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September 2008
Well the joys of six weeks incarceration (oops I meant holidays) are now well and truly over and the children have all been carted back off to school. The weather on signal today, 1st September, has changed very dramatically. We had some splendid weather over the last couple of months with only a few days of fog disturbance. Makes one think what the next few months might bring though. I know we will be keeping a keen eye on the path of Hurricane Gustave because whatever goes on in that part of the world inevitably a few weeks later we get the tail end of it all! Not much fun but then we are used to wind in strength and volume here. So today we have buckets of rain which the ground is grateful for.
Speaking of our cousins over the pond, my charming email friend from TARS (The Arthur Ransome Society - charming man who wrote a great deal of lovely children’s books about boating and camping) is off on her eighth Alaskan cruise and taking her daughter with her. Sounds fun and what a great chance to see something of a great wilderness while it is still there. I was always fascinated as a youngster by the National Geographic mags which nowadays you always seem to find in great piles in the Medical Centre’s waiting room. There is a wonderful programme on BBC1 at the moment about an abyss in the ocean and the diving expeditions being made, in a place called Palau where a lot of American and Japanese men died in mindless slaughter. The colours of the reef and the amazing species really are truly beautiful. Reminds me of a trip I made on the Great Barrier Reef in a glass bottom boat many years ago.
Well we still have two chicks living in a separate coop with their mum. I discovered that Jarlsberg cheese is a particular delicacy for the chicks and mum and they also like chickweed which is good as we have loads of the stuff. We let them out the other day and she made straight for my carefully raked bed with freshly sown spinach seed and made herself a large dust bath (this was when the weather was good obviously) and I was getting ready to swiftly pluck her out as the spinach had just started sprouting when the chicks joined and copied her actions. So funny to watch them. I can only assume judging by the way she was lying on her back with eyes glazing over, emitting the most bizarre sounds that she had absolutely no need for a cockerel to be present!
Unfortunately one of the chicks is a cockerel but I will try and find a home for it. Bob, our resident rooster won’t take to it at all. He is very possessive. At some point when the hen chick is big enough then she and mum will have to go back with the others and join the pecking order again! We also have one nervous Golden Pheasant who at present lives in the garage in a dog cage. We did have three but the chickens took a violent exception to them being in the coop and attacked them with rather sad results. One became an extinct GP and one did a Houdini out of a locked house (!) and I rescued the last one. I think it is a hen so we should try and find a mate for her. The hens had stopped laying for a while but are now back in full swing which is a relief, if you know how much half a dozen free range organic eggs cost! I give them their shells back partially for their health benefit and for amusement. When you throw the half shells in the coop they all rush on them and a couple of hens will have the half shell firmly wedged in their beak and rush madly around the coop pursued by the rest of the posse clucking madly. The hen with the shell looks like a feathered Nimrod* and because the shell covers nearly all her eyes she can’t see forward so crashes and careers all over the place and eventually runs into something solid so the shell breaks in to a hundred bits and then it is just a mad frenzy free for all! Free entertainment!
The garden has been performing up to scratch and where I had thrown lots of seed in desperation to get the dammed things to sprout we now have a collection of lovely Swedes (vegetable variety!). These vegetables I started off as seedlings in the propagator but when I went to transplant them you only had to look at them and they broke! When I got back from holiday I found these enormous vegetables sitting half out of the soil in all their golden glory. Then they were doubly assaulted by slugs and caterpillars. The hens are bored of these now, see the last edition, and disdainfully look the other way when offered one.
The winding down of the Shetland Summer season brought the Big Bannock (a large party) in North Mainland and Fiddle frenzy and the Blues Festival. All well attended events here especially the musical ones. We had our friend Derek’s visit a couple of weeks ago and I took him to some different places which he absolutely adored. My wife said when he got off the plane a big smile formed and as far as I know it was still there when he got back on it a week later! The weather behaved itself and we had some nice food and drink. All good stuff. Coming here, our visitors say, is a real tonic and a good place to enjoy some space! I of course experience exactly the opposite going down to London!
It was a pleasure to see the Olympics cyclists, rowers, sailors and swimmers performing so well and collecting some medals for their country. Perhaps we will see some young Shetlanders at the London event as there certainly are some very talented young athletes here. I was slightly phased to hear that Shetland is at the top of the list for the highest amount of obesity in the UK!!?? Well yes there are a number of plumper people here but aren’t there everywhere? Someone said to me that it is more probable that it is because Shetland keeps better statistics than other counties!
Before we know Christmas will be looming up over the horizon. I am planning a concert or two with my little dance groups and have a pantomime to do as well so plenty of things to keep me occupied in the long dark months that lie ahead. Girl’s Brigade and Youth Club will be starting up again soon and the other multitudinous activities that are available here. I am starting an Adult Beginner’s Ballet Class later this month for twelve weeks so have to start planning that!
*a Air Force surveillance plane
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December 2006
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