Our farming calendar has now turned a corner. Nothing to do with the weather. More to do with preparing for winter. Like the premature Christmas card catalogues arriving on August 1st it seems a bit early to be thinking about winter - but we are allowed to cut silage in our ground nesting bird fields after this date.
And now thankfully the silage is safely made - a bumper crop from the field below the Treshnish Farm Cottages. The traditional organic system of rotation/fallow would seem to be paying off as we have made about 25% more silage from this field than when it was cut last 4 years ago.
Earlier in the summer this field was ablaze with wild flowers. Sailing north of Mull towards Barra you could see these fields from the M.V Clansman - a long bright yellow streak in amongst the vivid summer green of the Treshnish headland.
Last night's sunset reflected in the windows of Sheiling and tinted the whitewashed walls of the farm steading as it set over Coll. Around midsummer the days are so long and the sun sets up near the Cairns of Coll when seen from our front window, but it is steadily creeping back along the island of Coll, and is setting nearer to Tiree now! They are still fantastic though - and last nights was no exception.
Today it is beautiful, bright, sunny and breezy. The hen mentioned in the earlier post lost one chick but the remaining 11 are growing fast.