Awesomeness.......and adverturising.

Oh dear, my poor neglected little blog. How on earth can it have been weeks since I've posted anything? So how on earth are you all - hopefully not off in the huff feeling neglected too? I certainly hope not, as the award for awesomeness goes to you all - wherever you are whatever you're upto. We should all celebrate ourselves no matter what we've been upto.

Celebrating work, life and family fun interferes with everything it would appear, pesky old thing having a fun family life sometimes - not a complaint, merely an observation. Often things get in the way don't they? As, do birthdays (thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes - it was fab), we've been hanging out on familiar and far away beaches and adventurising, which despite sounding like a made up word is actually a real word. Honest injun.

 I've been cleaning Darwin, the 'retirement fund' campervan - he's getting a bit of surgery and may even be on the road for the summer - now won't that be fun! Life's about being awesome and fun isn't it - even when you're working - or supposed to be! I'm in disguse - the wooly hat off and the sun hat on - no balance here - its either winter or summer. The sunshine intersperces hail/gale force winds/ice winds and rain. Its a truly magical combination and very hard to dress for - layers and layers - mittens and sun cream - at least its variable!

On saying that despite the intermittent weather- most of non-work life's been kinda on pause for a while, works busy busy busy (as you can see from my 'busy at work photo!') - work is fun and busy - it's a nice balance!  I thrive on being busy, as I'm genetically disposed to having ants in my yellow wellies. But, as May moves forward, life will get a bit quieter on the work front anyway. What on earth have you been upto? Something fun I hope. Here life remains generally the same, cold and windy and sunny and the views remain breathtaking!

  The hounds continue to bond and Peedie takes Haggis on walks to places of interest like the Ring of Brodgar - so many stones to sniff - so little time - they also now form co-ordinated 'chicken food' attacks to scatter chickens and scoff thier grub. I guess it means they've bonded eh? Chickens are stealthy creatures and unpetrubed by two silly hairy maclairy esk dogs bounding towards them. Egg production is on the up - so perhaps they actually enjoy the dogs company?

Thankfully - the dog/chicken balance of life is currently OK. Haggis has found a similar loving for socks as his uncle Peedie, and fits well into the communal family odd sock box - so that keeps him entertained whilst not outdoors........and talking of the great outdoors - we had a birthday party in a campervan (in shock, in sunshine).....and distracted the studying teenagers by a jaunt down to the beach by the hoose......

Introducing Haggis to the concept of swimming in the Orkney waters.....Peedie advises drinking sea water is good for you. We dispute this mentoring advice, Peedie is a monkey and the teenagers continue to grow.

And we've been off claiming islands in honour of Haggis - this is now known locally as the 'Island of Haggis' - a small sandy retreat.......perfect for three people to reside and two small dogs.......

When not celebrating birthday's in campervans and galavanting on beaches with teenagers and pesky hounds - We've been off dining in one of Orkney's finest restaurants - The Creel - my absolute favourite here.

 And the menu didn't disppoint - nor did the company nor the beautiful view as we walked out of their front door - truly breathtaking!

And, from St Margarets hope beaches to Brighton beaches in the space of a few hours and a couple of flights later - my toes dipped into the balmy waters of Brighton! How exciting was that - a whole 775 miles from home - directly 'sooth' - who would have thought the UK could be so long from tip to toe.......and a mere two and a bit hours of travelling time.

I've been galavanting (again) - off to Brighton (as you do) to meet a group of chums - ace fun and whilst those more sensible in the group (a very cheery lady) took pictures of our matching toes (!), the sights, the beach and ice cream.

Being a keen gardener/flowery type person - the only thing I took a photo of was the first flowering of the elderflowers -  sorry ladies - the flowers won out in the end!

We all know how important their progress is to Mr Flowers - so if they've currently started flowering in Brighton I guess it will be a peedie blink (a short while) before they wake up and flower here and we can have more delicious cordial. The flowers are slowly coming to life up here - although the cold weather continues in Orkney and the gales still being pesky. Its still wooly hat wearing weather most of the time, which means less need to brush your hair - so that's also a bonus!

 The positive side of cold weather, is that the grass had not even been cut yet - although I reckon this week it needs a haircut - but as yet - its still rubbing its sleep filled eyes and not rampaging away in its normal scruffy fashion. One less job to do so far this year. Mower still safely tucked up in the byre.

The wind netting is now off the fence where it refused to stay - despite the 4 million nails and hooks attaching it - it refuses to play ball - so I took it off. Now I expected this to look like a billowy scene from 'Memoirs of a Geisha' where the lady hold colourful silk out to the windy air. Instead I got tangled up and fell over whilst trying to disentangle it from my fence and hedge. It would appear even when doing its final swan song - the wind netting still got the better of me. As I've given up gardening at home - there's no point in fighting with it anymore. Wind netting - 1, Fay - 0.

Anyway, enough about that pesky windy garden of mine. I'm not currently friends with it at the moment. But, us gardening cordial lovers live in hope of a hot spell and flowering elders and of eventually cutting the grass once its woken up properly.

Given the fact my lawn is still snoring - I guess it won't be any time soon. Despite the cold weather the chickens continue to sun themselves on the bench outside the house watching the bare earth urging the perennials to pop their heads up - braver than I am! I cheer them on (both chickens and perennials) from the house, staying firmly INDOORS.

COME ON SUMMER - HURRY UP AND ARRIVE - SOME OF US WOULD LIKE TO ACTUALLY WATCH THINGS GROWING!

Then again - we'll probably just head to the beach - more reliable than gardening up here at the moment!

Have fun!