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Walking Group One 25th April 2024
Five hardy souls collected today at Happy Valley for the first Hill Walk of the year .The temperature was cool with a North Easterly wind blowing and a hint of rain on arrival.
Off we set heading towards Russadale Quarry, spotting a Buzzard on the way.Turning into the footpath we remained sheltered from the wind all the way to the top of the hill.
The sun was out at the Quarry and a Greenshank was feeding at the edge of the Lochan. Then it was up the Peat road to the summit with spectacular views across Stenness and Harray Lochs, plus a view of the Closed Road beyond the Watch Stone. On the other side we looked over the Flow and down towards the Oil Platform and South Ronaldsay
Then it was back down after a stop for a snack and finally a walk around Happy Valley itself. The Daffodils planted by James and others were looking lovely and the Bluebells are days away from opening. Then it was on to a well deserved lunch at the Pier Cafe, having walked 4 miles and gone up 800 feet (and down again )
The next walk will be on Friday 24th May and hopefully more hills and views.
Keep moving.
U3A Botany Group - June 2019
by Phylida Wright - 19:25 on 13 June 2019
Seven of us met at the Broch of Gurness car park on a cold, windy and damp June afternoon. Not a very promising start, but as we turned the corner and walked along the cow parsley and butterbur lined road towards the Aeolianite site we were sheltered and the rest of the afternoon remained dry. Even before we entered the site, (through the gate which Trevor opened and Kate closed) we were aware of the abundance of cowslips dancing their bright heads. We did not find any oxlips but were not sure we would be able to identify them anyway, their difference perhaps too subtle for our amateur eyes. Thyme was just coming into flower as was lady's bedstraw and meadow vetchling. One often overlooks the beauty in the common daisy, but these could not be ignored, they were daring us to appreciate them both in bud, full flower and decline, the latter standing sentry like with green orbs surrounded by a maroon line. Birdsfoot-trefoil, white clover, mouse-eared chickweed, lesser trefoil, mouse-eared hawkweed, bulbous and meadow buttercups were also in abundance.
Peter found a lovely colony of autumn gentians (in bud) and we also noted kidney vetch, fairyflax, hogweed, dog lichen and ribwort plantain. Jenny's eagle eye spotted a twayblade low on the ground and we found one very small moonwort which provoked a dramatic over-reaction from Peter, (in contrast to his manner when shown a frog orchid!)
John had set us a task of finding a dune pansy. Peter had done his homework on this, and Jenny diligently used her eyepiece on several specimens. These provoked much discussion and photos were taken but no conclusion could be drawn other than they were beautiful.
We left this bountiful site making our way back to the car park, noting the shore and verge-based plants as we went. These included scurvy grass with it's now large, succulent leaves, meadow sweet, dandelion, red and white campion, primrose, prickly sow thistle, silverweed, angelica, forget-me-not, angelica, northern marsh orchids and spear thistle. The most discussed plant here was a bright yellow stand of .....what?.... Charlock seemed to be the most likely, our specimens had the required hairy stem, but the leaves, although seemingly the correct shape, were hairless. Jenny will do more research.
We had worked up a thirst after all this so went to Woodwick House for a lovely cuppa and scone in the conservatory sitting under the wisteria with a gorgeous view of the garden and tranquil sea beyond.
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