A stroll around the "grounds" ~ part one

Monday and Tuesday this week were lazy days, really, as was Sunday.  I got caught up with all the laundry though ~ who knew just two people could create so much washing between them LOL ~ as well as paperwork and emails, so I was kept out of mischief!  

Yesterday was lovely ~ sunny and warm with a wide expanse of blue sky as you can see from the photo above.  I decided to make my first job having a stroll around the front and back gardens ~ you know, just to depress myself with how much work is waiting to be done out there 😉  As it was such a nice day, I thought I'd take some photos to bore you with share with you.  I took rather a lot, I'm afraid, so I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that I'll post those I took in the back garden another day 😄

It's amazing how much the plants have grown since I shared the photos I'd taken a few weeks back.  I'm so pleased with this bed as all the plants that were moved seem to have settled down very nicely into their new home.  The rather lovely purple plant in flower at the moment is symphytum x uplandicum Moorland Heather.  It's so nice to get such a close view of the plant now that it's in this raised bed. 

The London Pride in the wooden tubs are sending out their delicate pink flower stems ~ they are such a pretty plant.  The roses and buddleja have lots of new growth too.

The only piece of lawn that we have now is over on the ornamental side of the front garden.  As you can see, we don't go in for a "bowling green" style lawn 😏  Still, the dandelions and daisies are good for the bees and other insects and although Adrian mowed the lawn today, they will soon be back to mock us!  Just look at that sodding dwarf elder still coming through 😠  The border will definitely have to lie fallow for this year at least whilst we try to eradicate the bloody stuff.

All the ornamental borders on this side of the garden need to be tackled this year, otherwise it's just going to get harder to tidy them up.  The lenten roses are still flowering.  They are growing very well in this spot, so I guess they are happy here.

The peonies just keep on getting bigger, with more buds, each year.  I've probably mentioned before that they were already in the garden when we moved in.  I just dug them up and moved them to where I wanted them to be.  I've read that they don't really like to be moved but these guys didn't seem to mind! 

The two clumps of poppies in the front wall border get larger each year, too.  They are such delicate-looking little flowers but are obviously tougher than they look 😄  I see the border is full of that horrible sticky weed again, so I shall have to remember to wear long sleeves when I tackle it.

I'm hoping that we get time to tackle the "wild" area this year.  The little nature pool is under all that growth somewhere, believe it or not!  It's going be rather a big job, I fear sigh  I want to make the pool larger, so I think that virtually everything will have to be dug out 😖  Probably best not to think too  much about that at the moment, eh 😉  

I was pleased to see that the kitchen garden beds haven't sprouted as many weeds as I feared they would whilst we've been away.  This bed is the worst of the four "working" beds, and I don't think it will take too long to clear it out, thankfully.

The strawberries are looking good, with some flowers starting to appear now.  I think I may transplant some of the narcissus bulbs I grew for cutting into that gap in the middle of the two sections of pots.

The celery plants that survived are looking rather good.  I still have no idea, to be honest, what I'm doing with them but.....

beneath that canopy of luscious green leaves appear to be stalks.  Whether or not they turn out to be edible remains to be seen 🤷

The extra Jazzy potato tubers that I planted in these two pots are sending up shoots already!  I've since covered them with a nice thick layer of old compost.

The pansies, Matrix Mix Coastal Sunrise, are looking very pretty although they need a spot of deadheading methinks.

The rhubarb plants are all looking good.  Despite its slow start, Timperly Early on the right has now overtaken Fulton's Strawberry Surprise in the middle!  I pulled some stalks from Goliath along with a couple from the Timperly Early yesterday, which we are going to have in a crumble 😋

And here we are, back where we started looking out across the harbour.  I heard Hamnavoe coming in so thought I'd try to take a photo of her ~ shame about the telegraph pole but I'm still pleased that I managed to get a half-decent picture 😊

Views from a garden

image from Freepik

When I was out in the front garden taking photos a couple of weeks ago ~ and depressing myself with how much work needs to be done this year 😉 ~ I also took some snaps of the more distant landscapes.  I never tire of the views from our house and garden, we really are so very lucky to live here 😍

Our neighbour has had the tree surgeon in recently, so we now have even better views.....

and it's easier to see down into the harbour.

The sheep very obligingly decided to mill about just where the gap between two houses is so I could take a photo of them 😄  This is the spot where we get the bus driver to drop us off when we've had a jaunt out to Kirkwall.  We're lucky here in that if it's safe to do so, then the drivers will let you out even if it's not an official stop.

I took this photo some weeks back.  We often have spectacular sunsets and sunrises ~ I just wish I was a better photographer!

Home...

A guide from Northlink Ferries about the beautiful islands that I call "home" 😊

Bits and pieces

image from Clipart Library

As per usual, I'm behind with my garden photos 😉 

I'm really happy (and not a little surprised!) that we've managed to get as much done as we have over the last few months, but must confess that I was glad when put our garden work on hold until the spring, as I was starting to feel pretty tired!

There were still a few flowers to be seen in the garden last week, though.  I'm not sure what this shrub is called as the writing on the label has disappeared, but I'm pretty sure it's viburnum bodnantense Dawn.  It was totally smothered by weeds before I got this section of the border cleared, so it's very pleasing to see it flowering.  Less pleasing to see the bloody weeds coming through again though 😒

These two plants are papaver rupifragum.  I was surprised to see the larger plant flowering again, plus the newly-forming buds, at this time of year.  Like the viburnum I guess it was happy to have been released from it's weedy prison 😏

Some of the fox and cubs plants (pilosella aurantiaca) were also flowering.  

Early last week I tried to use my somewhat dodgy photographic skills to capture a picture of the moon.  It was late afternoon and the moon was so silvery and gorgeous that I thought I'd give it a go.

Alas, my photos just couldn't do it justice 😳 Despite the different shades of the background and the moon herself, by the way, these three photos were in fact taken one-after-the-other!

Still, I gave it a whirl and I'm fairly pleased in as much as they are the best photos of the moon that I've managed thus far in my very nondescript photographic career 😄

 

A tad wintery

image from Clipart Library

It should come as no surprise, I know, that it's turned very cold and wintery ~ we are, after all, well into November.  I suppose we've been spoilt a little as to be honest, whilst we had a lot of rain, the weather wasn't too cold over autumn relatively speaking.    

That's definitely changed now, though, and we woke up this morning to a dusting of snow.  The sun has been shining but not enough to melt said snow, unfortunately ❄

My photographic skills can never do it justice, despite my best efforts, but the sky was beautiful.

Everywhere looked very chilly ~ the sea is cold all year but this morning seemed even more so!  As I sit typing this, the clouds are sending down more snow 🌨  I'm glad I don't have to venture out today!  I would have liked to do some more sorting/tidying in my craft room but I'm not going to risk walking up the slope in the garden to get out there😳 

Still, at least we now have the perfect excuse to light the wood-burner and as it was so cold last night, we had our first fire of the season ~ bliss 😊

Such a lovely time!

image from Clipart Library

As you may remember I mentioned previously that we were having friends coming up to visit, which is why I've been MIA this last week or so.  Christine and John arrived Thursday evening of last week, and our lovely friend Phil drove me to the airport to meet them ~ thank you so much Phil 😘

Poor John has hurt his knee so wasn't able to do too much walking whilst they were here, which was a shame.  Mind you, I wasn't either as my hip is still painful ~ the pair of us looked like the walking wounded, hobbling about with our walking sticks!  Nevertheless we did manage to visit a few places, and Christine and Adrian went by themselves to the places that were too much for John and I to tackle.  There was also the added complication of the cruise ships that visit Orkney at this time of year.  As we were using the buses we had to try to plan our trips out on the days when there were fewer visitors, as the buses can get absolutely rammed 😮

Mind you even if there are no cruise ships in, the local places of interest can get very busy with the "normal" amount of tourists, and of course folk still come over for day trips on coaches from the mainland.  This was borne out for us when we chose to visit The Italian Chapel on the Friday, the day after Christine and John arrived, as there were no cruise ships in that day.  We got off the bus only to see three coaches already there, with a fourth expected!  It turned out that we had managed to choose the busiest time to visit that day😏 Thankfully, the coach passengers trundled out and we were able to have a good look round the Chapel before the fourth coach arrived.  We caught the next bus through to St Margaret's Hope, on South Ronaldsay, travelling over the Churchill Barriers.  We wondered if it would be busy but it wasn't too bad, and we managed to get seats for a lovely lunch at The Murray Arms.

On Monday the lovely Phil took Adrian, Christine and John out for a tour around the parts of the island that aren't as easily accessible by bus.  Being of a "traditional build" (a la Mma Ramotswe), I had already decided not to go with them as I thought it would be a bit of a squish in the back of the car, but as it turned out I felt a little under the weather anyway.  They had a fab trip out, which I think Phil enjoyed as much as they all did, and even though John couldn't manage the walking at Marwick at least he got to see more of the island.  Phil took them to Yesnaby, Marwick Head and the Kitchener Memorial, Birsay, then round the top of the island past the Swannay Brewery.  They then went through Evie, down to Tingwall where they stopped off at the tea room in the Fernvalley Wildlife Centre, then back through Dounby and home to Stromness!  They certainly fitted in an awful lot in their tour that day😄

On Tuesday the four of us took the bus to Skara Brae.  Adrian had booked for that day as there was only one small cruise ship in but we were a tad unlucky with the weather ~ it was absolutely chucking it down whilst we were walking round the village!  Adrian and Christine then went to have a look at Skaill House whilst we were there.  John and I couldn't comfortably manage to do both so we took ourselves off to the café in the visitor centre for a nice warming pot of tea 😉, where we all then had a bit of lunch when they had finished looking round the house.

We had a little jaunt round Stromness on Wednesday, having lunch at The Pier Bistro & Takeaway.  The contrast in weather from the day before was amazing ~ the sun came out and it turned really warm!

On Thursday Adrian and Christine took the bus to Stenness village from where they walked to see the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar, and the dig at the Ness of Brodgar (of which this is the final year for the foreseeable future).  They had a full day with lots of walking and came home tired but very pleased to have done it.  Thankfully the weather stayed kind for them, too.

Christine and John travelled back home yesterday and much to everyone's relief, the IT outage didn't affect their flights very much.  It was so lovely to welcome them to our home, and despite the difficulties with poor weather and dodgy knees and hips, I'd like to think that we all had a good week 😊  

Such a treat!

We had a fish and chip supper on Saturday, the first takeaway we've had since March 😋  The Peedie Chippie van usually comes through to Stromness on a Saturday but, of course, has been out of action for most of these past few months.  It was lovely to see them back on the road again, and judging by the socially-distancing queue plenty of other folk were glad to have them back, too 😉  Adrian queued for about 45 minutes, and he said that by the time he'd got our order the queue was as long again behind him!  They serve up delicious fish and chips, and I always have a little pot of mushy peas to go with my supper.  The portion size is very generous, so much so we quickly learned that one supper was plenty for the two of us!

Isn't it funny how the little things that we always took for granted become so much of a treat when we can't have them so readily 😊

A dreich day

It's wet, chilly and grey.....and sadly, no view of the sea today.  Still, on a day like this there are no feelings of guilt for not getting out in the garden 😉  I've got things I could pootle about doing in the house but here I am, surfing the web instead LOL  Oh well, it's good to have some slow days mixed in with the busy, busy ones! 

 Our boy is back home where he belongs, too.  Beverly picked up Matty's ashes for us from the Northvet surgery in Kirkwall, as the Stromness surgery was closed for a few weeks during lockdown.  Amber and Nikki's ashes are both in little wooden caskets but I think this pottery container is much nicer.  All three are now in a cupboard in our bedroom and the plan is that whichever one of us pops our clogs first, the dogs' ashes will go in our (joint) plot at the same time.  Might all sound a bit morbid to some folk, I guess, but Adrian and I have always been open about our wishes for when the end comes.  Hopefully, though, we both have a good few more years left on the clock 😉  

Definitely autumnal...

...and yet there is still beauty to be seen in the garden borders.  Some folk find autumn to be a rather sad season, where the voluptuous bounty of summer rapidly fades away, but really it's just the garden taking off it's clothes and pulling on it's pyjamas ready for the long refreshing sleep of winter.  And before we know it spring will be here once more, and we can renew our friendships with all of our beloved plants 😊

I love the glossy red hips of rosa rugosa ~ as do the blackbirds if the half-eaten remains left on the lawn are anything to go by!  These are actually growing in our neighbour's garden but we get to share the beauty of their blooms.  The hips always remind me of my Mum telling me how much Dad liked the rosehip syrup I had as a baby 😄  I wonder when ~ and why ~ giving rosehip syrup to babies stopped being a thing?  I know it certainly wasn't something I gave to the gruesome-twosome almost 30 years ago (omg, how can my kids be nearly 30 years old 😲), so things must have changed sometime between the early 60s and early 90s.

I was having a poke around in the ornamental garden that is currently masquerading as a wilderness when I spotted that this poppy had decided to have a second flourish of leaves ~ and pop out a flower bud, too!  I have read that if they are cut back after flowering is finished then some poppies will have a second flush in August but I think this one has left it a bit late this year!

Apologies if you are arachnaphobic ~ I'm not that keen on the eight-legged little beasties myself, to be honest.  This one, though, wasn't really scary despite it's looooong legs and apparently isn't even a spider!  It's a harvestman according to the RSPB, and they are Opilones, which is a group of arachnids closely related to spiders 😉

Moving swiftly on from that little natural history lesson...

...take a look at something that's much prettier than a spider-that's-only-pretending-to-be-a-spider, a sweet little potentilla Pink Whisper.  The bees really like potentillas, I guess it's easy for them to get to the pollen with those flat open flowers.

This is potentilla nepalensis Miss Willmott.  It's a very different-looking plant to Pink Whisper despite them both being in the potentilla family.

Autumn is, of course, the season for asters.  This is aster novi belgii Jenny.

The verbena bonarensis is still going strong.  We've had some high winds but it seems to cope admirably.  I love the way it is rising up behind the montbretia, and the contrast of the blue against the orange 😊

Despite being moved all the lupins bloomed, and some have even put out a second flush of flower spikes.

More of those beautiful rosa rugosa hips, this time in the bed beside the pond.

It seems that the sedums Autumn Joy turn a deeper red every day.

Fungi-opolis!

We've had masses of these cute little fungi this year.

I don't know anything about fungi, I'm afraid (other than the ones in the supermarket are very tasty 😋), but have been told that these are probably from the Coprinellus family.  They like to grow on or near rotting tree stumps.

And finally, I couldn't resist taking a photograph of the view from our house.....we are very lucky to live here 😍