Overdue post

Another season has passed in a pleasant blur. So many guests, so many really nice and interesting people to talk with and look after. Thank you all for coming. It was such a pleasure to see you enjoying this place I love. Now, with no guests to care for, I have at long last got around to making a book of some of the  better photographs I have taken over 2015-2017.
It's all very well taking pictures, processing them on one's computer, etc etc, but no-one (not even I do) really likes looking at photos on a computer screen. So over the years, I have tried to make a habit of having photobooks – the 21st-century equivalent of the old family photo albums – printed. It has also become easier and easier (and cheaper) to do. 
This time, I did a book of some of my Orkney pictures. I had it printed by a company called Whitewall (for anyone reading this who stayed last year, that's the company which printed the canvas prints in the Creel's dining room and from whom we have just taken delivery of some new photographs for the bedroom walls). They are not the cheapest, but the quality is superb.
Here is the immodest cover of my new book. This one will be kept in the Creel for visitors maybe to look through.

The picture below is not in the book as I had to leave it our for reasons of space, but I want to post it here since this is of the person who arrived at the Creel by the most out-of-the-ordinary means of transport one could think of. It was towards the end of the season and as we stood outside enjoying the view, apéritif in hand, this man, Richard Taylor, paddled up in a coracle. We had a lovely chat and a beer. We've had walkers as guests, we've had cyclists as guests, we've had bikers as guest, but Richard will probably forever hold the record for arriving in the most unexpected way.