Thank you Wanda: I guess the reason I got to thinking about Orkney the other day, was that I had some fabulous nights there, on or about the longest day of the year, when at 60 degrees north latitude in Orkney, the days are so full and long and the sunsets seemed to linger on forever. To get away from the tourists, and sit alone on a beach, or a hill, is somehow a case of Orkney speaking for itself, without uttering a single word. When you combine those islands, and their history, which is so many cases is attached to actual places...the standing stones, Maeshowe, the Cathedral, the execution site of St. Magnus, Eynhollow, Kolbein's Castle, etc. etc. etc., well it is just incredible to ponder. For those of us who's families were "enticed" to seek out the new world to trade furs and explore wilder country, well, many of us lost out. The last resident to bear our surname died there in Orkney some years back. We have lots of distant relatives, as basically I think all Arcadians of Viking/Norwegian origin are related, but to take the name off of the farm was tough, and the two men here who wanted to buy it, died within two years of each other in the 1980's. Now we can't seem to connect with a farm on the water there. The one we wanted sold to a chap from the Mediterranean upon which to hunt ducks. Still, people from around the world that I have encountered.... a distant Orkney cousin who is a medical practitioner in Australia now, a lovely lady in Tulsa (on this list), who by the way knew my cousins there without knowing they were related to her, a wonderful old proud Arcadian lady whom I left last time with a lump in my throat for her kindness and sincerity and helpful updating, a friend in Georgia whom I think about every day, another in Maine I met on this site...they all seem to understand the magic magnetic pull from down deep, that I or rather we can only assimilate as to something like a migration lust of a monarch butterfly, who leaves Mexico without thought, to return high up into Canada, with no map, no weather forecasts, and no assurances of arriving alive. Often these types who were so helpful and understanding with me will be the first to acknowledge the feeling, with a "welcome home" or some similar voluntary offering. Even those who's families never left Orkney, seem to "get it." I think that association had to do with the Hudson's Bay Company plucking so many young virile Orkney men off of their home turf, to be swept away forever. The sting of that seems to have endured in Orkney for generations. I am trapped here in the salt mine, that thing called work which smoothes out the roads ahead and provides some degree of feeling productive or capable still. In truth, this evening, at almost 9:00 p.m. in the warm lingering sunshine, I wish I was on that wee beach in Papa Stronsay, or sipping a brew in what's left of the Queens Hotel In Kirkwall or wherever locals convene, listening to the laughter and moans from Arcadian fishermen and be participants and carpenters and philosopher kings, and soaking up those marvelous accents, and amusing sayings and expressions. I recall the circumstances of being first "tested" in a sort of rowdy atmosphere, and then "accepted" which filled me with joy, and stumbling off towards a taxi beside the seaside warfs, happy as a clam! Orkney is about life, really. Life enriched with nature and history, and incredible, proud and practical people. It was nice sleeping in a stoney croft on the sea, with the screenless windows opened all night, and no mosquitoes, bugs or crawly legged intruders. Listening to the seals was like a choir, perhaps impaired and comical, but a choir nevertheless. It sometimes didn't sound much different than the people wound up, in the pub! Beautiful, really, both scenarios! In a couple dozen hours, the days start getting shorter. The shadow pattern will slowly change at Maeshowe and on the Standing Stones and at the Ring of Brodgar. The cattle grow fat on the rich green grasses, and the millers look forward to another good crop of bere. No matter what we do, we can't stop the clock from ticking, so maybe cashing in a few air miles and heading to Scotland, is a plan. If you can do it....go! hmmmm. Stephen On Jun 19, 2010, at 7:02 PM, wngriepp8@comcast.net wrote: > > > Greetings stephen, > > I always enjoy reading your thoughts for the group. Seems I learn > something every time. > > Wanda (historian) > > Minnetonka MN > > Subject: [ORCADIA] A Response....Re: My ties to Orkney... The > island life > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ORCADIA- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message