Too good to be true

Yesterday that is.

The day started with my hare brooch being featured on the Found on Folksy blog.  The title of the post was Lions, Lambs and Hares and was in celebration of March.

Here's a couple of the featured items.

The Hare Cushion by Ruby Ruby

Sheep Butter Dish by Laura Lee Designs

The day turned out to be stunningly beautiful with blue skies, no wind and warm.  I decided to take a tour of the island to try and get some nice photos.  I ended up on the most perfect beach about 30 miles away on the tiny interconnected island of Lamb Holm.

Beach at Churchill barrier number 3

I finally made it home after a good few hours sunbathing, touring and shopping.  The post box was bulging with Etsy goodness!  I'll tell you more about these purchases later in the week, but they are good.

At 8 o'clock I read on a local forum that the Northern lights were just starting to be visible.  Now these have been as elusive to me as the puffin.  When I have previously visited places to see the puffin I have been told things like, "they all left last week", or "they should be here, they are late this year"!  Now, fingers crossed I finally live in a place where I should be able to see both the Aurora and Puffins.  

I quickly gathered up my camera & tripod, put on a woolly jumper, stepped out the front door and looked northwards.  There is no light pollution to the north and there was no moon, so the skies were very dark.  There were a mass of stars visible and a feint white/grey glow was forming.  This was the start of my 5 hour marathon "I'll just stand here for a bit and see what happens".  

And they didn't disappoint, although the Aurora, or Merry Dancers as they are known on Orkney, were a little less spectacular with the naked eye than the photos suggest!

Edge of the Aurora with the Seven Sisters constellation to the left