Auntie Syzygy
@auntiesyzygy.bsky.social
Hermit pensioner & forager. Former indexer.
Scottish Statehood, Greek & Greece, Bee Orchids & the Bronze Age.
Nobody should own land as if it was a thing.
Scottish Statehood, Greek & Greece, Bee Orchids & the Bronze Age.
Nobody should own land as if it was a thing.
The Day has arrived. This weekend will be my final visit to my allotment before I give it up, and from September, Auntie will just be a Hermit, not a veg-growing Hermit. So, one last time, here's the Plot in its heyday. 🌱
#allotments
#allotments
August 29, 2025 at 8:07 AM
The Day has arrived. This weekend will be my final visit to my allotment before I give it up, and from September, Auntie will just be a Hermit, not a veg-growing Hermit. So, one last time, here's the Plot in its heyday. 🌱
#allotments
#allotments
Did you see those hideous *iced* rowies on TV the other night?
Now, that's a food crime!
Now, that's a food crime!
July 10, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Did you see those hideous *iced* rowies on TV the other night?
Now, that's a food crime!
Now, that's a food crime!
Made it out to the Plot today - first time since these rains. Slugs have eaten almost all the brassicas, otherwise all ok.
A crow tried to get into the fruit cage by bouncing on the roof to break the net fastenings. Clever Corvids! 🌱
#allotments
A crow tried to get into the fruit cage by bouncing on the roof to break the net fastenings. Clever Corvids! 🌱
#allotments
June 2, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Made it out to the Plot today - first time since these rains. Slugs have eaten almost all the brassicas, otherwise all ok.
A crow tried to get into the fruit cage by bouncing on the roof to break the net fastenings. Clever Corvids! 🌱
#allotments
A crow tried to get into the fruit cage by bouncing on the roof to break the net fastenings. Clever Corvids! 🌱
#allotments
Hoping to get the roofnetting on my fruitcage today - not needed for fruit yet awhile, but I keep brassicas in there to be pigeon-proof and want the spring sproutings for myself yum.
I take it off in winter so this doesn't happen 👇
#allotment
I take it off in winter so this doesn't happen 👇
#allotment
April 13, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Hoping to get the roofnetting on my fruitcage today - not needed for fruit yet awhile, but I keep brassicas in there to be pigeon-proof and want the spring sproutings for myself yum.
I take it off in winter so this doesn't happen 👇
#allotment
I take it off in winter so this doesn't happen 👇
#allotment
ps - On Unspun World, with no papers to shuffle so as to put the world back in its box, JS deployed a notebook in what seems to me the same way.
March 22, 2025 at 9:46 AM
ps - On Unspun World, with no papers to shuffle so as to put the world back in its box, JS deployed a notebook in what seems to me the same way.
Gorgeous, ta - and within hours of ordering it, quick service! And with that lovely creamy border, cf my mainland one from 40 yrs ago with the thin green edges.
February 4, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Gorgeous, ta - and within hours of ordering it, quick service! And with that lovely creamy border, cf my mainland one from 40 yrs ago with the thin green edges.
I'm not into tropical orchids*, Alastair - they creep me out a bit - but the 'juices' may be due to the orchid famiy being distinct and also young in evolutionary terms, so spotting and identifying them is easy to get into, and can yield newly emerging species.
*I like this kind:
*I like this kind:
January 9, 2025 at 8:32 AM
I'm not into tropical orchids*, Alastair - they creep me out a bit - but the 'juices' may be due to the orchid famiy being distinct and also young in evolutionary terms, so spotting and identifying them is easy to get into, and can yield newly emerging species.
*I like this kind:
*I like this kind:
My favourite plant to grow on my Allotment in Aberdeen, Scotland - Blueberries. I have 10 bushes in my fruit cage, five that have grown there for 15 years, and five that I added three years ago.🌱🫐
#allotment
#allotment
January 2, 2025 at 9:18 AM
My favourite plant to grow on my Allotment in Aberdeen, Scotland - Blueberries. I have 10 bushes in my fruit cage, five that have grown there for 15 years, and five that I added three years ago.🌱🫐
#allotment
#allotment
Not sure you can really see it in this, but there's one in my banner pic of my allotment. This bed under the yellow net comprises three tube-domes.
December 31, 2024 at 8:07 AM
Not sure you can really see it in this, but there's one in my banner pic of my allotment. This bed under the yellow net comprises three tube-domes.
It's my plot two summers ago - I only wish it did look like that now! I have had a series of injuries and illness throughout this season and not tended it well enough.
Banner image is my plot + my two neighbours. Mine was like this, but now the paths are all overgrown and it's a bit of a mess.
Banner image is my plot + my two neighbours. Mine was like this, but now the paths are all overgrown and it's a bit of a mess.
December 7, 2024 at 7:47 AM
It's my plot two summers ago - I only wish it did look like that now! I have had a series of injuries and illness throughout this season and not tended it well enough.
Banner image is my plot + my two neighbours. Mine was like this, but now the paths are all overgrown and it's a bit of a mess.
Banner image is my plot + my two neighbours. Mine was like this, but now the paths are all overgrown and it's a bit of a mess.
Just to join the welcome flurry of Ophrys pics today, here's my favourite Ophrys tenthredinifera. Not sure why, but Tenthreds are just the One for Me.
#orchids
#orchids
December 6, 2024 at 6:58 AM
Just to join the welcome flurry of Ophrys pics today, here's my favourite Ophrys tenthredinifera. Not sure why, but Tenthreds are just the One for Me.
#orchids
#orchids
That early fall last year nearly collapsed my fruitcage. I hadn't taken the roofnet off for the year (and I'm away to do that tomorrow, so am relieved we've not had a repeat!)
November 29, 2024 at 10:21 AM
That early fall last year nearly collapsed my fruitcage. I hadn't taken the roofnet off for the year (and I'm away to do that tomorrow, so am relieved we've not had a repeat!)
🌱Changed my mind, and decided to take on the rental of my allotment for 2025, not give it up now. Will have to review that in the Spring, see if my health and circs are up to it, but just felt now was not a time to be making decisions.
#allotment
#allotment
November 27, 2024 at 1:17 PM
🌱Changed my mind, and decided to take on the rental of my allotment for 2025, not give it up now. Will have to review that in the Spring, see if my health and circs are up to it, but just felt now was not a time to be making decisions.
#allotment
#allotment
So that's our customary 'November Warning' over. Handy to get a few days of snow etc as a nudge to make sure things are ready for winter - tyres checked and a shovel in the back for those with a vehicle, and for those like me with a fruit cage a reminder to get the roof netting off, or else...
November 24, 2024 at 6:29 AM
So that's our customary 'November Warning' over. Handy to get a few days of snow etc as a nudge to make sure things are ready for winter - tyres checked and a shovel in the back for those with a vehicle, and for those like me with a fruit cage a reminder to get the roof netting off, or else...
Hope any friends here who are in Florida are safe, but I'm a bit worried about the state of mind of BBC weather forecasters for here in NE Scotland, when I woke up to this - I think your hurricane has filled their minds, it's a fine and quiet day here!
October 10, 2024 at 6:01 AM
Hope any friends here who are in Florida are safe, but I'm a bit worried about the state of mind of BBC weather forecasters for here in NE Scotland, when I woke up to this - I think your hurricane has filled their minds, it's a fine and quiet day here!
I'm afraid I may have to give up my allotment - injuries or illness have hampered me for this whole season and the plot is out of control. Have accepted help from other plotters previously, but I can't even contribute atm. All the paths in this 2023 photo are now buttercup etc.🌱
#allotments
#allotments
October 6, 2024 at 6:14 AM
I'm afraid I may have to give up my allotment - injuries or illness have hampered me for this whole season and the plot is out of control. Have accepted help from other plotters previously, but I can't even contribute atm. All the paths in this 2023 photo are now buttercup etc.🌱
#allotments
#allotments
Magnificent🤩
I had a half plot back when our site was like yours, and the Council got me to take on the other half just to rescue it. So I did, and put the fruitcage in, aiming to give up the old half when I was old. Now they refuse to make it back into 2 halfs and I may have to leave.
I had a half plot back when our site was like yours, and the Council got me to take on the other half just to rescue it. So I did, and put the fruitcage in, aiming to give up the old half when I was old. Now they refuse to make it back into 2 halfs and I may have to leave.
September 21, 2024 at 7:03 AM
Magnificent🤩
I had a half plot back when our site was like yours, and the Council got me to take on the other half just to rescue it. So I did, and put the fruitcage in, aiming to give up the old half when I was old. Now they refuse to make it back into 2 halfs and I may have to leave.
I had a half plot back when our site was like yours, and the Council got me to take on the other half just to rescue it. So I did, and put the fruitcage in, aiming to give up the old half when I was old. Now they refuse to make it back into 2 halfs and I may have to leave.
Spectacular crisp colouring. Maybe not quite the personality of my standout favourite, Ophrys tenthredinifera, tho.
August 24, 2024 at 8:18 AM
Spectacular crisp colouring. Maybe not quite the personality of my standout favourite, Ophrys tenthredinifera, tho.
Yours were spectacular last year, can't wait to see them in flower! Mine were rubbish last year, but ok the year before.
🌱
🌱
May 31, 2024 at 5:27 AM
Yours were spectacular last year, can't wait to see them in flower! Mine were rubbish last year, but ok the year before.
🌱
🌱
Time for another Mediterranean Ophrys before the season's over. This is Ophrys annae - according to my late botanist pal, whose took the pic. #Wildlife 🌱
(I've never digitised my own orchid slides, except for my Tenthred, must get round to it)
(I've never digitised my own orchid slides, except for my Tenthred, must get round to it)
May 6, 2024 at 5:45 AM
Time for another Mediterranean Ophrys before the season's over. This is Ophrys annae - according to my late botanist pal, whose took the pic. #Wildlife 🌱
(I've never digitised my own orchid slides, except for my Tenthred, must get round to it)
(I've never digitised my own orchid slides, except for my Tenthred, must get round to it)
Since it's this time of year and lovely weather in the West of Scotland, here's a rather daft pic of an orchid (Orchis mascula I think) growing out of a primrose clump on Lismore. (photo by my late companion coupla yrs ago)
May 3, 2024 at 9:19 AM
Since it's this time of year and lovely weather in the West of Scotland, here's a rather daft pic of an orchid (Orchis mascula I think) growing out of a primrose clump on Lismore. (photo by my late companion coupla yrs ago)
Put the roofnet on my fruitcage yesterday (I take it off in winter in case of snow damage) but somehow ripped a fingernail across the middle, leaving a gap in the Quick, so now having to get that seen to by medics. On the other hand than my ganglion, so now both hands are duff!🌱
April 9, 2024 at 5:33 AM
Put the roofnet on my fruitcage yesterday (I take it off in winter in case of snow damage) but somehow ripped a fingernail across the middle, leaving a gap in the Quick, so now having to get that seen to by medics. On the other hand than my ganglion, so now both hands are duff!🌱
🌱This was my allotment two years ago (a drone pic taken my dear companion who died last year). There is no chance it will look as good this year, but I'm posting it to encourage myself🌱👩🌾
April 3, 2024 at 9:12 AM
🌱This was my allotment two years ago (a drone pic taken my dear companion who died last year). There is no chance it will look as good this year, but I'm posting it to encourage myself🌱👩🌾
This is my plot two years ago, after I'd put new bark chippings on all my (too wide and too many) paths. Don't think it will ever be as neat again.
April 1, 2024 at 9:44 AM
This is my plot two years ago, after I'd put new bark chippings on all my (too wide and too many) paths. Don't think it will ever be as neat again.
Now the bee orchid season has started in Greece, I thought I'd post my only digitised photo of my favourite, Ophrys tenthredinifera. Just because it's the best (bee orchid. not the best photo!)
January 31, 2024 at 6:33 AM
Now the bee orchid season has started in Greece, I thought I'd post my only digitised photo of my favourite, Ophrys tenthredinifera. Just because it's the best (bee orchid. not the best photo!)