Orkney

I'm just back from Orkney, visiting Stromness Primary, and Dounby and Stenness Community Schools, and it was fabulous. The kids were great, the teachers were lovely, the hospitality was delightful ... I will run out of enthusiastic adjectives long before I cover it all! And don't start me on Skara Brae and the Pier Art Centre - 5000 years between them and yet both fascinating, stimulating, and fitting into the land- and seascapes in ways that make the phrase "perfection on a stick" just not adequate.

Like Venice, Orkney is addictive, and I will HAVE to go back. And write a book about it. A book that needs lots and lots of on-site research.

Oh yes.

Cheers, Joan.

P.S. And I also spent an evening with the Stromness Writing Group, which was excellent - keep up the good work!