Memories

This famed print is a memento from our Orcadian holiday. It is one of a pair of prints which we bought to grace a wall in the Dower House. It is a photograph of a tapestry by Leila Thomson which we bought from her Hoxa studio in South Ronaldsay.

I particularly like this one with its vignettes of scenes in Orkney and particularly the one with the roofs, as it reminds me of the view we had from our cottage looking over chimney pots to the sea.

With all the rain that Edinburgh has had since we were away, the patio plants are either in terminal decline or have taken off in gay abandon.

The lavender is almost shoulder high, while the primulas, mired in mud in their boxes, are seemingly drowned out of existence.

The Hydrangea Petiolaris and the Boston Ivy which we illegally planted against the wall to soften the austerity of the old building, have taken off as have the prolific pink carnations in their window box.

The new camellia in its tub, which I moved out of the protection of the upstairs balcony to allow it some of nature's watering, has positively thrived with its abandonment to the vagaries of the clime.

The grass which is no concern of ours, is almost 'as high as an elephant's eye' and could certainly do with a trim if only to look manicured for the visit this afternoon of our friends from the US of A who are here for a week, renting a flat round the corner from the Dower House.
There will be more about them in later blips I know.

Edit: As I write, I notice 15 young men playing rugby on the other side of the railings, who have stripped down to their extremely skimpy underpants: on the sabbath too. I ask you, what is the world coming to?
I'd much rather be watching the 'Hamnavoe' making its stately way out of Stromness Harbour.