I know, I know, I know, I promised you photos this week of my hols in Ullapool. Well the week kind of ran away with me. I hope to get them sorted this weekend. Meantime - above is a photo taken by Irene of Breckan this week. It's a St Andrew's Cross (National Flag of Scotland) in the sky! Well it was a fluke really - due to continued problems with the Iclandic volcanic ash cloud more planes have been using the UK air space around the cloud and this was a criss-cross of plane vapour trails. Pretty though! The land is Black Craig on the West mainland of Orkney.
The sun has been out today and it has been *warm*. Oh joy! At last! We've also had some light showers. It's amazing how quickly things are growing though. I swear the grass grew a few inches while I was away on hols and this week everything is almost growing before my eyes. We are getting wonderful long days now - sunrise is at 0442 and sunset at 2137.
I've managed to plant all my veggie seeds outdoors at last and have some seeds in pots growing in the conservatory. I think the ones in the conservatory may be triffids instead of courgettes as they seem to sprout new leaves overnight! The conservatory hasn't been heated but is a lot warmer than outdoors. I'll have to harden the plants off outdoors before I put them in the garden, which although protected, is still exposed to bracing breezes.
Orkney had the switch-over to digital TV this week and we lost BBC2 analogue. Despite having a digi-box which has worked fine for years, I found I lost all the BBC channels. Apparently by digi-box is "out of date" being about 8 years old so I had to go and buy a new one - sigh. I only got a cheap one, which does the job fine but I do resent being forced to pay out for a new bit of technology when I didn't even ASK for it! A lot of older folk have been bewildered by the switchover, despite lots of publicity - AND have had to go to the expense of buying new technology and paying to have a new aerial too. The lass in OTE in Stromness had been fielding calls all week from folk not sure what to do, or finding the instructions in the box don't match what's on the screen. There's another update at the end of the month, so let's hope that is less painful!
Lots of birds around at the moment - swallows flying about, and the air is filled with calls of oyster-catchers, lapwings and curlews. I heard terns screaming while I was out in the garden, and several "bonxies" (Skuas) flew over. Apparently on the Orkney Mainland a Sea Eagle has been sighted.
Just heard on the news that more disruption expected to flights this week due to volcanic ash. This could go on for some time!
The sunshine has well and truely been a joy, as have the longer days. I'm finding that the grass and the weeds are growing faster than my seeds :-) I suspect though, that the hares may be nibbling my seedlings as they come through.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pain to have to go out and buy new technology. Eight years didn't used to be that old, but with technology changing so rapidly it's almost impossible to keep up with the changes. I didn't loose BBC 2 but if I had I'd have been forced to do what you've done. Most of my favourite programmes seem to be on that channel.
I know what you mean about the weeds growing faster than the seeds! On Graemsay as there are no hares, rabbits or rats so my seeds stand a better chance probably than yours! When I lived on Hoy for a while the garden had rabbit proof fencing all round - didn't keep the rats out though!
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