We Get Out & About!...
by Bernie Bell - 08:26 on 20 June 2024
We Get Out & About!...
Since Mike hurt his ankle in early April we’ve been at home, apart from visits to the hospital. At the last check-up he was deemed able to drive – so we had an outing!
First, we went to Fursbreck Pottery…
…….to drop off some sycamore seedlings..
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…and to show Andrew a fragment of Slipware which Mike found on the shore by the Hall of Rendall…
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Whilst at Fursbreck, I availed myself of the facilities (Paddington reference) and noticed some (Fursbreck-made) tiles in the bathroom with similar patterns and colour-ways to our piece of slip-ware…..
Good design and craftsmanship work through time.
The other thing which caught my eye in among exceptional pieces of work was a ceramic bird’s skull, with a shining metal beak…..
Fursbreck is simply full of interest in all kinds of ways.
We then went to the Orkney Brewery for lunch….
..which, as always, was yummy.
The Restaurant/Tasting Hall used to be a schoolroom, with a high ceiling and high windows….
Now the accent is on beer and brewing, including beer-bottle shaped gingerbread biscuits!......
We were taken into the Brew-house, where the process was explained to us, very clearly, by Douglas….
We had a sniff at various ingredients used in brewing – grain and hops – and did the classic …”It’s like a good dark chocolate’ - ‘It’s like cooked Brassicas’ etc.
Then up the steps - past some wooden beer barrels….
…and an old grain mill – too small for today’s production levels…
…..to where we could over-look some of the fermentation vats…
….and stand on a level with two vats, which Douglas opened so that we could catch the scent of fermenting yeast, which is …heady….
Close up, the fermenting yeast looked like it could escape from the vat and become the stuff that horror movies are made of..…
Tour over, we visited the shop which is well-stocked with beer-related and Orkney-related goodies…..
To the car park, pausing to look up at the Pagoda-shaped chimney of the Brewery….
..and home. A Grand Day Out Gromit – at last!
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