Project 60 - No 59 Happy Valley

There are two things that 'everyone knows' about Orkney. The first is that it's flat. The second is that there are no trees.

Neither of these things is in fact true.

We sometimes see cyclists who have come here on holiday via the Gills Bay/St Margaret's Hope ferry crossing. They have obviously bought into the Orkney is Flat theory. They are therefore totally unprepared for the very steep hill they need to negotiate to get out of St Margaret's Hope and on the road to everywhere else. Poor things. We feel especially sorry for them when it's raining. 

And there are trees. There is not, to be fair, a vast swathe of natural woodland. It's not, after all, Perthshire, which I understand markets itself, for good and obvious reasons, as Big Tree Country. (Well obvious anyway, upon reflection, not so sure about the good) But there are several small areas of woodland scattered over Orkney which people have deliberately planted to improve bio-diversity, support wildlife, especially woodland birds, or because they just like trees. 

One of these places is a woodland garden started many years ago by a man named Ernest Hammond. He's dead now, and the council have take over his garden and declared it an official  nature reserve and it's supported by a small charity called, unsurprisingly, The Friends of Happy Valley.

I'd never been. The Other Half had once, when I was away who knows where,  on a trip with the Burray and South Ronaldsay Garden Club. Given that it must be at least ten years since we left that, that's a long time ago. Which may explain why he had so much trouble finding it .... Anyway we kept saying 'we must go to Happy Valley' and a couple of Sundays ago  we finally got our act together and , instead of coming straight home after the service in the Cathedral, we set off for Happy Valley instead. 

It did take us two goes to find it, which may be a metaphor for our marriage, or indeed, just life in general. It is  best to go in late spring/early summer for the daffodils and the bluebells but we're just not that organised. In any case the big draw for me was a real actual stream. 

Because I miss rivers. We don't have rivers on Orkney and in fact streams, as opposed to drainage ditches are few and far between and given that rivers are my favourite natural features, preferably complete with waterfalls, it's a lack in a place I live. Could be worse. Son number 1 favours deserts, of the sand and rock variety,  and they're in pretty short supply in Canada. 

I enjoyed my stroll along the side of the stream and through the shelter of the trees. It was lovely. I took lots of photos, a few of which I've put up below. And next year, if we get ourselves organised, we'll go and look at the bluebells.