7:30 pm. Maureen and I attended the concert along with about 80 others and enjoyed it, despite the extremely hard Kirk chairs that appear designed specifically to prevent anyone dozing off during a sermon. The musicians had been on Stronsay since early that morning and had spent most of the day working with the children in the school. At the start of the month we spotted a few notices announcing a wedding celebration in the Community Centre on the evening of Saturday 19 June to which the whole island was invited. On Friday 18 June the poor groom was driven around the island in an extremely tatty vehicle as part of the traditional, noisy rite known locally as "blacking". This involves covering the poor man in anything smelly, dirty or difficult to remove then publicly displaying the resulting mess. Each part of the British Isles seems to have a similar rite albeit going under different names. As we did not know either of the families it didn't seem right to just turn up at the Community Centre but it seems that although this is not something that happens very often it is quite common for a general invite to be extended in this way so next time we shall be aware of the protocol. The cockerel and his entourage have not visited us for several days now. Perhaps it was the sight of Maureen bearing down on him with the dreaded mop or maybe it was because Maureen threatened to confiscate any eggs that were laid by the cockerel's harem. After reading the latest Saga a friend in Yorkshire advised us to acquire a hen-dog (not a sheep-dog, a hen-dog) such as a Jack Russell terrier. It seems that he had one such dog that fancied itself as an ace chicken chaser and would take on the biggest cockerel. If the bird stood its ground the dog ran round the back of it and pulled out its tail feathers. After that he never had any trouble rounding the chickens up on a night. As soon as they saw the dog they hightailed it up the ramp into the hen house. The dog never actually harmed any of them but seemed to take a delight in sending them packing. In a previous saga I mentioned the lambs who had hi-jacked the henhouse. The lambs are now far too large to get into the henhouse but if it rains they stick their heads in the door, leaving the rest of their body out in the rain and preventing the hens from getting shelter. The croft that has the lambs and hens also has a lot of cats which now give all the hens and their chicks a wide berth since one cat tried to grab a chick and the mother hen leapt out of the hedge, jumped on the cat's back and began pecking, flapping its wings and squawking furiously. The croft also has a pair of collie pups who are now almost a year old. So far they have eaten several dog-baskets (plastic and cane) together with large quantities of carpet but now appear to have settled to a more normal canine diet. The geese and their goslings I mentioned a few weeks ago are doing well as are the hen and chicks (4 survived out of 5) who were rescued from the top of pallet of compost. The owner of the hen and chicks is Maurice who owns and runs the shop at Olivebank in the "middle" of the island. Olivebank is an Alladdin's Cave that sells just about everything. Where else could you go with a hand basket, go around the shop collecting items and arrive at the counter with a lettuce, a joint of Orkney beef, a bottle of cider, a 60 watt light bulb, some electric cable clips, a card of fusewire and a pair of gents slippers (size 12) all just picked up off-the-shelf - and the owner did not blink an eye when he rang the items up on the till. The other shop on the island is Ebenezer Stores in Whitehall village. The owner, Mike, is putting in a new floor so that he can replace his old chest freezers with super, new (but very heavy) upright freezers. Last week Maureen looked out of the kitchen window and saw our next door neighbour going out to take dry clothing off his clothes line. Rocky was trotting alongside like a tame dog whilst Socks was walking behind the pair of them, both no doubt expecting food at the end. Our neighbour, who used to keep sheep, says he will be hand-shearing Rocky soon so I shall try to get some "before & after" photographs. The Stronsay Regatta was due to take place on 26 June and posters were all over the place. However, the even was cancelled and I'm not quite sure why. No doubt someone will tell me in due course. Such a pity as it was a lovely day on 26 June. -- Bruce Fletcher Stronsay, Orkney http://uk.geocities.com/ricardian@btinternet.com/