In the garden

With the sun shining, and life bursting out all over, many of you will already be in the thick of garden planning and planting. For those who may need a bit of inspiration or expert advice we have created a display of gardening books, covering all aspects of horticulture from choosing garden plants to expert advice on growing vegetables and herbs .  

For many in Stromness, living 'crammed into that huddle of stone between Brinkie's Brae and the sea'*, access to garden space is limited or unavailable, however the Stromness Community Garden project offers a solution. 

The aim of the project is to:

to offer affordable growing spaces for the local community within a supportive environment. The aim is to provide a dynamic community space combining allotment style plots, a communal polytunnel, a community garden hub and areas of wild and shelter belt planting. Membership fees are low (£5 per annum) and rental on plots is offered at a rate per square metre, designed to attract gardeners who wish to work a small plot as well as those who want to work on a bigger scale. Concessions are offered to older people and disabled people as well as to students and those on lower incomes. Members are not compelled to have a plot and can enjoy the communal garden.

The Community Garden is situated on the Brownstown Road and below is a site plan, and photo showing the shelter belt which has already been planted:

Shelter belt planting progresses after fencing, hardstanding and shed in place (March 2014)

This Saturday  (17 May) there will be a workday at the community garden from 9am-1pm, when all who can are invited to come along and help to lay the ecopaving for the car park area. 

Details of how to become a member of Stromness Community Garden Society are available on their website.





*George Mackay Brown,  'Introduction' in Stromness:Late 19th Century photographs, (1972)

Orkney Nature Festival

Orkney Nature Festival 2014 starts tomorrow (Saturday 10th May) and runs until Sunday 18th May. Download the programme to see all the exciting activities and events, that will get you out and about and discovering Orkney's wonderful natural environment. You can also keep up to date with news and events throughout the festival on the Orkney Nature Festival facebook page. 

The organisers have even made a short film of highlights from last year's festival so you can get a taste of what to expect. 


Orkney Nature Festival 2013 from Orkney Nature Festival on Vimeo.

Don't forget you can find lots of field guides and nature books here at the library to help you learn more about the animals, plants and birds that you spot. 

Stromness From the Sea

We wanted to share this lovely little film about Stromness with our blog readers. It has been made by P6 pupils at Stromness Primary School working with the Stromness THI team as part of the wider  'Stromness  from the Sea' project. 

After learning about the history of Stromness and its relationship with the sea, the pupils carried out research, wrote the script, did all the drawing and animation, and recorded the soundtrack, in collaboration with teachers and local experts. 

Stromness From The Sea from SPS on Vimeo.

You can read more about the project here,and find out more about the town on the Stromness website. As well as being available to view on the website the film will also be shown on the MV Hamnavoe during sailings. 

May holiday

Stromness Library will be closed on Monday 5th May due to the public holiday. We'll leave you with a thought on locked libraries from Virginia Woolf.

https://www.facebook.com/grammarly/photos/a.158139670871698.33824.139729956046003/702201189798874/?type=1&theater

Don't worry we'll be open again as usual on Tuesday 6th May from 2pm-7pm.

Happiness is...

https://www.facebook.com/grammarly/photos/a.158139670871698.33824.139729956046003/780718048613854/?type=1&relevant_count=1

John Rae talk

http://www.johnraesociety.com/

Tomorrow evening (Thursday 1st May) The John Rae Society will be hosting a talk by Doug Pritchard, Serior Lecturer at Heriot-Watt University,  who will speak on "The Digital Scanning of the Hall of Clestrain".

http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/obm/index.asp?pageid=2657

The talk will be held at the Royal Hotel, Stromness, starting at 7.30pm, and admission is free.

 

We're going on a poem hunt!

Apologies for the extended period of silence on here, let's just pretend it has been the result of an exciting Stromness Library adventure, involving an undisclosed exotic location and literary intregue (rather than because we've been off with a bad back)!

But here we are again, all ready to entertain, amuse and inform you, our lovely readers. Admit it, you've missed us terribly  - havent you?!

To reassure you that life in Stromness Library has gone on, even if our online activities had paused,  here is a heart warming story of how a request for a mystery poem ended in a surprise reunion. 

We get many requests for help in tracking down particular poems, often with no more clue than a vaguely remembered line,  so when a visitor came in looking for a George Mackay Brown poem called 'The Wedding' published in 1968, we confidently turned to the collected poems expecting instant success. 

But it was not to be. 

The index revealed 'The Wedding Guest' and 'Wedding Ring', with a bit of further investigation leading us to 'Fiddlers at the Wedding' - but none of these were the required poem. A quick internet search for 'The Wedding' by George Mackay Brown directed us to the index of complete works on the George Mackay Brown website  which listed a poetry publication called 'The Wedding' - yet no item with that title was listed on our library catalogue. 

The plot thickened. 

Not easily discouraged once on the scent, we turned for help to Brian Murray, long time friend of Stromness Library and an expert on George Mackay Brown related questions. From Brian we received confirmation that there had indeed been a publication of such a poem, but it was rare and hard to find. However he believed the poem had also been published in several anthologies and kindly offered to track it down amongst the volumes of his personal library. Later that same day Brian duly arrived with several volumes containing the poem from which we were able to make a photocopy of the poem.* 

The next day, when the visitor return to collect the copy of the poem, there occurred one of those happy coincidences which this job sometimes allows. There was a moment of recognition between library assistant and visitor and it soon emerged that they had last seen each other 45 years ago when they travelled on the school bus together.

So it just goes to show, you never know what you will find when you go on a poem hunt!




* We would like to thank Brian Murray for all his help in tracking down the poem. For anyone interested, 'The Wedding' by George Mackay Brown is in the anthology Modern Scottish Poetry edited by Maurice Lindsay, available for loan from the Orkney Library.