May 2025

5th May – Now that the weather is getting warmer my little garden is starting to show some colour now. It’s nice to see the cornflowers out, but the plant is being bullied by a comfrey, which I don’t think I planted. After they’ve flowered I might try and dig them up and separate them, might be risky though.

The little wall by the front window is looking nice too at the moment. I’d like to get rid of the tulips but the bulbs are buried in the stonework.

6th May – The woods around Happy Valley are still full of bluebells, probably finished elsewhere, but they give a nice splash of colour under the trees as the leaf cover increases.

There has been so little rain lately that water levels in the little burn are getting low.

7th May – We’ve been watching this strange workboat / barge combination coming and going for a couple of weeks. We never found out where it was working but it left today under escort from the pilot launch.

9th May – Another warm day and we were invited up to Dounby for tea in the garden with Terry and Judith. Both keen birders they have a lot of feeders in their garden attracting a wide variety of birds, including this redpoll and some greenfinches.

12th May – After an absence of sixteen years, the Blood Transfusion Service has returned to Orkney. They are using the sports hall at Pickaquoy Centre for three days. This first day was well attended and they had to turn people away.

Due to the ferry timetables they could only operate until 2 pm, then get the blood packed up and sent to Aberdeen. This donation brings me up to 21 pints, heading for three gallons!

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We had an unusual arrival in Stromness this morning – a floating museum!

SS Hestmanden is a Norwegian steamer, which since 2017 has served as Norsk krigsseilermuseum (the Norwegian War Sailor Museum) and a national memorial for the War Sailors. Hestmanden is the only preserved cargo ship that has sailed in convoys during both World War I and World War II. It is the only remaining ship of the more than 1,000 that were part of the Nortraship fleet during World War II, and therefore represents a central part of Norway’s war history and maritime history. (ex Wikipedia)

13th May – The Hestmanden docked successfully yesterday and today opened its gangplank for visitors.

As mentioned before, it has now been converted into a floating museum to celebrate the courage of Norwegian merchant seafarers in both World Wars. The exhibition halls are surprisingly large and well presented and one area contains a cinema. The ship at one time could carry one hundred passengers with ten in First Class. The exhibits extend over three decks, and, unusually for a museum, the custodians live on board.

Judging by the galley facilities the crew and custodians are not in First Class.

14th May – There are currently two cruise ships in Stromness at the moment. The Portuguese registered Sea Spirit and the French vessel La Bellot.

Sea Spirit was able to moor at one of the piers, but the larger French boat had to anchor in Cairston Roads and ferry its guests in to the town on little shuttle boats.

15th May – It’s Thursday evening and the Stromness Sailing Club are out in force, enjoying this unprecedented warm and sunny weather.

22nd May – My French restaurant supply business is coming along nicely. The tadpoles in the peedie pond are developing their back legs now.

I think they are about eight or nine weeks old now, so next stage will be the appearance of front legs. followed by disappearance of the tail.

27th May – I’m amazed at the pace of development of these small creatures. Although many are still tadpoles, several are now clearly frogs, albeit with tails.

The long spell of, relatively, warm weather must have been beneficial, and, sheltered in the pond, they’re not affected by the current gales that we are experiencing.

30th May – Things going apace now in the pond. I think the first froglet has packed his bags and left. We watched this little chap climb out and disappear into the grass.

It’s good that they are maturing this early, hopefully this will give them a chance to spend a long summer in the garden. In August last year they were still at this stage.

Spotted our first damselfly in the pond, I hope this indicates a healthy environment for them.