June 2022

Welcome to this month's images of our new life on our North Ronaldsay croft, a four minute read enjoyed best with a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Tilly continues to enjoy life indoors and loves sitting in the deep window sills.

Zara enjoys her lush new paddock

and this one is especially for Wilma's fan club, just too tired to lay down.

Malcolm has been repairing the walls on a stone shelter and made a good job,

the stone roof will be going back on soon

and Malc, a lone figure, gathering seaweed for the veg patch

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This month's flora on the island

any crack will do

and the island's birds and sheep make for beautiful evening walks

spot the nesting birds at the base of the stone wall

the colours and caves of the island

  

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A bit of fun

from Orkney Farmers Facebook page

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North Ronaldsay lighthouse at 42 metres high is the highest land-based light house in the UK and is remarkable.

Billy Muir the lighthouse keeper gives tours on most days throughout the summer months, Malcolm and I help with these tours and take people to the top, saves going to the gym !

On the left in the next photo the stone wall enclosures are called "punds", used for gathering the seaweed-eating sheep and the round, stone wall enclosures are called "crues", originally used for growing vegetables, each cottage on the island would have had one.

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Poem of the month

Billy is the lighthouse keeper,

he's got his O.B.E,

for over fifty years now

he's safe-guarded men at sea.

I am just the lighthouse girl,

I'll take you to the top

and if you need a breather

then halfway up just stop.

You'll climb those stairs until

you're forty meters high

and on the windswept balcony

you'll almost touch the sky.

You'll look south along North Ronaldsay

and see the punds and crues

and if you're very lucky

an orca or two.

You'll look across the North Sea

 and maybe see Fair Isle

but if it's very cloudy

you'll need to wait a while.

Looking north to Norway

it's four hundred miles away

and if you're sailing westwards

you'll come to Hudson Bay.

Billy will tell the story

and all the reasons why

but I am just the lighthouse girl

and I'll take you to the sky.

June Purvis

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North Ronaldsay has a lovely exhibition of old photographs in the old kirk that was set up as a millennium project

well worth a visit if you are on the island

Notice the size of these stone slabs being heaved up onto the roof, they are huge !!

It wasn't until 1983 when electricity was first installed on the island

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This is a lovely idea  ~

North Ronaldsay Community Garden

The community garden has seed available for anyone interested in growing a 1m x1m plot of a Scandinavian wheat mix.

There will be a harvest event in September where you can learn to thresh, winnow, milk and bake with the grains you have grown.

Please get in touch if you would like a packet of seed.

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Malcolm and I have both had a go at sheep shearing, our first attempt and very slow but I think there will be plenty of opportunity to do more in a few weeks time if we want to.

The goat in the background knows that it's safe from the shears and us.

I thought that having a trailer to take Wilma to the beach would help my cycling but it didn't help at all.

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Quote of the month

from Charlie Mackesy on Istagram,

from his book "The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse"

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The weather here has been mixed but on a windy day last week one of our neighbours put out a plea on What's app:

"we lost a grey bed sheet to the wind today. Let us know if you find it in your garden ! "

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At this time of year it doesn't really get dark at all here, so this seems to be an appropriate parting 

from Tao & Zen Facebook page

Until next month, we wish you peaceful, happy days,

Malcolm & June

💛💜💛💜💛