we have today installed equipment at Maeshowe to broadcast over the Internet until the end of January. Everything is working OK but for one camera but hopefully it will be working soon. Perhaps some furry "friends" have chewed the cable.... Site is at http://www.maeshowe.co.uk Last Sunday was exceptionally beautiful, with a clear, frosty dawn. The lighting over the lochs and stones was simply wonderful. There will be a selection of pix online from this and other nice November lighting shortly. Digital is fine but one does tend to shoot more and it all takes time to process in Photoshop. On the subject of Orkney, my brother and father have just come back from a trip to Ecuador where they visited a monument said to be at the "Centre of the World". Peter's response was that he always thought Orkney was. That encapsulates the Orcadian view of the world and explains why we don't need an emblem, flag, or other symbol of what we are, because we are just "us". Oh and Orkney was NOT given in a dowry - it and Shetland was mortgaged (impinorated sounds much ruder!) to Scotland in 1468 and 1469. Although Scotland annexed the islands, there has never been a constitutional settlement, which means that legally we are in some state of limbo and have been for a while. Across the Pentland Firth on Sunday Scotland was visible from Duncansby Head to Cape Wrath - Scotland please note, as being part of the island sooth o'wir wans. -- Charles Tait Photographic Limited, Kelton, St Ola, Orkney, UK KW15 1TR Tel 01856 873738 Fax 01856 875313 Mobile 07785 220269 All outgoing and incoming mail is checked by Norton Antivirus 2003 email charles.tait@zetnet.co.uk website http://www.charles-tait.co.uk

>>>Oh and Orkney was NOT given in a dowry - it and Shetland was mortgaged (impinorated sounds much ruder!) to Scotland in 1468 and 1469. Although Scotland annexed the islands, there has never been a constitutional settlement, which means that legally we are in some state of limbo and have been for a while. Sorry Charles: Even that's not "quite" correct: The Danish King Christian gave "all and sundris our lands with [all and sundris] our rights" ... He gave what he could give - the crown property and the rights (tax etc.) going along with them. Even at that time NO Scandinavian King had any power neither over the private estates of an earl/yarl ("Earls' land") nor over "Udalers' land" (property of a freeborn and independent individual). He only could give away what belonged to him or properties of a similar status like the estates in Shetland which were part (at that time) of the appanage of the Norwegian Crown Prince sometimes (since 1260 or so) called "hertug" of Norway ... So he - roughly calculated - gave away some 30 to 40% of both Orkney and Shetland - I think that was enough for one girl ... :-)) [note: The Scottish document got lost over the years (funny isn't it ???) but the Danish copy survived and is still in the Rijksarkivet in Kopenhavn - do you want to have a copy of a good b/w print???] Wolfgang