An eclectic end to May

The lease contract for my van came to an end in March, and not having yet made a decision about its replacement, I was in a bit of a panic about how I was going to carry all my work gear around. I visited a local mechanic for advice and was tipped off about an old Volvo estate car which was for sale in a nearby village. The intention was that I wouldn't need it for long, so the fact that it was fifteen years old, had 130,000 miles on the clock and needed some TLC, wasn't that much of a problem. When I say that it handled like a tank, that's not a reference to its size, but the fact that it was full of water from a leak in the roof. On hills and around corners, water sloshed about the footwells unnervingly. I had hoped that a bead of silicone sealant along the top of the windscreen would do the trick but, no, more drastic measures were needed. Before the car went off to have its windscreen replaced, I removed some of the carpets, the better to bail out the water and also so that I wouldn't sound like the incoming tide everywhere I went.

In the pocket on the back of the driver's seat, I discovered a couple of old books of sheet music. 

Whilst the car doesn't have Bluetooth or a USB port to allow me to listen to 21st Century music, neither does it have an on-board Strathspey and Reel band, so I advertised the books online, free to anyone who could make use of them. Happily, a local musician got in touch (a chap who's in various bands, all represented in our CD rack) and later that day I dropped the books off at his place of work. Result.

A spell of south-easterly winds brought a pleasant surprise to our shores, dozens of migrating Red-Backed Shrikes. Megan and I went to Deerness on the east coast to see a pair of these stunning birds as they hunted for insects.

A male Red-backed Shrike

On the same trip, we visited the shores of Sandside Bay and found several newly-emerged insects in the vegetation along a sheltered bank.

Green-veined White butterfly

White-tailed Bumblebee queen

Back home, No Mow May continues apace. We have a dozen or so Northern Marsh Orchids through the lawn, as well as, in the neighbouring building plot, a lovely patch of Cottongrass.

I shall leave you with a gorgeous sunset from the end of the month.