18 August 2023 Beechbrae, and Orkney memories

(2hrs) Today I took my completed 'memory staff' from Orkney to show everyone at Beechbrae. This is a hazel stick on which I practiced my whittling skills, and other crafts, to create visual reminders of things I encountered while on Orkney in June. Some of the work was done on the island, and the rest at home. From the top, which is decorated with a wool skein I spun myself while on Orkney, through shells from various locations, and pictures of the history and nature of Orkney, it is a roughly chronological depiction of the present day through mediaeval times, to the Vikings, Picts, Neolithic people and back to an early fossil found nearby at the bottom. On the reverse I practiced relief carving (never again - it's HARD!) to sign my name in Viking runes. At Beechbrae today we trimmed rocket (again! it grows fast), harvested vegetables, mended a path with gravel, and dug out an old raised bed whose timbers were rotten. Hard, physical work, I'll be developing muscles if this continues!