Now I know that the pedantic ones among you will consider that chickens are not what we would normally consider to be cage birds.
They are however, I am sure you will agree, birds. They are also, as you can see from the photos, in cages.
I rest my case.
The cage bird show in fact has cage birds, pigeons, poultry , rabbits and cavies.
Andalusian Hen 1st Light Hen
Andalusian Cock 1st Light Cock
The poultry section is in fact very good and well supported as it is the only show that we have outside show week in August.
We took eight chickens in and seven of them got tickets. As usual we did not necessarily agree with the judge, especially about the one that did not get a ticket but generally it was not bad and I was very pleased with my Andalusian hen.
The Orpington cock and hen both got second places in the heavy cock and heavy hen classes. The hen that was first in the heavy hen class was a very good White Wyandotte and there was no disgrace being second to it.
My opinion of the bird that won the heavy cock class is probably best left unsaid in case it sound like sour grapes.
Black Orpington Hen
Light Sussex Cock
I was hoping that both the Sussex cock and hen may have done better but "Hey-Ho" you can't win them all.
Light Sussex Hen
They had both picked up a bit of staining from the sawdust on the cage floor since they were put in last night and maybe this didn't help them much. (Note to self, "Use my own softwood shavings next time".)
Blue Cochin Cock
The Cochin cock was third in the Heavy Cock class but I still think that he is a really good bird and the Cochins are Pam's favourites so we will persist with him.
The Cochin hen was the only bird that we took that did not get a ticket, so maybe it was just that the judge did not like Cochins.
All in all, not a bad day.
The show is on until tomorrow evening so I will have to go back and pick them all up then and get them put away before it goes dark.
Once a year the population of Burray doubles. There must be more people riding in the annual beach race the other week than are normally here the rest of the year.
Good and exciting though. Loads of spills but very rarely anybody hurt so all good fun. I think that the kids races are perhaps more exciting. Even the very tiny ones just go hell for leather and don't seem to mind coming off all over the place but they do not look as dramatic on a video.
We have also had an invasion of waxwings, a beautiful little bird from scandinavia. I saw a flock of about 30 yesterday but was driving so no photos yet. I shall go out today armed with the camera and see if I can get some photos of them to delight you with so keep checking.
I thought that some may like this.
It's a pity that it is not the full "Gathering" as there are many more of them.
The last few photos in this lot are the full "Gathering" And the music is from the gathering.
Friday 19th October 2012LET'S HAVE ANOTHER GO AT KEEPING THE BLOG UP TO DATE AS SUMMER IS OVER.
We just returned from going down south for Millie's christening and while we were down, I was chastised by several people for not putting anything on the blog recently, so I thought that I had better make some time.
This morning we were greeted by a beautiful little goldcrest coming to see us. Well actually it flew into the french windows and knocked itself out.
This morning as usual in Orkney, is a lovely, sunny, flat calm day so I will have to take Molly out for a walk in a few minutes.
I will perhaps try to do a quick "catch-up" tonight about all the summer things that I never put on the blog because there was too much to do. Loads of chicken prizes, including one for Maddy. Barbara, Harry and Maddy up here for a holiday, Minke whales in Echna Bay, my superb fishing skills, not to mention my outstanding art works.
We are having the play room/sun lounge built at long last so maybe it will be finished for Christmas.
Loads of fascinating stuff and photos if I can find them, so watch this space.
3rd July 2012
WELL, ANOTHER MONTH HAS SHOT PAST
Just for a change I have managed to get a long way behind with the blog.
There is no way that I am going to catch up now. During summer up here there is to much to do and so the blog gets ignored.
Briefly, the folk festival finished after a load of great concerts. The farewell concert in Stromness town hall being the highlight and really brilliant.
We had a remarkable Cape Barren Goose passed to us when a friend found it and could not find who owned it. A beautiful thing and apparently extremely rare and worth £1000. I really fell for it but in the end we found out who owned it and it returned home. Probably a good job as it kept trying to get into the house and Molly was not happy about that.
Now that the folk festival has finished, we have started to go to The Reel on Saturday nights with a bunch of friends so we are not getting back home until gone one in the morning. Not a good thing at my age. Sunday morning is definitely "lie in" day.
Friday 1st June 2012
Another musical day. So far, so good
An afternoon concert in The Reel in Kirkwall today. A bit more relaxing than last night but good nevertheless. Two acts, both orcadian. A young 14 year old girl, Emily Bourn who shot to prominance last year when she was asupporting act in a Matt Cardle concert in Kirkwall. She got rave reviews and was much more talked about than was the supposed star of the show. She writes all her own songs and has areally sweet and accurate voice. I would not be surprised if we hear a lot more of her in future years. At 14 years old, she has plenty of time to develop yet.
Having praised her so highly, I must say that though she was good, her music is not my favourite. I think that she will do well with good quality pop music.
The othere group, "Redd", are three Orcadians who now live in Scotland. As seems almost inevitable, when they were at Kirkwall Grammar School, they were all members of "Hadhirgaan". Hadhirgaan and their teacher Douglas Montgomery, must be responsible for a huge proportion of the musicians in Orkney. Douglas narrowly failed to win the award for the best music teacher in Scotland at last years celtic connection festival in Glasgow. He of course lives on Burray where all the best people live. http://soundcloud.com/reddfolk/strathspey-and-reel
I couldn't find any videos of Redd so the above is a link to some of their music including one track with Kris Drever.
In the eveningit was the Finstown Ceilidh and again a much different but very good "line up".
For a change, the highlight was a Yorkshire lass called Edwina Hayes. She has a beautiful voice when she can stop talking, although having said that, her patter was all part of her act. She now spends half of her time living in Nashville which must be a bit of a change from Yorkshire.
The clip is of her singing part of the soundtrack to a film called "My Sister's Keeper" which Pam tells me we have on DVD but it is on loan to Helen at the moment.
Although it is, I think, a bit of a weepy, from the clip with the song, it looks well made so I will have to watch it when it comes back.
Among other good bands at the ceilidh were Hullion who are loosely based on several of the musicians who play regularly at "The Reel" and "The foundry bar band" who apparently have a combined age of over 500 years. One member of the band gave everyone a bit of a turn when he stumbled while coming on stage. We all thought that they may be playing with one less member. They play traditional scottish dance music very reminiscent of "the White Heather Club" that I can vaguely remember my aunty Bet watching on an old 12 inch black and white telly when I was a kid. Not really my sort of musis but they were good fun.
Thursday 31st May 2012
Folk Festival. Cromarty Hall
Thursday night was the first night of the folk festival. Most of the concerts, events, sessions and gigs are based in Stromness which is normally a very quiet town but comes to life and really buzzes for the four days of the festival. There was a concert in The Hope that we wanted to go to and so we did not go to Stromness for the opening. The Hope concert was brilliant though. there were four groups on and all were good, including "Shoramere" a group of youngsters from Stromness Academy, who like "Hadhirgaan", their equivalent from Kirkwall Grammar School, really can not fail to impress anybody with the amount of musical talent up here and the quality of the music tuition that all the kids recieve.
The highlight of the night though was a danish fiddler and his band, "The Harald Haugaard quartet". They were extremely good and very active, diving around the stage energetically as they were playin. Very infectious stuff.
Being a true music fan, Pam's first comment was "phew, he's fit." , a feeling that was apparently shared by quite a few if the female members of the audience.
I couldn't find a video of the quartet at the Orkney festival but this is one of the group at Edinburgh. His wife was not in Orkney as she is pregnant but her replacement was also very good.
Not to late of a night either. We were back home for just gone midnight so at least we will not be totally knackered before we start tomorrow.
Tuesday 29th May 2012
Beginners Luck
I went out for my fishing trip on the "Welcome Home", the Sea Angling Associations boat.
Lovely weather, if a bit cool at times when the boat was facing the wind and most importantly, not very much of a swell.
There were just four of us fishing but fortunately the others knew what they were doing and helped me get the kit together as well as offering advice when needed. Probably because of all this advice, I was the first one to catch a fish. Just two mackerel which I did not even realise that I had hooked until I got them quite near the surface. Being by now a champion fisherman, I was also the one and only person to catch a cod.
The Welcome Home
Pam had told me to catch a cod for tea and so I felt that I would be in trouble if I did not catch one.
It was not strictly necessary as it turned out because Pam had so little faith in my fishing abilities that she had already prepared something else when I got back.
It cost £20 for the trip and I got the loan of the fishing gear from the association including one set of tackle that got lost when it snagged the bottom and snapped (I was not the only one to lose tackle) as I do not have any boat fishing rods etc. We were out all day from 9AM to 4PM so not bad value for money.
Champion Cod Fisherman
All the others were saying that it was not a good days fishing and that not much was being caught but as far as I was concerned, I was very surprised that I had caught anything.
I ended the day with 2 mackerel, 1 cod, 2 whiting and a gurnard that was thrown back as being no good to eat.
I shall definitely be going again and so I had better get myself a proper boat rod and reel. Rods are not very expensive but I think that the reel will have to be an ebay job as they are about £100 new.
At least when Pam objects, I can say that it is an investment in fish suppers.
Prior to going, I had been a bit worried about being sea sick. The rolling of the boat, even in a light swell was quite pronounced when the engines are off and we were just drifting but this proved not to be a problem. We will see if it becomes a problem in rougher weather. It was noticable however that when I returned home I felt as though the ground was moving and began to be a bit queasy and this lasted for quite a few hours.
Folk festival starts the day after tomorrow, so no sleep for a bit.
Tuesday 29th May 2012
A Few Quiet Days Before It All Kicks Off
The folk festival starts on Thursday so we have a few days to try and gather our energy before it all starts. A few early nights and lazy days are called for.
On Sunday I was supposed to be going on a walk with the South Ronaldsay group from Burwick around the south coast up to Windwick but My aged leg started acting up. Well in fact both of my aged legs were acting up and so I had to cry off. I did manage to sit on the tractor and take the topper over the top field to tidy it up and take all the seed heads off the grass.
One of the ducks has gone broody so I have removed her eggs and replaced them with some hen eggs, 3 Andalusian and 3 black Orpingtons. We will have to wait and see how she does.
At the moment I think that we are providing half of Burray with eggs. Pam is keeping most of the duck eggs to bake with but Hilda has had a few as she also loves them for baking.
On Sunday evening Pam decided that she had done enough cooking and baking and so we retired to The Sands for a meal. We saw Magnus Woolham in The Sands and he says that they have had over 2000 hits on the Orkan Adventures website since we put up the whale video on "You tube" and have got some firm bookings. Nice to know that we have managed to do them some good.
Our friends Dave and Clare are on holiday in the western isles this week. Dave is a keen bird watcher and was looking forward to seeing some sea eagles and golden eagles if he could. Of course, "Sod's Law" struck again and on Monday there was a golden eagle and 5 sea eagles seen on Hoy. I had to text him just to rub it in. He has not yet seen any eagles.
I got a phone call from The Orkney Sea Angling Association asking if I wanted to go out for a trip tomorrow. I had earlier said that I would like to try a trip to see if I took to boat fishing and they have an all day trip tomorrow with spare places and some experienced members who will be able to help me learn what I am supposed to do. I can borrow some of their gear so that I do not have to buy my own rods, reels etc until I have decided if it is OK and I am not going to be sea-sick all day. At least it is supposed to be a reasonably calm day tomorrow.
I was supposed to be going out with the painting group tomorrow so I have had to send my apologies. Hopefully the fishing will be more fun.
We sent away to "Vista-Print" for a T-Shirt for Magnus Spence for a joke and it arrived on Monday. I must admit that they had made a much better job of it than I expected.
Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the T shirt but this is the logo that we had put on the front with Orkan Adventures address on the back.
When we took it round both the Magnus's were at Northfield, Magnus Spence's farm and Magnus S dissolved in laughter at the sight of the shirt. He said that he would not dare to wear it but would hang it on his wall. {We have since learned that he did indeed wear it at the folk festival when he was playing with "The Birsay Boys".}
Saturday 26th May 2012
A LOVELY DAY OUT TO A LOVELY ISLAND
Well Rodney and Libby got away on The Pentalina on Saturday and phoned us later to say that they were home for about 8pm. Not bad time.
After they had left, I went down to Kirkwall and joined a trip out to Auskerry.
Auskerry is small island a few miles off Stronsay that I have long wanted to go and see. Many years ago, when Gareth and I used to come up to Linga Holm for the RBST round up of the North Ronaldsay sheep that the trust kept there, Simon Brogan, the owner of Auskerry used to come across and give us a help. He is a really nice bloke and for many years, until he married, he used to live alone on the island with a boat just dropping in every 6 weeks to fetch his mail. He now just spends 10 months of the year there with his family.
When we worked with him, he was so used to being alone that after a while he had to move up the beach a few yards away from us for a time every now and again. This from a man who used to be a road manager for "Jethro Tull" and involved in concert tours by "The Who".
Anyway, I finally managed to get over to the island and we were greeted by Simon as we landed. After a biy of a reminder, he remembered who I was and it was nice to see him again, and this time on his own beloved island. The island is indeed beautiful, with just the lighthouse at one end, Simon's house at the other end and loads of North Ronaldsay sheep and birds in between.
I was very keen to see what his sheep were like. I was not disappointed. He has some spectacular animals and they look brilliant, especially on the shore where they really belong.
The rams were really something special. I have never seen so many superb looking rams. They were much better than those on Linga Holm.
Simon and his family sell wool, fleeces and skins and they have several hundred sheep living on the island just as they should do.
The trip was organised by the RSPB and so I thought that I had better take an interest in the birds as well as the sheep. Simon was saying that there used t be many more terns and puffins than there are now, but there were still a lot of terns and I have only ever seen more puffins on Swona. There were hundreds of shags and tysties, a couple of arctic skuas which are great looking birds even if they are theives.
We had our flasks and butties sat on a grassy bank at the top of some low cliffs and without realising it, we were sitting in the middle of a whole load of puffin burrows. I spent a few minutes wondering why every now and again one of the puffins would leave a raft of about 50 birds in the sea below us and would fly up close to us and then back down to the sea before I realised that they were just wanting to get into their burrows.
I tried to be clever and get a photo of a puffin in flight as they came close to us but most of what I got were empty blue sky. This is the best one so no photography prizes yet then.
The highlight of the day was a Red Backed Shrike. These no longer breed in the UK and though a couple have been seen in Orkney over the last week we were very lucky to get such a good look at one as it sat on a fencepost in Simon's garden while we were having a cup of tea.
Another blurry photo but still it is rare so you will have to put up with blurry.
Simon's house is just what you would expect. I think that most of it has been built by Simon onto a very small original bothy. It has wind turbines, solar panels and of course well water. We were not even allowed to wash our own cups as he thought that we may waste water and I think that the well does not have a huge supply.
A lovely place to live on a nice, calm, sunny day for today but a little bit isolated for me especially in winter storms. Still it must be nice to wander about knowing that it is all yours and that you are not going to bump into anybody else.
Friday 25th May 2012
A busy but very pleasant week
This last week seems to have shot by.
I think that all the fuss about the whale rescue has made it seem more busy than usual.It made the front page of the Orcadian and was apparently reported in "Thw Scotsman" and "The Daily Mail" as well as being on BBC Scotland TV news and being at one time the 3rd most visited item on the BBC website.I was interviewed along with Magnus Spence by Radio Orkney and later recieved an e-mail saying that our interview sounded like a maritime version of the Morcambe and Wise show. (I will take that as a compliment).
Fionn Mcarthur from Radio Orkney decided to do the interview by the harbour in Kirkwall so that he could get all the marine noises. I would have thought that the BBC could just dub the background from "Desert Island Discs" as a background and record the interview inside but Hey-Ho.
I am sure that Rodney and Libby have had a good time up here and hopefully will come again sometime. The schedule was affected a bit by vast hordes of tourists from a huge cruise ship that was in on Monday. We had been planning to go to Skara Brae and Maeshowe on Monday but after seeing how Kirkwall was heaving with visitors we decided to leave it for another day. In fact I think that there were two ships in but one of them alone carried 3500 tourists so all the tourist attractions would have been packed.
Instead we ended up going to The Broch of Gurness, Birsay and the Barony Mills. As ususal, the Barony Mills tour took a very long time. The miller there is so enthusiastic and devoted to his mill that it is infectious. He seems to be especially proud of the fact that they do not have to pay Scottish Water for all the water that they use for the mill because of ancient water rights for the mill.
We dropped into Stromness on the way back but it was shut.They are still replacing the concrete in the main street with original flag stones. It is to be hoped that they have it finished for next week when the folk festival is centred in Stromness or there will be chaos.
Libby and Rodney could still ot book for Maeshowe on Tuesday and so we went round Stennes, Barnhouse, the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae. Unfortunately the Ness of Brodgar excavations are not open yet. They just open for about 6 weeks when the teams from the universities recommence their investigations.
They finally managed to get booked in to Maeshowe on Wednesday and spent the rest of the week going round the island on their own while Pam and I got on with a few routine tasks. I cunningly managed to break the strimmer on Thursday and so had to spend all day doing nothing
I managed to get booked on a trip to Auskerry for next Saturday. It is a place that I have always wanted to go to since meeting Simon Brogan, the owner and sole resident of the island years ago when on Linga Holm for the roundup of the sheep with the RBST. More of that later though.
Saturday 19th May 2012
Visitors arrive,the sun shines and the boat trip of a lifetime.
Rodney and Libby arrived up on The Pentalina on Thursday afternoon and so of course the sun shone, the wind ceased and Orkney was at its beautiful best. It always seems to do this when we have visitors and occassionally even when we do not have visitors.
We had originally arranged to take the boat trip round "the flow" that we had won in the Children in Need auction on Thursday but I had made a cock up about the dates, thinking that Rodney and Libby were arriving Wednesday. Fortunately when I phoned Magnus Woolham there was no problem about re-arranging it for Friday.
By now you dear reader will have probably heard ad nauseum about the boat trip but you are going to hear it again.
It started out a lovely sunny calm morning and we went down to Burray pier where we met up with Angus and Jean who were also coming on the trip as the auction was for upto 6 people.
The two Magnus's and Jon launched the boat at the slip and came round to the pier where we all boarded, then off into the flow at high speed. I think that Magnus Woolham is very proud of how fast his boat will go and likes to impress/frighten people.
We had a good tour of this end of the flow with a really good commentary, looking at the wartime defences and batteries and seeing the obligatory seals and puffins before being dropped off at Lyness on Hoy for a look round the museum and lunch at the cafe. Magnus Spence and Jon had been diving for scallops on our way over and went out to do some more dives while we were at Lyness.
We had arranged to get picked up at 2PM for the return trip and were thinking that perhaps we should have arranged a later pick up time as we had not really had time to look round the museum. As it happened though, in light of later events, our timing was perfect.
We boarded the boat again and set off round Flotta where we stopped to refuel in the shelter of the old submarine nets between Flotta and The Calf of Flotta. Almost immediately after we started up again Magnus Woolham spotted a fin in the water so steered over to have a look. It appeared to be a large basking shark so everyone on board was very excited as you do not see them close up very often.
I was very pleased as this was a real bonus and would make Rodney and Libby's trip to Orkney very memorable. More was to come though.
Magnus Spence climbed up onto the top of the boat to get a better view as the shark came right up to and under the boat and he along with Rodney and Pam saw that the shark had spots right down its back. Magnus also thought that it was the wrong colour for a basking shark and that the front of the mouth and nose were the wrong shape. Amongst his many other talents, Magnus is a marine biologist and has probably seen more basking sharks than most people. What could this be then. It may be very exciting.More of this later. Unfortunately this is the only photo that I got of the shark.
After the shark had got bored with us and swum off, we continued back
towards Burray. Within five minutes however Magnus Woolham shouted that
there was a whale fluke ahead so he hurried over to where he could see
it.
As we got closer we could see the whale was thrashing about and even with my limited knowledge of whales, it did not look right.
Now you have to ask yourself what would you do if you saw a 45 foot
whale thrashing about wildly in the sea and obviously in distress.
Staying in the boat and moving a bit farther away to a safe distance
would probably seem like a good idea.
Magnus Spence however had
other ideas. He grabbed a snorkel and jumped off the boat to see what
was the matter. A minute or two later he returned to the boat and
informed us that the whale had got a creel rope tied round its mouth
with a load of old creels on the seabed fastened to one end and tangled
with a rope to some more creels at the other side.
By this time
the whale was visibly weakening. Every time that it tried to come up to
breath it had to lift all the creels from the seabed and it was tiring
rapidly. A little while longer and it would not have the strength to
lift the creels and would have drowned.
Magnus asked if anybody was in a rush to get back home but I don't think that he expected an answer to his question.
Without any hesitation,and without thinking of himself, Magnus Spence donned his scuba gear and dived over the side again to swim down to the whale and see what he could do. Jon put his gear on and waited in the boat in case Magnus got into trouble.
I have since been told by several people that this sort of behavoir is what they would all expect of Magnus. He is very well though of.
Magnus managed to get down to the whale but as it was thrashing about a bit and the 6 foot long fins were getting a bit close for comfort, he went further down and came up the creel rope as far as he could. He then cut the rope and it slid easily out of the whale's mouth.
The whale then swam off without even popping up to say thankyou and give us a little display.
Magnus was over he moon when he came back into the boat but then who wouldn't be when you have just saved a whale's life.
I later found out that all the women on the boat had been thinking that the whale was about twice the size of the boat and were worried about it capsizing us as it thrashed about. This had not occurred to any of the men who were just enthralled by the nearness of such a magnificent and huge animal. I sometimes think that we are not just different sexes but almost different species.
After a little time after we all had a few minutes to calm down and repeatedly say "WOW" to each other, we set off and returned to Burray pier without any further adventures. Jon suggested that we try and get "The Orcadian" and Radio Orkney" interested in the rescue to give Orkan Adventures a bit of publicity. If any of the crew tried to publicise it then the newspaper and radio would not use it because it would be classed as advertising. I agreed to try and get a bit of publicty for the two Magnus's. From the pier it was straight into the pub to continue trying to get our heads round what had just happened. Then back home and after checking my photo's and videos, phone calls to the paper and Radio Orkney.
Monday 7th May 2012 There is a wrong way up for sheep netting
Another nice few days and we have found where the ducks have been going when they dissapear.
They have been toddling over to Mr Scotts farm up the road and helping themselves to his cattle feed as his sheds are now open.
Because of this we have had to imprison the ducks in the garden. At least we can find the eggs now and we are getting 3 duck eggs per day on top of all the hens eggs.
I shall now have to fence one side of the top field with wire netting because the numpty that originally put the sheep netting round the field put it on upside down so that the big holes are at the bottom.
Gareth and I fenced 2 sides of the field when we first moved in, so they are OK and the remaining side was fenced correctlyin the first place.
After rounding up the ducks and putting them in the garden as a temporary measure, I was thinking that at least one problem was solved when I noticed that the geese had got out into the bottom field. They had somehow managed to get under the 2 gates and when I caught up with them, they were legging it off down the green lane at the side of the field and heading towards the sea. I use the term "green lane" loosely. In fact it is supposed to be a lane but it is full of old farm machinery and slowly rotting silage bales so it is a bit of a challenge to walk down. Surprisingly though, even the one remaining gosling was managing to make it at a good speed.
In the end the geese were returned to the field, the wire netting was put up along the fence and the gate was dropped on its hinges a bit so all should be OK.
I have been having some practice at "flat-pack" assembly for the past few days. On Thursday a filing cabinet arrived and there were so many different bits that I had to resort to reading the instructions. I would have thought that a filing cabinet would be simple but I am sure that they are having a laugh when they design them.
Next day it was a desk but by this time I was getting more experience and apart from sorting out which piece was which, I only had to look fleetingly at the instructions.
On Saturday, Pam's excercise bike arrived and by this time the instructions were almost superfluous. Much to Pam,s surprise, all three items work correctly and much to my surprise, of all the three pieces I was only left with one spare washer.
It was election day for the local council the other day and all was high drama. There has been quite a bit of animosity in all of the Orkney parishes. One of our local councillors had questioned the expenses claims of the council convenor, pointing out that he was getting an allowance of £25 per day for staying in his own second home. ( Shades of Westminster). The convenor represents the northern isles and has a second house on the mainland so he has been claiming an allowance that it seems was designed to allow island councillors to stay with friends or family on the mainland for staying in his own house.
Because he denounced the convenor a few weeks ago, our councillor was forced out from the position of chairman of the accounts committee and there has been a lot of personal animosity during the run up to the election.
We elect 3 councillors for our ward and Ross Madge, the errant councillor romped home with a vastly increased vote and about 3 times the number of votes as his nearest rival and the second highest number of votes in the whole council.
It should be fun at the first few meetings of the new council.
One of the hens has gone broody, so on Monday, I stuck 10 eggs under her. I shall now have to harden my heart and bump off some of the hens that have faults. Some of my Andalusians have bad feet and although they will lay OK, there is no point in keeping those that are not right. There are also a couple of Pam's hens that need to go but I do not think that she will let me neck them. If Pam had her way, we would be running a home for crippled chickens.
That's it for now. I have to go and try to finish another masterpiece.
We have had 5 or 6 nice days and 3 or 4 really beautiful, hot, clam days.
If it was not for the high winds and snow that we are having at the moment, even today has been very nice.
Last Sunday I went out with the South Ronaldsay walking group for an amble from Eastside Kirk to Grimness. We can see Grimness from our house but I have never been there, nor to Eastside Kirk.
The beautiful, isolated places in Orkney never cease to amaze me. Eastside Kirk is a lovely little chapel on the coast close by Newark Bay. a sandy bay with loads of rock pools. It was a great day. No coat needed, even on the coast. A beautiful place and half a mile of sandy beach at low tide with not a single footprint to show that anyone had been there. How many places in the world are so great to live in?
The walk to Grimness was pleasant and more to the point, easy. We stopped at the top of the cliffs to have our selection of home-bakes and tea. Pam had kindly made me some walnut loaf for my contribution. Then it was back to the cars via the "Lang Road", a wide grass track.
Sheena, the woman who takes the art class that I go to, had fetched her 2 children along and her 7 year old daughter "Pip", was flagging a little towards the end of the walk. I dropped back to keep her company and to encourage her to walk a bit faster. Indeed we ended up running a bit, (not a good thing at my age).
Pip really amused me. She reminded me of Maddy. She just chattered solidly and very fast for the last 30 minutes. Amongst other things that I was told, was that she had been put on an amber warning that week for chattering in class at school. Why was I not surprised?
It was very nice however when she got almost back to her mum's car to leave and then suddenly ran back just to say goodbye to me. It quite made my day.
Next day I took Pam down to Newark Bay and we had a stroll down the beach and back throwing balls for Molly.
On Tuesday, the U3A painting group were meeting at the Stones of Stennes. Just to prove that I am going senile , I turned up on Monday morning and wondered where everyone was. At least it gave me a chance to find a nice viewpoint so that when we actuallymet on Tuesday, I knew where I was going to sit.
This is what I was supposed to paint but I am not going to load a copy of my dismal attempt.
I had originally intended to do a pen and ink drawing as I am getting a bit better at this. Gloria, who is in charge of the group, is however another one of those artistic people who demand that I use watercolours.
I ended up producing a very childlike painting that a 6 year old may or may not be pleased with.
I shall have to use the excuse that it was the first time that I have ever used watercolours and shall have to practice a bit more.
Returning home as I was coming through Kirkwall there was another scenic
masterpiece. One of the tall ships, the "Statsraad Lehmkuhl" was moored
up at the pier.
She is one of the ships that was here for the tall ships race last year
and although she is not the biggest, she is definitely the most
spectacular.
Next day a really swish, expensive looking cruise ship was in at Hatston pier, so the summer must have started.
Saturday night there was a concert by Eric Clapton in "The Picky Centre". Well not actually The Eric Clapton, but a very good tribute band. The lead had been doing Clapton tributes for 27 years and was excellent, and a lot cheaper than the real thing, so a good time was had by all.
Saturday 28th April 2012
Lost and Found
Pam's ducks have been getting more adventurous recently and one day she saw them waddling over Mr Scott's field opposite us. Bev from across the road later saw them half way up the hill, and that was the last we saw of them for 5 or 6 days.
Pam was more upset about the loss of the ducks than if I had gone missing and I had to drive round Burray looking fornthem all to no avail. We even put a notice up in the shop although the lady in the shop did seem to think that it was a bit funny when Pam gave her a notice about 5 runner ducks that had run off.
The ducks finally returned of their own volition, all seeming very hungry and one of them quite lame. All's well that ends well I suppose.
It may not have ended yet though, as last night I noticed the ducks were over the road again and this morning I can not see them. We may have a repeat performance.
I think it may be because they do not like us taking their eggs (if we can find them). Somebody should tell them though that this is part of the bargain. I feed them, they lay eggs and then I eat the eggs. Seems fair to me.
On a more positive poultry note, one of the geese has hatched 2 eggs and so we now have 5 geese. We will see if they survive as I have been told lots of horror stories about hoodies or Black backs taking goslings, or the goslings just dying at 4 weeks old.
If I were a hoody or black back then I would definitely not go near the goslings. The 3 adult geese keep the youngsters shepherded so that they are all in a small group with the youngsters in the middle and thye are VERY aggresive.
On the chicken front, I have just put 7 Andalusian chicks out into the field for the first time since they hatched. It was a nice sunny day so I thought that they would be able to go out without to much of a shock. Then after I had put them out, it started to snow heavily. Oh the beauty of Orkney weather. Just in case we do not have enough chickens, Pam has ordered a dozen Blue Cochin hatching eggs from down south, so when they arrive I may as well fill the incubator with some more Andalusians and some Orpingtons.
Nobody comes here now and gets away without taking some eggs. I think that Pam managed to give away about 2 dozen today and I got rid of another dozen last night. Surprisingly, we had omlette for tea.
Here endeth the poultry section.
I am still keeping up with the art classes, though I am not a natural artist but I am enjoying it and I think that I am getting a bit better but we will wait and see about that. I have at least managed to progress from copying other people's drawings to being able to do some of my own and have even managed to put colour onto some drawings without totally ruining them, a vast improvement.
We went for a walk round Orphir, near the Round Kirk, last week and even Pam managed to make it round the 3 miles without any trouble. Part way round, and totally enexpectedly, we came across Orkney's equivalent of a huge forest.
Although it was right by the coast, there were several dozen trees and some of them quite tall. Admittedly most of the trees were rather gnarled but you don't get that number of trees in many places in Orkney.
That part of Orphir must have some sort of benign micro-climate although there does not appear to be much shelter there.
It was all very picture skew and even had a pretty stream running through a shallow valley. In a rather ambitious moment, I thought thatit was so nice that I would try to draw it. If this ever results in a half decent picture then I will be astonished and will put a photo up on the blog.
I have decided that I am going to see about getting laser surgery on my eyes to save having to wear glasses. This means that I have to go to Aberdeen for assessments/ estimates. I thought that I would go to two different eye surgery places in Aberdeen on the same day for the checks to save on travelling but unfortunately because of the eye drops that they use, it is only possible to have one appointment in any 48 hours so I will have to go down twice.
I can at least get down and back in a day if I catch the wednesday night ferry down at midnight and then catch the thursday evening ferry back up which will get me into Kirkwall at midnight on thursday. With my islander travel vouchers I can travel down for free and have a cabin so I can get some sleep and on the return journey I get islander discount so it will only cost me £12.55 for each return trip.
Not bad really for 14 hours cruising. Its a pity that cruises round the greek islands dont come that cheap.
All the adverts for the laser surgery seem to say "from £350 per eye" or about that but I am willing to bet that when I get the actual estimate, it will be 6 or 7 times that price. I have never heard of anybody getting it for anywhere near £350.
Maybe I should just have one eye done and then when I wanted to see something properly I could just shut the bad eye. Just like looking through a telescope.
That's the end for now. You will have to wait and see if the ducks have legged it again or if they return today. I am not putting more notices in the shop though, nor am I driving round the island looking for them.
Monday 2nd April 2012
The days are getting longer and from now on we have longer days up here than down south.
The clocks have gone forward or backwards or whatever it is that tey do in spring. This messing around with time has always mystified me. Does just moving the hands on a clock make any difference to time? Is mid-day really mid-day, or if the clocks go back, is mid-day at 11 AM?
I think that the reason for all this messing with clocks is supposed to be something to do with making it lighter in winter when the children finish school. Would it not be simpler to say that schools open one hour earlier in winter, or come to that, say that everything starts one hour earlier and the clocks stay the same.
Stephen Hawkins never mentioned anything about juggling with clocks in "A brief history of time" or at least not in the few pages that I read ( three pages forward and two pages back).
Anyway, enough of that.
What I was trying to say before I went off on one was that spring is on its way or is here already.
The snow lying on the ground outside at the moment does tend to discourage this belief in spring but I have always been an optimist.
The official start of spring does at least mean that people have come out of hibernation like little green shoots and things start to happen.
We have had a couple of glorious hot days, one of them a bit to, too, two hot for me. On one of these days a new local walking group had a ramble from Burray village around Hunda island and back. Although we only live about 800 yards from Hunda I have never been over the causeway to the island so this was a "must do" walk.
They had estimated that the walk would take about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. I thought that this was rather optimistic and it ended up taking about 4 to 4 1/2 hours including a break of anout 45 minutes.
Looking back at Burray from Hunda.
It was an enjoyable walk but about half an hour after we started I could feel the pressure on my hip joints as we went uphill. I valiantly,(or foolishly)persisted and although I managed the walk with no trouble,I spent the next 3 days limping about with sore joints. (Oh the joys of od age. All the time to do what you want but your body won't let you.)
Previous to this, and while I still had two functioning legs, we ad a "Birdie walk from Marwick bay up to Marwick head, back down to the bay and along to the fishemen's huts at Sand Geo.
Marwick Head and the Kitchener memorial
It was an interesting walk. We saw a dolphin so close that we could reach out and touch it.
OK, so the more perceptive among you will have noticed that it was not a very lively dolphin but a dolphin is a dolphin, or at least an ex-dolphin.
We also saw a whale, or to be more precise, some bits of a dead whale. There are the remains of a long dead whale that have been washed up in Sand Geo for several weeks now, just skin and blubber now but it is still attracting lots of gulls.
It was not all death and gloom though. Such is the circle of life that omong others,the whale carcass has attracted some Iceland gulls. We have recently had an influx of Glaucous and Icelandic gulls and there were several at the whale carcass.
At first thought it may seem that we should get loads of Iceland gulls here as Iceland is not far away. Iceland gulls though do not come from Iceland but from Greenland and Northern Canada so they are a long way from home.
Why are they called Iceland gulls when they do not come from Iceland? Maybe it is just because "Greenland and northern Canada gull" is a bit of a mouthful.
I had some Andalusian eggs in the incubator. Nine of the twelve hatched, two were infertile and one got infected through a nick in the shell. In theory, this should have given me about 50% blue, 25% white and 25% black. The blue ones are the only ones that you are allowed to show so of course of the 9 that I have, 5 are white, 3 are black and 1 is blue. Maybe the next lot will be better.
Wednesday 14th March 2012
Surprise, surprise, the copy of the chicken painting that I was attempting has come out not to bad at all. At least not to bad when compared to my normal standard of drawing.
OK so it may be cheating to just copy somebody else's picture and it does seem to me to be more like technical drawing than art but I am still pleased with myself because I can recognise what it is suppossed to be.
I suppose that copying other people's work or photographs at least gives me a chance to learn different techniques.
For next weeks task though, I have to do a watercolour of the ring of Brodgar. So far I have been able to do some drawings that are vaguely recogniseable but every time I try to use any colour then they resemble a childs daubings and a particularly ham fisted child at that. Still, we shall see.
I went to the singing group tonight but I think that this will be the last time. I was not over enthusiastic last time I went. They seemed to just concentrate on bits of harmony, one group singing a line or two and then another group singing some. I though that I had better give it a second chance though just in case I had hit a bad week. This week was really just more of the same though so I think that I will abandon it. I prefer to sing songs all the way through or at least in decent sized chunks. Basically just have a "hoot and roar" for fun and not so much technical, clever stuff.
On the good news front (and relating to the David Shepherd "the man who loved giants" title),I bought a little N gauge shunting engine off ebay last week and had it delivered directly to a man in Dumfries who installs DCC chips in locomotives (technical stuff about computer controlled train sets). It must have been a hell of a fiddly job. The complete engine is only about 1.5 inches long and the chips are quite big so getting them to fit and soldering them in with all their wires seems a very daunting task. OK so maybe a 1.5 inch engine is not a giant and my drawing may not be art so the reference to David Shepherd is fanciful but we all need targets.
Maybe it would be easier to just buy an elephant.
I now have my first DCC chipped locomotive and having DCC will make the train set much easier to build an operate when I eventually get round to it as all the electrics are much less complicated and I can run lots of trains at the same time, even on the same track. (I knew that you would be impressed). I am not sure that Pam is totally in favour of the "lots of trains" idea as she knows how much this one cost but I am sure that it is a better way to spend money than making expensive teddy bears.
All I need now is a railway layout to play with it on. At the moment it is sat on some bits of track on a spare bit of chipboard in a spare bedroom just so I can test it. Another thing that Pam is not impressed by and it will have to be put back in the shed soon.
I will put a photo up on the blog next time so that you can all get jealous, (or just think "sad bastard".)
Friday 9th March 2012
As you will probably have heard, there has been a very large solar storm that is supposed to lead to massive and very dramatic aurora displays. Indeed the aurora is supposed to be so powerful that we may be able to see it to the south of us, not just to the north.
This is of course assuming that the sky is nice and dark and is not covered in clouds.
Last night was a beautiful night, pleasantly warm and fairly calm with a huge, very bright moon. So bright in fact that therewas no chance of seeing any aurora. Tonight however is different. There is no visible moon because of the almost complete cloud cover. No aurora again then.
I will keep looking though just in case there is a break in the clouds. If there is then I will have to get up somewhere a bit higher.
Last Tuesday I went to my drawing class again and I rather foolishly took along a copy of Tim Wooton's painting, thinking that I could suggest that I try and draw the cockerel from the painting.
Sheen, the teacher (Perhaps I should call her the "art mistress" but that seems to have very shady overtones. Come to think of it though, she is not bad to look at.)
Anyway, back to the plot. Sheena decided that instead of just trying to draw the cockerel, I should try and draw a copy of the whole painting.
Rather surprisingly, the drawing is coming along OK, although it is taking a long time. I shall be very pleased with myself and big headed if it ends up anything like decent.
If it is OK when I have finished it, I will put up a photo on the blog so that you can heap praise on me.
Well, I will leave it now and go to have another look at the probably cloudy sky.
Wednesday 29th February 2012
At long last it feels as though spring may not be far away. The rain seems to be much reduced, the wind has dropped, the sun is shining and the days are getting longer.
Even the chickens have started coming back into lay and I have got some eggs from my andalusians into the incubator. No doubt we shall soon be snide out with eggs and either Pam will have to bake a lot more cakes, or I will have to wander round Burray, randomly leaving boxes of eggs on the doorsteps of the unsuspecting.
On the subject of chickens, I don't remember if I said before but Pam commissioned Tim Wooton to do a painting of some of my chickens for my 65th birthday last December. I chose to have some of my andalusians as the subject for the painting and Tim has now finished it.
I am very pleased with it. It is away being framed at the moment but when it returns it will have pride of place in the lounge. (This is Pam's lounge up the other end of the house so I am truly honoured as normally none of my stuff is allowed up there.)
I decided that I have not been doing much since I had the operation on my hand. In my defence, it has been very sensitive to the cold and even in a mitten it has been giving me a bit of gip. Anyway it is getting a bit better now and the weather is a bit warmer so hopefully I should be able to get out and about a bit more.
Since having the Op on my hand I have had to temporarily give up the keyboard lessons that I was having (no great loss to the music world there then) so I decided that I would use the time for other things. Consequently I have enrolled in a painting and drawing class and joined a local singing group/ choir.
The first art class was last night in "the Hope" and after an initial feeling of trepidation after seeing the work of some others in the class, I really enjoyed it. The lady running the class is very good and can help and encourage people with different abilities and requirements.
When I first went into the room where the class is held, I was just going to introduce myself to the tutor when a voice from one side said "hello Dave", I looked over to see Angus from the village. I was round at his house the other week and he showed me some of his drawings which are brilliant, everything from highly detailed drawings of buildings to superb line drawn portraits. Instead of thinking, "Oh it's nice to see a friendly face in the group", my immediate thought was , "Oh shit, if all the others are of a similar standard to Angus, then I am in the wrong place.
The tutor reckons however, that she can teach me to draw reasonably well in the 8 weeks of the course. I personally think that it will be as much as a challenge for her as it is for me.
While at the art group, I overheard one of the ladies talking to Angus. I only caught a bit of the conversation (It not being in my nature to listen into other people's conversations) but she mentioned to Angus that they had another man from Burray coming to the singing group on Wednesday. It transpires that I am the above mysterious "other man from Burray". Angus immediately accused me of stalking him but in my defence, I did not have a clue that he was in either of the groups and If I had known that he was in the art group, I may have got frightened off.
The singing group is on tonight at the Cromarty Hall in "the Hope", so we will wait and see if i am allowed to sing or am told never to darken their class again. I don't think that my voice is too bad but then when you see all those people on X Factor and similar programmes, who obviously think that they can sing, it makes you realise that probably what you hear when you are singing, is not necessarily what others hear.
Anyway, I have to go off and make some chicken runs now for a change or Pam will accuse me of lazing about again.
Monday 20th February 2012
Well I have been very remiss and not written anything on here since just after christmas so I thought that I had better attempt something.
In my defence, not a lot has happened that was worth writing about. I had an op on my hand to straighten out my bent finger and as a consequence, I had to give up my keyboard lessons for a while until my hand heals.
AS they say, I may never play the piano again but then as I couldn't play it before then it is no big loss.
They even flew me down to Aberdeen after the op to have radio therapy on my hand in an attempt to stop any regrowth. We will have to wait and see if it does any good.
We have just got back earlier today from a quick trip down south to pick up a new car. When I say a new car, I mean a car that is new to us, not a really new car.
I am very impressed with it though. It is an avensis estate and did 55mpg on the motorway at 75-85 mph and 60mpg off the motorway so it is even cheaper than the Yaris to run although no doubt Pam will be able to drop the fuel economy when she is driving it. There is also plenty of room in it for all my rubbish, so I will only have to clean it out every couple of years or so when it gets full.
The trip down also gave us a chance to see the kids and grandchildren again which was an unexpected bonus. We stayed with Babs in her new house and I apologise to her for making her sleep on the couch although she did volounteer so it was her fault really.
We do not pick Molly up from the kennels until tomorrow morning so as Pam is out tonight at a cake decorating class and there is no disobedient dog, it seems very quiet here.
For the next entry in the blog I will attempt to have something a little more interesting, even if I have to make it up.
We returned home on Thursday. I had looked at the weather forecast and it was supposed to be sunny and calm all the way.
Well, up to Carlisle it was chucking it down with rain so hard that we could not drive above 50mph. After that it was just windy but dry. There were several wagons lying on their sides after being blown over on the motorway in Cumbria.
Everywhere in Scotland there appeared to be lakes where there had not been lakes before and most of the rivers we crossed had gone over their banks but at least we could go at a decent speed as it had at least stopped raining.
At the ferry terminal in Aberdeen I went to book in and the man on the desk said that we may possibly be late arriving in Kirkwall as there was bad weather. I thought "sod the expense, we will have a cabin". This was a good decision we managed to get a good sleep even though the boat was rolling a fair bit and crashing directly into the waves at some points.
I must remember to book a cabin in future if I am travelling in winter.
At home both of our fields are totally waterlogged even though they are on a fairly decent slope down to the sea. Hopefully we will have a bit less rain and a bit of a breeze for a while now to dry things out.
One of the presents that I got for Christmas was a test to see how clever your dog is so I say down with Molly today to see how she would do. Pam was very dismissive, saying that even if Molly knew what to do, she was to awkward to do it. I, on the other hand, have total faith in my clever little dog.
There were twelve different tests that she had to do involving long and short term memory, problem solving, learning new commands and body language. I am happy to say that Molly exceled herself and in what is supposed to be the top 5% of dog intelligence. On the more rational side though, maybe border collies account for 5% of all dogs and so she may be average for a collie. (We all know that border collies are infinitely more clever than normal dogs.)
The bumph with the test did say that I have to take her to advanced training so that she does not get bored. This would be OK if the damned animal would only learn one simple command, namely "come here" instead of legging it off and ignoring me.
I think that she is looking especially superior and devious in this photo, possibly thinking "What did you expect stupid".
Dad would have liked the funeral and would have been especially proud of Babs and Jo who both in their different ways gave a personal touch to the service.
There was a really good turnout of friends, relatives and people from the church which had been such a big part of dad's life.
The presence of so many church members, including members of the choir, certainly raised the quality of the singing above the norm.
After the service we retired to the church hall.
I remember as a child being a bit shocked when after my grandma's funeral, everyone was laughing and joking over tea and sandwiches. I have since come to like this aspect of our family funerals. This one was better than most. It is only at weddings and funerals that we all get together from various parts of the country so there was much reminiscing, catching up and general gossip to be indulged in.
As I said, dad would have liked it.
After being taken into Macclesfield hospital on boxing day, my dad died on the 28th December half an hour after we had left him expecting to return next morning.
I shall always think that I should have stayed for an extra half hour but then dad would probably still have held on until after we had gone. At least I am glad that I was down here and I know that dad recognised us all.
I saw the mist in my fathers eye
and I realise now he was saying goodbye.
I left with a wave to his hospital bed.
"See you in the morning dad", I said.
I did not know what he knew then,
That we would never meet again.
I haven't quite sorted myself out yet and do not know how I feel. It was not a tragedy as dad did not want to go on as he had been recently. He had not been happy since mum died 3 years ago. It leaves a sort of hole in my life though.
I suppose that I am officially an orphan now and it feels as if my roots have been severly pruned.
I have always just felt that I am part of Wilmslow, or more specifically part of Fulshaw and Fulshaw is part of me. Now however, I no longer have a firm tie to my home. I have been cast adrift.
27th December 2011
Down south for Christmas again. It doesn't seem a year since last Christmas but they say that the years fly by as you get older. Before I know it I will be a great grandfather at this rate.
It was a pleasant trip down to Aberdeen on the ferry. Because of my advancing years I get 4 free ferry trips each year and on overnight trips this includes a free cabin. This getting old bit has a good number of added bonuses to help compensate for the aches and pains that seem to be increasing.
A good sleep and then breakfast on the boat before heading off to drive down to Leek so that at least we start the trip refreshed and can have a leisurely drive down south with 2 or 3 stops on the way.
The amount of luggage that we had managed to stuff into the little Toyota Yaris would have made Santa envious. I was only hoping that we did not have to fetch the same amount back as I was due to collect an Andalusian cockerel from Gloucestershire while we are down and his cage would take a bit of room.
We stayed at Gareth's while we were down as babs has not got a spare room yet but we managed to see plenty of both Babs, Gareth and all three grandchildren. It was nice to have a chance to get to know Ella a bit now that she is getting a little older. ( I am old and grumpy and not too good with little babies until they start to develop a character of their own).
Maddy and Harry allowed us adults to accompany them to a pantomime and on a steam train ride for a Santa special. Pantomimes are one really good reason for having children or grandchildren as it is illegal for adults to go to pantomimes without a child and it would be even worse for a lone adult to be heard shouting "He's behind you", at the top of his voice.
The downside of little children is that if two adults have to share a bed with a 6 year old Maddy, then they are not likely to get much sleep. It is very nice to be woken up in the middle of the night by the most beautiful girl in the world giving you a big hug and telling you that she loves you but after a few days you can find yourself wishing to be loved a little less.
That combined with little feet walking up my back for half the night was not designed to make me feel fresh as a daisy in the morning.
While we were down south, Steve from across the road was looking after the various poultry. Every time that I heard the weather forecast it seemed that Orkney was suffering from gales and torrential rain and we had a phone call from Helen when she said that the sea was steaming and even going over No4 barrier.
I think that we will have to get Steve a really nice thankyou present when we return.
