Salt in wir bluid
Beann an Orcadian means yir born wae salt in yir bluid. Yir face is washed by both the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, and somedays ye can taste thim on yir lips. Wir surrounded by th sea and hid impacts on wir life in many wais. Maistly the impact is joyous , calming, and gives you gratitude. Occasionally it raises your awareness of nature in different wais . We hiv many varied conversations about the sea. We don’t usually spik aboot ferries, hids all jist boats. Are the boats no gaan? Is that the lifeboat gaan oot? Did he hiv a good dae at the haddock’s? Wis thir much cralan at th creels?
The sea has provided maet tae fill empty bellies, fae fish, partans, lapsters ,ebb maet, and the like, and hid still provides islanders wae daily wark.
But maistly folk go tae th shore tae find groatie buckies, clim oan great swathes o sandstone, search in rock pools, build sandcastles and gather the bounty the tide iss washed in. Amongst which thir is debris, plastic, junk and all the stuff that mankind jist blithely disposed o , fur hid tae turn up on wir shores.
Bit moist o iss go the shore tae walk aside the sea, tae see hid in all its beauty, shades o azure blue tae darkest grey. Tae watch hid ripplan the sand or thunderan ower th craigs’. And tae feels hids power, hid magnitude and tae ken we all hiv salt in wir bluid.