91热爆

We've been having really good weather these last few weeks. Maureen has cleared out her greenhouse; it's really the old coal shed but with the original leaky roof replaced by clear, corrugated plastic one. I've converted the old outside lavatory, which is fairly good condition, into a "potting shed". After whitewashing the interior walls and roof it now seems much less gloomy. In there I've put some lettuce plants we were given, they seem to be thriving, and I've put a few cauliflower seeds and radish seeds into small pots and they seem to be growing OK. One day in July it was so hot that it actually melted the tarred road outside the Fire Station. We're not used to these temperatures!

Mike & Sheila's ducks have raised a brood but one duckling has been brought up by one of their hens and refuses to go anywhere near the duck pond despite the best efforts of Mike & Sheila to encourage it. If the duckling strays too far from its "mother" hen the hen just clucks and the duckling scurries back.

Although we're basking in sunshine we've an eye on the winter so we bought a couple of portable electric lanterns to cope with any power cuts. They are the "wind up" type which will also run from a 12 volt car battery. They should prove very handy and experimentation has shown that about a minute of "winding" will provide around 30 minutes of light.

I went over to Kirkwall on the Friday before the County Show and the weather was fine and warm. Of course on the following day it poured down in the afternoon. It was my first visit to mainland for some weeks and I was surprised to find that Orkney Ferries have moved into the 21st century and the ferry fares can now be paid on board by credit or debit card instead of the old system of either cash or cheque. Whilst in Kirkwall I visited the "new" Tesco store (previously owned by various groups including Presto, Safeway/Morrisons and Somerfield) and noticed that it's still mostly the same staff who've been there through all the changes of ownership. There was some controversy when Tesco announced that they were going to buy the store from Somerfield and even more controversy when Tesco announced that they wanted to build an extension to the store. The store was closed for several weeks when Tesco took over which, apparently, caused quite a bit of congestion in both the Co-op and Lidl stores.

It's our custom to listen to the "Book at Bedtime" on 91热爆 Radio 4. However, at the beginning of each episode the announcers have developed the annoying habit of telling listeners what's going to happen next instead of just giving a resume of what's happened in previous episodes. Yet another reason for me to shout at the wireless.

It's the next month. All of the events are on mainland but on Thu 11 Sep and Fri 12 Sep there is a special event on Stronsay which centres on the 200 year old mystery of "Stronsay Beast". I've booked our tickets, if you're interested in the event I've posted the details on the

Margareth has yet another "mystery" plant! In the photographs below, just at the back of the Mother in laws tongue, is a pot containing four huge (Spanish onion size) bulbs. Out of each bulb grows about a 3ft long "snake" which then branches and produce little white dandelion-like clocks. It does not have leaves and the flowers are tiny, about the size of a garden pea (a pea in the pod not the pod). Margareth inherited this plant 4 years ago and says that she has done nothing with it except neglect it, it gets water from the capillary action of the bench it sits on and lives in an old 8" plastic glue pot. What is it?