Fletcher Saga - 19 August 2006

Drama on Stronsay! One Sunday just after lunch we heard a most unusual
sound - unusual for Stronsay, that is. A fire-engine with blue lights
flashing and two-tone horn blaring swept down past our house and into
Whitehall Village. Apparently there was a grass fire behind the Stronsay
Hotel and it was getting dangerously close to a wooden building that is
used by the monks from Papa Stronsay so someone called out our volunteer
firemen. The fire was soon brought under control and Stronsay returned
to its usual peaceful state.
Malcolm and Sue (at Ha'Breck on Rothiesholm) have had to install an
electric fence to stop the ponies Henry & Min from pushing against the
fence & making the fence-posts lean at alarming angles. After one or two
shocks the ponies have learned to keep a respecful distance from the
fence. The dogs soon discovered that they could still jump over the
fence without getting an electric shock but Brack, the bitch who
recently had seven puppies, did get a shock when she jumped over the
fence without realising that after giving birth her "undercarriage" hung
quite a bit lower than it did in the past. Now all the dogs, being
intelligent, have discovered that the bottom wire on the fence is not
electrified so they simply squeeze under it instead of trying to jump
over it. Brack also received a kick from one of the ponies when it
objected to her sniffing around its rear hooves, despite being
constantly told to "come away" by Malcolm and by Sue. No serious damage
was done but Brack now makes long detours in order to keep well clear of
the ponies hooves. Brack's puppies have now been found good homes but
Malcolm & Sue decided to keep Solo, the pure white pup with black
markings on his paws and the top of his skull.. With the departure of
the people from Helmsley, Rosie & Nessie have been adopted by Ha'Breck
and appear to have integrated with the other sheep and the ponies,
ducks, dogs and cats.
It has been very warm this month so we've been sleeping with the windows
open. Several times Maureen has been woken up in the middle of the night
by the sound of the seals "singing", fortunately she decided against
disturbing my dreams and asking me if I could hear them too. She feels
quite privileged to be able to hear the sound in the dead silence of the
Stronsay night, it is quite eerie but most comforting and Maureen always
falls back to sleep as she listens to their sound.
Dr Jon Buchan, the relief GP on Stronsay, is an excellent violinist.
Just before finishing his latest stint of duty he & his partner came to
our house with his violin and some sheet music. I spent a pleasant hour
accompanying him on the keyboard as we played some of Corelli's work.
Although I've heard Corelli before I'd never played any of his music and
found it to be a most enjoyable experience.
This month the Sanday Light Railway (website
http://www.sandaylightrailway.co.uk/), the most northerly
passenger-carrying railway in the UK, was officially opened by a
resident of Sanday, none other than Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (Master of
the Queen's Music); they don't do things by half on Sanday!
We shall be "cat-sitting" again for Jack & Simone in September. Alas,
poor Growl Myrtle is no longer with us but this year we shall have the
pleasure of the company of "Timber"; another cat like Surrey i.e. a
house cat that does not go outdoors. Jack & Simone's request came to us
in the form of a poem:
They call me Timber, "T" for short
I'm a female tabby cat.
I emigrated from Argyll,
And I didn't think much of that.
I share my home with sisters three,
Of which two can delight,
But number three, a bully, she
So loves to pick a fight.
Growl Myrtle I still miss a lot
(and Jake is gone now too);
I heard the stories of the time
She came to say with you.
I must get to the point I think,
But first I should explain:
I'm not as young as once I was:
I don't like wind and rain,
So I venture out quite rarely now -
I'm ambushed oft out there
by that one sneaky sister cat
Who's like a polar bear!
So when my darling humans say
They're off to France once more,
I do assume with heavy heart
They'll put me "out the door"
And who knows what the perils are
Which lie ahead for me,
Unless I can prevail on you
To have a "guest" called T.
I emigrated from Argyll,
Swapped trees for sea and sand,
So if you can't do B&B
for me, I'll really understand.
(Simone Board©)
--
Bruce Fletcher
Stronsay, Orkney
www.stronsay.co.uk/claremont
"Don't think of it as getting hot flushes, think of it as your inner
child playing with matches"

Sorry folks, I intended to post just a link to the Saga, not the whole
d*mn thing. Yet another senior moment
--
Bruce Fletcher
btinternetDOTcomATricardian
Stronsay, Orkney
www.stronsay.co.uk/claremont
"Don't think of it as getting hot flushes, think of it as your inner
child playing with matches"

wrote in message
...
Drama on Stronsay! One Sunday just after lunch we heard a most unusual
sound - unusual for Stronsay, that is. A fire-engine with blue lights
flashing and two-tone horn blaring swept down past our house and into
Whitehall Village. Apparently there was a grass fire behind the Stronsay
Hotel and it was getting dangerously close to a wooden building that is
used by the monks from Papa Stronsay so someone called out our volunteer
firemen. The fire was soon brought under control and Stronsay returned
to its usual peaceful state.
Malcolm and Sue (at Ha'Breck on Rothiesholm) have had to install an
electric fence to stop the ponies Henry & Min from pushing against the
fence & making the fence-posts lean at alarming angles. After one or two
shocks the ponies have learned to keep a respecful distance from the
fence. The dogs soon discovered that they could still jump over the
fence without getting an electric shock but Brack, the bitch who
recently had seven puppies, did get a shock when she jumped over the
fence without realising that after giving birth her "undercarriage" hung
quite a bit lower than it did in the past. Now all the dogs, being
intelligent, have discovered that the bottom wire on the fence is not
electrified so they simply squeeze under it instead of trying to jump
over it. Brack also received a kick from one of the ponies when it
objected to her sniffing around its rear hooves, despite being
constantly told to "come away" by Malcolm and by Sue. No serious damage
was done but Brack now makes long detours in order to keep well clear of
the ponies hooves. Brack's puppies have now been found good homes but
Malcolm & Sue decided to keep Solo, the pure white pup with black
markings on his paws and the top of his skull.. With the departure of
the people from Helmsley, Rosie & Nessie have been adopted by Ha'Breck
and appear to have integrated with the other sheep and the ponies,
ducks, dogs and cats.
It has been very warm this month so we've been sleeping with the windows
open. Several times Maureen has been woken up in the middle of the night
by the sound of the seals "singing", fortunately she decided against
disturbing my dreams and asking me if I could hear them too. She feels
quite privileged to be able to hear the sound in the dead silence of the
Stronsay night, it is quite eerie but most comforting and Maureen always
falls back to sleep as she listens to their sound.
Dr Jon Buchan, the relief GP on Stronsay, is an excellent violinist.
Just before finishing his latest stint of duty he & his partner came to
our house with his violin and some sheet music. I spent a pleasant hour
accompanying him on the keyboard as we played some of Corelli's work.
Although I've heard Corelli before I'd never played any of his music and
found it to be a most enjoyable experience.
This month the Sanday Light Railway (website
http://www.sandaylightrailway.co.uk/), the most northerly
passenger-carrying railway in the UK, was officially opened by a
resident of Sanday, none other than Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (Master of
the Queen's Music); they don't do things by half on Sanday!
We shall be "cat-sitting" again for Jack & Simone in September. Alas,
poor Growl Myrtle is no longer with us but this year we shall have the
pleasure of the company of "Timber"; another cat like Surrey i.e. a
house cat that does not go outdoors. Jack & Simone's request came to us
in the form of a poem:
They call me Timber, "T" for short
I'm a female tabby cat.
I emigrated from Argyll,
And I didn't think much of that.
I share my home with sisters three,
Of which two can delight,
But number three, a bully, she
So loves to pick a fight.
Growl Myrtle I still miss a lot
(and Jake is gone now too);
I heard the stories of the time
She came to say with you.
I must get to the point I think,
But first I should explain:
I'm not as young as once I was:
I don't like wind and rain,
So I venture out quite rarely now -
I'm ambushed oft out there
by that one sneaky sister cat
Who's like a polar bear!
So when my darling humans say
They're off to France once more,
I do assume with heavy heart
They'll put me "out the door"
And who knows what the perils are
Which lie ahead for me,
Unless I can prevail on you
To have a "guest" called T.
I emigrated from Argyll,
Swapped trees for sea and sand,
So if you can't do B&B
for me, I'll really understand.
(Simone Board©)
--
Bruce Fletcher
Stronsay, Orkney
www.stronsay.co.uk/claremont
"Don't think of it as getting hot flushes, think of it as your inner
child playing with matches"


Lovely update from Stronsay. Seal song is such a HAUNTING sound, isn`t it?
I last heard it on Mull.

Electric fences - my daughter had a bloodhound who was far too interested in
the sheep up on the hill behind the church, so we took her up there and let
her try to get through the electric fence. After that she even hid if sheep
came on the television! Poor Brack, though! Ouch!

My daughter grazed a pony on the common for years with just an electric
fence, which she just relocated every couple of weeks. Someone stole the
battery once, but Sue noticed before the pony did, fortunately!

Pat P

wrote in message
...
Sorry folks, I intended to post just a link to the Saga, not the whole
d*mn thing. Yet another senior moment
--
Bruce Fletcher
btinternetDOTcomATricardian
Stronsay, Orkney
www.stronsay.co.uk/claremont
"Don't think of it as getting hot flushes, think of it as your inner child
playing with matches"

LOL! We all have `em, Bruce. It was interesting, anyway!

Pat P

wrote:
Sorry folks, I intended to post just a link to the Saga, not the whole
d*mn thing. Yet another senior moment
--
Bruce Fletcher
btinternetDOTcomATricardian
Stronsay, Orkney
www.stronsay.co.uk/claremont
"Don't think of it as getting hot flushes, think of it as your inner
child playing with matches"

That's oK, it was lots of fun to read.
1) We also had fire excitement a couple of weeks ago. We had a
lightning strike start a fire in "our" canyon about a mile behind the
house. A spotter plane saw it and the two local authorities, local
volunteer fire dept. and Oregon Dept. of Forestry got right on it so it
stayed at 10 acres. Since the fire was up in the canyon and going in
the other direction, it was really pretty exciting. I brought brownies
to two of the fire crews (one Monday night and another for the Wed.
daytime crew). They were able to drive 3/4 of a mile up an old access
road behind our house (once DH used his dozer to push the fallen trees
out of the way on Sunday night) and then had to hike UP the side of the
canyon through poison oak, manzanita and other scrub. We are VERY
HAPPY about the care they took the following week to make sure the fire
was OUT and would not re-ignite. It was hard that first Monday and
Tuesday, though, to figure out whether I wanted to stitch on the deck
or to go part way down the driveway to watch the helicopters and fire
crews at work up on the hill.
2) We are lucky enough to hear coyotes "sing" in the middle of the
night sometimes. We live in a rural area so can keep our windows and
curtains open at night. It is so quiet sometimes that we can hear the
madrone bark peel off of the trees. This time of year the crickets &
frogs sing us to sleep. And, one of the nicest things is that none of
the neighbors on our driveway have those ANNOYING dusk to dawn
streetlights. I HATE those. If people want streetlights they should
move back to the city! ! ! ! !
3) There is a man in our area who makes instruments from violas to
cellos from the tree to the instrument. He also plays the violin and
helps others who are interested to make their own instruments out of
wood that he has already cut and has drying in his workshop. It really
gives people an attachment to the instrument when they actually get to
see it grow from a "tree" to a working piece of art. :-)
Liz from Humbug