And so it all begins again.

I didn't take any gathering or fank photographs this week.  The two J's came to help gather and put the hill ewes through the fank yesterday but I was in and out of Tobermory for various reasons and they had finished by the time  I got home.  All the ewes have been treated now, in preparation for lambing and the hoggs have been put back to the hill.

The cows are all out above Toechtamhor, apart from the bull and the two cows left to calve.  I think Farmer is as ready as he can be for lambing which will start any day.  With the end of the building work on Shian in sight, his days should return to the normal farming activities I hope.

It is nice to have familiar faces here again in the cottages, and to meet the new ones.  In the best possible way, our regulars are like migrant birds - they come and go, marking a certain time of year. So along with the familiar faces are the wheatear, the curlew nesting (we hope) above Treshnish on the hill, and the skylark.  A frisson of excitement to see them and hear them all again.