Greetings from Orkney!
Hello, I want to say a big thank you for giving me such a warm welcome. I have loved reading your comments here on the blog and chatting to you on Instagram. Many of you have visited Orkney in the past while so many of you have ancestors here. Some of you have asked questions about life here and I hope to cover as many of these as I can as we go along in the future.
One of the things I had really wanted to show you was all the lovely daffodils that appear at this time of year. Even the verges of the small narrow roads are awash with the bright cheery yellow of this spring flowering plant. Sadly though, before I had chance to take some photographs, we had a week of gales, freezing temperatures and winterly showers. They just didn’t stand a chance especially with the high amount of salt the gales had whipped up into the air. Those that were in bloom or just about to flower are now looking very sorry for themselves and are brown and wilting.
However, I noticed today, while enjoying a cup of tea up in Tam the Van (at a beautiful beach in the West Mainland) that those plants that were later flowering and so we're nicely tucked up and protected when the wintery storms hit are now bursting into flower. I hope that means some of those along the verges will have survived too. In Orkney the appearance of daffodils signify the end of the long dark days of winter, the prospect of summer and the many hours of day light that brings.
In crafty news a lot has been happening. I finished a jumper and have started to learn a few embroidery stitches however it’s very early days on the embroidery front. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen my happy jumper Finished Object (FO) photos! I have posted all the information on my FO post but the design is Vinterskov by Karie Westermann. Even in the summer it can be cool here so I know it will get lots of wear over the coming months. I am off now to start my homework ready the 2nd half of my online embroidery workshop, wish me luck!
Until next time take care
Isla
If you would like to see more of Orkney and what I am up to you can find me on Instagram as @islap1k1.
If you missed Isla's first blog post here at The Woolly Thistle, you can find it here.
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Daffodils -great hearing about them – ours don’t have as hard a time. -
Thank you for writing your blog and showing us Orkney through your eyes. I love the knitted items you wear!
What a beautiful sunny day on Orkney! Not what I expected to see. We have loads and loads of daffodils here, especially in Sandwich, MA, where I work. The town has undertaken to plant them along the roadways everywhere and the town in abloom in yellow along with all the flowering shrubs and trees at this time of year. Please keep blogging for us and for The Woolly Thistle. It’s such a joy to receive newsy information from a corner of the world that I may never get to visit in person! Susan Sharpe, Mashpee, Cape Cod, MA, USA
It doesn’t seem fair that the daffodils put energy into their bulbs throughout the year, only to have their beautiful flowers beaten down by spring gales. Nonetheless, their brilliant yellow colour makes it all worthwhile. I had the same problem in my suburban garden here in southern Ontario, Canada …. not long after finally coming into bloom, so many of my daffodils were beaten down by a strong rainstorm.
I really enjoy hearing about your life in Orkney, thank you.
Love your blog. I visited your islands a couple years ago and have never seen a more beautiful place. It is lovely to touch back via your blog.