I know...

....I said I'd be back posting soon but I've just been running to catch up all this last week. I'm busy working 5 days a week - all from home I know but still I have to put in the hours! Unfortunately I don't seem to be one of those people who can manage on little sleep either...... so... enough excuses.

Above is a Spring sunset (another one!). The sun is really moving towards the Orkney Mainland now so sets full in the middle of the Hoy Sound each night.  We've had some lovely sunny evenings, though still a chill in the air and a few misty days too.

The primroses are blooming. This year we have a glorious display on the bank down at the pier as well as along the verges of the road. I love seeing the primroses - they are such cheerful flowers!

The house martins have been prospecting in the byres near the house looking for good nesting sites. The starlings and sparrows have already been busy building their nests. Spring is well and truly here! AND I've cut the grass around the house and in the walled garden TWICE in the last week - it's growing so quickly. Thank goodness for my trusty John Deere ride-on-mower!

Lambs

The lambing season in Orkney starts from about April - much later than in the south of the UK. So this week wee lambs have been appearing in the fields.  However some are earlier than expected due to the bad weather. While the BBC Weather-people have been crowing how it's been the hottest day this year for most of England, in the North East corner of the UK it's been raining constantly with intermittent gales....sigh.... Consequently the ewes have been dropping their lambs early.

I heard (on a farming programme) that the ewes do this in poor weather as their bodies know the lambs are near to being born and so may well survive, and that the ewe's body is at it's limit, so for optimum survival of the ewe it will go into labour. The shepherds on the island have been out checking their flocks and removing the ewes with lambs to more sheltered spots, providing feed etc.

Thankfully we are forecast some respite with SUNSHINE this weekend!  I love seeing the lambs in the field so hopefully they will be bouncing and leaping about once they get the sun on their backs!

(Photo above was taken just opposite my front door).

Hazy Spring Day

After the gale of yesterday when the wind howled around the house, today hazy sunshine has shone, and calm has been restored. Above is the Hoy High Lighthouse and Sandside Bay, with the Orphir hills in the background.  Graemsay is getting green again....

The hens (and Cockerel) were out as usual today, rootling around looking for juicy worms and bugs. I have 10 hens and the cockerel - some are just regular brown layers, some light sussex (including the cockerel) and some with very pretty feathers but I have no idea what they are!  I just love hearing them chook-chooking around the place!

Almost the Spring Equinox.....

Last night the moon and moonlight were fantastic! Sorry no photos - but I lay in bed at 3am just marvelling at the moonlight across the bedroom floor. Eventually got up and sat on windowsill wrapped in a fleece and gazed at the moon.  It's supposed to be the closest to the Earth it's been in 20 years. Not sure it looked any bigger to me but it WAS magnificant.  I've always been a "moon-child". The light reflected on the waves gently lapping the shore just below the house. I could just make out the swish-swish of the waves as they broke on the shore... magical.

However the day dawned grey and breezy which was a disappointment! But I have managed to get out to do a little bit of gardening - just tidying up and planning really, but lovely to be outdoors.

The "daffs" (daffodils) are in bloom now, and my new hens have started laying peedie (small) eggs!

And lots of fluffy buds on the willow trees - I love glimpsing the Hoy hills through the trees (OK so they're only 6 ft high - but they're still trees!).

Sun and Spring...

The weekend provided more "harbingers of Spring". The fields are beginning to green up again. The round silage bales in the foreground are getting fewer in number as these are used to feed the cattle overwintering indoors, and the sheep in the fields. The Hoy Hills are in the background.

The hens (and cockerel of course) are enjoying rootling around the soft earth.  They seem to find bugs and bits and pieces to amuse themselves anyway.  I even saw a hedgehog when I went to shut in the hens the other night. I fear it's way to early for a hedgehog to come out of hibernation so am rather concerned about it... but hopefully it can feast on bugs and things and maybe return to shelter if the weather turns bad. I'll have to remember to put food out for it if the weather changes dramatically though....sigh.......

As you can see the willows are bearing their fluffy buds at the moment. The rosa rugosa has green shoots, and the "lawn" is greening up again (time to get the tractor-mower out soon I think!).

Spring!

As far as I'm concerned Spring is well and truly on her way! Above are the dwarf Narcissus in full flower among the trees that are full of fuzzy buds protecting bright young leaves.  The hens are basking in the sun, enjoying rootling around in this miniature woodland paradise.

These wee flowers are also enjoying the Spring sunshine.... I chopped their legs off as I was trying to fend off the hens to keep them out of the photo. Sian = Bearer of Food

Button(s) the intrepid warrior was also enjoying the sunshine and busy climbing trees to inspect the buds......

This is Button(s) looking rather ungainly after deciding that she was a little too heavy for the thin branches of the willow trees!  Tee Hee!

Sunrise is now at 0721 and sunset at 1730 - yes the days are definitely getting longer!!

Dreich weather

I love the Scottish word "dreich" - it is like it sounds (onomatopoeia) - the weather this week has been miserable, wet, drizzly, cold and windy and miserable.  I'm glad I haven't had to go outdoors much. However earlier in the week was a sight to gladden the heart. The delicate flower above bloomed just two days after the 122mph Orkney storm winds of a couple of days before.  The buds on the willows below don't seem to have suffered from the storm force winds either.  I love signs of Spring (as does Buttons!), even though in Orkney it will be some way to go yet......

Randomness....

Yes I'm still here, and no I haven't posted for a while.  All's well but I'm just very busy with work at the moment and have little free time.  Plus because I spend most of my work time at the computer I'm trying *not* to spend free time here too. Anyway some randomness......

Above is a photo that, for me anyway, holds the promise of spring, with some daffodil bulbs just peeking through the earth, and the cockerel, a symbol of fertility of course.  I have mixed feelings about "daffs" or narcissi, they are reminiscent of municipal planting and surbuban gardens, but in Orkney Spring is late and the daffs are a bright cheerful flower after the dark days of winter.

And here is a photo taken today of a bright brave primula in the walled garden.  I can see various of the perennials beginning to green up again so I'm hopeful of lots of wonderful flowers in the summer to attract the birds, insects, butterflies (are they insects?) and to gladden the heart!

January - I struggle in January. I'm never exactly a "high-energy person" anyway and have never "done" winter well.  Even when I lived in the South-East of England.  But although there is less light in Orkney in Winter than "south" I can at least live my life more in tune with the rhythms of nature. Working from home I can get up later, and work later etc.  But my energy is low in January. So I search eagerly for signs of Spring even though, for Orkney, it is several months away yet!

But - the days are slowly lengthening. Not much difference in the mornings yet, but yesterday coming back from shopping in town I was able to comfortably drive home without lights, and get into the house without a torch at 4.30.  Sunrise here is 8.42 (London 0753) and sunset is 1602 (London 1632). 

Button is on a diet - well not that she really needs to lose weight but am trying not to let her gain any more. So nobody tell her the new food in her bowl is *diet food*!  Last time I tried cutting down her food she just brought in several LIVE mice and released them in protest....... so this time she should get the same amount and not notice..... no doesn't work for me either but it's worth a try......

Right- back to work!