Life on (nearly) a Small Island: July 2022

The weather has been "changeable" this July in Orkney. We have had mild, warm weather, nothing like the heatwave South - thankfully! And yes we have had rain too. And grey skies...... hmmm anyway here are a few more colourful episodes!

Garden..... Most of my plants have to compete with the beauty of the old stone walls clad in lichens!

The chooks have enjoyed the warm weather, stretching out their wings to soak up the sun....

Or rootling among the grass

Button also likes being out and about too, of course....

And who knows what one might meet out and about!

A hedgehog.... A very small hedgehog it has to be said. It's been living in the shrubbery. I'm a bit concerned that it's out during the day. Especially as we have had enough rain for there to be lots of slugs and snails about. There are small bowls of water around for the resident hogs at Sandside (sometimes three or so), and I put this one back in the shrubbery and gave it some cat food too. Fingers crossed it survives.

Though hedgehogs can be controversial on islands as they will eat the eggs of ground nesting birds. I don't think the population is large on our island - though it's hard to tell really! There was an eradication program in the Western Isles around 2017 as they were predating the eggs of ground nesting birds. They were introduced there, it's thought in the 1970s. Not really sure of the situation in Orkney. Probably unlikely to be indigenous either.

I had to splash out on a new ride on mower recently, as my beloved old John Deere finally bit the dust - er literrally. I now have a Stiga big yellow machine. I call it Bumble as it's the colour of a bumblebee, though it looks a tad more menacing and is probably a hornet or wasp!