Thursday 28 June 2012
A wee budgie in a cage, a constant companion of a crofter.
No 213.
There was in my youth neither croft nor cottage that did not have a cage with a budgie or a canary. Some had more than one. Some had fancier birds, tropical ones taken home by some sea-farer on a wind-jammer from far away places. A visitor would be greeted with a song or two, magical music indeed. Sometimes the wee bird would just have a ball all on its own for no reason at all, just feeling good. It was a constant companion for many an old buddie sitting beside the peat fire, no longer fit enough to go far out the door but still in many cases as mentally bright as ever, still good for an after-day-set. A wee dram or a drop of homebrew on a visit was very much accepted too, or just a cup of hot sweet tea if you liked that better!!.
The cage would be religiously tended, water renewed daily in a small drinker, fresh bird seed in a tray, the cage cleaned out as need be. Small carran or runch seeds from under the theshing mill did just as well for feeding, and cost nothing.
I remember a few specials. Head of the list was “Cheep Cheep”,. an unfledged sparrow chick that fell out of a nest on the farm with my sister Anne in Aka Aka in New Zealand. We were introduced to it on our first visit there in 1978. Anne’s son Stuart took it under his care, housed it at first in a box lined with cotton wool to keep it warm, fed it with small bits of bread soaked in milk whenever the wee thing cheeped. Which was often!! Hence the name.
Stuart brought it up to become a handsome fully fledged flyer, even if it was a humble sparrow.
A cage was there for it but it was often allowed full range in the room, settling on ones head sometimes with rather spectacular results!!! Beat Brylcream hands down!!! Cheep Cheep lived for ten years, a ripe old age for a sparrow.
It was followed after its decade by a budgie which we saw on our next visit to New Zealand in 1993. The budgie was taught by my brother-in-law Sandy Muir to deliver a very good wolf whistle. Once when Sandy had badly damaged his leg and the District Nurse was there to dress the wound, she, a mid aged and buxum lady I believe, was bending down to her task over Sandy in a shortish skirt. Budgie let out an his outrageous wolf whistle, particularly well timed, I believe. A never to be forgotten moment of high merriement. The nurse, a single lady, once she had recovered her composure, said she had never been so well whistled in all her life, and had indeed been rather giving up hope!!!
In Australia in January 2006 with brother David in Pemberton in the South West corner of Western Australia we were visiting for dinner a nearby friend of his. He had a splendid parrot. At dinner I thought someone was mocking something I had just said. Indeed it was so, sounded like a tape recording it was so exact. It was the parrot, capable of the most extreme mimicry, both words and accent. And the bird kept on mocking or repeating someone every now and then throughout dinnrer. I never heard the like.
In Stronsay there were many wee cage birds of one kind or another. We were however never allowed one for ourselves. There was always some little birdling that fell out of a nest, most were seen to by the farm cats, some we took indoors in an attempt to raise it to aduothood, we never quite managed !!
What we did have was small wild ducks, usually mallard, captured at St Peter’s Loch next the old Cemetary down by the beach. I know, we should not have taken them, but we were boys. Sometiimes a mallard (stock duck) nested and hatched up in a stack in the cornyard, the wee hatchlings falling to ground. This they survived, light enough to survive the fall, but if left there on the ground the farm cats would take care of them.
So we had small hutches of chicken wire usually used or rearing chickens, but pressed into service for our orphaned ducklings. Our success rate was mixed, but the main enemy was rats who burrowed under the cage and destroyed our little friends all too often.
Breeding cage birds was a pasion with many people, as still it is. Bird shows, classes for caged birds at the local Island Show in all their many different breeds, fierce competition for the top prize, Caithness Shows too.
Criticism of the judge of course who was always totally blind to the wonderful attributes of a particular bird of some competitor. Or else was over friendly with the eventual winner’s wife!!!
The range of birds to be seen was spectacular, and still is today.
But, in spite of all the spectacular plumage of the exotics. the wee canary in the crofter’s kitchen is still my favourite
No 213.
There was in my youth neither croft nor cottage that did not have a cage with a budgie or a canary. Some had more than one. Some had fancier birds, tropical ones taken home by some sea-farer on a wind-jammer from far away places. A visitor would be greeted with a song or two, magical music indeed. Sometimes the wee bird would just have a ball all on its own for no reason at all, just feeling good. It was a constant companion for many an old buddie sitting beside the peat fire, no longer fit enough to go far out the door but still in many cases as mentally bright as ever, still good for an after-day-set. A wee dram or a drop of homebrew on a visit was very much accepted too, or just a cup of hot sweet tea if you liked that better!!.
The cage would be religiously tended, water renewed daily in a small drinker, fresh bird seed in a tray, the cage cleaned out as need be. Small carran or runch seeds from under the theshing mill did just as well for feeding, and cost nothing.
I remember a few specials. Head of the list was “Cheep Cheep”,. an unfledged sparrow chick that fell out of a nest on the farm with my sister Anne in Aka Aka in New Zealand. We were introduced to it on our first visit there in 1978. Anne’s son Stuart took it under his care, housed it at first in a box lined with cotton wool to keep it warm, fed it with small bits of bread soaked in milk whenever the wee thing cheeped. Which was often!! Hence the name.
Stuart brought it up to become a handsome fully fledged flyer, even if it was a humble sparrow.
A cage was there for it but it was often allowed full range in the room, settling on ones head sometimes with rather spectacular results!!! Beat Brylcream hands down!!! Cheep Cheep lived for ten years, a ripe old age for a sparrow.
It was followed after its decade by a budgie which we saw on our next visit to New Zealand in 1993. The budgie was taught by my brother-in-law Sandy Muir to deliver a very good wolf whistle. Once when Sandy had badly damaged his leg and the District Nurse was there to dress the wound, she, a mid aged and buxum lady I believe, was bending down to her task over Sandy in a shortish skirt. Budgie let out an his outrageous wolf whistle, particularly well timed, I believe. A never to be forgotten moment of high merriement. The nurse, a single lady, once she had recovered her composure, said she had never been so well whistled in all her life, and had indeed been rather giving up hope!!!
In Australia in January 2006 with brother David in Pemberton in the South West corner of Western Australia we were visiting for dinner a nearby friend of his. He had a splendid parrot. At dinner I thought someone was mocking something I had just said. Indeed it was so, sounded like a tape recording it was so exact. It was the parrot, capable of the most extreme mimicry, both words and accent. And the bird kept on mocking or repeating someone every now and then throughout dinnrer. I never heard the like.
In Stronsay there were many wee cage birds of one kind or another. We were however never allowed one for ourselves. There was always some little birdling that fell out of a nest, most were seen to by the farm cats, some we took indoors in an attempt to raise it to aduothood, we never quite managed !!
What we did have was small wild ducks, usually mallard, captured at St Peter’s Loch next the old Cemetary down by the beach. I know, we should not have taken them, but we were boys. Sometiimes a mallard (stock duck) nested and hatched up in a stack in the cornyard, the wee hatchlings falling to ground. This they survived, light enough to survive the fall, but if left there on the ground the farm cats would take care of them.
So we had small hutches of chicken wire usually used or rearing chickens, but pressed into service for our orphaned ducklings. Our success rate was mixed, but the main enemy was rats who burrowed under the cage and destroyed our little friends all too often.
Breeding cage birds was a pasion with many people, as still it is. Bird shows, classes for caged birds at the local Island Show in all their many different breeds, fierce competition for the top prize, Caithness Shows too.
Criticism of the judge of course who was always totally blind to the wonderful attributes of a particular bird of some competitor. Or else was over friendly with the eventual winner’s wife!!!
The range of birds to be seen was spectacular, and still is today.
But, in spite of all the spectacular plumage of the exotics. the wee canary in the crofter’s kitchen is still my favourite
Tuesday 19 June 2012
No 212. Hummelling bere.
No 212. The Crofter’s Hummeller.
The crofter’s flail left the bere ( a Nordic barley) with awns still attached in large part. Early threshing mills had no hummellers but as they developed incorporated a built in awner called a hummeller. On a croft with no such mill available the task was just hard work. The quantities would be small enough at any one time but still had to be done. By 1878 G.W.Murray of Banff Foundry had designed and built a mill with built in hummellers. I have found no reference to a hummeller before 1870.
The simple hand mills a crofter would have would thresh the grain but would not remove either the chaff or the awns, so hummelling the bere was required. So a hand held hummeller was used, be the farm large or small.
Hummelling is of Nordic or Northern Scottish derivation, with a similar root to the hummelled cow that became the Aberdeen Angus Breed, denoting hornless or smooth.
Many hand hummellers were made of iron by local blacksmiths and varied much in size and design. Some could be said to be artistic depending on the whim of the blacksmith. I have seen a round one but it was a long time ago, I think on a croft on Rousam Head.
The hummeller had a short wooden “T” handle like a spade’s which was mounted vertically over a square or round frame by two or four curving supports which extended up to the central socket and shank. Each frame contained a number of thin verticle parallel bars up to 2 inches apart, overall size approximately 10 inches each way. Round frames were uncommon. Some frames were hinged so they could be used from the side or on a sloping pile of barley, being struck downwards more like the flail rather than punched downwards Heavier work than the simpler square one but reaching farther over a heap of bere.
To increase the number of cutting edges some hummellers were made with bars each way which formed a grid of intersecting blades, but I never saw one such. Again these took a great deal more in the making, but very effective.
The hummelling tool was brought down in a stamping motion upon the grain, turning it left or right with the “T” handle to cover the heap.
Bere would be laid thinly on a wooden floor, or sometimes heaped against a wall. Flagstone floors were not used as it would have damaged the grain for the malting process entailing sprouting the bere on the floor after soaking in a sack for a day in a pond. A small wooden platform laid on the flagstone or earthern floor would do the trick, to be set against the wall when not in use.
The heap of grain would then be stamped until all the awns had been broken off. Collected up with a wide wooden curved shovel or scoop, the grain would be thrown up into a draft of air outdoors to blow the awns away. Rather like panning for gold in Kildonan!!!
.
If one was available it would be put through a fanners to separate the awns and the chaff from the bere. The work was very demanding.
A heavier roller type hummeller appeared in the late 18th or early 19th century which comprised a circular drum of varying length and diameter containing up to twenty or so horizontal blades slotted around the periphery. The heavyish drum revolved around an axle held within an iron handled frame, and relied on its weight to cut the awns as it was pushed and pulled over the heap of barley.
Although more expensive it required less physical exertion and proved popular in many parts of the country. Blades were sometimes added forming a latticed cutting edge in much the same way as the upright version.
In the Parish of Canisbay brewing was a long established custom and in their Church Session Records of 1652 to 1666 there were innumerable references to brewing. The granite hummeller I found in Cannisbay could well have been used in the Parish as per the Session Records, but I am not saying that one was!!
Under the Rev Wm Davidson, Minister there from 1652 to 1666 when he was translated to Birsay in Orkney, many Parishoners were before the Session to be punished for various drinking misdemeanors on the Sabbath.
In Nov. 1652 “Helene Ham & Issobel Southerland delate for selling drink in tyme of sermone. Hendrie & Donald Liell delate for drinking and tulzeing on the Lord's day. Dod Liell, elder in Cannasbey, delate for drying malt on the Sabbath day”
In Dec 1657 “ Alex Rosie delate for goeing to ye parish of Dunnett on ye Sabbath and craveing moneys, taking Jon Owman back wt him to Mey and drinkeing in ane ailhous and wald not come to ye kirk; lykewise, for carrying aqua vite on another Sabbath, was referred to ye Justice Court”.
In 1658 “The brousters in Mey, being charged for selling of drink on ye Sabbath day, compeired Adam Seaton & Jon Sinclair and enacted themselves, if ever ther wer drink sold in ther houses on ye Sabbath, or any of themselves fund drunk or drinking on ye Sabbath in any houss, they sall pay £5 Scotts and stand in sackcloath. But they were tolerated to give drink and lodgeing to strangers.”
So hummelling bere was a long establshed custom in Caithness, at least in Canisbay.!!!
The crofter’s flail left the bere ( a Nordic barley) with awns still attached in large part. Early threshing mills had no hummellers but as they developed incorporated a built in awner called a hummeller. On a croft with no such mill available the task was just hard work. The quantities would be small enough at any one time but still had to be done. By 1878 G.W.Murray of Banff Foundry had designed and built a mill with built in hummellers. I have found no reference to a hummeller before 1870.
The simple hand mills a crofter would have would thresh the grain but would not remove either the chaff or the awns, so hummelling the bere was required. So a hand held hummeller was used, be the farm large or small.
Hummelling is of Nordic or Northern Scottish derivation, with a similar root to the hummelled cow that became the Aberdeen Angus Breed, denoting hornless or smooth.
Many hand hummellers were made of iron by local blacksmiths and varied much in size and design. Some could be said to be artistic depending on the whim of the blacksmith. I have seen a round one but it was a long time ago, I think on a croft on Rousam Head.
The hummeller had a short wooden “T” handle like a spade’s which was mounted vertically over a square or round frame by two or four curving supports which extended up to the central socket and shank. Each frame contained a number of thin verticle parallel bars up to 2 inches apart, overall size approximately 10 inches each way. Round frames were uncommon. Some frames were hinged so they could be used from the side or on a sloping pile of barley, being struck downwards more like the flail rather than punched downwards Heavier work than the simpler square one but reaching farther over a heap of bere.
To increase the number of cutting edges some hummellers were made with bars each way which formed a grid of intersecting blades, but I never saw one such. Again these took a great deal more in the making, but very effective.
The hummelling tool was brought down in a stamping motion upon the grain, turning it left or right with the “T” handle to cover the heap.
Bere would be laid thinly on a wooden floor, or sometimes heaped against a wall. Flagstone floors were not used as it would have damaged the grain for the malting process entailing sprouting the bere on the floor after soaking in a sack for a day in a pond. A small wooden platform laid on the flagstone or earthern floor would do the trick, to be set against the wall when not in use.
The heap of grain would then be stamped until all the awns had been broken off. Collected up with a wide wooden curved shovel or scoop, the grain would be thrown up into a draft of air outdoors to blow the awns away. Rather like panning for gold in Kildonan!!!
.
If one was available it would be put through a fanners to separate the awns and the chaff from the bere. The work was very demanding.
A heavier roller type hummeller appeared in the late 18th or early 19th century which comprised a circular drum of varying length and diameter containing up to twenty or so horizontal blades slotted around the periphery. The heavyish drum revolved around an axle held within an iron handled frame, and relied on its weight to cut the awns as it was pushed and pulled over the heap of barley.
Although more expensive it required less physical exertion and proved popular in many parts of the country. Blades were sometimes added forming a latticed cutting edge in much the same way as the upright version.
In the Parish of Canisbay brewing was a long established custom and in their Church Session Records of 1652 to 1666 there were innumerable references to brewing. The granite hummeller I found in Cannisbay could well have been used in the Parish as per the Session Records, but I am not saying that one was!!
Under the Rev Wm Davidson, Minister there from 1652 to 1666 when he was translated to Birsay in Orkney, many Parishoners were before the Session to be punished for various drinking misdemeanors on the Sabbath.
In Nov. 1652 “Helene Ham & Issobel Southerland delate for selling drink in tyme of sermone. Hendrie & Donald Liell delate for drinking and tulzeing on the Lord's day. Dod Liell, elder in Cannasbey, delate for drying malt on the Sabbath day”
In Dec 1657 “ Alex Rosie delate for goeing to ye parish of Dunnett on ye Sabbath and craveing moneys, taking Jon Owman back wt him to Mey and drinkeing in ane ailhous and wald not come to ye kirk; lykewise, for carrying aqua vite on another Sabbath, was referred to ye Justice Court”.
In 1658 “The brousters in Mey, being charged for selling of drink on ye Sabbath day, compeired Adam Seaton & Jon Sinclair and enacted themselves, if ever ther wer drink sold in ther houses on ye Sabbath, or any of themselves fund drunk or drinking on ye Sabbath in any houss, they sall pay £5 Scotts and stand in sackcloath. But they were tolerated to give drink and lodgeing to strangers.”
So hummelling bere was a long establshed custom in Caithness, at least in Canisbay.!!!
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