Almost time for the return of the cows!

The cows are almost returning, I've spied a few today when out driving to work. Woo hoo! I like it when the cows come out again, it means the summer is almost here. Almost!

And, talking of summer, I love seeing creels on the pier - out getting ready for a bit of sea faring action. It does make me think of the summer when I see them stacked almost time to go in the water. Lobster and crabs to be carefully hoodwinked by them, yum yum! I'm sorry, I'm a kind hearted creature myself (honest) but I do like my food, as long as its humany handled, from lettuce, to carrots to crabs, we have to treat it with respect then I enjoy it. I'm happy to buy local, humanly well thought out and handled or reared food, Animal or Vegetable. Respect is the key, treating it all kindly - otherwise I'd rather starve.

I'm lucky, I won't starve, the food here is to die for, the best oatcakes, bread, milk, seafood, lamb, beef, cheese (so many!), tatties, fudge, bannocks and a whole manner of other food inbetween. Catering for all tastes from veggie to carnivore - our home grown produce is among the best I've ever tasted. Google Orkney food and you'll be astounded at the quality we have locally. I'm sure you do too - regional food is amazing! However, whilst in Orkney, the cellist's favourite is icecream! And, we have very good ice-cream here - cos we have very happy cows, livng on lovely grass in the summer. Today she cycled to the local village, up a very LARGE hill for an ice-cream (5 miles) with her friend and  I hear it was to die for!  (By the way no one offers me sponsorship - I just love local food and we've heaps here!)

Aside the amazing food - I got a bit off track there about spring, sorry, once I start rabbing about food I'm gone! Anyway, life in the Northern Isles, its more than a bit bonkers at this time of year - spring is sort of a short or peedie 'blink' prior to full on extreme-light-marathon-summer, when it hardly gets dark. However, at the moment we're geting gradually accostomed to it. Once it gets going, daylight here is a bit on the extreme side - tonight for instance it was twilightish at 10.15-10.30 pm- by full summer, it will be a very long light evening for us until almost midnight, then dark for a bit - then full on light again very early in the morning. Dunno how the cockeral will react, loudly I suspect? Anyway - the lambs, who are less noisy, are now frolicking everywhere - a real sign of spring!

Lambing started a while back, the fields are brimming with life, are these rabbit eared sheep? Or Large lugged lambs? Maybe they will grow into them when they are bigger? You can see why the ground cover plant 'lambs lugs' get their name can't you? A well hidden plant reference hidden in text about lambing - go me! Never fail to try eh?

There you go - same ears, different colour and angle aren't they quite cute! The view towards home in the distance. We do have trees here you can see them. And my house is the last house on the right, in the far distance on the horizon or the one beside it , I can't figure it out- funny seeing it from this view.

Or this one, stopped again to take photo fo the view, I do like this view, I can look at the byres (sheds) too. First byre is the garage/bike shed/summer chicken home, second the potting shed, third is a building the chooks are in for the winter and the other one is an old house ruin.  Next time I take that photo, a polytunnel will be at there at the left of our house.......(I can't wait!). This is the official pre-polytunnel picture!! I'm counting down the days - it will happen very soon.

Never noticed that view before, but then again never stopped to take pictures of lambs for a chum before!

More lamby pictures, they seem to be talking about me. 'You're a semi local, why are you acting like a tourist and taking photos of us?' I think thats what I heard anyway........

Or are they just talking to each other?

And, the best bit, as I began to tell you and got confunded by food, lambs and creels. Anyway, I'm starting to see cows again. Hurrah! No, I'm not going mad, our cows go into the cosy sheds for the winter - as the weather is too horrible here from Oct-April/May, sensible creatures. I can't wait to see them all in the fields again - slowly but surely they are coming out of hibernation. For now I'll post pictures of sheep - as pretty soon you'll be sick of cow photos. They will be back in the field over the garden fence in a bit and I can't wait!

 Nothing finer than being in the garden, turning around and finding 30 cows watching you wondering what on earth you're upto. They find mowing quite comical - I'm sure they wonder why on earth we don't just eat the stuff rather than hoover it up with a wierd grass eating hoover. (Very sure cows know about hoovering, well they are indoors all winter, with all that dusty straw - they're bound to know about hoovers, aren't they?)

 I've just figured out why I don't like mowing grass, too much like hoovering, unless I'm on BRB (the very cool mower which I ride for fun, not really to do too grass hoovering just sort of happens when you're riding him!) - which doesn't really smack of proper housework. More like fun really, which is great as I'm allergic to anything not very fun, like housework. I'd rather be in the garden, NOT hoovering but messing about with flowers! Or watching cows in the field over the fence - so hurry up cows where are you?! I'm waitng for your return.

Chillis in the shower, chilis on the table, chillis at suppertime...................(1)

What an evening, spent half the evening taking pictures of chilli's, then harvesting ripe fruits (above are this years harvest of jalapeno's) and the other half putting some of the unripe chilli plants into the shower (you heard right) to get rid of greenfly. A heaving tepid douching in the shower - should do the trick of getting rid of greenfly - and if it doesn't I'll spray them with a mixture of washing up liquid/water to kill the aphids and then treat them to another shower in a day or two - pesky greenfly. That should get rid of them but I'll keep an eye!

I try to be as natural a gardener as possible, I'm not organic - some of the organic 'principles' I find hard to agree with in some ways (a story for another time, especially practices in some commercial 'organic' growing) but the term 'natural' gardening suits me better. It's more frugal to limit the chemicals we put into our plants and better for us and the plant if we can get the balance right naturally.  Enough of that - chilli's! Yum - I love them - they are a vegetable (well, really they are a fruit) that is expensive and I can grow myself. They are very pretty plants as well and giving them house/greenhouse space can be doubly beneficial.

Chillis are part of the Deadlynighshade family (Solanaceae), but don't let that put you off - they are relatives to tomatoes/cape gooseberry/potatoes etc and chilli's are a type of Capsicum or Pepper fruit. They were discovered native in the America's and first documented on the voyage of Christopher Colombus (wow!) in 1493. Capsicums = Capsa meaning 'box' relating to the hollow fruits. Ignore me, I'm secretly a plant taxonomist in disguise -  I love knowing why plants are called plants and what makes them all interrelated! Today I've learnt about the origin of my chilli's so I'm a happy girl! There are thought to be 10 wild types of chilli and 4-5 domesticated species and are classified by the types of fruits they have (I'll stop there incase you're asleep). Anyway, this year I am growing 10 different types on my windowsill (no polytunnel yet) -  its part of an experiment - part market research.

I'll explain.......I'm hoping to sell enough plants from home to sustain our way of life - a small part of a larger 'patchwork' lifestyle (a friend quoted one day, I did like the expression) whereby you sustain your life by a financing through a few or many projects at home. Growing plants is one way I think I can contribute to our finances - its a skill I'm lucky to have and something I enjoy, below is another jalapeno - pretty plant isn't it?

Over spring this year I bought a number of vegetable/house/fruit plants over the mechanism of internet eg with a few from Ebay. I wanted to see how people packaged their plants, what quality the plants were, the prices they were charging and also essentially how they did it. We had a myriad of plants arrive in the post - some good - some not so good. Most plants arrived in 'jiffy plugs' (pic below) or in net/small pots, which I found interesting as I like to send seedlings bare rooted. It did help me to have the confidence to know that my growing was very much upto standard. My plants were healthy, well grown and compared very well to those at the highest end of the market - YAY!

We also had a myriad of packaging arrive - some good/some not so good - from these purchases I've been able to forge my own ideas for selling plants and have the pleasure to 'road test' the plants I purchased. Hence ordering a collection of 10 chilli plants (which nicely came with 5 free unexpected plants (a cucumber, tomoto, aubergene and a courgette!) what a nice surprise! (And, a good tip for sending plants to people - I'll order from that person again - the plants were good and the wee extra plants were a nice touch). This is how they arrived - nice and healthy in their own little jiffy pot.

So, the 10 chilli's were all successful and I'm beginning to harvest the ones which are ready at the moment - I've had to cut back one which wasn't looking too healthy, although it provided 4 decent chillis and thankfully now it's got new shoots coming. As chilli's are tender annuals in this country, or can be short-lived tender perennials I'm going to have a go at giving mine a prune after they've finished producing fruit and then overwinter them in a cool but frost free place to regrow them next year. I've a friend who's done this successfully for the last 5 years now and the plant has gone from strength to strength - more chilli's each year! So, part interested, part frugal I'm going to give that a go this year. I've also read of taking cuttings from new growth in the spring - so I'll try that too and I'm going to collect seed and try too. Anything that gives me a plant for free - I'll give a go!

Gardening and passing it on..................

I'm a gardener (I might have mentioned this once or twice before?!), since I was a child plants have fascinated me, here are my favourite non-welly shoes, inspired by flowers. I first got interested in flowers and gardening by helping my grandfather in the allotment; digging ‘tatties’. I can still smell the mud, remember my dress being all dirty and my wellies all sticky. Putting potatoes into sacks was the job of the day although I probably put more back on the ground, I do remember it being fun and my wellies being thick with mud. I am glad he had the patience to let me ‘help’ him, I am sure it would have been a lot quicker and less messy without me. My favourite job when I was with him was picking strawberries, raspberries and taking in Grannies favourite flowers; she loved carnations and my Grandpa grew lots especially for her. The smell of carnations and the tastes of the odd berry that found its way into my mouth is still with me. I experience it each time I sneak a strawberry from the greenhouse or sniff carnations in my own garden or on a flower stand. It’s special when the little things stick into your head from experiencing something wonderful when you're a child. I'm often in wellies now, most days infact, generally covered in mud!

Those experiences helped to shape my love of the garden, nature and flowers. I picked my first herbs from his patch of mint, which grew, in the pot outside the greenhouse door. I must have been a little over zealous and as I pulled a little too hard I got a bit of the roots too. I realise now I had been a little over enthusiastic but instead of scolding me he helped me to pot it back into a new pot telling me that there was far too much of it anyway and would I like some for Mummy’s garden? And did I realise it would need a suitcase? I was puzzled? Why would a plant need a suitcase? "Well" he said as he scraped a little soil from the pot my new mint came from into the new pot "you wouldn’t want to leave home without your suitcase, would you?"

From my experiences with him I have learnt many things about plants and gardens. I have many pairs of wellies, all muddy which matches the dog! Each time I pull up a little piece of plant for a friend I make sure it has its own ‘suitcase’, a little soil from where it was growing to help it settle into its new home. When I caught myself telling my friends to do the same, I had to smile; I was probably 5 years old when he told me that. Having studied plants I now realise why this is important; there are many more complicated associations between plants and the organisms that make up the soil than we still realise or have the brain space to deal with! It makes perfect sense then to incorporate these ‘bedfellows’ with a plant that is moving to a new site. And, thinking of a suitcase full of what a plant needs, is more fun than reading countless soil books!

These days I have my own children, we have been lucky to always have a garden and they are often out ‘guddling’ about with me. They are often keen to help and wellies are put on at the drop of a hat, any excuse and the wellies are on! Many of our walks are also filled with silly plant stories, fairy kisses on daisies; trolls hiding under bridges or rhododendron flowers that smell of juice, (really they do! And you have to guess the kind). It’s a way of getting children to notice plants and find them fun also helps on long walks to keep them interested! Whenever we saw flowers as a child, if we were tempted to pick it any Grandpa would say 'Oh, we don't pick them, we remember them and leave them for the pixies to dust, and for others to enjoy'.

Someone told me about fairies kissing the daisies; but I had to invent the dinosaur plants. It was quite fun though I must have been about 6, but I still think of fairies kissing the petals when I see a pink tipped daisy! I'd never pick it though, whatever would the pixies have to do if I took the flowers away? My own favourite silly story is about dinosaurs laying their eggs under the leaves of the giant rhubarb (Gunnera) so we have to creep past them. This story still lasts now and the plant is often referred to as the ‘dinosaur egg plant’ (picture of a Gunnera below) I managed to get chocolate eggs under it at Easter once, the reaction was amazing!! As we are surrounded by trees, shrubs, herbs and flowers its not too difficult to get their attention; especially if there are dinosaur eggs involved! By keeping it fun, a little silly and interesting it’s an enjoyable way to learn.

When summer was here we were in the garden often, there’s lots to do and the children often wanted to help. Hazel would spend many days collecting caterpillars and snails (and slugs, of course are merely snails which haven't found the right house yet). Good news for me, I feed them to the chickens later; please don’t tell her! Jamie would always head straight in the direction of the hose; beyond all else he likes to water everything into oblivion. With the right attachment he is fine and I go away content that the most damage he can do is to either his sister, the dog or me; the plants should be fine. I use to help him to water the tiny seedlings, the tactics he uses would water them into extinction, apart from that he does a great job! I think he takes after me, even just a little bit, there's me doing my favourite pastime as a child, mucky as always!

After all the caterpillars are collected, I am delighted and steer my daughter towards a packet of seeds to be sown, there is absolutely no point in telling her where in the garden to sow them as she loves to make her own mind up and let me know when she has decided. Seeds seem to be the most fascinating things to her; that you can fit a whole flower inside one tiny seed she decided was just great. I let her sow all of the old flower seeds and she goes about it chattering happily and then gets her watering can. The fact that sunshine, water and mud make plants grow from those seeds she finds amazing; I still do too. After five minutes soaking when they haven’t germinated or she has washed them down the garden path a little over-enthusiastically, she’s off to draw a picture of her flowers, which will be pink, purple, red, orange and bright yellow; they are always a rainbow of colours in her world. If all of the seeds she has ever sown actually germinate the combinations of colours will be fantastic, the design inspirational and a secret part of me would be delighted at the effect on my borders. But, sadly many of them haven’t didn't come up, but we read a lovely book recently about planting a rainbow, (from over the pond) - it's a good inspiration! There is also an 'eating the alphabet' book, truely lovely, there are so many lovely books availabe to get kids interested in the garden and plants.

The kind of fascination that children have when they are learning about new things is amazing and often it shapes the way that they themselves are nurtured, develop and grow. As with all of us learning by experience is the way in which we reinforce key points and issues; it helps us to remember. It’s a little difficult sometimes to take the time and kindle such an interest, especially in our busy lives; but it really is worth the effort.After all the same plant will probably have to fend off footballs and the occasional trampling in years to come.  Most plants are pretty robust and take picking or potting up by a little persons fingers in their stride peas, nasturtiums, sunflowers and courgette seeds are perfect, nice and big! Knowing where their food comes from and what it looks like when its growing is easily absorbed and fun!

The satisfaction children gain by helping or doing it for themselves is enormous; and they are learning at the same time. Of course, some of the plants get squashed, dropped on the floor and broken in half. Compost generally ends up everywhere and but we get there in the end; having had much more fun doing it. They have helped me to plant the herb and veggie garden for many years now and now remember some of the plants we grow. My five year old son was able to identify the veggies and herbs in the garden, telling me off when I got it wrong!  The mints I am informed smell of ‘tic-tacs’; the fennel is fluffy; and lemon balm really smells of lemons (although you can't tell from the picture below). The mention of some plants is more well recieved than others, in our house 'mange-tout' gets everyone looking very nervous, one year we had such a glut, we had them alot with most meals - even the mention of them now makes them laugh! Whether it all works or not, theres usually lots to laugh about!

The kids helped me to plant most of the more robust plants; my more delicate ones I saved for a time when they were out at school. All plants were then dutifully and liberally drenched in by Jamie pretending the hose is a ray gun, whilst Hazel looked for some more caterpillars. We needed to pot up some chives for a friend. As I dug a little clump out of our rather large one Jamie stops trying to soak the dog. "Don’t forget the suitcase Mum" he shouts, and I find myself packing my newly dug up plant into a pot with a little of the soil from our garden; smiling. There are many books out there and many blogs on children and gardening - if you're inspired at all, have a go - I'm lucky to have had someone in my life who inspired me, who knows where it might lead! Hearing my children pass on my Granpa's words, is truly magic!