Happy Valley

Yes, there is a wee valley in Orkney, known as Happy Valley in the parish of Stenness.  It's now owned and managed by the local council, though there is a group called the "Friends of Happy Valley" who help maintain the garden and extend the planting. In 2011 it also became a local nature reserve.  Happy Valley is a very large garden, filled with trees, a babbling burn, and wild flowers, nestling in the bottom of a valley. It was created by Orcadian, Edwin Harold, from scratch between 1948 and the 1990s.  Edwin returned from WWII and wanted to live out a quiet existence in the valley. He maintained it until ill health prevented him and he died in 2005. Many folk in Orkney have fond memories of visiting the place either as part of a school trip to see the variety of trees (not so many in Orkney), or just to see Edwin and have a wee blether and a wee dram.

Work continues at Happy Valley to maintain his legacy. The old house has been renovated using traditional methods with a stone slab and turf roof, and lime pointing. New windows and doors but in the old traditional design.

Edwin also created various water features along the burn, and he even had a small generator powered by the burn to give some light to the house. A small waterfall.....

A fleur-de-lis atop the waterfall and a wee bridge....

The weir at the end of the garden......

Edwin created pathways and steps around the garden, taking you on a journey through this Wonderland...

The burn rushes along at some points, and meanders quietly at others...

And borders farmland on either side...

The water wanders through the trees....

Early Spring the area is covered in snow drops, later in March the daffodils are out, and in April or May the bluebells bloom - April this year I think as the winter has been so mild....

I just love the snowdrops..... they are the first flowers I am aware of starting to bloom in the late winter...and always reassure me that the year is starting again and Spring will soon follow.

And sure enough, new growth on the trees.....

As you can see, some trees have a tough time in Orkney. These have been bent by the wind over the years....

I love the tiny lichens on the branches....

New steps have been built into the landscape to lead to a newly planted area.....

And here are some of the young willows planted a few years ago.

I love visiting at different times of the year.  Happy Valley has something to share whenever you walk through the gate.....

And it's full of surprises....a Monkey Puzzle tree!  And a New Zealand Flax (I think) and in flower too.

I hope you enjoyed your meander through Edwin's Happy Valley!

Old buildings....

My house used to be part of a larger farm, and though I own the land around the house and a field at the back, these old buildings have remained in the ownership of a neighbour.  However they let me store my lawn-mower in one of the buildings, and my hens live in another. Plus Charlie, the barn cat has taken up residency and helps keep the mice down (no rats on Graemsay!).  Mostly the buildings are now used for storage, but I love looking over them and imagining the folk of old living and working in them.

You can see in the picture above that the buildings are in a "close". But they have been altered many times over many generations. The history of them is unclear, but it is known that a farm has been at Sandside for several hundreds of years, even before these buildings were put up.

The buildings on the left in the photo at the top lost their roof a long time ago. There was a remnant of a roof on this building till a few years ago when a gale finally lifted the remains off.  The timbers were rotten through and the slates were just strewn around the yard.  But you can see here behind the hay rack, what looks like an old bricked up chimney.  And indeed that is what it is, because originally this was a dwelling house where the family lived. But as the building got into poor condition as a house, or maybe the family got larger, another house was built (the one at the end of the close). And this was then turned into byres for the cattle.

The cattle would have been chained up in the stalls (still remains of chains to be seen), and eaten hay from the rack. Other feed would have been in the gulley at the bottom close to the wall. Not sure how they were provided with water in this particular set-up.  So heads to the wall and tails to the gutter where all the - er - effluent would have collected, liquid down the drain, the rest to be mucked out by hand.

Three more stalls on the other side. You can see the old slates stacked in a corner - these were what remained after the wind took the roof off!

Meanwhile in another low building, you can see this too was a dwelling house, with evidence of chimneys. This is the house that the family lived in before my house was built in, we think, the mid 1800s.

These stalls are different - big wooden posts with a manger at the end. The one in the middle would have been where the farm horse stood.

Here you can see the partition more clearly.

And this would have been where the horse would have eaten the oats....

It's a very handy sized..... just big enough for a hen!  So my "ladies" enjoy laying here in semi-darkness, nicely protected from wind and rain. One of the eggs bears a blue cross - I always leave an egg in a nesting box to encourage the hens to continue laying. If I remove all the eggs they get the idea very quickly - that I steal their eggs! And they move on to a new site. But seemingly they can't count so as long as there is an egg in a box, they are happy to carry on laying!

Through a doorway is another area where cattle would have been kept.  This is more modern, and has had water piped in so the cattle could drink from the small bowls in the middle.  Two animals would have been tethered in this stall.

While at the end of this building you can see again evidence it was once a house. The wee alcove in the corner would have perhaps been a cupboard, or at least have had shelves. There are similar alcoves in my house too. Though sadly they had to be covered over during the renovation because of the way the walls were lined - we would have ended up with a cupboard about 1 foot wide!

Outside you can see just how close to the shore these buildings are!  You wouldn't be able to build a house so close to the shore nowadays, particularly given the subsidence and coastal erosion along this part of the coast.

I love the details in these buildings.  These are the walkways outside. Each stone laid vertically to produce a cobbled effect - not so slippery as if they had been laid horizontally. Now my hens love poking about between the cracks for grubs and things.

This old lean-to is beginning to come away from the main building. About 40 years ago apparently you could drive a tractor round the side of it - now it's subsided and I doubt you'd get a wheelbarrow there!

These old buildings fascinate me and I often wonder about the families that lived in and farmed in them...

Sunday Sunset....

I WILL try and reply to comments this week....sigh...sorry life still incredibly busy, mostly with work.. Meanwhile I'll try and keep you happy by supplying photos!  Today's is of a lovely sunset tonight.  The days are definitely getting longer. It was definitely daylight at 6.30 this morning - yes I know because I had to get up to give Princess Button a light breakfast!!  And sunset is now well after 6pm....

Dear Princess Button used up one of her nine lives today....sigh...no, not for waking me so early, though that was a close run thing....but I was clearing out a store room that is going to have some work done to it and she was investigating. She was really excited as she's not usually allowed in this room.  And there was a ledge she wanted to explore..... But it was sloping at an alarming angle and I was confident she wouldn't bother trying it..... WRONG!  Stupid Bloody Cat made a leap for it, of course couldn't get a footing and fell backwards five feet, landing on her back - just two feet from a piece of wood with some very nasty spikey things sticking out of it.....shudder......

She seems fine - I am hoping it's just her dignity that was dented. She's moving OK, grooming herself OK, eaten dinner, and been quite playful so I'm hoping no lasting damage.  Meanwhile I'm traumatised at how much worse it could have been!  Everything has now been removed so she can't try another leap, AND the bit of spikey wood has been put into a safer position before being disposed of.

I needed a soothing sunset after that!!

The girls....

I used to name all my hens, but the year I ended up with 35 (population explosion due to sneaky hens disappearing all broody and returning with a clutch of chicks instead of eggs!) I gave up, and mostly refer to the hens as "the girls" - occasionally one stands out from the crowd and gets called "Baggage" or some such, but mostly it's "the girls" or "the ladies". There is a temporary cockerel in residence, or rather a cockerel in temporary residence, if he were a temporary cockerel there wouldn't be a problem....sigh... but crowing at all hours of daylight (LONG in summer), and contributing to a population explosion - he will have to go...sometime....maybe...

Anyway, I love watching my hens, and now the weather is warming up I am sitting on a garden bench for a few minutes each day. The girls (associating me mainly with food of the household scraps variety, or the garden worms variety) come around for a chat.... so here are just a few of "my girls"!  Oh and yes of course Princess Button sneaks in there too...

Lovely bright red comb means this girlie is laying eggs....

This hen is known as "Pecky Hen" or "Baggage"! She's very bold and will nip my hand if I'm too slow at dispensing the food.... she's a good hen mother though....  very protective of her "flock".

I love the patterns on their feathers - most of these are from various hens crossed with a Light Sussex Cockerel (who died of natural causes last year, sadly).

This hen looks as though she has crocheted feathers!

This hen (the same hen as in the head shot above) is a very good layer... and yes hens eat grass, or any green shoots (nightmare in Spring!)

And here is Princess Button!  Not to be left out....as if!

The sandy beach....

And then some days we go for a walk on the sandy beach too.... this is separated by the old stone pier from the shell beach, yet there are very few shells on this one and very little of the coral either. It's as if there are undersea traffic lights - move along there, shells to the left, sand to the right...hee hee...

Of course Button comes along too....

She gets quite close to the sea but likes to keep her paws dry...

I love the ripples in the sand... the memory of the sea....

And the pattern made by the water running off the land and down to the sea....

Over towards Hoy

And of course there is time for paddling - for me, NOT Button....

And the waves rush in....

Then time to walk back home to warm up.  The crocus have survived the wind, which is amazing given how delicate they look....

And the old elder tree that has been hear since before the 1950s is starting to come into leaf again...

And the lupins are appearing again! Oooh hope the frost doesn't get them....

Button decided to try being a tree hugger..... she actually climbed this willow tree and then fell out of it. She, of course, was highly embarrassed and ran off into the garden to recover her dignity.

The mini daffs are looking so bright and perky just now...

And while the sun shines, one of the hens decides it's time to take a dust bath!