Wild Haggis romp on Orkney Beaches

This handsome young man languishing on a flagstone in the kelp is celebrating his birthday this week. Haggis is a VERY wild variety of Cairn Terrier, as yet pretty untamed and more than a bit pesky, he suits his name. He likes a game of hide and seek with his Uncle Peedie (the older dog here) when he's out............and he's particularly hard to find in kelp strewn beaches. Could you find him?

He's right there in the middle........I've put a star around him.......

Haggis is great at hunkering down on a rock, stalking his very much loved Uncle Peedie, the older Cairn Terrier. Uncle Peedie is not a fan of the stalking and jumping out game. Not at all. Haggis on the other hand loves it.

He waits like a cat in attack mode to jump on Uncle Peedies head. Uncle Peedie doesn't like that much either.

In fact, if given the choice Uncle Peedie wouldn't play this game at all. Often he just turns his back and walks away.

 Haggis, being a newly turned 'One year old' pup - doesn't mind. He just runs ahead and starts again. Bless him. He's quite a dedicated little pup, he just keeps trying.  Thankfully the beaches are full of kelp - or tangles as they call them up here, so Haggis has plenty places to hide. Uncle Peedie spends much of his time walking in circles to avoid attacking Haggi's. Oh well can't please everyone can you?

 

Happy Birthday Haggis you're a bit bigger than when you arrived - barely bigger than an envelope!

Happy Birthday Haggis.

(Who's also known as Hagar the Horrible here)

 

(And The Kraken)

 

 

 (And several other names that mischievous puppies often have when they constantly attack and jump all over you)

And his birthday present. I thought it only fitting to buy him some reduced packets daffodil bulbs, 'Tete a Tete' - seemed only fitting given his love of being 'Head to Head' with Uncle Peedie.......

LIfe abandoned due to sunshine: Newark Bay, Orkney

After a few dreich miserable days, quite unexpectedly, out popped the sun so yesterday, life was abandoned due to sunshine.  So like any good citizen, we headed to the beach. As you can see we left early to avoid the traffic, it can be hell on the roads here. As I'm on a mission to 'Live in the moment' so we went to find Newark Bay recommended by a chum........map here. 

 As always when faced with dangerous terrain the hoonds tend to form the forward party. Haggis attempting some kind of 'yoga' in the wake of Peedie's lead. That Haggis dog, I'm afraid to say, is just not right in the head, so he fits in well.

 

The obligitary beach graffiti is customary when visiting a new beach. Whilst its not quite Banskie, it will do. Always a good plug for the posh wellies too.

 Now, what I find difficult in Orkney is the crowded beaches. Sometimes its hard to find somewhere peaceful to walk. Today for instance, we passed 4 people in total, thankfully we all wandered off in different directions or it might have caused a major traffic report.

 On days such as these, it pays to wear your wellies, they get a free wash in the sea.

 And so they had a good splash. Seemed only fair, its been so dreich and dull here, nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine whlist paddling.

 There's something about big skies isn't there and a nice long walk.

 Listening to the water gently lapping in and out.

 After the gales at the weekend, the beach is strewn with kelp and other tousled seaweed, tossed high up on the shores, deep in places. Given the calm of the day, the sunshine and the lack of wind, its hard to imagine gales at the moment. I think today might be summer.

 Off in the distance a herring gull sits watching us on top of the slipway poles jutting out of the sea. You'll be glad of my rubbish photography, herring gulls are really angry looking and that would spoil the mood......its more 'romantic' from this distance.

 The sunshine dances on the water, so I of course had to join in. Only polite don't you know. Wellies looking quite clean now, which makes a nice change from all that mud.

 We reach the top of the slipway, fighting our way through deep kelp on the shore to clamber up. What an amazing view looking at where we've walked. Newark Bay gets a big tick, nice beach!

 When not working, or playing guitar Mr Flowers prefers to walk on water. He does stuff like that and likes to show off now and again.

 Whlist I attempt to drown myself taking photos of various seaweeds dancing in the shallows.

 We head back along the bay, joined by a couple of frolocksome seals. Yes, those tiny dots are seals. They were so close we heard them giggling way. We really did. But you know how seals are. One minute you see them......

 The next minute you don't. They appear to be playing with us. Curious as to our chatter and the dogs attempts at swimming don't frighten them too much.

 We walk towards The Point of Ayre - so many birds pottering about in the sunshine, we carry on past their chatter over the now rocky shoreline.

 Until its time to turn around and head back. What a perfect beach to stroll on when abandoning life, don't you think.

Another new beach walked, more coastline claimed in the great 'Bag all of Orkney's beaches' escapade I appear to be on. This weeks beaches have included Scapa, Inganess and Waulkmill which we know really well, but its nice to find a new one to explore. Thanks to Pete and Wendy for such a lovely suggestion and for the chicken lodgings, I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

 

Walk abandonded due to sunstroke and exhaustion, life resumed, a wee bit more refreshed. Wellies clean.

Not cleaning, abandoned due to mountaineers.

I had started cleaning this morning, not one of my greatest hobbies I have to say. But, with 13 windows upstairs in the living room - I thought best start on the windows eh? Peedie (now nicknamed Neep) decided to lend a helping hand. Closely followed by a (very peedie [quite small]) Haggis.

Ever tried to clean windows with two cairn terriers who think they are mountain goats and dishcloth kidnappers? Both a Haggis and a Neep keep trying to play with your dishcloth, the more you wipe the more exciting it appears window cleaning is. Not easy.  Thankfully the chickens are unaware of this adventure otherwise I'm sure they'd try and come up and join in too. Being the hard core cleaner that I am, I gave up, made a cup of tea and took some photos instead.

The boys are becoming chums - mentoring is going quite well - I fear they might actually team up and fathom how to get into the fridge and the lamb shoulder if they work together I'm sure they'll suss it out. The older dog is teaching the new dog plenty of helpful tricks including the art of sofa mountaineering, thankfully everything in this house, including the dogs, is washable. Speaking of which they both need a bath - best do that before I attempt to clean the bathroom eh?

 In other news - Peedie informs me from his keen mountaineering and inspection of the windows that the garden is still 'out there'.

  Inbetween the snow and the sunshine - I may abandon the cleaning and go out there. Not a hope of finishing the windows right now - these two are now playing with the dishcloth.

Designing a garden................(I)

This is the first of a few brainbubbling things I wanted to get down about planning a garden. I did a series of articles a while back for an online magazine - I must find them........................Anyway gardens - love them - or hate them, to get the most/least out of them it often feels like an uphill task. However, its pretty simple really when you think of it, even though it feels daunting. There are a few short things you have to ask yourself:

Who - will use it with you (humans, pets, crops, livestock etc)?

What - is there already that you can't move/love/hate/need what are the limits (size, soil type, aspect etc) and fixtures you need/have?

Why -  do you want a garden (pets, flowers, relaxation, exercise, provide food/shelter) or don't you want one and need to design an outside minimal use space?

When - do you want to use it and how often/which times of day?

How - often do you want to be out in it, how long do you want to spend looking after it?

The ideal garden suits the needs of the users at the times they want to be in there. If you can answer the questions above for yourself - your garden is almost designed! I start by doing my who/what/why/when/how list and take it from there. For example, if you don't like gardening but have inherited a garden with a house you might want to make it minimal tend and reduce the work it might cause you if its not under 'control'. If you love gardening a minimal tend garden isn't really what you want from your space. Also the time of day, other users and whats there already may well be things you need to consider to get the most from your space. The plants and the other fun stuff come later..............................not much later, but later.

Here's my own example:

Who - I've older kids, a dog, hens a partner who hates gardening but likes sitting out in it and riding his bike in it, whilst I LOVE gardening :) Although we do all like to camp out sometimes.

What - My garden had a rickety old fence, no gate, no plants except a few ropey looking shrubs. It has a path around the entire house and a couple of sheds. A washing line on three poles, gravel drive and not much else. Literally a blank canvas! Its large but no divisions, and its windy - I can't change the wind but I can change the structure of the garden to cope with a windy place (we live near the beach, its normally windy, sometimes more than others, as you can see in the photo!), hedges and garden rooms I think might be needed in my own garden to cope with the wind!

Why -  I love gardening, I like flowers for the house, I like food from my garden, I like working in it more than sitting in it, but I do like to eat outside, I like a functional space which is also productive, I needed to keep my dog in the garden and my hens out of the garden area, kids are bigger - so less likely to eat any toxic plants, the dog on the other hand will have a go at eating anything. I like to look out in the garden and watch birds and look at the view. I like outside work but I don't really like mowing grass! My poor garden needs to deliver alot! Beautiful, functional, productive, wildlife haven, toxic plant free and also minimal mowing! Oh I like bonfires as well!

When - I use mine everyday if I can, lunchtime and dinner time are good if we can eat out, I don't tend to sit out at night here - so night scented plants are really wasted on me. I use mine for the washing when I can, for the dog when he wants and don't want the hens in there! Kids ramapage around in it, toy fight (see below and the girl child generally wins), but are more inclined to sit and read these days, my other half likes to cycle around the paths (!)

How - I'm happy spending alot of time out there, others aren't so keen! A minimal garden is not for me! I like to be busy and work out there. My friend on the other hand hates gardening, and has managed to make a garden look pretty with containers and gravel, no grass but a nice area to look at from the house and dry the washing in! Whilst she loves her garden from the kitchen window, I prefer to get out in mine with one of these........well a real spade - kids are bigger now and the sandpit has sadly gone!

Now I know all of those things I can start to think about 'how' to design my garden. My first priorities were to get a dog proof fence up (chicken wire on the old fence) a link here to the fence (http://orkneyflowers.blogspot.com/2010/03/start-of-garden.html to keep the dog in and to get a hedge started to give me some shelter to build a garden from there. My hens were made a seperate enclosure beside the house but not in my garden (I'm lucky I have the space) a link here to the hen area  http://orkneyflowers.blogspot.com/2010/09/hens.html. My children are older, if they'd been younger - a gate and a child proof garden would have been more of a priority! Now that I've done that I can think about what I'd like in my garden and start there.

My wish list is:

a place to sit
somewhere to grow alot of plants to develop my interests

a place to eat

shelter from the wind to get a garden started (windbreak and a hedge)

somewhere to potter in the garden

somewhere to read

somewhere to grow food

somewhere to feed the birds

somewhere to have bonfires

a place to play with the dog

a place for my kids to flop and read/mess around outside

a secure place for the hens (!)

clutter free path around the house with robust plants to cope with occassional bike tyres

a nice view from the indoor rooms which look over the garden

nothing really toxic plant wise

nothing really large at the front of the garden as the view is great

flowers for the house
a nice area by the byre to greet folk

eventually a gate? I'm not sure yet...................

Now I've got those bits written down - I can start to think about how to use it and what to put in it.

The start of a garden.......

Ok you might wonder what the peedie pup has to do with making a garden - well it's simple really - In order to contain my little cairn terrier I have to make my garden peedie-proof. NO mean feat. And of course, he loves the beach and knows there is a beach at the bottom of the field.........Whilst the field is empty in the winter, on our island all the coo's go indoors throughout the winter - in late March/Early April the coo's will be in this field and plodding through this burn.......

In order to have a garden on an island one of the first things you also need to create is shelter - which means the peedie proofing and the shelter sort of go hand in hand. As you can see from the photo of the burn, the whole garden is basically railed - but has little in the way of any real shelter for the garden - and a million escape routes for a very clever dog.

SO the first task of the day has to be to put up some rabbit/chicken wire fencing at the bottom of the wooden fence, also to make it slopes outwards along the ground- to start to diminish any hope the puppy has of getting out of the garden by just walking under the fence edge. The fencing is longer than needed to keep the ground covered a bit as well - I will plant cuttings of willow through a few bits of the fence on the ground to make it secure and the vegetation it lies on will make sure that it grows through to secure it as well.

The next stage is to put up some of the green webbed netting - I've 150m of this to put up around the garden, to create shelter. You can see the rabbit netting lying flat on the ground and its now tucked behind the green netting to secure it. Island living means lots of space, but it also means salt laden heavy strong winds which can shred plants at any time of year, from any direction. We are lucky to be just one field from the sea, but that also means that the winds will be heavy with salt, with little in the way of protection from thier force either. I like this kind of weather, but, as a gardener its not the best to try and work with unless you can create some shelter. So in order to start to create a garden some shelter from either fencing or native shrubs and trees to create my garden. To give the shrubs a good start - putting some windbreak up will help whilst they establish and of course they also keep the peedie-pup in the garden! So its beneficial all round. I'm also planting my hedge with a view to growing some of my own fuel for a woodburner which we are hoping to install in the house later this year. SO the hedge will have many, many functions; who say's plants don't work hard!Some plants like this Hebe (who has been nicknamed Pheobe) are really good at withstanding wind and this one has grown really well - so I'm tucking the netting behind it and giving it some TLC. I will take some cuttings from this one when I've more shelter established and perhaps a polytunnel up to nuture on the cuttings. For my hedge I'm mainly going for natives, but I am going to intersperce a few pretty evergreens which tolerate the seaside. Things like Escalonia, Hebe, Grissolenia, Olearea, Ulex and a few other evergreens don't mind the salty air. Other non-evergreen garden plants like Rosa rugosa, Fushia, Buddleia and many others also tolerate a fair bit of salty wind and are great for the birds, bees, butterflies and wildlife as well.After a bit of sorting out the netting we got to a bit which made us a bit stuck, its an old fence and whilst probably past its best in some ways - still has alot of life in it too - so we've used some of the netting to help strengthen the fence as well and perk it up a bit - which means once the hedge I want to plant is grown the fence will be just about invisible! We've a bit of sawing and sorting to do in the corner so we went for a cuppa then and had a peedie think about what to do. The little shrub there is a Fushia, whilst it looks a bit sorry for itself right now, soon enough it will be benefitting from the shelter we've created. There are very few plants in the garden at the moment - but once the fence is up that will change.

This is the view from the upstairs window of the living room, we were surveying our handywork with a cup of hot chocolate, the wind was cold and our fingers needed a warm up. For the moment I'm quite happy to see the fence in all its ramshackle glorly and look forward to becoming better aquainted with it. The next part of the fence is ready to get going once we get the saw out. I am really enthusiastic about being able to create a lovely bit of shelter here for some of my plants to get a good start. Peedie-pup, however, is less enthusiastic - he rather likes sneaking through into the field - more like a game of dog and owner than cat and mouse................... We had to stop there as I was off to teach a veggie gardening class with a local expert - he's letting me be his 'girl friday' its so interesting hearing him talk so knowledgably about growing plants on this island, it really is very different to anywhere else in the UK.

Until I get shelter here - I don't have a hope of growing as much as a tattie, marigold or a pot of herbs as the tops of all the plants will be scorched by the wind - so I had better get a wriggle on if I want a garden this year.