A film by Stromness artist Colin Kirkpatrick was one of two being showcased at special screenings in western Scotland at the weekend.

Mr Kirkpatrick’s The Cowboy and the Spaceman was shown in the Screen Machine mobile cinema in Ullapool onSaturday, and Lochinver on Sunday. The screenings are part of a new initiative to promote the work of Scottish filmmakers and make a wider range of films available to rural communities.

Shot in Orkney, The Cowboy and the Spaceman addresses environmental matters close to the artist’s heart, exploring two very different views of planet Earth.

Participants are being sought for a fun run in Shapinsay next month.

The Shapinsay Seafest run is an eight mile run on July 16 as part of the festivities of the island’s seafest weekend.

There is an entry fee of £2 which will go towards to a new play area on Shapinsay. Anyone interested should email l.dmuir@ukonline.co.uk or telephone 711286 before July 9.

Preparations are under way for the second North Ronaldsay folk festival next month. The event is scheduled for the weekend of July 14 to 16.

Organiser Marion Muir, said: “It’s great fun and we have some great folk music this year.”

In a shock admission, the Department for Trade and Industry has told Northern Isles MP, Alistair Carmichael, that they have no rural post office strategy and no timetable for producing one.

Previously the DTI said they would start a public consultation on the rural post office network in February, which would be concluded by mid-July.

Commenting Alistair Carmichael said: “Since Labour came to power a fifth of Scotland’s post offices have shut. We urgently need the Government to produce and implement a plan to save our Post Offices.

“However, all we are getting is dither and delay.”

Orkney Cheese has taken two gold medals and one silver at the 2006 Royal Highland Cheese Show, part of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Show.

The Orkney white mild and white extra mature cheddars won gold, with the mature coloured cheddar getting a silver medal.

Two thousand five hundred people passed through the doors of Orkney¹s new Lidl store during the first day of business on Thursday.

That is the equivalent of 13 per cent of the county’s population.

If nobody notices the transfer of the northern isles ferry contract to Calmac’s control, the company will be happy.

Caledonian MacBrayne’s chairman, Dr Harold Mills, said he hoped the changeover would go so well there would be no difference to customers. He said a new operating company, NorthLink Ferries Ltd, had been set up. As soon as the contract was signed with the Scottish Executive, the operations would move across to this.

Dr Mills was visiting Orkney to talk to staff and customers, with Calmac’s managing director, Lawrie Sinclair, and Hugh Dan MacLennan, head of communication and customer service.

The Firth School has been named runner-up in the prestigious 2006 Rolls-Royce Science Prize.

The school was one of nine shortlisted for the competition, and will receive a  £10,000 prize. It created an outdoor classroom by planting willow trees so as to study the life cycle of plants, variables affecting plant growth, local wildlife and produce fuel for biomass.

The nine finalists emerged from a field of 622 schools and colleges that registered for the prize in the six months up to February 2005.

Following the departure of Richard Welch in February, a new principal planner has been appointed at Orkney Islands Council.

Alistair Banks, who is coming from Western Isles Council, will take over the position on July 17.

Technical problems caused disruption to the BBC's Orkney and Shetland programmes on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

News editor John Fergusson said the problem meant the broadcasts cutting out whenever the volume of sound coming from the studio dropped below a certain level. “The biggest problem was on Wednesday night when Shetland went on and off the air every 30 seconds.”

An engineer was due to be on site on Thursday and no further disruption was expected, Mr Fergusson said.

An appeal has been launched following the theft of an antique sign from the former Tankerness shop.

Believed to have been removed between 3pm and 8.30pm on Wednesday, the Brooke Bond Tea sign has reportedly been on the building for over 150 years.

Mrs Rendall, whose family owned the business until it shut in 1985, said: “It’s very frustrating, especially the fact that it was taken in broad daylight. It’ll be very heavy as it’s solid metal so whoever took it must have had a car.

Dance organisers in Orkney have been accused of "trying to make a fast buck" and failing to take responsibility for drunk teenagers.

PC Dave Dawson, community safety officer, warned this week that "heads will roll" if a youngster is seriously injured at one of these events. He added that one or two children are hospitalised every time there is a "country" dance in the county.

The officer hit out after Saturday night's dance in Firth, where two intoxicated teenagers, aged 15 and 17, were taken by ambulance to the Balfour Hospital.

Groups in Orkney will be able to find out how they could benefit from a share of £257 million of National Lottery money when ‘The Big Day Out’ comes to town next month.

On Monday, July 3, the Big Lottery Fund team will be in Kirkwall to provide advice to groups seeking lottery funding.

The team will be available at the King Street Halls from 2pm until 5pm. Anyone wanting to book a session should contact Barbara Robertson, Voluntary Action Orkney, on 872897.

Orkney Islands Council convener, Councillor Stephen Hagan, was among those at the opening of Kirkwall's latest supermarket on Thursday morning.

The Lidl store on Pickaquoy Road opened its doors at 8am, when the first customer, Christine Cadger, was invited to cut the ribbon.

Pictured, from the left are: Christine Cadger, Councillor Stephen Hagan and Lidl acquisition manager Douglas Marshall.

As this year's crop of hay and silage is brought in, Scottish Hydro Electric's Orkney manager Stevie Burns is reminding farmers to be aware of nearby power lines  - overhead and underground.

A piece of music inspired by the Ring of Brodgar in Stenness had its world premiere at the finale of the 2006 St Magnus Festival in Kirkwall on Wednesday evening.

Eddie McGuire from visiting performers The Whistlebinkies experienced the 4,500-year-old stone circle earlier this year and turned to music to capture the ambience of the site.

The resultant performance, Ring of Strings, saw young Orkney fiddlers joined by the Scottish Ensemble, Royal Scottish Academy Strings and Orkney Camerata.

See http://www.stmagnusfestival.com for more details. 

Orkney’s fourth Healthy Living Centre opens its doors on Saturday in North Walls.

Customers will be able to take advantage of a range of special offers and the centre’s committee will host activities such as the mobile climbing wall, football, Top Sport, badminton, traditional dancing and swimming.

Further facilities are planned for Rousay, Westray and Stronsay.  The network of seven centres is scheduled for completion in 2007 and has been funded jointly by the OIC and sportscotland.

An attempt to form a human chain around the Ring of Brodgar in Stenness on Wednesday failed this year because not enough people turned up.

The fund-raising event was to raise awareness and money for a local cat rescue charity.

Last year's event, pictured, saw an estimated 250 people take part.

Orkney MSP Jim Wallace has accused the Scottish Ambulance Service of double standards after learning that an old King Air aircraft was used in May.

He understands that this aircraft does not have “fully hygienic linings” and suffers from the same alleged health and safety shortcomings used by the SAS to condemn the locally-based Islander aircraft.

Mr Wallace has written to the Health Minister Andy Kerr asking for an explanation of why the use of the old King Air was acceptable, when the use of the Islander, also as a backup is not.

A report is to be submitted to the procurator fiscal following a break-in at the Kirkwall Town Hall late on Saturday night.

The community centre was entered and property removed sometime after 10pm and minor damage was caused.

Two males, both aged 18, were detained on Tuesday afternoon and questioned at Kirkwall Police Station. They were subsequently charged by police and released.

A man who arrived in Orkney after being released from prison has been sent back for 14 days.

In Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Tuesday, Gary Martin Wallace, 33, of no fixed abode, admitted disorderly conduct in the centre of Kirkwall on Monday afternoon.

Honorary Sheriff Bryan Clark heard that Wallace had come to Orkney believing he had accommodation waiting, which was incorrect. He went to Orkney Islands Council on Monday, but was turned away because he was intoxicated and told to come back later.

Police inquiries are continuing after the recovery of an item, believed to have been stolen from one of the wrecks of the German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow.

Kirkwall Sergeant Jim Pryde confirmed that, along with Historic Scotland, they had been involved in an investigation. It is thought the item may have been taken from the wreck of the SMS Brummer.

Life expectancy in Orkney is the second highest in the country, according to new figures published on Tuesday.

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) study shows that boys born in Orkney can expect to live, on average, to 76.5 while girls can expect to reach 80.5. Orkney is beaten to the top spot by East Dunbartonshire.

Kate Askew, a 23-year-old student from Orkney, has been highly commended for her work at this year’s Gray’s School of Art Degree Show.

The show, entitled Creative Horizons, is sponsored by BP.

The new owner of the Orkney brewery was in the county on Tuesday.

Hotelier Norman Sinclair was born in Orkney but brought up in Fort William.

His new company, Sinclair Breweries Ltd, has taken over the Atlas Brewery in Kinlochleven and The Orkney Brewery. Both breweries were part of Highlands and Islands Breweries Ltd, which went into administration last month.

An Orkney project is one of seven to share a cash bonus from the Scottish Executive.

In Orkney, the Sustainable Action Grant, aimed to help communities improve the environment they live in, goes to Employability Orkney for a project to re-use, repair and recycle furniture.

Island councillors have approved changes to the summer ferry timetable for Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre.

The existing timetable did not comply with hours of work and rest regulations, so changes to meet statutory requirements were agreed at Monday’s meeting of the OIC's inter-isles transport sub-committee.

The changes are:

• Delaying the Sunday morning Rousay departure by five minutes
• Withdrawing the last ‘on demand’ sailing to Egilsay and Wyre on Sunday evenings
• Replacing sailings covered by the term ‘on demand’ with the term ‘on request’ with advance booking required

The changes will come into force immediately.

A delegation of senior RNLI personnel visited the Kirkwall lifeboat on Tuesday as part of the organisation's five-yearly coastal review.

The delegation, which includes Michael Vlasto, the RNLI's operations director, was due to arrive in the county by helicopter on Monday, but were hampered by the weather.

During the visit, Deputy Second Coxwain, Malcolm Foulis, was presented with a 20 year long service gold badge by Rear Admiral John Tolhurst.

A Kirkwall teenager denied damaging a car when he appeared from custody at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Monday.

Scott Fergus Scollie, c/o Camoran, Hsolm Road, denied kicking a car in Whitechapel Lane on Friday.

Reports are to be submitted to the procurator fiscal after two motorists were stopped for alleged drink-driving at the weekend.

The first, a 28-year-old male, was involved in a road crash at Lyking, Holm, in the early hours of Saturday morning. He was released on an undertaking.

A 47-year-old male was processed for drink-driving after being stopped by police in Kirkwall in the early hours of Monday morning.

The National Autistic Society (NAS), the UK's leading charity for people with autism, is due to host a parent seminar in the Kirkwall community centre on Saturday.

The seminar, entitled 'challenging behaviour', is open to parents, carers and people with autism and Asperger's Syndrome.

To book places, contact Dawn Edwards on 01463 258802

It was announced on Saturday that Papa Westray woman, Miss Margaret Millar Harcus, has been awarded the MBE, in the Queen's birthday honours, for services to the community in Papa Westray.