Weather report: Wear Jumpers

The lady on the Radio today, when asked for the forecast simply stated 'Wear jumpers and something waterproof'. Enough said really. After a series of rather blustery days, its reassurring to know that these will be continuing. Now, those of you whom are not strangers to my ramblings will know a high degree of weather related moaning generally accompaines photographs. So, you'll be glad to know today is no exception.

Having been awake for what seemed like the entire night with the roof rattling like something out of the Wizard of Oz, feeling a bit more like Dorothy, again. it seemed that wrapping up did seem in order today. With an afternoon free, despite the warnings of jumpers being required and waterproofs, I decided it was only fair to do a bit of wave hunting, between the squalls. So I wrapped up!

The west side of the island is notoriously rugged and is peppered with a series of large sea cliffs and bays nestled between. Whilst if I'm honest I'd have preferred to go to my favourite spot at Yesnaby and walk along the cliffs watching waves, I'm not supposed to be walking 'off road'. I promised the Dr. So I headed out the the Bay of Skaill, which is where Skara Brae lurks at the south side of this bay.

Given its rocky too I can't walk there either, but it was fine to sit a while a look at the waves crashing about.

Big seas, excuse those more out of focus photographs, I am firmly blaming the wind and the optical digital zoom on the camera being maxed out, but you get the idea. The sea is big today, well worth a look.

I carried on up the northern west coast towards Birsay Bay, where Bob grows his tomatoes under a fine array of glasshouses, nested safely behind sand dunes by the shore. And, its up for sale.......details here.  Unfortunately I went past a house where the fence had been ripped from the ground, wind netting and all. Poor chap, I hope he doesn't lose heart. The winds unkind to gardeners here. But still we try.

A favourite place to wave watch is out by the northwest just passed the tiny village of Birsay, overlooking the Brough of Birsay.

Now we've been here many times, but its always breathtaking to see a stormy sea here whatever the time of year - it can be stormy here in summer too.

So we had a bit of a wander and were watching waves crashing over cliffs.

The footpath. whilst very wet, was flat and kind to those with a dodgy leg, here she is, that dodgy-legged person who's seeing the surgeon tomorrow.  She's also wearing Mr Flowers hat and the longest scarf in the universe. But shh, don't tell him.

And, we watched the waves a while until our cheeks stung with the rain and our fingers went numb and we could hardly stand up against the wind any more. Time for home I think! And what's better than a nice warm sit in front of the fire? Well there's room for all of us..if only Peedie would move over and stop thinking about last time we had adventures with puffins on the same cliffs.

Or perhaps a snuggle on the sofa........Haggis is a fan of the flowery cushions, there's a promising career ahead of him I think.

And as the wind whistles down the chimney, the doors whistle and the windows rattle. We're nice and cosy inside, you see all that free wood in the shape of square logs I chop comes in handy!

Keep warm if you've got bad weather and until next time - remember heed the advice of the lady on the Radio 'Wear jumpers and something waterproof'!

 

And if you'd like to visit another local blog, often besieged with our local weather. Please pop over and visit Sian who's currently most likely, like the rest of us, hibernating, due to bad weather!

And a hearty hello to those extra followers we've picked up along the way. Nice for you to pop along and see us. Don't be shy leave a comment and introduce yourself and your blogs - for those of you who do partake in blogging, thanks for linking in here your blogs are really interesting! Tell us more about yourself..........Whilst the page views are great - be nice to hear from more of you when you've time! x

 

Around the candlelit kitchen table

After a wild day on Thursday which was described, in a tongue and cheek kind of a way, on the radio tonight, as a 'peedie bit of a blustery day' even for us up here in the windy north of Orkney - so I've decided to take the evening slowly and do a bit of cooking by candle light. I have electricity, unlike a lot of the other people in the UK after last nights storm, but I like candles they are cosy. Here's my kitchen table - bit wee, covered in flowers and in the heart of the house here. I'm happy I'm home as the winds up again and gales are due again, although not as bad as last night.

I'm cooking cabbage by candleight (what else, at the moment?) for tea, experimenting with a few of your recipes - thank you! Do you think they'll notice cabbage for every meal???!!!! I hope not, the age of the had cabbage arrived here rather unexpectedly afterall. However, can't moan too much, with the cold and the snow arriving - I like comfort food and keeping cosy.

I've been thinking about xmas too - how about you? The advent candle is lit and I'm feeling a bit 'chirstmassy'. When asked what I wanted for xmas today - I pondered. I'd love a whizzy ice-cream machine and I've been reading up about them, not that I really like too much ice-cream very much, but my family do and making it would be quite fun. But, I'm not really thinking that such a 'posh' present would be very likely!

Although to be honest I'd be really chuffed if I got a new apron, my old one is getting pretty worn but I love it, (um, I do keep wearing it in the potting shed, whoops!) but there are so many lovely colourful ones out there - who on earth could choose? (Google aprons and colourful I dare you!?

Mind on though - socks get my vote everytime! But as long as they aren't dull! Or maybe another dog - that ones quite fun, doesn't walk much though.

I wonder what your kitchen table is like and what you're dreaming about around it?

Heartbreaking

Heartbreaking hearing the reports of Iceland and seeing the devestation this new volcano eruption has had up there. We're getting a bit of ash here, but watching the news, a little dust here is hardly anything to the suffering its causing up in Iceland. Hearts up there the now with all those folk, farmers and wildlife trying to cope with it all. Hardly seems fair.

In the midst of off of this here we've had horrific winds for a fair old time now, which whilst common throughout the year, the strength and length of them at this time of year is heartbreaking. I've been watching the buds swell on oriental poppies which are dotted all over the island and then slowly watched many of them bursting into bud and being destroyed.

Hardly seems very fair. This little fella a day or two old was so trying to cling on I had to stop the car and take a photo or two. Poor thing.

I hope the wind dies down a bit to let it have another go at flowering. A girl can hope, eh?

The henious crimes of chickens (part 357)

Now what they don't tell you about keeping hens, is that they are hand picked by someone to perpetrate crimes against honest human gardeners. Don't be fooled by those innocent looking beaks. They are trained I tell you, trained. Today's crime (aside rampaging inside the house, trying to get into the laundry, taunting the dog by trying to walk past him at the door, pecking the food bag when there was food outside and TRYING to get into the kitchen to eat his food too), todays crime was worse, well worse than the normal chicken malarkay's in this land today, they've been getting very cheeky.

Exhibit A - try and open/empty a car - who will you find casing the joint but a hen. To be fair when I went to get my camera there were 8 of them in there - this one is clearly to busy exploring and didn't scarper before the camera arrived. Daft or honest chook, I can't decide.

The rest of them looked on, very innocently.  Nattering about how much bigger it was inside than they thought.  This one I think is trying to get the low down on the fencing gear and if it goes missing, I'll know which one to ask. That one, she's called Karyn, you may have heard of her before, Adventure Hen Extraordinaire......

It got worse...........much worse.

Exhibit b - henious crimes against gardeners on windy islands which are hard enough to garden on at the best of times.

I'm not growing many pretty flowers, I love them but its utterly pointless. They get blasted by the wind and I cry, you'll not see a lovely display of summer colour here - well not for more than 30 seconds before the wind destroys it. Even if I give HARDY annuals a go, I have to raise very carefully indoors from seed, which is a pain in the derrier as putting seed straight out here in the fine mud of Orkney is just not on, season too short/blowly/cold/stupid. Throw money into wind, is a much more effective strategy. Or look at them in a book or a blog - but not 'out there'.

Therefore if we are very persistent and really want a bit of hardy annual colour, we have to try and grow them first like tender bedding or veggie plants growing them on into decent sized beasts to be released into the cruel world out there in the garden. Otherwise it just doesn't work. Its a royal pain in the rear and only saved for a very few favourite plants. Therefore I don't grow many. I grow calendula and often nasturtiums as I love them but I have to coddle them on first. And as a treat this year, I'm growing Cerinthe major 'Purpurescens'. I like it, it likes seaside gardens, bees and butterflies love it, jobs a good un. It's beautiful - if you've never grown it, I'd highly recommend it - gorgeous thing and very hardy. Elsewhere once you've grown it, if you've gravel nearby it will self seed happily and you'll always have it.

With great anticipation, I grew my little ones on the window sill then carefully acclimatised them to a luxurious fishbox-come-cold frame last week - with a little lid on - to keep them safe from 'you know who', all 11 of them. What do I find when I go out and have a look at them - plastic lid sligthly nudged over, a suspicious chicken sized hole gaped at me. Horrifed to find 3 of my 9 seedlings strewn on the ground with suspicious looking hen pecks on them and a dirty great hen poo in the middle of the seed tray. I guess they didn't like the taste of them - boo hoo chickens, I'm glad you don't like them. My own fault for not tying the lid on properly. I'm very silly.

There are no photos of this crime, the plants were immediately rescued and appear thankfully to be OK, aside a few holes and a spell of sunbathing. No chickens have paid the price for this henious act either. Even though there are no photos to show you, we've still got 11 of them. And, now a rock and a stob and a big pot now holds down the lid of the makeshift cold frame. Move that if you can now chicken, if you dare. Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough...........

Needless to say - I've immediately gone and bought 6 new fencing stobs, a load of bean wire for over their enclosure and I'm going to put the fencing equipment to good use over the next couple of days. Thier free range days are REALLY over now - do not mess with the Cerinthe - that was just too much. I'm not going to faff about with annual flowers to this extent, in this climate, in the hope of even just ONE flower, to have them terrorised by chickens. Have you hens no hearts?

That really was a step too far.

We're trying to work in the garden...........

OK, today thus far is not going to plan. It's dry - which is ace, but its a windy. I need a 'not very windy day' as I've a pile of mulch matting to try and lay. Bah to windy weather, its only 20 MPH at the moment and gusting at about 32 MPH! But, it looks like we're NOT working in the garden today - but I might give it a go anyway. I'd like to get a crack on but the wind is a pain in the derrier - however - I know its windy but......

 OK, let me be blunt, its not quite this windy (55MPH)- when small children are made to go out for a walk by thier evil mother and they blow away unless they hang onto the railings at skara brae..............

 Not quite that windy, to make the windsock dance about like this - that happens at about 35-45 MPH - but its fairly breezy..............................

Image copyright Alex at the Giddy Limit - Brilliant!

And, I shouldn't complain really as its definitely NOT this windy (this picture always make me giggle - thank you Alex at the Giddy Limit!), but any excuse to get such a funny picture into my blog! Its not this windy but its not weather to easily lay 100m of mulch matting and trench it in!!!! Anyway I'll get ready and watch the day..........who knows....?

Who, pray tell, lobbed a shoe in my garden? Cinders own up!!

Are you short of a shoe?

I'm getting a bit worried to be honest, having surveyed the garden after the storm last week, what do I find but cinderella has had a shoe blow off and its landed right in my garden. Its in the middle of the bed by the house with the fushia and the ajuga in it - looking a bit worse for wear at the moment. I'm curious as to how on earth the shoe got there. I think it was blown in, which is pretty nifty really - landed about 5ft short of the building, so clearly a good aim whoever threw it/lost it. But how on earth did it get right here?

Well, the one thing we know for sure is that the wind brought it - was the owner of the shoe out surfing in a force 8-10 gale? Did they lose their foot whilst hot air ballooing over the house in a nasty storm. Or did someone try to put it on over the atlantic and it blew in from there? We aren't near any road or anything like that, this is not a passing shoe-in-the-garden-attack. I think it came from the beach at the bottom of the field by the house, or over from Hoy the other island, maybe someone was trying on a shoe and it blew out of their hand all the way here?!

It came from somewhere down there by the beach I think...................

If this is your shoe and you tell me what you were doing when you lost it I'll stick it in the  mail - its no bother at all - I'm having a flurry of selling on ebay and often at the post office at the moment.

Come one Cinders, don't be shy - whilst I'm glad it landed in my garden rather than straight at the window - I'm not going to hang on to it! I might even send a prize packet of seeds out to the most original story of how 'your' shoe got into MY garden. As if it isn't busy enough at the moment with all the hens in there!

I think I'll stay home

The local ferry in a very choppy sea!

Having seen a picture of the ferry today, I think I'll stay home for the moment!Thank you for all the lovely wishes and concern. It was indeed a bit choppy last night and a tad on the windy side. By the sounds of it we had it a bit less scary than those out to the west and those up north of us.

The worst of the winds were recorded on top of a hill for their very scary 'don't go up there' value at gusts of 122 mph. Even in the morning (at much reduced winds) the living room windows were whistling and they actually appeared to be moving ever so slightly.

Casualities in the garden appear to be a couple of shrubs which are no longer planted (up by the roots and gone), and a few bits of shrubs look a bit worse for wear. A good handful of 5-10 ltr pots appeared to lose their contents (!) and aside that not much damage to report.

House all fine and well - although my 14 year old did pop upstairs at 3am and hop into my room wondering if the house was actually going to take off. As the wind was worse on her side of the house, she decamped in with me for a while and then scarpered through to the spare room (more room in the bed!).

I'm hoping it will be less noisy tonight, although the forecast is bad again, its not as bad. As I left for work this morning - one of the hens was being buffered about the yard and although the dog went out for a bit, he's not keen on the wind and scarpered back indoors! Clever dog!

I hope its not too windy by you tonight!

Rocks in your pockets



Today is a day for putting lots of rocks in your pockets. The wind speed is gusting at over 50 mph and if out and about outside placing many rocks are required in your pockets to keep you on the ground. Whilst I do joke about this, often, today is a ‘put as many rocks in your pockets as you can’ kind of a day. We’ve hardly slept due to the racket of the wind on the house. Watch the car bobbing up and down outside the window buffeted by the wind, whilst entertaining, is not really reassuring.

It was a battle today to get INTO the chicken byre, I had to hunker down in the wind and slowly plod, clutching the water bottle as tightly as I could! Today, I have put the chickens on a very short leash. Metaphorically of course, I don’t actually tie them to each other in this weather! I’ve actually just closed their door and given them only a tiny opening into their byre and asked them very nicely not to go outside in case they get blown away. From here at this direction I fear they may end up in Iceland or perhaps even Greenland. This is a long way to go and collect eggs, so I’d rather they stayed at home!

It’s to get worse later as well, gusts upto 70 MPH expected. Deep joy I wonder if we’ll sleep tonight?!

Thankfully nothing is awake in the garden – who on earth would put a little flower head up in this weather? Very wisely the plants are all fast asleep.

And whilst I fantasise about putting lots of the rocks in my pockets, I don't really do it unless I find pretty ones on the beach!

Its official, flowers make you lucky...............

Today was a good day - I blame it entirely on the flowers, I'm sure they are lucky, even with the snow at the start of they day, which did make me a bit worried about getting to work. However, the roads weren't as bad as I thought it would be - I do a mini-commute at the moment - no public transport - so I take the car to work (generally laden with dog, camera etc) and a whole lot of clobber I often don't need (hats, gloves, jackets, scarves, wellies) but you never know! Today I wore my favourite lucky flowery boots pictured above and we needed a hat and many layers for the wintery weather! You need to wrap up in this weather.

Anyway today - first thing the lucky flowers brought me was being asked if I wanted a couple of old bales that were going a bit manky up on the farm (Yes please!) so I can collect them next week - yippee! The hens won't mind that the bales are old - they like some lovely straw to lay their eggs in and free straw will be all the lovlier. They need moved too, so we'll both benefit.

I've also been offered some extra work out of the blue, not much, but something that will keep me ticking along over the darker months when things can be a little quiet. Another yippee! I'm happy whenever I've been offered anything - if I can do it - I'll turn my hand at anything - and always happy to help out. Which is very good for my piggie bank, flowery of course! Meet 'flower pig'............our investment bank.

And best of all - la 'piece de resistance' - the nicest part of my day was a phone call I got just after lunch. A lovely chap I've talked to a few times phoned - to chat about growing his own at home - but not food, he is looking to grow his own fuel to heat his house - he's  a small area of land we've been talking about and he's very excited about it all. Its wonderful when you can talk to someone who's really excited about the prospect of growing his own to help by heating his home. He can do this by choosing a selection of fast growing hardy trees to cut for fuel. Its a simple enough process, you plant fast growing hard wood cuttings quite close together - and in 2-3 years you can get your first harvest of wood. Awesome! I'm almost at the end of a project working with plants - and in particular at the moment I'm helping on a project that is looking at growing wood for fuel. Which is why it was so lovely to talk to this man, the project has been going for a while and its nice when folk are interested in growing some of the plants.

 As you can imagine up here - with it being very windy, alot of woody plants struggle with the climate and we've not alot of forests, which means we've no local wood fuel. The main species we work with is the hardy types of quick growing trees like poplar and willow (hence the name of the blog..............) and we've a fair few different types up here which we're looking at to see how they grow. The fuel can be great in a woodburner - or an open fire, to heat a room or the hot water - good use of a bit of garden if you can get some fuel out of it.

Anyway, the nicest thing about today was being able to listen to this gentleman - he wanted to grow wood for a woodburner to heat the family home. Wonderful to hear the enthusiam in his voice about his progress and being able to discuss a few things which might help him.  He's looking to plant a fair few willows (over 1000) in an area by his house - which he'll grow for coppice - to cut down every 3-4 years and harvest the wood - letting the plants regrow afterwards. He'll get a nice bit of shelter from the trees as they grow and a nice bit of heat when he uses the wood he's grown for fuel. Thats what I love about plants - they feed you, they keep you warm and they really do make you smile! I love willow, its a bit of a superhero -  it's a plant we've used for centuries for medicine, baskets, fuel, fences etc but thats a blether for another day.......................back to the boots again!

Gardening on the edge of sanity.

A beautiful view from the garden fence

I feel like I’m living in a conflict of interests of my own creation. Now, I’m not boasting (heaven forbid) but in many areas of my life I think I’ve reached a good balance. We’ve made compromises and changes to our life to fulfil our ‘needs’ wherever possible. We’ve got brilliant schools, great healthcare, fantastic local food and a culture which is safe and vibrant. What’s in conflict about that? Nothing!

The wind sock dancing about in the garden

We always strive to be better, try harder (getting the maximum benefit out of everything) and we try to reduce our consumption (our own footprint) where we can. However, one area of my life which definitely isn’t balanced is this need (and it is a ‘need’) to live in remote exposed, seaside locations and with my absolute love of plants and growing. Without wanting to give myself a hard time – the two aren’t exactly happy bedfellows. Salt laden winds, often gale force, a cool climate which is very damp and often misty days when the temperature does get a bit warmer the sea fog (haar) can arrive – I often wonder why as a gardener I put myself through this.

Cottage on the beach in Harry Potter - Image from wikimedia

We went to the new Harry Potter film last night which we enjoyed and there was a scene with a house directly on the beach (Fleur and Bill’s house) – the perfect abode in my honest opinion. Whilst we’re not far from the beach and the sea here (6 minute stroll) – I often wonder what the attraction of living on the sea/beach is for me. I crave this type of landscape – big skies, the sound of the sea, open views and the sand ready to tickle your toes if you’re brave enough to get those shoes off. We’re very lucky to live in such a beautiful and wild landscape. BUT – and this is a big BUT – I absolutely 100% love growing, living and breathing plants. With a few major exceptions – it would seem many plants (especially edible plants) aren’t really such a fan of this type of beachside living. Why not I wonder (I know for plants their dislike comes mainly from wind and salt) but....beaches are cool!

You'll have to forgive me now, but I am going to indulge myself in a moan. I can’t easily grow things outside that other people would just think nothing of, plants which come to mind immediately are things like my favourite ‘sweet peas’, annual bedding plants - too windy and many of the more delicate perennials. To be honest at the moment – even my wind-hardy hedging in bits of the garden to break up the wind a bit (a mixture of the hardy hedge planting here - AKA the 'Dirty Dozen' Gorse, Willow, Hebe, Escallonia, Fushia, Ribes and Lonicera) is also struggling to get established – even behind wind netting. I’m sure it will get there though – just might take a while longer and many crossed fingers and a few words of encouragement. Go on hedge you CAN do it - you can grow here.

Fushia hedge to divide up a section of the garden - with the new willow hedge at the back.

As for vegetables – well there are many which do well if they get a bit of shelter, but many that don’t like our climate without the production of a poly tunnel. I can’t grow runner beans outdoors, in fact aside very hardy broad beans –here I’ve NO chance of getting a crop of any type of bean unless they are indoors. If I grow dwarf pea types they might cope with a bit of shelter, etc but they’d be happier in a tunnel too). Outdoors I'll be growing hardier things in the veggie garden like onions, cabbage (which I'll start indoors), kale, broad beans and maybe some beetroot - I'll do the lettuce etc inside - that way I know it will grow well and earlier.

A start to the new veggie and fruit patch tucked under an establishing hedge.

As for other veggies - I can’t even think of growing courgettes/squashes outside here – not a chance – and let’s not even go anywhere near the more tender crops like tomatoes, chillis, cucumbers and aubergines. It’s a greenhouse, or the kitchen/living room window sill for them – they like to look at the view from indoors thank you very much – probably with a nice cup of tea. I know there are old windows in the shed and in the byres some old doors with windows - maybe I can try and make something like this out here tucked in somewhere nice - to coax the tomatoes and chillis out of the living room next year?

Recycled windows used to make a greenhouse - genius!

Does this growing climate of wind get me down? Often I guess it does – but then again one walk on the beach or a look out of the window to the big skies that surround me make me realise the bigger picture. I feel truly blessed to be here and utterly ungrateful when moaning about not being able to grow things without a fight.  We like our life here, it suits us, in fact when I lived in a town for a while recently I found myself as unconnected to the elements/seasons as I would on Mars. Admittedly in the town we lived in an upstairs flat with a very tiny shared garden – I felt so disjunct from the earth and nature, I did find it very difficult. I clearly prefer this kind of a location - despite the moaning about the wind and how it affects my gardening ability!

The waak tae Grannies - Hoxa Tapestry
The big open skies - as a family, like this - on in a print of a tapestry picture I have - we're very happy here in the big skies.

So why don’t I hang up my trowel and take up something far more suited to my climate (wind surfing, kite sailing, etc) – I guess I must like a challenge. The reality of it, for us really the crux if you like, like many folk I want a really good standard of living, at a fraction of the cost I’d have to pay for it elsewhere. In areas as remote as this, space is bountiful – I have a big garden and room to grow. Elsewhere I’d have to make that sacrifice for a smaller place with a very small garden, if I had one – or get a very highly paid job to recreate a similar standard of living – which means I’d probably not have the time to enjoy it or be with the family or the hen-family. All about compromises to make your life the way you want it - to have the space and the freedom we have - the price here is the windy climate - not a bad price to pay - even if it does make my gardening a bit on the edge of my sanity! Its worth it, it truly is. Not much in the way of shelter but we've got time to grow some of that for the house.

The homestead - one house, 2 byres a fair bit of garden and cows in the field over the summer- bliss!

Therefore, now that I've stopped whining, I’m tackling the ‘gardening’ head on – I know I’ll need shelter to grow a lot of things outdoors to cope with the wind – I’m on the case with that, wind netting and a baby hedge. I know that if I want to grow a lot of veggies for the house and flowers I’ll have to do that in a sheltered area like a poly tunnel or a greenhouse – protect things from the wind here and they flourish. Up here protected growing is a fact of life if you want to grow a range of things. Thats the next thing on the agenda - at the weekend we'll try and move the poly tunnel frame from the place which gave us one for free if we moved it - its down now and next bit after that will be getting it up on site here. And, then we get a cover for it - oh I can't wait - did I mention that!

 

A place sheltered from the wind to grow vegetables and a few rows of sweetpeas in - oh I can't wait - I really can't!! It will help realise the 'good life' bit by helping me to grow everything we need - maybe not coffee and sugar - and bananas might be tricky - but I'll try and grow as much as I can - including flowers for the house and extra greens for the chickens!

Game on!!