24 Islands/ 24 Hours

There is great excitement in Kirkwall library today as the special guests start to arrive for tomorrow's 24 Islands/24 Hours events. 

You can download the full programme of events from the Orkney Library website  and keep up to date with all the fun on the Orkney Library and Archive Facebook page.

One event that our Yap and Yarn members might be interested in is 'Flotta in Print: an evening of knitting, war, oil & art', when local knitting designer Elizabeth Lovick speaks about her new book Centenary Stitches, and Rebecca Marr, from the Gunnie Moberg Archive will read from Flotta related literature accompanied by Gunnie Moberg images of the terminal. 

image:Gunnie Moberg Flotta oil terminal dated by the artist December 1976

This event takes place in the Flotta community centre starting at 7.30pm. The ferry will leave Houton at 6.15pm and arrive back at 10pm. 

Happy Hallowe'en

A Neepie Luntrin by Charles Hemingway http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/a-neepie-luntrin-106554

Looking for an alternative to neepie lanterns and the like this evening? Then you might like to go along to the Pier Arts Centre at 7.30pm when the Writing the North Project will be holding a public event called 'Creative Journeys'. 

Local writers Pamela Beasant, Yvonne Gray, Morag MacInnes and Alison Miller will be joined academics for an evening of readings,  talks, and discussion on how writers write in Orkney, both now and in previous centuries. The event is free and open to all.  

Cold

After a spell of unseasonably mild weather there is a definite chill in the air to accompany the rapidly shortening days. But today dear readers we offer you not one, but two remedies for beating the cold this weekend.

First an event in Stromness this evening when West Side Cinema, supported by Orkney Library and Archive and The George Mackay Brown Fellowship, presents a screening of the film 'Lore' followed by a question and answer session with  Rachel Seiffert,  author of the novel The Dark Room on which the film is based. The screening is in the Stromness Town Hall at 7.30pm and entry is £5 (£3 for under 16s - 'Lore' has a 15 certificate rating). 

We've heard from the organisers that the boiler in the Town Hall is playing up, so if you want to be sure of escaping the cold please wrap up warm. West Side Cinema invites its audiences to bring their own refreshments to screenings and so tonight something warming might be appropriate.

Our second offering is for those who have already succumbed to the various seasonal ailments which are doing the rounds and may be looking for alternative remedies with which to tackle their ills.

Whatever your symptoms we recommend a visit to the Orkney Archive Blog where our lovely colleagues have been researching some traditional Orkney remedies. If you don't fancy giving the limpet juice or roasted mice a try then we can at least guarantee that the description of the wart cure will provide you with the therapeutic effects of a good laugh!