A Grand Day Out

On Wednesday I go an invite to join Jonathan and SNH counting grey seal pups. The last time I did this (regularly) was almost 40 years ago. Then it was aboard inflateables with the Seals Unit from Cambridge ... rugged stuff in November in Shetland! Today, it was aboard the Dunter III with all mod cons.

We cruised the wee islands and holms around Whalsay, Fetlar, and Hascosay. My job was to count the white coats (they thought I might still possibly manage that). These white coat pups are just a week or two old. The large seals beside them are the mums and the larger one on the beach is the dad.
I had planned this summer to get to Out Skerries ... but never did. But on Wednesday I made it, at least around it. From afar a few wee low islands.
We scooted through the harbour ..

and onto the lighthouse.

... the Lighthouse, built by the Stevensons. It was at this lighthouse that an Orkney man with the surname Laughton was working in 1863 and my impressionable great grandmother took the name for her son, James Laughton Johnston. There you go!

Room with a View

Today Archie finished the window. It changes the whole aspect of the gable, suddenly there's an eye looking out and a warmth looking in.Archie and Andrew have fixed battons for me on the floor and ceiling. Now time for me to construct the rest and begin putting in the insulation and then the panelling back.
Polly checked out the view and seemed satisfied. Now (when all my contribution is done) I just need a pair of binnoculars on the window sill and I will be able to check the driftwood situation on the Breiwick beach from my bed!

The hole in the wall

Archie, Andrew and David have now been a week at the job.

A nice tidy bedroom to start with.I started inside by stripping off all the panelling as carefully as possible and was relieved to find the walls fairly dry. However I did find that some stone that was used as the lintel for the wee fireplace had not been suitable ... in places it had turned to sand with the heat. So Archie is making that safe. If someone had gone on using the fire eventually part of that inner wall would have collapsed. So, I'm glad I stripped all the panelling off!
This is Andrew - a bit camera shy - putting in the shuttering prior to filling in with concrete
The hole was initially rather large for comfort, even though it was shored up with scaffolding, but at this stage (below) Andrew and David have rebuilt the sides around the frame which will be the window.Some pretty big stones came out!
I am expecting that on Monday David will point up all around the window space and Andrew will tidy up the inside, then, hopefully, the new window will be in place sometime this week. When that happens I will start building a frame on which to re-fix the panelling and within which I will put insulation.

It's a bit draughty as we are having southerly gales! However, it could be freezing, rather than mild!

Garden walls and gable walls

Before the severe gales came and blew away the leaves the north west corner of the garden looked like this. I decided that the wall was too low, needed repair and raising to the height of the other part of the north wall by the terrace.I have done that ... after it falling down once when I thought I was nearly finished. It looks like this now as I have removed a boring bush and planted some lupins and foxgloves that will come up next year.
The outside side of the wall with part of it rebuilt and heightened.
This is the wall now completely rebuilt. Note the vertical stone at the foot, just left of centre. Behind it is a very large stone (I could not move) which resembles a steep sided back. The first time I thought I had bridged it successfully. The second time (!) I put in the vertical stone to hold the bridge.

In the longterm, Sorley's house will provide shelter and we may reduce the height of the wall again. But in the meantime I can grow more things in the garden.
Archie has now started work on the gable window. First off, David (who works for him) has taken out all the old pointing and repointed deeply with plenty of cement. Towards the left (not pointed) is where the window will be. The plan is that all the new pointing will hold the wall together when he takes out the hole for the window, long enough for him to install a concrete lintel. Having built walls with the 'pigs' heads' stones of Bousta, I know the problem!
Archie is now making the window (a sash window same as the kitchen and bedroom windows, which he made) and I have a two week gap to nip down south for family and culture. I'm hoping the weather will be better than last week when the boat took 12 hours (into the northerly gale) from Orkney!

Bell(e) Heather

Just had to share the wonderful colours of the bell heather as some flowers go over and some are still fresh.I don't think I have ever seen it like this ... maybe I just haven't looked!

I think it is also very rich just here - on the way to Breiwick - where there is only very light grazing ... of Cass' ponies and a couple of rams.

Mushrooms

Yesterday collected 3lbs of dinner plate mushrooms, around Bousta and in Gordon's field by the Hall. The recipe was for 1lb, so I tripled the amounts.The result was delicious! And I have five servings tucked away in the freezer.
Yep ... finished the crossword.

Rebuilding old garden wall

I thought the old, north, wall of the garden needed to be rebuilt. I think it was the last piece of wall put up by the original builder of the garden walls, perhaps in the 1950s, and he just wanted to get the job finished. I also thought that I had left too big an opening through to the new garden (when the extension was built) and where the wind whistled through in the winter ... and sometimes in the summer too! This is it before I began and after Sorley had moved a few very large stones for me.
It took a couple of hours to pull just half of it down.
And a few days and most of the best stones to put that half up again ... with the inclusion of a seat, for fun.
Then I pulled the other half down, minus a few stones to keep the old gate up. There was not a lot of room to put all the stones!
Now it's finished ... and I'm quite tanned and fit.
There are still a few stones left in the pile so maybe I'll carry on with the wall on the other side of the old gate ... after a few pairs of younger arms have moved them closer for me!