Measurements from Invergiant, er, Invergarry

Ok ok, I admit it's not real. The official highly incurate measurements from Invergarry are as follows .... Higher than Jenny can reach on tippy toes but lower than the forth branch up on the apple tree, er, probably about 7 foot 5 1/4 inches..... not a winner I'm afraid.

Happy in Caithness

Good effort!

The measurement of the Greendykes sunflowers took place today with the help of my camera shy assistants.


My tallest sunflower is a skinny specimen that defied the odds and healed itself after it severed it's neck on the summer house guttering. The official height was recorded as 8ft 2 inches (249cm). Not as high as any of the Laggan sunflowers but not too shabby at all!!

It's official!

Official measuring has taken place in Laggan, courtesy of Ginger and Mrs J, as witnessed by myself (and all passers by who may have wondered what an earth we were up to....)

First to be subjected to the tape measure was my finest specimen and hopeful for the title of skinniest yet tallest Sunflower in the Highlands, (nay! the UK, are you reading this Mr Field hey hey!! read it and weep!!!) ahem... as i was saying...its not the winning its the taking part that counts.

My fellow was second from the right in prime house flowerbed position, which Ginger and Mrs J agreed was level with the guttering on the roof, so this proved a handy anchor point for the tape and i beieve an acurate reading of its supreme gianormousness and collossal hugeness was achieved, courtesy of the measuring mastery of Ginger....

As you can see, it came in at about 3 metres 50cm or 13 foot 8... am i reading that right?? I'm not so good with feet...

So next up we took a stroll over to Lilac Cottage to wonder at both Ginger and Mrs J's sunflower collection, admired and envied by bed and breakfasters the world over. Unfortunately Ginger's contenders, while looking splendid and sunny, had already been trounced by Mrs J's fine fellows who were looking over the fence and down onto Ginger's lot... So, it was for Mrs J's biggest and best that the measuring tape was called for, and Ginger made sure it was a fair and square measurement and no cheating!!

While they were at it a measurement of the width of a flowerhead was also taken and officially photographed, by official photographer and impartial observer of the day... that would be me....

So Mrs J's top specimen reached the dizzying hieghts of 2 metres 73cm, or ten foot 8??? Those damn feet again.... The flowerhead was about 20cm diameter.... who knows how many feet that is, its less than one anyway... oh inches! I just remembered inches!

So with all hieghts and breadths officially logged the tape measure is now put away. However, Ginger did such i fine job of it, i think i can offer and recomend his services to Sunflower growers everywhere, at very reasonable hourly rates of course.....

Do let us know via the blog what your own measurements are, and Lisa can make a graph or something, and then next year, if you are all willing to do it again, well we can conpare and contrast... or is this just getting too sad and geeky...??!!

Hey hey! happy measuring!

Local rivalry

Laggan proves to be a hotbed of great sunflower growth! That must mean we get a lot of sun here... it's nothing to do with the rain i'm sure....

Here is Mrs J with her splendid and very tall sunflowers! Official measurements of all Laggan sunflower contenders is iminent: Ginger, Mrs J and I will undertake the task just as soon as we have found a tape measure long enough and secured insurance for sending Ginger up a rickety ladder to those scary heights.

I hope everyone is taking a measurement of your very own contender, i believe there may be prizes! No expense spared, Miss Lisa and i are planning a trip to the pound shop as we speak... Please, before they start to shrink and die, measure them up, we can do graphs and pie charts and things, and if nothing else can send all the stats to Andy/evil statistic and he could put us in one of his stats books as an example to young minds...

Newsflash- Laggan has flowers at last!

Click on the image to see it better...

And the Winner could be ...

And I still have one that has yet to flower and is making me consider changing my name to Jack just so that I can climb it and steal the giant's golden egg-laying goose.

andy