Natural highs and lows

Hmmm, the Blogtober Five? Would that be a plucky group of teenage diarists, up to high jinks and spiffing adventures, or a devious gang of anti-grammarian word terrorists, hellbent on misspelling their way to infamy? But I digress, so now back to 50+mph westerly winds (forecasted) and horizontal rain (not so forecasted). This morning I popped down into Stromness to get the messages*, which involved visiting a gift shop and a chemist, with the trip allowing a few moments of natural history along the way. Not far from the pier and at the back of the Ferry Inn, there's a wall which is covered in tiny ferns of several species. I am always fascinated by wild plants in an urban setting**, but it has been Blogtober which has made me stop and look properly (apologies to any owners of parked cars who wondered what the heck I was doing with my nose pressed against the wall and with two rolls of wrapping paper under an arm). I do not have a dedicated guide to ferns, mosses and the like, but I...

OK, this weather's just weird. After weeks of gales and storms, some of which had cute names (as long as they were affecting the folks south too) ((and the severest ones here didn't have names... apart from "weather"))... where was I? Oh yeah, it's been rather pleasant the last few days. No wind, no rain, occasional sunshine... is this still Orkney?! Meteorologists will tell you it's because there's a high pressure area out to the north west in the Atlantic Ocean, leading to settled conditions and lots of blanket cloud. The rest of us know that's a load of baloney, some god (insert deity of choice) just wants to p*ss off the aurora chasers, because whilst there's been amazing scenes down in mainland Scotland, Orkney has pretty much missed out on a really spectacular show. Oops. Not to worry, with a house move in the offing, we've been busy decluttering, cleaning, gardening and, mainly, carting stuff to the tip to be recycled. But yesterday, cha...