The sheep of destiny......

The sheep of destiny did indeed smile on me today. Its great to get out and do alot of exploring, and those of you reading this blog may often wonder if any 'real life' or infact, um, cough, any 'gardening' goes on here at all. Well, I've in my defence been a tad distracted - thesis finally in, today was my viva (Oral exam of scariness). All scrubbed up and shiny, which is also unusual, my general form is mud caked, I managed to not only leave for the office at the college early but with time to spare to drive in quietly and think about my project, my write up and what on earth they were going to ask me. I did of course under my deeply sensible clothes, wear knee length odd stripey socks - its what all proper scientists wear, honest injun!

Meeting 250+ sheep on the road, enroute the my scary post-grad viva - not exactly what I'd had planned. Thankfully I was early and had a chuckle about 'only in Orkney', well only anywhere rural I guess is more appropriate would someone move sheep at 8.45 on a work day. However, as you can see - its not exactly a busy road.  Anyhow, they gave me a well needed giggle, doesn't really help to take yourself too seriously, even when faced with a scary viva.

Thankfully, it would seem the sheep of destiny were smiling upon me today - I've finally passed, they loved my work and I've a few minor corrections to do (in the next 3 months). PHEW! Finally I feel as if I can speak more about my own work, I've been working on a project for the past 4 years looking at the feasibility of growing several different biomass energy willows for renewable heat fuel in peripheral regions (especially Orkney). Its involved alot of communing with my crop, alot of lugging and alot of scratching of my head to help develop the right kind of growing techniques for our climate. Thankfully, the lovely visiting experts liked alot of my work and were very complimentary. I'm sure my little willows would be proud, all, um 6 ha of them (90,000 individual plants) or so of them. And, yes I do know them all personally and by name.

Yippee. Willow is no longer a dirty word in this house, I can now look on it with fondness and maybe develop some of my ideas a bit more practically which might help anyone wanting to try and grow the stuff. Now, I'm not saying it will solve all the problems of the world, but every little bit we do to reduce our dependancy on oil is in my mind worth it.  And, now that is out of the way, I might be able to do a little bit of gardening (finally) and without any guilt! Viva la willow. Now, discovering you've dyslexic tendancies half way through a PhD project is a bit of an eye opener, a bit frustrating, a bit enlightening and life made more sense. Thankfully I've encountered alot of folk on that journey which have allowed me to form my own strategies to overcome some of my issues, and let me get on with the task in hand. For them, their help, persistance, kind words, support and 'you CAN' get there mentality - I take my hat off to you all, whether you've helped me or anyone else with dyslexia. You're all really stars, OK I've not finished with a PhD, but hey - I don't think my crop cares, its happy I took the time to ponder and develop it. This nifty willow quote says it all better than I ever can and its very apt for dealing with the unexpected and bouncing back just like my little self and my little crop and true for all of us:

“The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier nature”

Sir Walter Scott quotes (Scottish Novelist, Poet, Historian and Biographer, 1771-1832)

The good life.............

We're attempting our own version of a sustainable life, very much in the ilk of the 1970's BBC's TV series where a man (Tom) reaches 40 and decides he needs to find 'it' that quality of life which comes from living a more home-spun life, than merely 'existing to work'. His lovely wife (Barbara) supports him in this search for 'it' and the series inspired many since its conception, including me!

I have to say, its very much influenced my own life as adult, I've been trying to find a 'good life' for my family and myself, 'working to live' rather than 'living to work'. This is me, um, celebrating this good life after a hard day in the field working......working with plants helps sustain our household on the island and improve my own knowledge which I can pass on to others!

I've been lucky to have chosen a path which keeps me available for my family, whilst contributing to our household financially. This something I enjoy, by doing work and by also growing some of our food, when we can I am trying to work out my own version of the good life. At home, we're developing a new garden to do just that - helping provide food, flowers for our home and even heating for our home by growing our own woodfuel (from our Willow!) it will take a while but it will definitely help keep us warm in a few years!

Willow cutting in the ground in our garden March 2010

Willow grown for fuel locally - 3 year old - ready for burning!

We're also going to increase our effort at this to allow our surplus garden produce to provide extra things to barter for things we can't produce ourselves and to provide an income where it can. If we're careful with our money/resources by also being frugal - we can maximise the impact of our efforts on our lifestyle. There are many good sites to learn about grow your own - googling 'grow your own' will give you alot of information!

In theory very much like the original Good Life - although not in a suburban setting like the programme - we are different by living on an island. Tom and Barbara (the original good-lifers') had neighbours and many other constraints living in a town, living on our island, we've a whole different obsticales to deal with! Our neighbours are cows and calves in the field next door, they are pretty curious and cute!

We've a short season, frequent gale force winds, high rainfall but we've no frost, limited pests and diseases to cope with.  Our lovely rainbow fish windsock (picture below) lets us know the direction of the wind, today it was from the south east averaging 25mph, gusting at 42 mph, quite normal here! The willow fuel hedge is planted infront of the wind break netting and has grown a fair bit this year from the cuttings above, it will provide shelter and fuel for our home. The birds like the hedge too, so its also bringing wildlife into the garden as well, today we saw our first pied-wagtail in the garden; sparrows and starlings are frequent, as are birds like pheasants!

We have a bit more land than the average garden due to a lower population, we've simply got more space to live and work in! If we can sustain ourselves from our home, we reduce our need for 'money' needed for any essentials for modern living. The less 'money' we need to sustain our family, the more time we can spend together, enriching our lives through experiences. We hope to become more independant from the constraints of modern life and being able to actually share our time together. Well that's the plan in this house - we're hoping for a 'good life' we've hens, a polytunnel on the way and a garden to develop which needs sheltering from the wind! My own version of the good life - thank you to Tom and Barbara for the inspiration! Luckily my family have been wonderful in supporting and helping us achieve our own 'good life'.

Anyone can have a good life of their own, with a garden and a few pots, or a window sill to grow things. Or by finding a way of living which embraces what they want from life and finding thier own unique way to achieve this. Good luck!