Shapinsay and Mainland, Orkney
We have arrived at the same latitude as Stockholm (to our west) or northern Labrador (to our east). These places share long summer nights with their associated brilliant lights. Artists are attracted here: Orkney has a tradition of jewelry manufacture; the composer Peter Maxwell Davies has made his home here (the annual St Magnus Festival, shortly to commence, is a regular showcase for his work); and, in the poetry and prose of the late George Mackay Brown, our world was transformed by his passing it through the eye of an Orkney needle. Fecundity of nature, encouraged not only by long hours of summer daylight but also by the presence of the Gulf Stream, was readily apparent in our tour of the walled gardens of Balfour Castle on Shapinsay this morning. Carefully constructed by Victorian master gardeners, these walled gardens create a microclimate that achieves amazingly high levels of productivity using natural methods. The Balfour Castle walled gardens provide for the fruit and vegetable needs of the entire island community. The castle itself, completed in 1848 for David Balfour (the same family that gave us the Balfour Declaration a century later), is a “Calendar House”, with 7 turrets, 12 exterior doors, 52 rooms, and 365 panes of glass. We were invited inside for an Orcadian tea: a baronial table heaving with traditional baking (scones, drop-scones, oatcakes, dumplings, shortbread) and tea poured from huge teapots by ladies from the village who keep their baking recipes a closely guarded secret.
We have arrived at the same latitude as Stockholm (to our west) or northern Labrador (to our east). These places share long summer nights with their associated brilliant lights. Artists are attracted here: Orkney has a tradition of jewelry manufacture; the composer Peter Maxwell Davies has made his home here (the annual St Magnus Festival, shortly to commence, is a regular showcase for his work); and, in the poetry and prose of the late George Mackay Brown, our world was transformed by his passing it through the eye of an Orkney needle. Fecundity of nature, encouraged not only by long hours of summer daylight but also by the presence of the Gulf Stream, was readily apparent in our tour of the walled gardens of Balfour Castle on Shapinsay this morning. Carefully constructed by Victorian master gardeners, these walled gardens create a microclimate that achieves amazingly high levels of productivity using natural methods. The Balfour Castle walled gardens provide for the fruit and vegetable needs of the entire island community. The castle itself, completed in 1848 for David Balfour (the same family that gave us the Balfour Declaration a century later), is a “Calendar House”, with 7 turrets, 12 exterior doors, 52 rooms, and 365 panes of glass. We were invited inside for an Orcadian tea: a baronial table heaving with traditional baking (scones, drop-scones, oatcakes, dumplings, shortbread) and tea poured from huge teapots by ladies from the village who keep their baking recipes a closely guarded secret.
