By Bernie Bell

First, we went to Fursbreck Pottery

to drop off some sycamore seedlings

http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=15976

and to show Andrew a fragment of Slipware which Mike found on the shore by the Hall of Rendall

http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16695

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!