I Have No Pictures for Day 1

 of my time away, sadly.

We went over to Stirling and had lunch with a friend, which I completely failed to photograph, she gave us a guided tour of the area around the city then took us to her home for a cup of tea and a biscuit. It was a bit of a scouting exercise in preparation for an anticipated, but not imminent,  move away from Orkney. Obviously after such a long time here it will be a bit of a wrench and we also need to make sure we get the right place to move to; one that 'ticks all our boxes' as Phil and Kirsty would say and where we will both be happy. The main criterion is that it should be within an hour's train journey of Glasgow and we have checked out various places including Perth, Lanark and Falkirk.  None of them hit the spot, but I'm happy to say that Stirling did, so when the time comes we'll be concentrating on that area. Meanwhile we are doing various things to the house to make it more saleable. While I was away the OH gave the outside a new coat of paint so it's looking quite smart and I do have a photo of that.