How not to mow the grass

So I visited the 'old course' at St Andrews over the weekend with some golfing nuts I use to call friends. To be fair only one is a golfing nut. How on earth do I know a golfing nut, but he's aimaible enough and he cooks so I guess we'll pass that one by? Although golf?  My grannie always use to say that golf, is for people who like they're countryside ironed. Not cool in my book. Probably the most manicured and expensive grass on the planet and sadly right beside a cracking beach too, spoilt by a bit or grass ironing in my opinion. However, on Sundays, I learnt from said golfing lunatic, you get to stomp on it for free and walk your dogs, cats and any other animals you'd like. Although maybe not horses. So impressed were the hounds that they left a wee 'steamy' present each on the grass and watered it freely. I did chuckle a bit.  Not the kind of place I'd normally walk but it seemed like a big thing for him so I thought why not. [By the way, its very flat and the grass looks kinda not real its so short, just so you know]

But on the subject of lawn keeping, I can't say I'm quite as precise as the green keepers at the golf courses in St Andrews. You'll not find perfectly criss-crossed attention to detail on my lawns. If that's your thing then grand. But mainly I see lawn-mowing as an outdoor hoovering exercise. To be done in any manner that gets the job done. 

Some like to mow/hoover in straight lines

Some like to shuffle back and forward

As you please I'd say.
As long as the swaithe (the short bit left after the outdoor hoovering) is to your liking, do as you please.

I like mowing in swirls and swishes like an impressionist painting.

I do, it makes me chuckle.

Anyway that's how I attack the mowing, I get there in the end. Yup I tidy it up but the swirls and swishes sadly disappear after the first wee rain fall or dew. Shame really.

For the record, I like weeds in my lawn, pretty ones, they're good for the bees. And I like bare patches, I'm sure some wildlife enjoys a bit of bare earth in the green dessert of a lawn. And I definitely don't add any chemicals - honestly why apply stuff that kills the diversity and might make it grow faster. Have you ever heard of anyone applying 'carpet dust growing powder' to their carpets, to let them hoover them more often. No, I don't think so. And as for moss, OK so it might be a bit of a nuisance when its wet but its spongy and fun to spring along under and can host lots of wee bugs and stuff. Leave it alone, who ever heard of moss attacking you? Its hardly a harmful creature. Birds love it for their nests, so leave it be happy in your lawn. Why not. Spend your money on better things like sausages or Spandau Ballet records, what ever floats your boat, don't spend it on lawn chemicals I plead of you.

Mind you back to the old course in St Andrews. What I did find there was a golf ball growing habitat - all the balls nicely 'hatched' or grown like mushrooms all over a special enclosure. The golfing nut told me it was a driving range, but I say its where they grow golf balls and what does he know anyway. What did make me chuckle was the amount of wild flowers I encountered on the 'auld course' one of which included daisies, clover and (shock horror) ragwort. As shoddy as my green keeping skills are, I ain't go no ragwort in my lawn. Pop along on a Sunday and help them to spot their weeds, tell them how bonnie they are I'm sure they'd appreciate that very much. Just say I sent you. There's a billion green keepers I'm sure one of them might listen.

So chaps if you're gonna iron yer countryside chaps, at least do it properly.

Until next time, keep those green fingers active. Swirl those lawns whilst you're doing your 'outdoor hoovering', home call it mowing but lets face it its more like hoovering the garden. So stripes and blocks are SO last year, set yourself free when mowing, why not.

And the sun shone (finally)

So as we walked along the cliffs for miles, off came the boots. Good day, amazing what a bit of sun does for the soul (and the toes). First paddle of the year. And no the socks never match, life's too short.

My handing 'walking app' tells me we've walked a goodly 13.97 miles this week. No wonder my legs feel shorter! Free exercise is always grand. :-) nice to have the weather to enjoy it!

Stalking snowdrops, wild neeps and other extreme horticultural activities.

In exciting news today after the torture of physio on my poor leg, I was given the heads up to walk 'off road' and even get out on my bike again on flat surfaces. Yay. We (the mutts and I) celebrated with a long clifftop walk and a scamp around the headland beside the Broch o' Gurness towards Tingwall, re continuing the attempt at walking the entire Orkney coast. 

 

And, in celebration of the newly freed leg, the sun shone. It knew it was a good day. The Peedie pup watched the Broch in case any local archaeology tried anything sneaky. There's so much archaeology here in Orkney, we do think it multiplies when no ones watching. With this in mind, when near to old stones and habitations, he keeps a canny eye.

 

When about to embark on leaving the local surgery, prior to the actual off road 'scampage' the lovely physio asked me if I indulged in many 'extreme' activities aside when breaking myself skiing.

 

I thought long and hard. Best to be honest I think.

 

Well, I said, I do like to sometimes grow vegetables WITH flowers, in gardening terms that can be quite EXTREME in some peoples views. She looked perplexed, so I continued, considering her to be really interested........ I'm thinking of how to grow perennials, herbs and veggies in containers this year to mix things up a bit in my small space. She looked more than a bit confused.

 

She clearly was NOT a vegetable gardener, so I thought I'd appeal to her creative flowery side as I like to grow both flowers and veggies. I'm very inclusive like that.

So I also confessed I've currently been stalking local snowdrops this week, as they're just coming out. But haven't climbed any (many!) walls yet, I said, you know until my leg was a bit better, as I didn't want to slip in the snow.

 

Well with snow drops you often need a better look OVER peoples garden walls (and to be fair I'm a bit short).......so when stalking other folks gardens I find I often need to scale tall buildings or at least the odd peedie dyke...........which can be a bit tricky in the current snow/sun/gales/snow/sun kind of weather we've been having lately.

 

She didn't look impressed at all, not that I think she doesn't like snowdrops, but, no wall climbing I was told. Gentle exercise only, no attempts at kneeling either, nothing extreme.  To be honest I don't find ANY exercise very gentle and currently I find kneeling highly overrated, it hurts.

 

So, I got my coat, not that it was needed today as it was gorgeous and headed straight to the beach, extreme gardening of any form clearly being off the cards for the moment. Thankfully she said nothing about NOT climbing fences, beside cliffs, to get photos of wild Orkney neeps, still in hibernation, beside the sea. The sheep on the hilltop keep a canny watch, hiding under their towering wind turbines.

Gardening or snowdrop or wild Orkney neep stalking, it would seem, isn't an extreme activity in some peoples eyes. Hopefully I'll get my wall climbing pass back soon, plenty more snow drops to find.

 

As for the wild neep stalking over fences, we'll just keep between us. They, (the fences) were more than a bit shoogly (wobbly) to be telling the nice lady physio about. I don't want my fence climbing pass taken away too.

 

Nice field of wild Orkney neeps though, basking in the February sunshine, languishing dormant before they head off north to Sweden on their annual pilgrimage back to the homelands for annual ritual of self seeding...........

 

 

 

 

 

On living in the moment.

Well the sun is streaming through the salt laden windows here at Windy Island HQ. But, at least its not raining in a sideways direction, lets be positive. I hope the weathers fine where you are? Not that you can see the salty windows from my 'cunning' lets not have net curtains on the main street window, but I love jars of food........so pretty and so soothing to see that you won't actually starve.

Anyway back to the point, I've been thinking lots lately (don't hold your breathe, thinking takes me ALOT of time). Anyhow, I've been very focussed on the future, as many of us are, and sometimes I think I'm not making the most of the moment and potentially wishing my time away. That's not good. I entirely blame Kininvie, (but its not his fault) - for the 'walnut' question. As I ended up thinking about how long it will take for my tree to A: grow and B: ever fruit C: do they grow in Scotland, and I found this interesting article. And that got me thinking more and more about the future which brought me swiftly back to the present.

 

Why so, all this thinking? Well, truth be told, we're OFF back to the Scottish mainland in approximately 18 months. Its always been the plan, here for school and general wind punishment and when the childerbeast fly, we head 'sooth'. [Current flight status, one flown, one 18 months left of school].

Suddenly, it would appear, the abundant years in Orkney are gradually coming to a close. Whilst I love it here, life on the mainland of Scotland will beckon soon enough, I have an inhernet need to be near to the children and that will also be such an adventure too. A life with trees and all that jazz! But, enough of that, its time to appreciate here and now. Soon these wellies won't be here in the windswept north.

Now I do generally try to 'live in the moment' myself, as a parent/person/gardener/general buffoon, its often much easier to plan what's needed done and look ahead, rather than to think - 'but what about today?', isn't it?

Or to think, 'when I'm thin/taller/more organised/etc' I'll do that, or I'll be happy if and when I've achieved XYor Z. But, dearest heart, that tiny voice in my mind tells me, 'What about now?' Indeed small voice - what about now? We're often too busy, too much to do, too lonely, too poor, too much cleaning, too, too, too. I'm fed up being 'too', to be honest, its boring.

Too much of anything is a bad thing. So I've stopped the world and decided to play it forward slowly and live 'now'. And now brought me here.

The cellist and I grasped the evil Uritca (stinging nettle for you non botanist types) by the fist and when we'd both made excuses for 'why' we couldn't head out for a walk on Saturday between work (too tired) and her social life (too busy), too far. Enough with the 'too's - so we headed off to the beach for a 'we've got an hour if we yomp it' kind of a walk.

Now I confess, I haven't been to Evie beach in ages and it was calling, so aside the dread 'too's we thought, why not. The hoonds are always happy with a good stomp, so really we had no excuse. We had a free 1hr and 10 minutes, beach 10 minutes away, therefore - to the beach we went.

If we've only got 18 months of stomping about in Orkney to do, then we best make sure we make the best of every minute here. Of the 80 odd or so islands in this archipelago, of the 15 are inhabited and I've visited 11, so at least 4 to go. And of the uninhabited, but easy to get to I've visited 5. Bit of work required there eh?  Its not like its hard work, I mean how bonnie is it here?

And, more importantly, with 500 miles of utterly amazing coastline, awesome scenery and more archaeology than a normal person can chuck a stick at, I'd better get a those wellie boots on, hadn't I? These feet need to try and get on each part of the accessible beaches/cliff tops/scenery she can.

500 miles of coastline/18 months = 27.77 miles a month, which roughly equates to 1 mile a day on a beach of my choice. Or the equivalent for time off island etc. Time to get the map out and the gold stars and start making sure we get EVERYWHERE we can.

Better get a wriggle on hadn't I? Boots out, map out. I'm going to endeavour to live in the moment whilst I'm here in Orkney and enjoy it. Not just wish it away, I know I'm lucky to be here, so we also ended up on Scapa beach, meeting a chum for a stroll.

Two beaches in three days, that's a good start!

As a final attempt to live a little more in the moment, I've finally tweeted, feel free to hunt me down and tell me I'm more twit that 'tweet'. I'll pop a link on the blog - for those keen to hear more about local leaves and wind damage, I'm your girl.

PS It must be working, in the 'ethos' of living in the moment this week I've accidentally managed to see the northern lights. I know me, who's normally fast asleep on the sofa. As I've been trying to actively manage my time, so imagine my delight when an alert came out for the Aurora borealis here - so I went off, a hunting.

Now I've not taken any of these photos - but - here's a link so some stunning ones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19883715

A local friend took some cracking pictures too - I'll see if I can get his permission to send a link out to them........

Until then, living life in the moment. I fear there will be blisters. Wish me luck. I hope you enjoy the present and get out into your life this week!

You'll walk with us giants?

Like many folk, I'm often alone during the daytime, generally I work alone, I often lunch alone, I often try and walk most days, often I do this alone, except for the small peedie dog by my side. The lights really limited and reducing by the day at this time of year - today sunrise was at 8.05 am, sunset at 3.50pm. With that and the often bad weather, so if its walkable outside we get out for a walk. Excuse the photos in this post, I forgot my 'proper' camera, these were done with my phone. We walked from Ness Point, along the headland to Warbuth beach. Man was it cold!

It even looks wintery doesn't it - it was bitter. My hat was tied tight around my chin, my scarf high up on my face, my hands in pockets, walking very briskly. The wind biting at my face, my nose, watering my eyes, but the sea roared and the birds called and we stomped onward. It will be dark soon, I told my little canine companion - oblivious to my mutterings, which were lost in the wind, he rampaged on, grinning as only that particular dog would appear to do.

We called to seals, who knows how many of them might be or actually are selkie folk? With this in mind, we always bid them a good day. Nodding also to fellow walker, bid hello to a fellow dog out for a stroll, owner having a wee blether further up ahead, the dog clearly had wanted to get on with his walk. I spied gnarled windburnt vegetation, trying to pick out what they were. Lichens glow richly in the afternoon light clinging onto dykes like brightly coloured jewels adorning the sandstone, brilliantly illuminated by the low setting sun. At this time of year the sun sets low in the afternoon behind the highest hills of the Orkney island of Hoy.

 The faithful companion watches on from the shore, can you spot him grinning in the middle of the photo - having chased ringed plovers, oyster catchers and gulls with very limited success, he does like to bid them a hearty hello, scattering them in his wake. He's patiently waiting for me to take a picture of my shadow. I love the winter sun, it makes me tall! Thank you to Robyn for the idea of long shadows.

 I am a giant, I am a giant. Oh, dear mutters the faithful companion, she thinks we're giants again. Don't you love bitter crisp sunny days and the long shadows they cast?

Seven Days - going 'Barefoot'

I really liked a post called Seven Days by The Barefoot Crofter, who's over in the Western Isles. Pop over and have a look at Jacqui's various adventures with crofting, pigs and all things island like! 

Anyway I thought I'd do the same, I'm still a bit poorly and my poor brains more addled than normal - so here you go - the last week here in photos. I'm starting with a jimmied together apple tart to use up apples from a 'dooking' for apples game we had yesterday at the local kids day at the recycling site. Made the tart at 8am today, by 2pm when I got home, nothing left - my boy-man-child and 2 companions which were over for the day scoffed the lot - which I guess is what it was intended for! The child does like home cooking and sharing it rather quickly with his chums. To be fair he cooks alot too!

And speaking of recycling - we played, um I mean we made a few snakes from old ties which are great fun as door draught excluders, or for scaring your dog..........

 I got a bit carried away making 'just one last one' and then another........

 Did a bit of a garden crossword, 60 MPH winds and sideways rain means even I don 't go out side unless I have to. Two left to do - couldn't get them............

 After a bit of a rest and a crossword, made more things from old holey socks - cat toys which sort of look like fish - stuffed with recycled wool - really easy and fun to make.

 The children and I re-arranged the downstairs dining room to let the little couch go back by the fire and now lets me look out the window to cows walking right past.

The poor leeks got lacerated and I picked and cleaned them all - only 27 left now, we've scoffed one....well thats one of the real benefits of growing your own, you get to eat it too!

And almost the last of the tomatoes.....which got turned into home made pasta/pizza sauce and frozen in portions......

And more courgettes from the gardens growing food under cover at work......

And more basil from the indoor windowsill allotment......still growing, 6 months after planting it, I'm finally letting it flower, I think it deserves it!

 Did a few messages (*shopping*) with my daughter and the dog, in my new hat, very fine that is too :) we needed more local cheese, which is rather fine!

Cooked at a lot of food, which I do like and its why I'm so chubby!

 Tartiflette - local potatoes, local ham (optional) and home grown onions in a wonderful rich creamy sauce (or in this case low Orkney fat milk, creme freche and home made cream cheese, not too rich). Brownies.....(recipe here) of which there are now NONE left (not me I hasten to add)

Walked a bit of that love home cooked food off, each day we had a walk.....at the headland, to the beach or to my favourite tree on the hill

We met a few new folk........

 And some of us refused to go home! Peedie lurking, right by the gate, not wanting to leave!

And, finally each day this week we've tried to ask Einstien (not the smartest cockeral in the world) why he's refusing to sleep in a lovely dry byre and prefers to sleep in a half naked Elder tree which has lost most of its leaves. He's adorable and very pretty, but I'm afraid he's as thick as mince.

Rather sadly, it was time for the hard working Calendula to go - the final flower picked and taken indoors, I rather sadly gave the chickens, who are too daft to sleep indoors, the stems for them to have a rake through. I collected  their seeds and scattered them elsewhere in the garden. Hopefully they'll pop up next year.

 With a bit of 'proper' paid garden work also chucked in, a bit of a garden talk locally and a bit of an inspection today at work (which turned into a rather lovely chat with a chap who also got trained at the Botanics in Edinburgh). Not a bad week.

Grub, a lot of home cooked grub, gardening, gossiping about life and walking. Perfect.

Have a look over the blog fence at The Barefoot Crofter and see what she's been up to over her seven days......thank you Jacqui for the inspiration for this post. I hope you enjoy her blog like I do!

The headland skies

 I love walking, I love sky watching, I love the long vistas and the whistle of the Orkney wind and the shrill call of the dancing, swirling sea birds, high up in the sky. I love walking together, hand in hand, laughing.  With each foot forward the light changed.

 The seals follow us along the shoreline, swimming beside us, watching us chat, curious and unphased by our banter and our laughter. I really love that they follow us, we ponder why they do it, every single time, we wonder why - but love the fact that they will swim along with us the length of the headland, then turnaround and follow us back to the start. I do like seals, they make me smile. Are they guarding the sea or wanting our company? 

The big skies make me feel so small, very honoured to be here, a lucky island dweller. The Orkney skies are large and beautiful, the camera never quite captures it.

 The images are always amazing, each step they change from tussock grasses to rockier shores. I love the patches of silhouetted umbels in the foreground, their flowers long gone, the seeds barely there anymore - their stately form will linger a long while into the winter, if they are lucky the frost will pick them out and make them sparkle. I always try to guess what they are, we laugh at the ridiculus names I call them and walk on.

How many times have we walked along this headland? I can hardly remember. We're always followed by seals which we wave a hearty hello to. You can never help but listen to the birds calling, the sea roaring and often, the wind whistling. Watching the ferry leave around the headland today in the early hours, I was reminded of our last walk around that same spot. For now, I'll walk with a child's hand in my hand or alone, but for a seal for company as I amble along.

As a fine modern poet once said:

'My love and I, we work well together, although often we're apart'.

[Excuse the thoughtful post, Mr F and I generally live 300 miles apart and a bumpy ferry ride. We waved him off today. I enjoy our time together, and embrace the time apart, the children and I do similar but different things together when Mr F is off, Peedie enjoys a large share of the bed when Mr F is away at work on the mainland! The diversity of life keeps us all happy I guess. We've been juggling all of this for a while.
Normal service and posts later, once a 'new' normal daily life kicks in.]

Adventures with Peedies and......Puffins!!!!!!

Those boots are off again on a peedie adventure..........this time they are off to the Brough of Birsay looking for atlantic puffins!

The brough is a tidal island  only accessible at low water, at the north west point of Orkney, which is lovely to go and explore for the archaelogy and bonnie cliffs full of flowers and birds - but first we have to negotiate the beach (it's a hard life!) and walk across the causeway. As we head down the steps we spy an old tractor, how cool eh? Having a bit of sun on the beach, I suspect there was a boat involved in the tractors adventure on the beach I don't think the tractor is up for a bit of puffin adventurising with us today - never mind!

 Gorgeous day! How bonnie does that sand look, we come here quite often - the shell sand here is great for the hens and we often take home a bucket for them. Not today though, today is puffin exploring day!

 Over we go - a few nice fulmars tucked away on nests as we walk along.......

 And the sea pinks or thrift (Armeria maritima) are looking very gorgeous indeed.

 Looking out towards the west, nothing much to see but perhaps Canada in the very far distance, um however, its a few thousand miles away though! 

 More birds on cliffs but no puffins yet - a couple of fulmars

 I love the cliffs they are so rugged in Orkney - and teaming with life!

Now what are those guys looking at over there - they seem very interested in what they are doing! Me thinks they spy puffins! They do, they do, they spy puffins! Try and find them, to the right of the men, down a bit on that ledge before it opened up a bit....can you find them? Right there in the centre of the picture, three black and white dots!

 Oh look a bit closer there be three puffins, you'll have to squint very hard to see them!!!!!

How excited am I?

 One, two, three, puffins! Time to get over to where those guys are on the cliffs! To say we walked at speed would be a little of an understatement, but you cannot exactly run full tilt on the edge of cliffs with bunny and puffin burrows everywhere!!! These awesome birds only come to land during the breeding season - so you've a short window of opportunity to see them!

Hello my pretty, pretty, pretty gorgeous puffin! I'm currently on my belly - lying out on the furthest bit of the cliff I'm safely allowed to by Mr Flowers. Given my ability for clumsiness - he's always a bit nervous of my cliff action!

 Now, these are not the best photos of puffins in the world - but these are MY photos of puffins - I'm so happy a few of them worked out I want to do a little dance. (In fact I will, right now in my chair!)

Its just a look to the left...............

And then a look to the right..............thank you very much monseuir le puffin - I'll leave you in peace now! During all the mad photo taking, Peedie pup was very good - so we had a lovely scamp on the beach on the way back to the car!

 Time for your photo sir Peedie - sorry about all the puffin pics we love you too!

 And, now for your close up, oh dear you're too busy licking your nose! Gamerboy even came long on the walk today and the cellist - hes wandering off in the backgroud - they were both very keen to see puffins too and were also enthusiastically helping to take photos!

 Time for a quick dip in the sea! We didn't want to go back to the car all clean and dry did we?

 Quick expore of a few rock pools and the inlets under the causeway we walked along.......so thats how the sea gets out!

 And, time to plod back up the steps to the car - me thinks an ice-cream is in order to complete the day out looking for puffins!

  Well aside an ice-cream and the cost of petrol a lovely *free* day out in gorgeous Orkney. Now we all know the weather can be a bit unpredictable here - so the old addage - 'it  pays to make hay whilst the sun shines' seems appropriate - although we weren't hay making, we were puffin adventurising - which did pay off!