Feed

(2hrs) Last week I made contact with the leader of the Friends of Almondell group to volunteer (they meet on Thursdays). Today I learned to use a scythe with Stuart and Ian from Friends of Almondell. It was stupidly humid and 23C, so i'm absolutely knackered. But it was very interesting, trying to get the knack it's all in the swing of the blade. My section looked chewed rather than cut compared to the experts, but not bad for a first attempt. Watched a baby buzzard crying unsuccessfully for food, while its parent ignored it. Also sat by the pond for 30 mins but not much going on, in or around it. Lovely to sit in the shade of the ancient chestnut tree next to the pond - it's so old some of its branches have sagged to the ground.

(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!

(1.5 hrs) Today I cut the front hedge & grass. My hedge is massive, about 45' long, so it takes a full day and several recharges of the hedge clipper to finish. I checked carefully for nests first, but because the hedge is only hip-high, and there are cats around, the birds prefer to be higher up. The hedge is a nice mixed deciduous one, already planted when we arrived 30 years ago, dense and unruly if not given regular attention. Cotoneaster, quince, berberis, escallonia, vibirnum, potentilla... a bit of everything! I left the scrap of front lawn uncut in the spring, and was delighted to find a number of wildflowers I'd never seen before appearing. Ten different ones, including fox and cubs, flatweed, foxgloves, oxalis, clover, self-heal, birds foot trefoil, as well as the usual daisies and buttercups. Eventually I had to trim it - it was lowering the tone of my suburban street, ha ha. The bees have had my big white hebe to enjoy as well.

(2hrs) A sunny day at Beechbrae. We reinstated the labyrinth by rebuilding the woodchip heaps in which the herbs grow that separate the paths - the harsh winter damaged a lot of plants so they are not acting as a barrier. (good pics), Lots of weeding & mulch, in between chasing butterflies and admiring the variety of weird bugs in the pile of woodchip, Floofy cat Reyna watched this activity in bemusement, before giving a demonstration of how to relax in the sun.

Watched 'Magic Numbers' TV show with Hannah Fry. Today I learned (I'm paraphrasing) that the only good explanation for the efficiency of the way plant chlorophyll converts sunlight to energy involves quantum physics - the cells simultaneously distribute their energy to all possible points at once. Sort of. For a better explanation, see this article: https://www.azoquantum.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=281 (picture from website referenced)

(6 hours) BANFF First day in Canada, and an 8 hours trip to the Rockies to enjoy the wilderness. Our bus tour guide was full of facts, some of them a bit dubious (though jetlag made it hard to tell). For example, Alberta has no rats, in 1950s they were all hunted down and exterminated. In Calgary the last rat found was 2013, he said. The Rockies are mostly limestone and quartz, and on the way to Banff, we passed the Hoodoos, columns of limestone carved by water, which are sacred to local indigenous people. First stop was Lake Minnewaka, which allegedly contains a monster similar to the Loch Ness monster. It was lovely, but as we soon found out, the tour was structured on the 'and if you think that's good, wait till you see the next place!' principle. The local ground squirrels are friendly, but there is a $25k fine if you feed them, or any other wildlife, and our guide says they may have rabies. Cute but deadly. Next stop was Banff, where our guide claimed the crows have been trained to pick up litter in return for food, by the rangers, who got the idea from Sweden. There definitely was a project in Sweden (and in a themepark in France https://www.popsci.com/crows-trained-to-pick-up-trash/ ), and Banff was certainly clean. Our next stop was Lake Louise. On the main highway we passed under a couple of 'animal highways', bridges with fences that guide the wildlife onto them, so they don't get run over/cause an accident. Lake Louise is beautiful, and can be photographed as if it's a wilderness, but in fact it's very crowded, with coachloads of tourists in quite a small space. I had a paddle in the beautiful blue water, painfully cold as 6 glaciers feed the lake. After that, onwards to Lake Moraine, which is high up and even more beautiful. I walked up to a viewpoint above the lake, which would have had a good view of the 'ten alps' and their glaciers, had the weather been less drizzly. I eventually realised that the feeling of familiarity I had came from it looking quite a lot like Aviemore! Rocks, fir trees, water, raining,,, The ground squirrels are cuter, maybe, but otherwise I felt quite at home, only the scale of the mountains was bigger. On the bus journey back over the plain to Calgary I hoped for a bear, but the most exotic wildlife I saw was a small herd of wild horses.

Although John Muir is mostly associated with America, he did visit Vancouver Island on his way to Alaska. This was his description of his first sight of the Island on Monday, August 2nd, 1880: MY DEAR WIFE: All goes well. In a few hours we will be in Victoria. The voyage thus far has been singularly calm and uneventful. Vancouver Island is on [the] left in fine clear view, with forests densely packed in every hollow and over every bill and mountain. How beautiful it is! How deep and shadowy its canons, how eloquently it tells the story of its sculpture during the Age of Ice! How perfectly virgin it is! Ships loaded with Nanaimo coal and Puget Sound coal and lumber, a half- dozen of them, are about us, beating their way down the strait, and here and there a pilot boat to represent civilization, but not one scar on the virgin shore, nor the smoke of a hut or camp. I have just been speaking with a man who has spent a good deal of time on the island. He says that so impenetrable is the underbrush, his party could seldom make more than two miles a day though assisted by eight Indians. Only the shores are known. (https://www.electricscotland.com/history/muir/vol10_chapter4.htm) PHOTO: mine, taken from the ferry crossing the strait between Victoria and Vancouver