The Secret Life of Plants

May day today and what a lovely looking day it is! It's bright and sunny out and a little warmer than the last couple of days have been. While everyone 'doon Sooth' has been out having BBQ's, getting sunburnt and having fun in the Sun our weather has been it's usual cold miserable self - well except for Monday, Monday was nice.

Speaking of Monday's glorious weather, mum and I had been invited up to come and see the lambs in the lambing shed at our Landlord's farm and decided that was the day. Lambing is always a super busy time for farms but the Landlord still found time to chat for a bit while marking the lambs. We spent a little time with the orphaned lambs who where being pretty noisy. Now they weren't technically orphaned but it's difficult for the ewes to look after more than two lambs so any extras and put together and either given to ewe's who've lost their own lambs or looked after by the farm workers.

(Smiley little lamb just before it tried to eat my finger)

It's been a really busy week again this week with extra shifts at the garage (to stop me from wanting to move on to the cafe) but there's been plenty of other things to be getting on with.

Last weekend I stayed in town and since the other half was out at work for most of the weekend I spent my non-work time knitting and getting to work in his garden. My mum is in charge of the garden at our house but in town I have free reign. Although the place was completely abandoned for some time I intend to keep busy getting it back to it's wonderful old self. On Sunday evening I cleaned all the rubbish out of the garden. Surprisingly there was an entire length of guttering under all the grass - as opposed to the short length I thought was under there - and the supposed ground sheet lying off to the site was actually an entire tent! Once all that was cleared up I got to work filling in an attempted pond right in the middle of the grass although the local cat and sometimes house guest Jake insisted on trying to help by getting under my feet so it did take a little longer than expected. As you can see the plants have taken over while we weren't looking but hopefully we can work together - the plants included - to make this a really pretty little space!

(This is what I'm working with. Just taken out the rubbish and filled the 'pond')

My knitting has been going well with more and more orders for my hats are coming in - really exciting stuff. It's even drawing some interest back to some of my other items too!

(another new hat!)

In other news I'M GOING TO PERU. I know most of you knew that already but I've actually got the flights booked now so it's really happening. I'm going to be working even harder to save up for other aspects of the trip but it's great to have that little task done and out of the way, plus I have some definite dates to work with. Next on the Peru to do list is paying for my time at the research station where I'm planning on staying for the majority of my time over there. If you would like to see where I'm going to be and what sort of work I'll be doing click here!

Well I think that's all I have to report for now - I'd better get back to knitting!!
Chat to you all soon!

(Title brought to you by Stevie Wonder - now that's a cool song to check out)

Ball O' Yarn

Hi guys!
This last few days have definitely been a bit of a whirlwind but there isn't actually all that much to tell.

I've mostly been working at the petrol station lately and en route to one of my afternoon shifts I stopped by the local cafe for a cuppa. While I was there I saw a sign in the window advertising for new waiting-on staff. Since the garage job is really only an emergency/temporary kind of post I asked one of the lasses working there what sort of hours the job would be for. Next thing I know I had the cafe owner herself sitting opposite me and my cake giving me a full interview - surprise! Before I knew it she was offering me the post! Now I told her I'd obviously have to think about it and speak to those at the garage so I'd get back to her but when I explained the encounter to the garage owner I got another surprise - they started offering me enough hours to match what the cafe offered. So, basically, I'm waiting to see what both say and we shall see where I end up.

Other than that I've spent most of my free time recently knitting. I finished my dread beanie pretty quickly and it's gone down really well - I'm already making my first one to sell and have a couple more on order! So excited about this and I'm now knitting away like mad, not that I'm complaining! I've also been having some wonderful conversations with some fellow 'dreadheads' about different wool and the processes it goes through before it can be knit - all very interesting.

(My lovely new beanie)

Oh, in case you're wondering about the post title being a bit odd it, like all my other posts is the name of a song. I quite enjoy this way of choosing my post titles, not least because it gives me the chance to listen to some different musicians that I've sometimes never heard of. This particular song - an old folk song - is a bit of a funny one in terms of lyrics but the title fits nicely at least!

As many of you will know we celebrated Earth Day this week. Now I didn't have too much time to go gallivanting out into the countryside but I did spend a little time out in the garden photographing some of the lovely flowers we have in bloom at the moment.

(nice to see a bit of colour coming through)

For those interested in my Uni work the picture below pretty much sums it up - I'm growing beans!

(Beans, beans a wonderful fruit, the more you eat, the....well you know the rest!)

So that's what I've been up to lately, see you all again soon!

Born to Be Wild

Hi guys,
I'm sorry I have been a terrible blogger over this week - I've been doing some many things worth blogging about but all these things have left me no time to blog! Actually I had planned to get this written up and posted yesterday. I had the computer set up and ready, tea in hand when we had a bit of a 'who turned out the lights' moment. It turns out our house was one of over 200,000 homes left without power last night in a power-cut covering pretty much all of northern Scotland.

(A map showing the extent of last nights power cut courtesy of BBC News Scotland) 

So on to what I'd planned to say last night:

This last week and a half has been so busy I'm not sure I remember everything I got up to over the period but I shall try my best!
Not long after giving you all my last post I finally got round to having my first proper motorbike lesson (in that really short, casual, non-classroom based kinda way). Now, I have actually already done my Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) which you have to do before you can even have a learners permit. I also spend some time riding around in India a couple of years ago but I've never ridden a manual. So although it was short I think my mini lesson on my other-half's bike in the yard went quite smoothly.

The morning after the bike lesson was lovely and sunny, almost warm even! As both of us had the day off work we decided to have a look around town. The weather inspired me to pick up some gardening things while he got some new fishing gear, although what he bought I have no idea,  fishing is one subject I know nothing about.
On this little day-out I also bought some new fabric for a skirt I'm planning on making out of a pair of old jeans. If it works out  it'll let you see some pictures!
This was all followed by the other-half treating me lunch - definitely the way to anyone's heart!

Typically the weather turned awful as soon as we headed back to the house so I never did get any gardening done before work that night.

The following day was another busy one - although for a change I wasn't working. My mum picked me up from town and we headed to the other end of the island to a place called St Margret's Hope. The community center was having a bit of a table-top sale along with full breakfasts so we made sure to get a long to that. We picked up a couple of plants and despite attempts to declutter the house, we got some more books too.

Next it was off to Sandwick beach for an event called 'Bag the Bruck' where groups get together once a year to clean up the beaches. I do think this should be done more often otherwise it's a bit like fighting a losing battle but once a year is still better than nothing! Unfortunately the weather was horrendous so only one of my mum's Wildlife Explorer's members should up with his dad but between us we did get 10 full bin bags so I guess that counts as a success.

(Mum doing her bit to help despite the awful weather)

Following getting soaked on the beach we went to visit a good friend of ours Pam for coffee and a catch up - as a bonus we got to see her new puppy Axel and her not-so-little kitty too.

Finally we had one last stop before the supermarket and home. When I was travelling last year I stayed with an English couple in Portugal and it turns out her mum stays in Orkney too. At the time it was mentioned that I could maybe help Mandy's mum get set-up with Skype and finally I've been able to do it so they can Skype whenever they like - something I was very happy to help with.

(John, me and Mandy pressing grapes. Mandy's mum - the new Skype pro!)

 This week I also got to be helpful in a very different way. A friend of mine is a Celebrant (someone who can perform weddings) and see was looking for a witness for a wedding she was doing. No one else was coming forward so I offered to help out. The couple were a wonderful pair from Ireland. Although in their later years they had decided to hop on the motorbike and elope to Orkney to get married. The day was wonderful, the ceremony had all of us tearing up and the couple were just lovely.

I think that's all the exciting stuff really although I'd say that's given you plenty! If you really like I could tell you all about my Uni experiment growing beans or about my three jobs but I think Ill just leave you here, in the hope that you'll be back for more soon, and aren't too confused by my posting inconsistency!

Ciao :)