Summer Season

Today while friend Elli was visiting, the John o' Groats ferry came into the bay to take away the linkspan.  The passenger ferry only runs from May to September, so over the winter the linkspan is moored here, safely sheltered from the winter storms. 

We watched proceedings for a while then headed back out to the garden and sat in the sun with our tea and cake.  It was lovely, lots of sparrows busily gathering nesting material, a wren sat on the fence singing away, then we were joined by a blackbird, coming to see what Bonny the Bantam had left in her dish!  

When she'd left, I got on with sowing seeds and weeding and then, to my horror, found three New Zealand flatworms under the old carpet covering the compost bin.  Never seen them in our garden before, although they are widespread in Orkney, so it was only a matter of time.  

They live off earthworms, which are vital to a good garden, and have no predators.  They are a real problem.  They wrap their bodies round the earthworms and digest them by dissolving them with the mucus they excrete!  Another amazing thing they can do is survive for over a year by shrinking to a tenth of their size (they can be up to 15cm) until they find more worms to eat!  Photo of one in extras.