Natural highs and lows

We've been busy trying to choose colour schemes and soft furnishings for the lounge and the guest bedroom: bright red, grey, dark red and orange for the former, giving a Summer turning into Autumn feel; whilst for the latter, blue, grey, green and a  wildflower pattern which, now that I've written those words, sounds bizarre but I think it's probably a landscape thing... A mid-August evening This rainbow was weird A walk on the west coast on the following day Grass of Parnassus Frog Orchid Scottish Primrose Wheatears A walk around the old Stromness Waterworks Oddments from home A young Pied Wagtail Mist on the Orphir Hills Since the last photograph was taken, the weather has been unremittingly dreich, but it's not just rain we've been soaking up.

Since our holiday in early June, there's not been much opportunity to string together several days of wildlife watching, but with the commencement of July that all changed. Even better, Alan, a friend from my days in Milton Keynes was currently on holiday in Orkney, so we met up on Friday morning for a drookit wander around Orphir Bay and the Gyre Wood, catching up on things and generally setting the world to rights. Swallow fledglings contemplating the weather After lunch, we were joined by Megan and the three of us set off to try and see some of the things that Alan hadn’t yet spotted on his holiday. First, we parked at the top of the Scorradale Road, and ambled about the low hills, taking in the views and the flora and fauna. A sawfly preying upon a Red-thighed St Mark's Fly Then we drove across to Yesnaby on the west coast, which is just a wildflower heaven at the moment. We pottered about the coastal heath habitat, marvelling at the abundant and colourful display. Prim...

It's a word which was used often in another blog, but I don't think that I have previously used it on Natural Highs and Lows. However, it is a very suitable title to this post. We were going to walk from Sandwick to Burwick in South Ronaldsay, along the west coast of the island, but it would mean using two cars, and that's quite a long commute (and a lot of fuel) in Orcadian terms. So then we considered a tromp over the hills of Russadale and Scorradale, but the day dawned windless, which meant midges. And one midge is too many. Scrabbling around for last-minute ideas of another walk, we hit upon Stromness to Yesnaby on the west coast of the mainland. And I am rather glad we did. This particular stretch of clifftop path was unfamiliar to me, the only part of the west coast that I hadn't previously walked. It's not a long distance, but we reckoned too long for a day's wildlife watching in both directions, so we parked a car at Yesnaby and drove to Stromness reser...