A tour around the island......

 

I took a ride round the island on my trike last week when we had some lovely warm days and proper sunshine!  Photo above, cows and calves enjoying the warm sunshine in a field above Hoy High lighthouse.  Stromness in the background.  The white patches in front of the cattle are daisies in the field.

Old croft of Moan down by the pier....

Lichen hugging a fence post....

Two cheeky lambs, probably up to no good!

The rest of the flock.  Hoy hills in the background

Moan from the top of the hill

Down hill all the way home!

Freewheeling!  Hamnavoe ferry heading into Stromness harbour.

Closer view of those cows and calves...

Round the West of the island, looking over to Hoy

Heading East again, looking towards Hoy High lighthouse, Sandside and across the water the hills of Orphir

The old quarry

Sandside Bay

Home

Button not best pleased I wasn't there to open the door for her (she has a cat flap round the back of the house but why use it when you have a human to open doors for you... or not...)

Chickens having a rootle!  

Garden in June

 

The growing season in Orkney is about a month behind further South in the UK.  However as the days extend to almost no darkness at all everything begins growing very rapidly!  You can almost SEE the plants growing.  

I gave up on vegetables etc a couple of years ago.  It's too much work for me now. But I delight in the flowers in the garden.  And there are some fruit bushes too - gooseberries and blackcurrants!

Anyway here are some photos of flowers in June in my walled garden on Graemsay!  The old barn in the photo above is a lovely backdrop to the garden.  Sadly in disrepari now, but in the 1970s there were barn dances in the upstairs loft of this building!!  The stuff of legend from what I hear.

Thalictrum starting to flower....

Perennial cornflowers, red campion, yellow welsh poppies and a pink plant I call a bottle brush plant! Greenery provided by lovage, weigelia, rowan trees and grasses.

Lupins chives, hardy geraniums, astrantia and fennel

Aquilegia/columbine/granny's bonnet.  To my delight these self seed!

Orange Welsh poppies

Rowan - a lovely fragrance

Perennial cornflowers - loved by bees

Hardy geranium

Wild garlic (bit of a thug but that's fine in this part of the garden - it outcompetes even the docks and nettles!)

Globe flowers, yellow Welsh poppies and perennial cornflowers

Bachelor's buttons, perennial cornflowers, aquilegia, alliums...

I love these purple alliums 

Aquilegia and that pink bottle brush plant!

Hope you enjoyed the photos.  It cheers me up looking back on these posts in the depths of Winter!

South Ronaldsay - yes still May photos!

 

Earlier in May I headed down to South Ronaldsay for the day.  Formerly islands, these are now linked by the Churchill Barriers, created during WWII to protect the British Royal Naval Fleet which used Scapa Flow.

First stop was St Margaret's Hope and the Marengo Community Garden.  Remember this was early May - although in Orkney we are about a month behind the South of England season wise, we aren't THAT far behind. 

There was a fabulous  display of Tulips and other Spring flowers.  It was a real joy to wander round.

Then it was on to the newly renovated St Peter's Kirk. It was built in the 1800s and has changed little.  It is one of the few remaining examples in Scotland, apparently, that has a central communion pew, and also a central pulpit enabling the congregation to both see and hear the minister.

And outside was a beautiful sandy beach too.