91热爆

I had to pop online, to pay tribute to two of the finest folks I know. On the fourth, Mark and Geri tie the knot, get hitched, married, wed, shackled...hee....
In all the time I`ve known this pair, every time they come into my thoughts, there is never anything to jar or wrankle.....nobody can ever say an unkind word against either of them for although they are tough and fierce enough to protect those they love from harm, there isn`t a bad bone in either body.
Real Celts, these two......they might not run screaming into battle against encroaching Romans (though, given half a chance, Geri would give it a go....) but they both encapsulate their heritage in a fine manner, nothing stagnant or dry, but embodying the best of a proud Irish past brought into the present with solid knowledge and intelligence, and coupled with a healthy humour and kindness that will take them into a future that is bound to be good for them, because beneath it all, they love one another.
Some of the finest times I ever had were in the company of this pair...a great deal of fun, laughter and wise words were passed atween us all when they were here, and they are both welcome at my home anytime they want to be here, and that is a permanent thing, and not something I allow everyone. ;-)
I wish I could be at the wedding, guys, and am gutted to be missing it, but you both know that I wish you the very best the future can bring, and know that the both of you were just meant for each other.....I can see the day now, and know, Ger, that you`ll look beautiful, and you, Mark will be handsome, and that the sun will shine on you both, and nothing will breach the happiness you`ll both be feeling.

I`m expecting pictures, mind you!

Slainte Mhath!

Couple of new costumes, there are still more in the making, but think it`s safe to say, I got the bellydance costume bug.
Um..y`know, for those of you (you know who you are ) who reckon I`m showing too much flesh? Well, do an online image search for professional bellydancers and see the difference...I`m practically a nun by comparism...*winks*...
Besides, if I were on a tropical beach in a bikini, you`d be seeing more, so behave yourselves. (and I had to say tropical beach, cos the thought of wearing a bikini on an Orkney beach, even in summer, is suicidal, frankly....)
I am still making the shimmy belt for the pink silk costume, so that`s still to go around the hips. There`s also a matching veil on the go for the new green skirt and belt set. :-)
Got zills too, but neither `tuneful` nor `musical` are my middle names, so they need a fair bit of practice. Having fun with it though!
Learned some new moves, perfected my rib rolls (at last!) and got the shimmies down to a fine art.
Gonna work on a tribal/gothic costume next though, love that `I flung everything at it` look. :-) Will be making my own wool hair falls though, and have yet to learn how to tie the scarves around my hair without them falling over my face halfway through dancing....someone kindly suggested pinning dangly earrings on them so will try that.
Also finding some fabulous music to dance to! Hossam Ramzy, and anyone remember a song called I`m Nin Alu..? Not sure I spelled that right though...

Off to find the black kohl and crimson lipstick now. :-)
P.S If anyone wants any tips on the costume making, though I`m hardly an expert, be more than happy to put them on here. :-)

Doesn`t that just sound like a song? :D
Today was glorious, mild, warm even, and sunny, and so yours truly took advantage of it. Doesn`t look like much but in that vegetable plot there are a few rows of tatties and beetroot, and spring onions.
And even the hens look cleaner in the sunshine after last weeks mucky rain!
And there are my hides, gently drying in the bright sunshine. And finally! A splash of colour...my daffodils are blooming, yay!
What a cracking day! We need more of the same, medicine and balm for the soul, a sunny day is....

Now that spring/summer/those few brief days it isn`t sleeting sideways, is here, I can do more work outside. It`s hard though really, because I`m having to juggle `real` work...tanning and processing the hides..and the much needed work outdoors to mend fences and repair damage done by the winter storms, and get the garden dug over, planted and sown, so that come autumn, I`ll have some food, and meat, and not a wild and unkempt garden..well...ok..so it always does look kinda unkempt but still, am striving to lessen that a little....*blushes*
I have two nesting geese..they both sit on the one nest, can you imagine, folks, what that would be like with humans? Two women in the same household...both thinking they are boss? Doesn`t bear thinking about, huh?
anyways...they both sit the nest, but the flock of geese have eaten the grass around the front down to the soil and to give it time to recover I thought, move the four geese not nesting round the back to the peedie field, which has stone dykes on three sides with a gate in one of them, and chicken wired fencing on the fourth, leading out to a farmers field.
So the night before last, caught the geese, shoved them round the back with food and water, all hunkydory.
Next morning, there they were, round the front again....
So, catch the wee bu*gers, clip their wings, put them back again last night...
this morning, there they are again, round the front.
Now, I checked the fencing..it`s ok...
Checked they couldn`t fly with clipped wings..they can`t..
checked the gate in case there`s a hole in it maybe they can wriggle under...none...
so...ARGH! I`m going crazy trying to figure out how they`re doing it!
So will catch them...again!...today, put them back, triple check there are no holes they can escape from and if they do it again I might just need to instal CCTV cams to spy on em.
(that was a joke btw)
Aside from the geese, I got a pile of hides to work today, and rain is forecast...and need more garden work done, and, oh, just a pile of other things that the day doesn`t really expand to fit, what eejit said that time expands to fit the work available? Well, they LIED! Dirty big fibbers....growl.....

And what ah`m ah daein`? Sittin` on me behookey writin` a blog...hee.....

Have a bonny day folks...

I was kept awake all last night by a bird.
Nope, I`m not a bloke, and nope, it wasn`t THAT kinda bird!
The feathered kind. I`m not a twitcher so have no idea about the bulk of breeds of birds that visit this lump of rock.
(well, aside from the plumply edible ones, that is....)
but I do know we often get immigrant birds blown off course, or who mysteriously (in the way of blind eejits, like..) mistake Sanday for somewhere altogether more exotic.
This one kept up, near my bedroom window, its exotic, unheard of before, and LOUD cry all bleedin` night....
Now, all you RSPB members of a senstive nature shut your eyes now....

If I`d had a gun handy I`d`ve went outside and been dining on roast whatever-it-is, this morning.

Right, ye can look again now....


Anyways, after a sleepless night I didn`t need, thanks, at the crack of dawn out I goes, to see if I can find the little bug...erm.....darling....
because, hey, it might have been injured, maybe, and needed help, and as well as that, having never heard the like of it afore, I wanted to see what it was.
But in the twilight and with my eyesight (put it this way, can someone please buy me a seeing eye dog? thank you...) I didnae find it.

I can`t even replicate the sound it made, so nobody will be able to tell me what it is. Because it`s still....out there....*points with sweeping arm to whole island*.,,,,
and if it makes that ruddy racket ootside me bedroom window again all night I WILL shoot the besom.....*glares at all bird kind*

Took me years, as it is, to get used to my too-many cockerels crowing away half the night in summertime, well, in what passes for night this far north...if you can call it that, when you don`t get darkness and have to wear those daft eye masks or use blackout blinds to sleep.
I have five cockerels left, it`s only laziness that has stopped me topping them for the soup pot.
But there`s one in particular that might go first.....
he`s the one who jumps up on me windowsill and glares in at me, a kind of Mexican stare-off.....
he`s the one who, when I take out a scoop of grain to throw down to them, jumps up on my arm, so greedy he is, and begins pecking like fury to stuff his sharp beak.
And oh, yes, that beak IS sharp. He sometimes misses the scoop and hits me arm.
I suspect, deliberately........*glares at chook on windowledge*
*chook glares back....*

Remember Hitchcock`s The Birds? I saw that when I was wee (um, maybe at my height I should say, younger?)
and it scared the bejayzus outta me.
So, after another sleepless night, with the twilight clinging to the morning, it`s tempting to think the noisy visitor last night may only have been the vanguard of a bird invasion of this tiny, defenseless island, so if the world doesnae hear from Sanday in a peedie while, ye`ll know why.......

*walks off whistling Twilight Zone theme..............*

Aw, ok, have to say, lately, we`ve had some right bonny weather really. :-)
But today was just the day to wash the car...see before and after pics *smug smile of satisfaction* and a few other pics of nothing much, just a bit of domesticity aroond the place....
It was also the first day of the year I let my remaining goats outside, they love it, basking in the sun, nibbling the fresh spring grass, quite content...as is the dumpy little brown hen sitting atop a clutch of about a dozen and a half eggs....she puffs herself out to the limit, to keep that lot covered!
And, well...my washing line...nothing marvellous..except, there is something quite special about bringing the line dried washing in at the end of the day, hanging it on the pulley over the stove, and having the scent of fresh Orkney air waft throughout the room.