Hermit

Tanning - Part Three

2008-12-02T01:06:00.000-08:00

In my work, I use chemical degreasants, but you can do a good enough job by washing the skin in a strong solution of cheap washing detergent. Try to get the old fashioned, blitzes-every-stain-going kind, not the high tech wash at thirty degrees and is kind to your clothes kind. You really want something pretty tough, that will cut through the remaining skin fats and dissolve it.
If you aren`t squeamish or precious about your kitchen or washing machine, throw it into that, on a wool wash, having first put a good big cupful of washing powder into the drum.
If you don`t want to risk your washing machine (though if you use it for this, a simple empty wash afterwards on the hottest cycle cleans the machine fine ) then you`ll have to wash it by hand.
In a tub, or bath, put plenty lukewarm water, not too hot and not cold, and add double the amount of washing powder you`d need in the machine.
Dissolve it and add the skin, depending on how mucky the skin is, sets how long you`ll need to wash it.
Don`t scrub or rub the wool or hair, just swish it around in the water, gently pressing and agitating the worst stained bits. Blood especially needs a gentle hand to get out.
Leaving it in the bath, empty the water out and rinse well in more lukewarm water.
If you`ve used the automatic washing machine, the whole thing has been washed and spun for you.
If you did it in the bath, you`ll have to gently squeeze out the excess water and transfer it to another tub to carry out to where you`ll tan the skin. Wet skins bigger than dog size weigh pretty heavily when wet. Mind your back!

Once it`s washed, it`s ready to be pickled.
Pickle is an acidic solution applied to the skin, in order to prevent bacteria acting on it and slow down natural decay, and also plumps up the flesh, like opening grain in wood, to allow the tanning liquor to be more readily absorbed.
You can purchase bulk bags of citric acid for this purpose from food stores.
The general solution is one pound of salt to one gallon of water, and add citric acid by the cupful until it reaches a PH of 1.5.
To find the PH value, you can buy strips of paper from any chemist used by diabetics. Simply dip one strip in the solution for the PH value.
If you make up enough, either in the bath or a large tub (try old propcorn barrels if you live in the countryside, any farmer will give you one, or an old rainbarrel) then simply place the skin into this solution and leave for twenty four hours.

Housewives `Redundant`?

2008-12-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

I don`t think so, somehow... ;)

From Yahoo news:
South Korean researchers said Monday they have developed a robot which can dance and get emotional when it's not tackling the chores.
Mahru can move its lips, eyebrows and even pupils freely to make faces and can emit two kinds of fragrances to match its emotions. It can move upper body parts freely while walking on its legs.
The robot was developed by a research team at the state-funded Korea Institute of Science and Technology.
"Mahru, which can dance while walking on its legs, was developed as a humanoid robot capable of working in place of a human," team leader You Bum-Jae said in a statement.
"It will open the way for the commercial use of humanoid robots doing housework."
Mahru is programmed to follow various human movements through an advanced motion capture system, he said, adding it can move its hands freely to cope with any interference or obstacles.
You said his team has also developed a variant Mahru-M robot with sensors which can differentiate faces and objects and deliver things to humans on request.
However, Mahru-M uses a tricycle wheel system to move about.

I like a great deal of technology...some of it is fun, some is valuable, but when I was a wee girl..and that was a long time ago!...they were predicting robots would be created to take the `burden` of housework from us poor downtrodden women.
Well, there have been a few prototypes over the decades but I still don`t see the `I Robot` scenario coming to pass quite just yet.
I actually like my housework! I like the feeling I get when the work is done, when I can sit down with a hot coffee and see my home gleaming and clean and cosy, comfortable and in reasonable order.
I`m not a neat freak.....if you come here you`ll see the house isn`t grand or posh, it`s a small croft house that`s seen better days..but I like to keep on top of chores, to keep it in order and know where things are, to present a welcoming house to visitors and family alike.
In the past, women have always taken great pride in housekeeping, a brief foray into medieval times shows just what an herculean task it could be, where the woman was not only housekeeper but also accountant and family doctor, tradeswoman and cook, mother and even witch (there are many protective charms all tied up with housekeeping in the past from stopping milk from curdling to protecting the family domain from evil spirits) and to be honest, I doubt any robot will ever take that away from us. I`m old enough to have seen a full circle thing happening in domesticity.
When my mum was young, housework and housekeeping was still a valued and prized thing...her generation were taught cookery and domestic skills at both their mothers side and in schools. Then feminism hit the education system and gradually, home economics was phased out, girls were suddenly `allowed` to take the boys subjects, such as welding (and didn`t that come in handy throughout my life, she says sarcastically ) and technical drawing.
Boys were invited to take the girls subjects...I seem to remember not many wishing to...Then it was dropped altogether and for a while most schools didn`t teach domestic skills at all, and women at home were encouraged to go `yuppie`, to have careers above all, to prove their worth in the competitive mans world of the economy and workplace, and thus, leave the perceived slightly shameful and worthless traditional womens skills by the wayside.
So there came a generation of girls whose mums didn`t, unless it was a love of theirs, show their daughters the simplest of cooking skills, laundry and housekeeping maintenance, etc.
I know women who can`t even boil an egg, and one sorry specimen who thought burgers came `from the supermarket` without ever seeing a cow...
There`s a tv programme that aired recently in the UK, presented by a woman called Anthea Turner and called `The Perfect Housewife` in which she attempts to teach the former kind of women how to learn the basics of running a home. Love her or hate her (I think for most Brits it`s the latter) there`s no denying the impact she had on some of these women, a few were quite seriously depressed at how their homes..and so the comfort of their families..had become.
But still, when I admitted I watched the programme and liked it, I was met with hoots of derision. And quite a few women telling me `life`s too short for housework`...fair enough...but in times past, even the warrior liked to come back to a comfortable, well appointed and welcoming home.
Even the bank manager likes to come back to a comfortable chair, some decent home cooking and a warm, clean environment.
And I have seen these same women, one of whom proudly displays a sign saying "Only dull women have clean homes", groan when they walk in their doors to be met with a mountain of laundry, a sink full of dishes and a floor their feet stick to...

I know that housekeeping isn`t for everyone, folks are different and do have different priorities, and that`s fine by me.
But I still find, that admitting I like housework and domesticity still, in the twenty first century, gets me a little scorn, all of it, from other women!

Good job I have a tough hide and don`t care what other think of me. ;)

Miscellaneous Household Tips 2

2008-12-01T08:37:00.000-08:00

To descale a kettle... Without using harsh chemicals...
Here in Orkney the water is hard, with a lot of limescale. This furs up the inside of a kettle and things like shower heads, making them less efficient (I should mention washing machines too)
To descale a kettle, simply fill the jug three quarters full of white vinegar. Boil, empty the vinegar into a jug, rinse the kettle and if needed, repeat, though once usually always does the trick. Your kettle will be gleaming and you didn`t fork out money for a rather vicious chemical descaler. To clean drains in a sink, ditto with the vinegar. Pour half a small tub of bicarbonate of soda into the plug hole, then pour a litre of vinegar onto that. It`ll fizz for a while, leave it for about fifteen minutes, then rinse with hot water and wipe round. It cleans drains and helps clear blockages.
If your showerhead is likewise affected by limescale due to hard water, remove it and boil for ten minutes in a pot of vinegar to descale.

Some people are allergic to concentrated fabric softeners.
There are two eco and skin friendly ways to make your clothes soft ....one is to line dry, works every time and doesn`t cost a bean. The other is to put a tablespoon of white vinegar into the final rinse. It won`t scent the clothes but does soften them and actually makes towels more absorbent...commercial fabric conditioner coats clothes and towels and so reduces their absorbency.
(please note, nope, I don`t work in a vinegar factory, but it does have a lot of uses...)

Miscellaneous Household Tips

2008-12-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

To get rid of fruit flies and midges....half fill a glass with cola or other fizzy drink, cover the top of the glass with cling film and poke holes with a pen in the top.Leave on a table or windowsill, the flies get into the drink but cannot get out of the glass again. No chemicals!

How to light an open fire...(just in case!)
Clean out the grate and surrounding fireplace area. Taking newspaper sheets, roll, scrunch and coil into fist sized pieces and place in grate.
Chop kindling to fit the fireplace (this, apparently, needs saying after I watched one person bring in tree trunk sized pieces one morning! )and place on top of rolled newspaper.
Place the smallest pieces of coal or peat on top of the kindling, leaving enough paper poking through at the front.Using matches, lighter or taper, set fire to the paper, if your hearth has a damper at the front of the grate leave this open until the kindling catches fire, after which it should be closed.Sometimes the fire struggles to catch, the reasons for this can be damp kindling or paper, or not enough `draw`, ie wind in the chimney. This can be overcome by placing the shovel for the coal upright in front of the fire opening, and holding a double sheet of newspaper over the front of it so that it covers the fire.
Needless to say, take care with this because often the paper catches fire, if it does so simply roll quickly up and put into the fire. But with a little care the paper creates a suction/draw in the chimney and helps the fire to catch.
Note....using a few squirts of lighter fuel to `help` things along is simply stupid. Trust me. I know the fella with no eyebrows who tried this.

When my son was still at school, his class researched toothpaste. No matter how `kind` they say it is to teeth, pretty much all mainstream toothpastes contain sugar, colouring and acids which erode teeth, and mouthwashes are little better.
A natural alternative to toothpaste is bicarbonate of soda. Simply dampen your brush and dip into the powder and brush teeth as normal. It is slightly abrasive...as is toothpaste...but contains no artificial ingredients nor sugar so won`t erode the tooth enamal.
Powdered sage can also be used, and is especially good for dental hygeine when mixed with powdered myrrh, which strengthens gums.
For toothache, if you can`t get to a dentist immediately, place oil of cloves on a little ball of cotton wool and hold against the affected tooth. It is lightly antibiotic and anaesthetic. However, use sparingly as prolonged use damages gums, and do not swallow oil of cloves, it is toxic and overdosing leads to convulsions and even death.

For cat owners...If your cat widdles on the carpet, as soon as possible use a cloth to lift the wet stuff but do not rub it in or it`ll stain.Instead, sprinkle heavily dry bicarbonate of soda on it and leave overnight. Bicarb is a deoderant (it can also be place on a small dish in your fridge to absorb odours, throw it away after about a week and replace) and cleanser.
In the morning, remove the bulk of it and gently using a damp cloth lift out as much as you can. Leave further to fully dry then go over it with the vacuum.
This gets rid of pet smells and sanitises the offended piddly bit of the carpet.

Air fresheners....The best air freshener is fresh air itself. But some folks live in cities where it isn`t advisable to open windows wide. Commercial air fresheners can aggravate conditions like asthma, and contain a wide cocktail of chemicals.
If you really like the artificial air freshener smell, try placing a little clothes conditioning liquid in a small pan of water on the stove top as you do the housework, this scents the air with a fresh laundry smell. Incenses are nice too but again, can irritate asthmatics. Dried herbs can also be heated gently in pans of water to provide similar scents without the smoke of incense
.One of my own favourite smells isn`t, strictly, an air freshener, but I do like to put a pot of coffee on the stove top...love the smell of fresh hot coffee.

Jul/Christmas Traditions

2008-12-01T08:12:00.000-08:00

I have two trees, a fake one I`ve had for years and am too sentimental to get rid of, and a real one on order (oh for the days of my youth when I could go out and dig one up, and run away from the English landowner, getting healthy exercise at the same time, sigh...)
Still waiting for my real one to come but it will and I`ll bully..erm...politely coerce, my loved ones into helping to decorate it.
I`m an oddity, I always put decorations up really early, the first day of December, only this year they went up the middle of November because my lovely man is staying here with me, and was due to return to Flanders before Jul, so I put the decorations up early for him.

He changed his mind though and is staying on for Jul, yay...

My family`s traditions include this, putting up the decorations for the whole month of December. This takes in the Solstice, you see, and they are taken down the last day of the year, for a fresh start in the New Year.
On the night of the Solstice, a dish of milk, honey or flavoured porridge is put outdoors for the wights of this place, and a small dish of the same set beside the hearth for the house brownie, a type of sprite that attaches itself to a household and brings luck.
When I was fairly small I watched my mum putting outdoors the dish of milk for the wights, then watched one of our cats lick it clean. In anger I went to her and said, "You`ve been lying to me, the wights don`t take it, the cat did!"She made me be responsible, for a while, for leaving out the milk, for it`s also left out at other times too.
Still angry at her, I didn`t bother to do it.
Whether or not you think it`s coincidence I`ll leave to you to decide, but soon afterwards little things started to go wrong...animals getting ill or injured, garden crops failing, and a general malaise and discontent in our household.She exlained to me, yes, the cat got it, though it could also have gone to a hedgehog, wildcat or pine marten. The point she made was, through these beasts, the wights do get the offering.
I laid out the bowl and gradually, things got back to normal.
So Solstice night the offering goes out, and it`s a tradition if weather permits to light a bonfire outside too and skywatch for a while.
Presents are also exchanged on this night, and all the time when I was a small girl growing up, me and my sister had a stocking, a large one knitted by my granny, and in the morning would be a satsuma, an exotic thing to us, in the toe of it, some chocolate coins, a hand knitted teddy and various other wee toys.
In Scotland, I always decorated the house with swags and wreaths of real greenery, and above all I really miss that here in Orkney...the only real thing I can get is the tree and that is shipped in from mainland.
Fairy lights are strung over the tree with glass baubles and tinsel, and lights are also strung around the house, a small defiance against the darkest days of winter.
Being heathen, christmas day itself is a public holiday to me without any religious meaning but I do respect those who keep it as a holy day.
When people wish me `Merry Christmas`, I don`t get on my high horse and tut, saying `I`m heathen!`, I simply wish them a Merry Christmas back. It creates a smile to do so and costs me nothing in effort.
Another tradition in my family was to make the plum pudding, putting small coins in the mix for folks to find as they ate. Yes, I know..not a good idea for kids but the adults love it.
Mistletoe, that symbol of fertility, is strung over strategic places to kiss under though this year it`ll be fake. Rowan twigs would be placed in the barns for the darkest day of the year, to ward off evil wights and greedy spirits who would harm the livestock, throughout the dark days of winter when the beasts are interred indoors. I make a small sunwheel to welcome the return of the sun after the Solstice. This is simply made from a round of twigs or wood, bound about with straw and any dried herbage you can find. It`s set afire and either rolled downhill or put onto a chain and folks take turns at swinging it around their heads, making wishes for each round. Special biscuits are made, in the shape of stars and Jul trees, and decorated with coloured icing.

The Winter Home

2008-12-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

I don`t know what it`s like where everyone else lives..I suspect most of you live in a more modern home than I do (the older I get, the more I crave central heating, which I`ve never had...)

Here in Orkney and Scotland, the weather is described as `temporate`. In reality, this means we get howling gales for nine months of the year, the rest of it we get lashing rain, strong winds and did I mention the rain?

And it`s cold....

Last night the temperature got down below zero, not the first time in the past month that has happened. Today it`s set to hover around two or three degrees.
Coupled with strong winds, the wind chill can push it down to minus twenty often. That wind pierces your clothing, no matter how many tucked in layers you wear, and gets right into your bones.
Och, yes, I`m sounding like my granny now! But it`s true! (hey, you`ll all get here one day, then you`ll be saying "Oh yes, now I know what that auld woman was talking about..." )
I often wear fur. The real thing, not the fashion fake stuff. Fur coats, fur scarves, fur lined boots. It`s the most effecient material I have found for keeping warm.

And fur has its uses around the home too.On places like Ebay, old fur coats can be bought fairly cheaply. Most of them are rabbit fur, which is quite thin and can be fragile, but is still warm. Occasionally you can buy perfectly good mink or fox furs.
Surprisingly, in this PC oriented culture, wolf fur or any kind of exotic fur always gets bought for very high prices. If you buy just two or three of these old coats, you can cut and piece them together to make a throw for your couch, chair or the top of the bed.(to clean fur, heat bran or oatmeal gently in a warm oven, sprinkle over the fur, gently rub in, leave for an hour, then shake excess off and brush with a soft brush...dry shampoo)

I have no damp proof coursing in this house, but live on an island only twelve miles by six at the widest. It gets damp here! I use a dehumidifier, but for small spaces like open shelves, closed cupboards etc, put a bowl of table salt there and when it has soaked up moisture (and it will!) throw it away and replace it with fresh dry salt.
I have a closed in stove..an old Doric...to heat the livingroom. This serves a double function because it is also cooked on and in. Coal here is expensive but there is plenty driftwood free on the beaches....good exercise collecting it, and doesn`t cost anything.
Stack wood in a dry, sheltered area, damp wood only spits and hisses in the fire and doesn`t give off any heat.
Change your curtains/drapes for thick, heavy ones. These can be horrendously expensive to buy, so unusual or pretty blankets can be hauled into service as curtains, and you can line them with plain sheets, doubling the insulation...a lot of heat is lost through windows if you don`t have double glazing.

If you live in the country, mud is a constant...

I make folks take off their outdoor shoes before they come in, and a coir or hessian doormat is a good idea placed just outside or inside the front door. For folks who care about aesthetics, decor can be easily changed to suit winter tastes by swapping cushion covers for richer, deeper coloured ones, and throwing a few throws in warm colours over the chairs.(apologies for sounding like an interior design mag! I`m not really, this is just what I do... )
If you live in a remote area at all..(here, we often have times when the ferries and plane don`t run due to gales and storms) it pays to lay in food stores, as much as you can afford. One or two extra items, bought in your weekly shop and put away somewhere safe, will always come in handy, either during lean financial times or if you become housebound for any reason.
Check your plumbing at this time of year! With cold and frosts, burst water pipes are common. Make sure yours are lagged and check your hot water tank too. If your pipes become frozen, use a hair dryer to gently thaw them out, after having turned off the water at the mains. In an emergency, old woollen jumpers, or even newspaper, can serve as lagging.
Before the weather gets too bad, have a quick look at your roof, make sure all tiles are there and not loose, and look for any cracks or missing pointing in brick or stone work, and get it seen to before rainwater gets in, corrodes the stone or brick, and makes for a serious problem down the line.

Tanning - Part Two

2008-12-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

Once the skin is thawed/rehydrated, you start to process it.

For something the size of a sheepskin, the following is needed if you don`t use industrial tools...a tree trunk or solid table on which to work.
A dull edged blade..the proper tool is a scraper, which is slightly curved and has two blades, both dulled, with handles on either side, but any blade can be used so long as it isn`t too sharp.That`s it.

You position the skin, flesh side up, over the trunk, trapping the end of it with your body, leaning into the trunk and skin. It has to be held fairly firm or the blade will slide all over the place and you may hole the skin.Wear rubber gloves.Each and every skin has a membrane on the flesh side of it called a `vel`.
This must be removed or the tanning liquor won`t penetrate the flesh.In a rabbit skin it can be seen more easily...it`s thin, see through and kind of slimy, but if you snag a bit of it and lift it up, and pull, it comes away easily.That doesn`t happen in any larger mammal, which is why you have to scrape it off.
Using firm, easy motions, push the scraper down the skin....you should see edges of the vel roll up and be pushed away from you.

You can help this along using your fingers from time to time, pulling on the rough edges of any bits of vel you see.
Be careful not to hole the skin, but if you do don`t panic, it can be patched and sanded after the tanning process.How much work you put into it is up to you..the more vel you remove the easier the hide tans and the less work you have to do at the sanding/working stage.

Remove any lumps of fat or meat with a good sharp knife, sliding the blade under an edge of the lump then turning it flat, away from you and sliding the meat or fat off. I use a sharp bladed fish filletting knife for this, it`s the best I`ve found (Victorinox) and never lets me down.

For any butchering I do, I have a hooked skinning knife. Removing the vel is a labour intensive job, especially on a big hide, but keep going at it, it`s an important stage and the better you do it, the better the end result will be.
Once the vel is removed, you`re ready to degrease the skin.

Tanning - Part One

2008-12-01T07:52:00.000-08:00

This is a thread on home tanning, not the lying in the sun turning brown kind, but tanning animal skins to make furs, sheepskins, etc.

First, get your hide! For folks living in the countryside this can be easier than in the city. Many farmers here in Britain home butcher and if you ask nicely, will be quite happy to give you their sheep, cow or pigskin. For city folks, seek out your nearest slaughterhouse, and ask about their own skins. Most of these go straight to industrial tanners for the leather industry but they will sell you one or two, usually very cheaply, a couple of pounds for a sheepskin. You will have to choose your own and get it home yourself though, I don`t suggest carting it home on the bus.

It is important, if you don`t plan on processing the hide immediately, to properly store the hide as they will begin to degrade almost immediately.
The easiest way to do this is by freezing, so if you have a chest freezer, store the hide, hair side in so the flesh is turned out, in a double wrapping of plastic in the freezer.

Another way of storing hides is by salting. Ordinary table salt can be used but you do need vast quantities even for a single sheepskin, so get to your local hardware store and buy a couple of sacks of rock salt used for de icing roads and paths in winter. It does the same job, which is to dry out the moisture on the flesh side of the skin.

Lay the skin flesh side up on a pallet or thick plastic sheet. Sprinkle enough salt on it, covering to about a half inch depth. Leave overnight. Next day add more salt, much of what you put on the previous night will have dissolved and ran off the skin.

Repeat this procedure until you find the salt no longer dissolves, then add even more salt and carefully fold the hide in half. Leave as is, but check at least once a week. The skin should harden off, if any moist areas remain, add more salt as needed.

Do NOT freeze skins which have been salted.

And before you use either of these skins, the frozen one must be thoroughly defrosted and the salted one must be washed in many changes of clean, warm water until the flesh side is once again plump, wet and soft.

Skyscapes

2008-10-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

We have big skies here...nothing to get in the way of them..no built up areas, no mountains (sigh), nothing but land and sea.
This is my morning.....
Up early before everyone else, a symptom of insomnia I`m pretty used to now, so the house is quiet, hushed, and dark. I turn on the wee lamp in the livingroom, next to the stove, which quietly ticks out heat and comfort, the metal sides of it occasionally creaking as it`s an old man shifting to get comfortable.
In the kitchen, cold in the chilly morning air, I turn on a low light and make breakfast and coffee and carry it back through to the livingroom.
I like the light low, in the mornings, and evenings...I like to see, from the big windows, twilight across the island, and watch the day dawn slowly, and enjoy the view without the taint of artificial light.
After breakfast, I fire up the laptop, to check out the shop website, see if there are orders etc, and to catch up with friends online via email. :-) I put the tv on to get the early morning news but often, these days, turn it off again...hell, I KNOW we`re in a recession, how many times do I need that reinforced....but whilst I`m grimly hanging on by the skin of my teeth, I sympathise with the latest newsround of lost jobs, because these are people, with families, and now, with greater worries than me.
So I turn my gaze out the window.....and all across the sky hangs massive, heavy, bruised clouds, thundrous looking beasts, wintry, ominous, promising storm and perhaps even the snow the forecaster said might come.
The rose hedge dances wildly in the high winds, winds that have lasted too long, really, for October....remembering past Octobers full of late sun and a little heat....
and oh! Hail is now pounding the window fiercely, hard little pellets of it coming sideways on at the house....whitening the lawn with a blanket you know would be crunchy to walk over...
the wind has picked up and howls around the corner of this peedie house, whistling and crying like a banshee, and I see the lights of Elsness farm, the barn lights as the cows are ready for milking, across the stretch of water from here.
Always, every year, a clutch of moorhens visit and almost take up residence in, my front garden. Lots of wild birds do, attracted by my ducks and geese and hens and seeing the fact these fat, tame birds get regularly fed and nobody is threatening them, so the moorhens are among many that join the ducks for the morning feed and hang around all day waiting for more!
But this morning they cower in the cover of the rose hedge waiting for the hail to pass....and it`s easing off, at last, though the wind isn`t, and more will come.
The wild goose also waits, not in the shelter of the hedge, a hardy bird she is, she stands with her beak tucked under one wing, defiantly in the middle of the lawn, ignoring the wind and hail, stoic and impassive. I envy her poise and know if I were out there, I`d be running for cover...for I got up to look at the hail and it isn`t little at all, but huge pellets that you know would sting and hurt as they hit uncovered skin.
Still twilight....though the sky lightens a little in the East, and along the horizon, low and far, there`s a soft rosy tinge. But most of the sky above me is thick and slate grey and brooding, a Heathcliff sky fit to run wildly under, chasing a lost love, or crying moodily to the heavens above of injustice. A typical British sky, that is out there, always changing and unsettled, with weight in it but never dullness, always something to see, always a skyscape every bit as interesting as the landscape beneath.
The sea mirrors the sky, and is violent and restless, a dark and dangerous beauty.
In a wee while, Frans and the son will get up for breakfast, and the mundanities of the day begin, chores and everyday living.
But the mornings are between times, apart from both night and day, liminal spaces that offer gorgeous, wild, ancient sights for the watcher.
The hail has gone for now. The clouds are even lower, heavier. In the distance, above the fields, a gull wheels, playing with air currents.

When In Rome....

2008-10-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well, when on Sanday.....poor Frans, comes here for a break, and what do I do?

Put him to work...*insert evil grin here* :D

He is learning the tanning trade and making wonderful progress in doing so. Yesterday, he undertook the mucky, stinky and unglamorous job of fleshing the raw skins, which involves removing the vel, the thin membrane upon the flesh, and any gobbets of meat and fat.

As you can see from the pics, he got kitted up fine style and in the dark womb of the workshop, a storm raging outside, rain and gale force winds pelting the island, he got to work.

Oh aye..and he did pose for one or two, hee....

my man tries hard to look mean and moody, but to me, he is just too damn cute, so it doesn`t work. :D

Sorry Frans, your offer of standing in for Hannibal Lector has been declined...;-)

Still the winds scour the island, and the news is that these gales are due to last into November, which is awful. This is the kind of weather we are supposed to have in winter proper, not in October.

It`s my birthday soon. :-) I`ll be forty seven, eeeeeek!

Och well, better than the alternative....;-)

In truth I don`t mind, this year looks set to be infinitaly better than last year, and marks a new phase of my life, so I`m far from unhappy at getting another year older.

And it`s also my sons birthday, but he is on Halloween, Samnhain, a witch`s child, he was. :D

He`ll be twenty four...good grief I AM getting auld!

At last the grip of the virus is letting go, but it`s been rough for me and the son, whilst Frans barely got any symptoms which has led to me calling him `Typhoid Frans` (after Typhoid Mary) and accusing him of being a carrier, hee...

Wouldn`t it be interesting if we could see the wind? It certainly makes enough noise, howling and singing outdoors, to make it`s presence felt...I wonder what the wind would look like were it a person?

Instead, all we see is the effect of it, in the flattened vegetation, in the whipped and stormy, moody sea, in the scudding clouds, like a battalion of ships at full sail, across the slate and steel sky.

Given the might of the wind, I rather think it would manifest as a playful little boy, mischievous grin on his face.....

Cabin Fever

2008-10-16T01:36:00.000-07:00

Wind. Wind. More wind.....
yup, the weather again...well, in my defense, it IS overwhelming when you live on a piece of land in the North Sea only twelve miles by six....:P
All this week we`ve had nothing but high winds, rain and the occasional bit of sleet thrown in for good measure. Oh aye, and sunshine at times, low on the horizon...can somebody please tell me if somebody changed the timing of winter and now it begins in October?
I can do nothing outdoors, since the wind grabs hold of anything you are holding and wheechs it awa` ower tae Stronsay, chuist....:D
Plus, hell but we all gotta rotten cold virus that even my famed hot toddies won`t shift...:-(

So, it feels a little like being under siege....hunkering down indoors, away from the gale and the cauld and damp....tsk...

good job I got supplies in ;-)
Hard to imagine that somewhere, around the globe, it`s beautiful, calm and sunny...sigh..

Whisky And Honey

2008-10-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

Frans, the son and I all have the rotten virus currently doing the rounds of the isle.
Sore, burning throat, cough, stuffy nose, headache, general malaise...mutter grumble moan whinge....
When I was a wee lassie, dad`s `cure` for anything, pretty much, was a hot toddy.
This is good whisky (non of that foreign rubbish ;-) ) in a glass, with a splash of hot blackcurrant juice and a spoonful of honey. Various other things can be added if wished, like ginger, or black pepper, but that`s the basic recipe a la dad.
So today, I`m aff oot tae buy some whisky and blackcurrant juice and am gaun tae pamper us a` wi` hot toddies, a hot roast chicken dinner, good movie in the dvd player and warm blankets.

Spring Cleaning

2008-10-12T22:41:00.000-07:00

Yup, I know it`s the `wrong` time of year for spring cleaning. But I do two of them, a physical spring cleaning in the actual spring..or what passes for it in Orkney....and a different kind in autumn (ditto, with the `passes for it` thing...ruddy weather..)

This is the time of year for taking stock of my emotional life and having a good clear out and sorting.

Almost like starting out winter, the most difficult time of year for many, with a clean slate.

So I look at what I wanted to achieve, earlier on in the year, resolutions met or discarded or forgotten, tasks completed and issues mended or sundered....

Life gets put under the microscope and to my credit, not shrunk away from in fear of what I`ll see, but confronted and appraised honestly and calmly. :-)

The conclusion? Well...there are a few things I`m glad happened throughout the year. One of those is getting together with my new man. :-)

He`s kind, loving and fun, and the most amazingly intelligent man. He makes me happy but there is also a bittersweet undercurrent. Mainly because, well, I`m ten years older than him. Actually, it`s nine years and a bit but who`s quibbling over a couple of months...;)

To him, that doesn`t seem to matter. To me, maybe it does a peedie bit more.

I worry about things that any woman in my position would...let`s be realistic here...men do tend to age better than women, generally...and being no great beauty to begin with, how will he feel as I continue to age `before` him?

And when he meets, as undoubtedly he will here in the UK, which tends to be more disapproving of such things still compared to the Continent, askew looks at the pair of us, or barely hidden derisory comments about the age gap, will it bother him?

As time goes by, will I be compared with younger, prettier women, and found wanting? Who knows...

One thing life has made me, is resilient and tough. So I`ll take the future as it comes.

"Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst", I read somewhere recently. (in regards to the global economy, I think, but still, it is a good tenet to live by)

Other things? Well....there is the rift between me and other family members because of a private issue. Because I made a choice they disapproved of, I`ve been discarded like a piece of rubbish and that still hurts. But y`know, you can only bang your head against a brick wall so many times before it knocks you out!

So I`ve accepted it, though am aware of the passing of time, and as it grows longer, that is time I no longer spend with these family members, time I miss, and........well...you know....

These, and other things, get hauled out of the storage compartment that resembles a messy broom cupboard that is my mind, examined to see if they can be fixed/patched up/discarded or dealt with, and put back in place if not. :-)

That broom cupboard isn`t all `black hole material though! There`s some good things hauled out of it too...achievments, events and hurts survived, and good times remembered that regain their sharpness and clarity by being examined once more. Hey, I have a pretty balanced broom cupboard. :D

There`s a thing called, the Dark Night Of The Soul, where one meets oneself eyes wide open, no illusions about self or one`s life, warts and all.

And for some, it`s too scary a thing to contemplate.

And yes, it can be hellish tough to get through.

But if you do, it`s one more thing on the `achievments` list. That can`t be all bad, can it?:)

Got some pics to post this morning.

Then after breakfast, it`s off down to the post office to post a sheepskin, then later, lunch and work, and given the chancy weather, maybe a good movie and a drive down to Loth Pier to see what the sea is doing today, and if it looks fair enough to take the boat into town tomorrow.

Drawing In Of the Nights....

2008-10-12T13:20:00.000-07:00

I don`t know what`s happened to this month, since even in sunny Orkney...cough...it`s never usually this bad. But the wind howls again outside the house, the rain has lashed the windows off and on for the past week, some real force behind it. You can go outside even in the rare bursts of sunshine, but the wind gets under your clothes and chills your bones.
Not a pleasant month, and a reminder that winter is just around the corner.
Normally, by the time winter arrives, I`m just about ready for `hibernation`...cosying down indoors, the pre winter tasks finished and the animals bedded down in the barns, a stock of fuel in for the stove and some warming carbohydrates in the cupboards.
But this is all too early, and I would value a few brief days of calm bright and easy weather to finish things up...there is still the rest of the geese shelter to be finished, the empty hutch to be cleaned and resited and the occupied one, ditto....firewood to chop and stack...paths to clean..and more importantly, the big round bale of hay and the other of straw broken down and forked into the outbuilding they`ll go, next to the barns, for winter, before the rain wrecks them totally or the goats nibble them to pieces....
sigh...
there`s a melancholy mood in the air now, an inbetween, liminal feel to the season, where it isn`t quite one thing nor the other.
So I am torn between trudging outdoors against the winds and wet and cold anyway, to do what I can, or hunkering down inside, low lit lamps, stoked fires, sheepskin rugs and comfort food ....(mainly chocolate, I`m afraid!).....
I always get a little homesick this time of year, for the highlands. I think of Scotland in autumn and remember colour and mellow glens, fired with the turn of leaf above fading green and in the distance, a dusting of snow on the highest mountain tops.
And it makes me a little sad, don`t know why, to wonder when I`ll set eyes on such sights again.
And it makes me a little sad, don`t know why, to wonder when I`ll set foot in such places again.
And it makes me a little sad, don`t know why, to wonder why the land I was born in doesn`t loosen it`s grip on my soul.....

This time of year, well, it`s like ageing, reaching that time of life I have in biological terms, past the zenith, walking toward the last of it, a slowing down, a shifting of senses, seeing old things with more clarity, finding new priorities....

It`s a wistful, almost childlike thing, when you remember how it felt to long for...well..something, even though you didn`t know what it was.
Back then, I thought it was simply, to grow up, to be that wonderful thing, an adult.
Then you get there...adulthood...and for much of the time spend it wanting to turn the clock back to youth, tsk..contrary creatures, we humans.

I can`t turn the clock back. I`m one of those women who never had the benefit of beauty in youth, but you know what? I miss it, nonetheless.
For, after all, nobody really values `character`, do they?
Nope.....

And like the ending of the year, a woman fades with time, becomes like the drawing in of the nights, darker countenanced and chilled, til the snows of age dust her hair and the night stars glimmer dimly in her eyes.

Early Morning Ramblings

2008-10-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

Not sure what time this blog will say I posted, but it`s currently half past five in the morning. Been up a peedie while. Outside, it`s still dark, and the promised Force 10 gale hasn`t yet arrived, the calm before the storm holds sway and there`s an eerie hush over the island that won`t last, of course.
Well, hushed, aside from the early morning news on the tv, all dour and gloom due to the recession and the banking crisis. Sigh.
Well, at half past seven, I`ll turn on the radio and listen to radio Orkney. It always has at least a touch of a sense of humour, no matter how down the day`s news gets.
The fella slumbers on, sleeping peacefully after a day out in town yesterday. The son also sleeps, so here I am, just me, the eternal insomniac, looking once more out the window towards the distant lights of neighbouring Stronsay and seeing the occasional star glimmer above.
And what is in store for today?
Well, hopefully, a short trip to Backaskaill tea room for coffee and scones with Frans, maybe the Post Office to ship out some sheepskins to the US, home for lunch then work, both of us sanding and combing out finished hides.
Much depends on how fierce the winds get today, if the promised gale turns up or if it stays calm, in which case, I might decide to get in the car and skive off work a peedie while (yes, shocking, I know....) and visit Elsness beach, nearby Quoyness Chambered Tomb, looking out over the sea towards the other isles.
A few yards along the coast from Quoyness, itself only partially excavated, lies a crumbling, decaying similar tomb structure, slowly disappearing into the sea with each winter storm. "No money," say the Council, to fund a dig to preserve it and I guess now, they are right. Sad thing it is though, to watch so many thousand years of heritage vanish beneath the waves, taking the lingering remnants of real peoples lives with it.

When winter approaches, I get the nesting instinct. Wanting to gather practical things around me, food and comforting, fluffed blankets and a stock of firewood....plans for Yule already rise in quiet moments, though this year, as it will only be the son and me, it`ll be a strange and quiet time, bereft of other family members and the laughter of children.
But I`ll order in a real Fir tree.....how I do miss trees on this rock in the North Sea! And wreaths of holly and twine ivy among them, drape them over the mantelpiece and around the doors.....lay in a huge stock of fat church candles to soften the winter gloom....find goodies to wrap in pretty, shiny paper and place beneath the tree like always.
Here, already, they advertise Christmas 2009 on tv! It`s getting rather silly. Halloween hasn`t even happened yet but already shops on mainland Orkney are ready to stock both Halloween decorations AND Christmas ones...so like last year, orange pumpkins (foreigners to Orkney, for sure!) and black cardboard witches complete with broom and cat, will sit alongside glitter and tinsel and coloured fairy lights.
Sometimes, the world seems out of sync with the actual seasons. Mad....

A wild goose has joined my tame flock. She`s injured, her wing hangs `wrong` but I can`t get close enough to her to check her out. However, it isn`t a severe thing though I can tell she`ll not fly again.
Deserted by her own wild flock, she sneaks through the fencing into the garden where my own geese, much larger and very much fatter, live now. Dwarfed by them, she shares in their morning grain feed and drinks from their water trough. Then she leaves the geese again and joins the ducks for a second feed! After which she may saunter off into the farmers field or hunker down with the ducks, a larger `lump`, beak tucked beneath wing, one wary eye open for intruding humans, though at least now that she grows used to us she doesn`t try to flap her injured wing and run at takeoff speed in an effort to escape, just walks away, `nose` in the air as if to say, `I can see you but I choose to ignore you, being a superior beast, of course....`
in time, she`ll settle down. The other geese don`t mind her at all and nor do the ducks. I might even get to have a look at that wing, though won`t be able to do anything to fix it so she flies again. So long as it isn`t giving her a deal of trouble, for now I`ll leave her be, not wanting to stress her out by catching her.

Well, still dark outside. Evenings draw in too, and the hours of daylight this far north grow scanter. It`s cosy, early dark nights, though in the depths of winter with only three or four daylight hours, and often those, twilit because of the chancy weather, it can become a little gloomy. Those are days when the lamps stay lit all day, and the fires are banked high for warmth, talisman against the darkest days.

In a wee while, the son will see to the animals, I will make breakfast for my man and watch, with a smile, sleepiness leave him gradually, and begin the day.

Geese, Wild And Tame...

2008-10-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

This week, we`d to trim the geeses wings. One of them, a white and beige male, decided it was fun to escape the wee field on a nightly basis, and try to follow the flocks of wild geese, gathering all over the island in vast noisy flocks so that the air fairly resounds to the harsh but beautiful song of them.
Only, good job really, he cannae fly all that well. Gave it his best though. Each time the son would try to get close enough to herd the wee bugger back into the gate and field, off he took, soaring at a heady height of..um...six feet or so...over the fence and into the neighbouring farmers field. Then he would vanish into the reeds so we couldnae see him, or hide beside the pond, the one in the dip atween two fields or the one beside the track.
Well anyways, with the help of a family friend, we herded the small flock of them into the porch, quite an enclosed space, and for a while the air rang with the clamour of angry hissing geese and cursing bloke holding tight onto them as he clipped each one`s wing, making a right ruin of the feathers, but for necessity. I dinnae want to lose any of the geese to the beckoning flocks of their wild cousins.
So, that`s one pre winter job done, sigh.
My fella is here with me at the moment, Frans. He`s from Flanders. I often wonder if he expected the change in climate....from relatively balmy Belgium to freezing and windy Orkney.....urk...
but he helped me clear the gutterings last week, another pre winter job, as yearly they get silted up with debris from the adjoining rooves of the outbuildings which abutt the porch roof and so all gutterings kind of meet up. There were the remains of birds nests in one stretch of them, and silt and grass growing in the other....*blushes in shame, almost*....but they are clear now and what with the endless rain we`ve had today, should have been pretty well cleaned.
So I only have a few more pre winter jobs to do....shifting the large round hay and straw bales into an outbuilding under shelter, putting the finishing touches to the geeses shelter made from pallets. Also got to get a decent day to dig up the tatties from the tattie patch.

I have been giving Frans driving lessons. That is funny if you have ever seen my driving or known of the various....erm...adventures in parking and reversing I`ve had over time. All those jokes about women drivers? They`re all true....
but I`m surprised at how quickly he is picking it up, and he`s watching me type this right now so I`d better also say how good he is at it.....:D
I have come to the conclusion that he has an great and illustrious career in stunt driving.
He does the tightest circles I ever saw. And sitting in the car as he does them, well, it generates G forces that leave me a little shaken. But not stirred....:P
So far, I`ve resisted his attempts at parking or reversing. Need more courage to face that, har...

I got a new peedie car though...an ancient but well kept Peugot, one lady owner (really! no, that isn`t an Arthur Daley line!) and ok, she has her quirks....the gears are soooo stiff I`m gonna have arm muscles like a weight lifter in a week or so....and the steering is a little on the clunky side...but it`s a grand wee car for all that.

So, winter fast approaches. Travel is becoming more limited here, not just cos of the ferry mularkey whenever a boat breaks doon but because the winds fairly whip the sea into a fury, and I stand and watch the peedie fishing boats bounce up and doon on the swell and thank the gods I`m not on one of them.

And, it`s cosy, in the evenings, when it`s dark outside the window, and I have my man to snuggle up to, and sit in the warmth beside the stove.

Work

2008-10-07T03:44:00.000-07:00

I`d say, with the coming of October gales, rain, sleet and hail, that Autumn has bypassed us and gone straight into winter. Boy, but it`s COLD here!
With all the thoroughly depressing news....the UK is officially in recession now, something yours truly has known for a while, with rising food and fuel costs, basics like heating your home, eating, paying utility bills takes most of your money and luxuries must be discarded or postponed until...one hopes...kinder, more fertile times come round again....

I tan animal skins for a living. It hasn`t made me rich..far from it...but of course these products are considered luxury items. So it`s with some trepidation I look to the future, like so many others, and wonder what it holds for me.
Before, with winter approaching, folks looked to find a little bit of comfort, and luxury, and wanted natural products like sheepskin rugs for their homes, to put onto chairs for warm soft padding, or for the floor, next to a bed over that (cold!) laminate flooring, to sink shivering toes into before dashing to the loo of a wintry frosty morn!
But I see the effects of recession like everyone else.
Been wondering if I should introduce more products into my work....I have a whole tanned cowhide there sitting waiting to be made into handbags....got skins to be hand sewn into cosy winter slippers....but every time I try and think of other things I could maybe do, the mind goes utterly blonde...if this thing had smilies, I`d insert a blushing one here right now.....
Still though, work doesn`t stop, so I just get on with it. This week I`m working on the most gorgeous chocolate coloured skin, with pale grey tips, so the finished rug will look like bitter chocolate that was dusted with icing sugar. Lovely to work on.
And combing and working soft creamy white single sheepskin rugs. The slippers and bags will be real winter work, evenings and days spent indoors, beside the stove, the lamps lit and a tartan rug over my knees as I cut, piece and hand stitch.
Often, I wonder, if I had the means, would I go as industrial as I could? Maybe a machine to do the job instead of hand stitching...or a fleshing machine for the raw hides instead of by hand?
Probably not. Might be silly thinking, by rejecting such technology, but right now I`m only one person in this business, so what would such things benefit me? Can only make so many rugs in a week, or stitch so many bags and slippers over a winter....
Besides, I kinda pride myself on the hand crafting element of it all.

I think, whatever the future holds for the world now, this recession will bite hard. I remember my grandparents talking about rationing during the second world war, and how hard it was for folks back then. Clothes had to be patched and worn til they fell apart and even then, the rags were reused for household things or cut down for childrens clothes.
So many foods we take for granted now, just didn`t exist or weren`t allowed or couldn`t get into the UK.
Luxuries definately did not get priority.....not for a long time after the war ended.
But amid the stories of gloom and hardship, I listened to Gran talk of the way folks banded together amid tough times and looked out for one another. And of how such frugality stuck with them for the rest of their lives, and taught them the value of things, which seems to have gone awol in a world that likes disposability of material possessions and takes it for granted that they will always be able to procure more of the same....or bigger, better things...

Like so many others, I know there are tough times ahead for folks not just in the UK but in other countries too, that are used to relative prosperity.
Here, at least, there are some of us lucky enough to have had the benefit of knowing folks who lived through older, also hard times, and remember a little, at least, of how they managed.
Thrift and frugality...well...they do say, that the wartime diet produced Brits that were fitter and healthier than the so called prosperous diet of today....

But of course, with luxury items being my livelihood, it`s with a wary eye I look to the future, and no little fear pondering what it holds.
Time, like everyone else, to tighten the belts methinks.
(and hey, I`m already pretty skinny....tsk.....)

For everyone going through this recession, hang in there and hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst. And you could do worse than look to past times for some know how on just how to get through it all with body and soul intact.

And, More Orkney Weather....

2008-10-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

It`s blowing a hoolie oot there! For the past few days, we`ve had gales, even hail and sleet at times. In October....
And, I did think that was rare, unusual, but then remembered my childhood in Sutherland. We lived in Doll, a few miles nearby Brora. In a peedie crofthouse nestled among the hills and trees. And each winter the snows would start, granted, usually late in October, but still, nothing like you see now, where you can go the whole winter without seeing a bloody flake! I hate that, no snow....it doesn`t seem right, somehow...
anyways, the snows would start, not the wild white blizzards we can get here, that have nothing in the way of them, so they scour the island and drift against stone dykes, the hollows and dips of rutted tracks, the sides of houses. But soft, decent, proper snow, the fat stuff, that squeaked like polystyrene when you walked on it, igloo snow, and after a wee while it would even `lock` us in, so that the school bus often wouldn`t be able to make it, and my sister and I spent some quality time off school, running wild, among the hills and trees of Sutherland.
Dad was a poacher. He sometimes took me out in the snow, showing me the tracks of beasts and how to follow where they went.
But my best memories are the times I went out alone. In those days, you didn`t have paranoid mothers fretting you`d get double pneumonia every time you stepped out without your coat. I was bundled up and allowed to roam where I liked, so long as I got home for supper.
I had a favourite place, down the field and into the trees that surrounded the wee burn that trickled through the place, nothing grand but to me, it was a secret river, something of magic, and I could watch it change with the seasons, watch the ice and frosts make it slow and glitter in the low winter sunlight that filtered through the trees, watch it later in spate as the snows melted, wondering if it would break its banks, but it never did. Then it looked, to my childs eyes, an angry beast of water, churning and rushing onto a destination I never knew til older, toward Loch Brora.
But winter, in that space, was special. It was `my` place. A spot beneath fir trees, a seat made of moulded snow, and the special, beautiful, hush and silence of a winters day.
Snow falling is a wonderful thing. It makes a space intimate, quiet, serene. It encloses you and makes where you are the only place in the world that matters. It casts its own light, something of the Sidhe, softly glowing and gentle, dim but clear against a dark slate sky.
And if I sat there long enough, just being quiet, just daydreaming, sooner or later some beast would pass by. Mouse or pine marten, stoat, maybe, white for winter with only that black tip of a betraying tail. Owls....pigeons...once, a kestrel, a bright flash of rust flitting through the trees, high enough that I`d to crick my neck to see.
But the snow, well, that made it special. Feet deep, it got, and often we were snowed in, and I remember well Dad having to get the shovel out that he kept in the pantry next to the scullery, to dig a path out the door or we wouldn`t have gotten out at all! And to us kids, it felt like the earth made a womb of white for us, a cocoon to keep us safe from harsher weather. We loved it!
Though now, I can appreciate how hard it must have been for Mam and Dad to actually get any work done.....
A few times, here on Sanday, there have been such snow falls that cause drifts. Still nothing of the calibre of Sutherland winters, but still respectable enough for me to enjoy in that same old way, of wonder, and enchantment, and sheer good fun as I start making a slippery and possibly lethal slide down the track (and yes, I`m forty something, ahem...but tell me why I should `grow up`, huh?)

So...maybe these early gales, the hint of sleet and hail, maybe it`s all a suggestion of an early winter, maybe even one we`ll get some real snow in?
Climate change...bloody awful thing it is...all it has given us here, in Orkney, is more prolonged and severe winds, damaging things they are. Not more snow. Not even more rain, though it can sometimes feel like it. Just winter winds, that disrupt the ferries and make working outdoors pretty harsh on lung and limb.

Well, it`s Sunnasdag, and the gale has gone on all night, winds howling round the door, across the chimneys, making eerie music.....
it even, due to my archaic plumbing (and hey, that is the HOUSE plumbing, not my actual own, cough...) sucks the water out of the loo.....mind you, that depends which way the gales blow...from the south, it sucks the water out. From the north, and it blows the ruddy stuff all over the bathroom floor.
The sky has a soft, cushioned, fat, cloudy look to it, tinted rose right now as the sun rises somewhere behind it all. The rose hedge in front of the window swirls and dances to a wild tune, and I know the wind bites with a pre winter chill that reaches bone....
This beautiful wee island is athrong with wild geese and ducks now. They darken the skies with their flight, their song, harsh to some but one I find beautiful, wild, beckoning, pierces the air even at night, even above the rant of the wind. Such freedom, to be a wild bird....

There`s to be a military exercise soon, over Scotland and Orkney. That means, in actuality, roaring jets flying at head height over this low lying isle. I wonder how the wild geese will take that. I wonder if they will stay. And I wonder how the folks that like the quiet and calm of this place will like it being shattered on a daily basis when, literally, out of the blue, the skies roar sudden thunder.

Orkney Weather

2008-10-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

Or should that be, Sanday weather. Sanday is the small North Isle I live on. It has, apparently, it`s own microclimate, since I used to phone my daughter, who lives on mainland Orkney, and ask her, `What`s the weather like there, the day?` and she`d say sunny, or rainy, or snowing, depending on what it was doing. And here, it would be totally different.
Hell, even from one end of the isle to the other, the weather can vary! At the north end you can have bright and glorious sun and mild warmth, and where I am, it can be snowing and I can`t get out my driveway for the drifting of it!
Yup...too much weather, and meteorologists, to give weather folks their posh name, cannot get it right, it seems...
for every time I see the weather forecast on tv, there`s a wee black cloud over Orkney. It can be bright and sunny and we`ve got our equivalent of a heatwave....(that`s 15 degrees for those further south basking in REAL heat) but nope, on that weather map, there`s a peedie black cloud....
many folks over the UK don`t even know what Orkney looks like, for they think it`s cloud shaped.....
Well though, this morning, we are on the tail end of the gale we had last night...bit early for one, October, just....maybe winter will come early.
The wind fairly howled all night and I was glad I`d made sure all the barn doors and outbuildings were shut down tight and secure. But here, at least, structures are generally built to withstand such things, made of heavy stone, slate and ancient ships timbers.
So it`s rare to get storm damage, though it has happened in the past...usually the odd window gets blown out and you`re out there at two in the morning nailing boards up to the gap in a Force 10. Great fun.
Haven`t been outdoors yet to check for damage but if there is any it`ll likely be light.
But, I look out the window, and see the rose hedge being blown all ways, since the wind is right down from the North, and see the wind-seared grass along the track flatten down in the gusts, and see the clouds scud angrily across the slate grey skies like furies running to battle, and watch the sea churn and seethe like a cauldron of venom.
Aye, it`s a tad windy today............

First New Blog

2008-10-02T23:14:00.000-07:00

Okies...here I am, never thought I`d be doing this, making a new blog. I turned my back on online life a wee while ago, seemed to me to be full of shallow things and lots of folks pretending to be what they weren`t, and, well, I didn`t have so much time to spend online, so........

Bit about me then, for anyone who ever reads this, not sure anyone will since I don`t intend to share the addy around, hee....

My name is Tricia, and I live on one of the Orkney Isles. I`m Scots born though, and often miss Scotland. Orkney, as any Orcadian will tell ye, isn`t really `Scottish`.
But for the past almost-twenty years, Orkney has been good to me. There are worse places to live!
I get homesick at times though......

I tan animal hides for a living. Not glamorous, mucky and sometimes smelly job, it is. But it`s a (meagre) living.
I have one adult son still living with me. My girls are also grown and living their own lives elsewhere.
I keep a few goats, for meat and skins and poultry, for meat and eggs...ducks, geese and hens...and have a couple or three barn cats, and one old sheepdog called Lassie who still thinks she`s a pup.
I`m 47 going on about a hundred some days. Other days that might be sixteen, ye never know...

That`s about it, for an introductory post. I`m fairly boring, lead a quiet life and nothing much happens to me, which is kinda how I like it.

My aims? To make my business work...being self employed in todays econimic climate is very tough....
and to get through the rest of my life with as little fuss and trouble as possible.
And maybe, in some of that, to be happy.........