home on the range

This is the Fin Whale that was found at Ducans Geo, Brims on our island of Hoy, it was an exciting thing to go and see, I know it seems morbid but it is a once in a life time opportunity to see a creature that could have grown into the 2nd largest animal on the planet, this Fin whale was 14.5 meters long but even at that length was a very impressive sight to see, all be it a very sad one.


This photo is of the whales mouth and what looks like a huge brown boulder in the middle of its mouth is actually its tounge. It was very sponging but leathery and felt quite rough. (The black rock infront of its mouth IS a rock)


This photo shows the detail of the filters or baleen to be correct. Not having seen it before, but watched the process many times on nature programmes on tv, it is the most amazing thing to actually see in real life. The simplicity of the baleen to allow the water out but to catch the krill and other small creatures in the hair that is on the inside of each of the baleen plates.

We went to see the whale on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, (the week before under me bonnet did). There was very little odour to it but there was also very little breeze the occassional waft of pungent air did not put us off or many others that had been to see it over the previous few days. It was sad as we sat on the cliff above the whale thinking about where it had been in its life, places I will never have heard of or ever see I expect, questions popped into conversation, where was it born, where did it live, had it bred, had it been in Orkney waters before, why did it die, where did it die the questions just kept coming, some of them may seem trivial and silly but it had a life just like we do and we should respect that!

Anyway to change the subject, today the sun is trying to break through the clouds after 2 days of rain, water everywhere, the ducks are loving it, I am not. We have been tidying up the usual winter collection of rubbish and 'chuck it in the shed we'll sort it later' stuff and ended up with a bonfire All sorts of things that you think, I'll use that for something, but it never gets used or gets ruined by a leak in the roof of the shed, or things that you try to recycle, but really are past all use and are only good for the fire. So today we have been tidying again and no doubt there will be another bonfire at some point in the next week. All the plants are budding, the vege patch is being started on, daffodils are finally raising their heads to the sun with the crocuses and the snowdrops, and when you sit down with a coffee in the sun you think .......Roll on summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is one of my favourite photos of Ward Hill on Hoy. It is taken from the Hoy Beach or the Bu Sands as some call it. This was taken last summer one Sunday when our local dog club had met up on the beach. The dogs love to chase each other in and out of the water, fetching a ball out of the sea which sometimes can lead to the sea turning to froth with German Shephards, Labradors, a Golden Retriever, Border Collies, a Jack Russel, and a couple of cross breeds and a few other pounding into the surf. It is always a brilliant afternoon and we usually picnic there or snack while the dogs rest before letting rip again. Roll on Summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been trying to learn how to 'shrink' my photos to put on island blogging, finally I think I have got it sorted.This is why the photo of Ward Hill

The ducks are for enjoying only not eating, we couldn't do that, they are lovely, they greet us each morning for their breakfast, they spend their days rummaging about the place for slugs and bits and pieces, they have taken over the wildlife pond that we have started work on last summer, which is a nuisance but it is also nice to see them in the morning paddling about. They do have their own pond at the back of our place away from the house and their own path through the fence to the plantation of pine trees behind us. Their is also a man made pond up there which they enjoy spending their days on. Some times in the summer they go missing for a couple of days, we then go up the hill behind us with the binoculars (every island house has at least one pair, usually on a predominant windowsill) and find them happy as anything rummaging about in the fields behind us.
The bushy shrubs in the photo is montbretia also known as crocosmia, it grows really well here, almost to weed status. It seems to grow almost any where, just throw a clump where you want it and away it goes. We found this out by accident when dividing up old clumps, we had placed them ready to plant and forgot about them, now they are an established line of the most amazing orange flowers, just when you need them right at the end of the summer coming in to autumn. They make a very nice colorful arrangements for a vase but are at their best outdoors, in the spring when the leaves are brown and dead we light fire to them to clean the plants up, they seem to enjoy this as they leap into life soon after this.
Now onto the weather, today we awoke to Ward Hill (the highest hill in Orkney,just happens to be on our island) covered in snow and a few of the lower hills as well, and a slight dusting at sea level nothing to get exicited about though, no chance of a snowman yet. As a matter of interest from the top of Ward Hill you can apparently see all of the Orkney Islands except a small one called Rysa little which is just off our island. The view is spectacular, on a good day, of which we have many, contrary to many peoples opinion. We may not get tropical heat but we have lots of lovely days, both summer and winter.

the photo uploading worked, hooray. weather here nice today although not as good as yesterday, it seems strange to hear the rest of the country having it so bad and we have a glorious day yesterday, wonder if we'll get snow this winter, a bit is nice a lot is not, yuk, icy roads,mud and slush, although snowballs taking the dogs out in the snow is good fun, they love it. We wait and see I suppose.

don't know if this has worked, lets see