Just back!

Just back from a couple of days on the island of Westray, one of the more northerly of the Orkney islands. Lots of photos to share but for now the sun and the garden are calling, so I'll leave you with a photo of Pierowall village in Westray and the island of Papay Westray in the background..... Back soon!

Tranquility.....

...... is standing watching the sun set while the waves gently lap the shore.........

This photo was taken from the beach just below my house. It's the one with the shells and coral sand on and is my favourite.

Busy in the garden...

It's been a glorious weekend with lots of sunshine and folk complaining it's "too hot"!  I've managed to get some more digging and weeding done in the garden, as well as taking the opportunity to sit on my new garden bench a time or two!  Though it has to be said I shall probably sit more upon my wee John Deere tractor mower than I will upon the bench the rate the grass is growing!

Irene from Breckan and Mary from Windywalls came round this afternoon for tea and cake and a perambulation around the garden. Button, of course, put in an appearance and posed for Irene's camera....

Irene also took this beautiful photo of one of the flowers in my garden

And this one of the ladies, who had obviously heard there was cake on the menu and were heading for the kitchen with the cockerel trailing behind.....

What I love about gardening...

.... is that I can put some seeds into some compost and magic happens - they grow!! Above are my wee courgette seedlings. Given the amount of daylight we have now they grow at an alarming rate - sometimes I think I've planted triffids the speed with which they grow! 

Although my garden is near to the shore and quite exposed I have so far been successful in growing courgettes outdoors. The peas, beans, tatties (potatoes), and shallots are doing well in the garden and the salad crop is coming along too.  Sadly the gooseberries got hit by the winds and dropped a lot of their fruit....sigh.....

But that's gardening "on the edge" so to speak.  And if you are wondering what my seed tray is sitting upon..... it's a treadmill of course! Sitting quietly in the conservatory (and yes I know the picture on the wall is crooked, I just noticed that and must go and straighten it!) In the winter the treadmill is essential for my exercise as some days it's way too windy to set foot outdoors.  Like most folk with exercise equipment at home it doesn't get used as much as it probably should, but I DO use it!  However in the summer I prefer my exercise outdoors, walking along the shore or gardening (that's a good cardio-vascular workout in itself!).  Button of course just sleeps.....

Seals....

A bit of randomness today as I'm busy with work and brain a bit worn out this evening!  Above is a grey seal that was on the beach near the pier the other day. Most of the seals around Graemsay are grey seals although there are some "common" or harbour seals around, but I haven't seen them so often.

I love hearing the seals "singing" when they are hauled out on the rocks. There are usually a group of them together (like the photo below) and they snort, cough and "sing" to each other. It's one of my favourite sounds in the evening. 

The seals will often stay ashore until the tide comes in and lifts them off the rocks. They lift their heads and tails out the water and look like bananas!  Someone said they were lazy but when you think about it - when they are not ashore they are swimming, so who can blame them for a "lie in" - not me!

The grey seals pup in September and they can be seen with their pups along the shore. A lot of the seals used to come and bask on Sandside beach in the summer, however they now seem to prefer the more rocky shoreline. But they can often be spotted bobbing in the water as I walk along the beach.

Time for a cup of tea and to sit and watch the sunset (Sunset tonight is 2211 compared with 2109 in London, sunrise is 0410 compared with 0449 in London).

That was Spring.....

Today we are back to wet and windy.....sigh.  Still it was nice while it lasted! I was talking to an Orcadian at the weekend and he said one year he slept in one morning and missed Summer..... oh I do hope it's not going to be that kind of year.....

Anyway as you can see from the photo the chicks are doing OK. The mother hen is looking after them well. She takes them out during the day into one of the byres where they can scratch about for wee insects etc. She gathers them to her during rest period.  I count them each day and there are still nine (originally I thought there were only eight but no - there are nine! Hard to count when they keep running about!). I can't tell yet how many hens or cockerels there are. I'm not very good at "sexing" chicks - they almost have to be at the laying or crowing stage before I can tell ;-)

Spring! Spring! Spring!

Yesterday was glorious! Sunshine, no rain, barely a breeze. Yippeee!!! Spring is here!  I spent most of the day weeding and generally sorting out the garden as I had a day off from work.  My poor garden is rather battered by the stormy winds we had most of last week.  Wind is common in Orkney but we usually have lighter winds in the Spring and not so sustained.  Not sure if some things will ever recover :-(

But last night's sunset was absolutely wonderful!  I appreciated it all the more because the sunshine had been in short supply for a while.

Out in the garden I could hear the blackbird, wren and sparrows in the willow trees. Starlings were flying through the garden, swallows swooping overhead.  And in the field next to the garden, oystercatchers, lapwings, curlews and the odd pheasant were clearly also enjoying the sun.  I could hear the seals down by the rocks calling to each other.  It was just a blissful day to be outdoors.

My hens (and cockerel) enjoyed sunbathing too!