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Sunday 12 July 2009

Running to catch up....

I think most bloggers find that summer is so busy it's hard to find time to blog (though there are a few notable exceptions!!). Last weekend the broadband connection to the island, and other parts of Orkney, failed due to a lightening strike somewhere near Thurso on the Scottish Mainland. However trying to persuade the very nice lady at the BT call centre somewhere in Asia that I knew for a fact it wasn't my own line, modem or whatever but that I lived on a small island off the coast of mainland Scotland and that we had a microwave link, that all my neighbours, whatever their ISP, were experiencing the same problems, took 45 minutes and a lot of patience on my part...... Anyway, eventually Sunday evening the connection was restored.

Then this week I took a trip to Westray, one of the more northerly of the Orkney islands, as a friend had rented a cottage there for the week. I had a jolly nice time and I'll share more of that and some photos later in the week.

I returned to find my garden continuing it's metamorphosis, having been levelled. I'm off to town this week to get the grass seed!! A 5ft border around the edge will be left and the centre will be grassed over. Not very adventurous I know, it's a traditional linear design, but most importantly, will be reasonably low maintenance. As the garden develops I may make incursions into the central grass but for now it's easy steps!

So it went from this:

to this (with the aid of various bits of machinery and a lot of effort by my neighbour, Arthur):



I phoned Shearer's in Kirkwall to ask about collecting some grass seed. The very helpful chap asked what sort I wanted as they did a variety of seed. I replied "The sort that doesn't grow above two inches during the summer"......... Don't think they'll have that kind in stock though...... sigh.......

Oh - and yes I still have the veggie patch. I found a tiny pea pod among the folage yesterday - the first of the peas!!

5 comments:

  1. So your is just a little garden then.

    Wow, what a transformation thanks to the help from your neighbour.

    Next up you may need a scarecrow or three once the grass seed is sown. Or maybe a beady-eyed Button will do the trick!

    Yey to the veggie garden progress. Any luck locating the Chooks?

    Care and huggles from a chilly Wellington (down to 1C tonight),

    Mickle and Zebbycat*

    *he is very kindly warming up my side of the bed. Once I've snuggled into the left side he will snuggle up to me on the right.

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  2. Just found your blog, very interesting and part of me envies your remoteness. I live in Sydney,Australia but my husband and I have a property 500kms away not exactly remote but a lot less people. Plan to relocate in 3 years time.I'm originally from Kent, my sister and her husband still live there. You must have a very short growing season for vegies or does the warm ocean current affect the growing season?
    Supposedly our winter but still quite warm at 17C daytime and 10 - 12C overnight.
    Have a really nice weekend.
    Cheers
    Virginia K

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  3. Hellooo, hellooo, hellooo! Trying to catch up on visits and, thank heavens, find that everyone is, as you so aptly put it, running too!
    A thank you too for finding the time to still leave me comments - very much appreciated.
    Garden looks great! Accomplished masses you have...

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  4. Mickle: It may need a demented button to keep the birds off the newly sown grass seed - sigh. Yes located one of the chooks so 3 now confined to hen house for a few days to remind them of their duties. Allowed out in the afternoon though once egg laying duties over. Zebbycat reminds me so much of my dear Fitzi!

    Anonymous: glad you dropped by! I'm originally from North Kent. Yes short growing season in ORkney but it's amazing as this time of year you can almost HEAR them growing they spurt up so much. Your winter daytime temps are our summer ones! LOL!

    Locksfarm - thanks for taking time to drop by with your busy schedule!! I'm thrilled to bits with my garden - though all the effort is due to Arthur and his machinery. I just stand by and "supervise" (Not!!) LOL!

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  5. 'running to catch up'... that never seems to work for me! but then, neither does anything else!

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