Natural highs and lows

It’s been a while, huh? Life has been busy in unexpected ways, and blogging just wasn’t on the radar. 16 th February At Burnbank, 2025 has been designated The Year of Sorting Out the Garden. A good friend was cutting back some Tea-leaved Willow at her allotment and kindly donated 50 or so trimmed sticks for us to begin some hedging. Now, folk close to me have a view on my level of dedication to a task, as a recent text exchange with my daughters demonstrated. However, in a flurry of activity, Megan and I managed to begin the transformation of the rear gar den. Next up is the long-delayed pond, but the cunning plan is to employ a local gardening business to provide the necessary impetus. Photo courtesy of Megan 20 th February I am most of the way back to Orkney, sat in a departure lounge at Aberdeen Airport, awaiting a connecting flight to Kirkwall, longing for the space and sanity of a windswept island. I’ll be rather pleased to see Megan too, he added hurriedly. After a whir...

At the end of January... hold on a minute, let's just take a moment to savour that phrase... for in 2025, January seemed to slip by in no time at all (or at least, no longer than the statutory 31 days), rather than the two months it felt like the year before. Where was I? Oh yes, at the end of January! The first day of the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch coincided with Storm  Éowyn howling through Orkney, which meant that by the time our feathered friends showed up, the food I had put out was probably in the next parish. The following day was a little more conducive to conducting a wildlife survey and we duly recorded two Collared Doves, two Jackdaws, six Rooks and 27 Rock Dove/feral pigeons. Not a single Blackbird all day, although at dark o'clock the next morning, I could hear one sheepishly alarm calling in the garden. Gah! On Friday evening just gone, we were invited to an RSPB Volunteer Thank You event in Kirkwall. The night began with a talk by local photographer/film mak...