Fodder for the cows

Farmer was keen to move the cattle before we go on holiday.  He looks at the calendar to make sure he doesn't contravene the grazing regime dictated by our Rural Priorities contract, and then selects the field they need to be in. 

Knowing that it was to be the field below the farmhouse, Wigwam 1, I went for a walk to try and catch some sun on the wildflowers before they are 'affected' by the cows.  Walking through some patches of the field the grass was really long, and definitely needs to be nibbled down.  

This afternoon J from Croig came over to help jag the Cheviot lambs and move them to the Point field, and then they moved the cows.

The bright green patch of rain flattened grasses is the result of repairing a previous dung heap site with silage grass - nil biodiveristy but max taste, judging by the bee line the herd made for it.

A working landscape.

Farmer had to check the cows this afternoon so I went along for the ride.  We stopped in the Black Park to look at the Greater Butterfly Orchid Farmer had been protecting since he saw someone had driven over it.  It was beautifully in flower, and like so many of them this summer, seemed so tall.

The cows are calm and happy where they are, but before we leave on Saturday for the annual holiday on Barra, Farmer will move them into new pasture below the house.  This is where I have to put the wild flower passion aside, as the cows need to graze it, and if a few Common Spotted Orchids are squashed in the process, so be it.  It is a working landscape after all.

We then went to see how the New Field was looking - it had been used at lambing time but not grazed since.  There was plenty of grass, and a scattering of Fragrant Orchids, Northern Marsh Orchids and Common Spotted Orchids.

We climbed down to a stony beach we hadn't been on before (! - 20 years we have lived here!) and up into a new cave.  It looked as if a similar stone structure had been built in it, as was built in the Whisky Cave - was this another whisky cave then? We will go back with a torch sometime.  It was dripping, dark and damp today..

On the cliff side of the New Field.

On a hummock.. shells, pellets and this skull with very sharp looking teeth (possibly mink?).

Home, back to work, and after supper down into the field below the house.  This is where the cows will go next - where we walked yesterday and found so many flowers.

A little sunlight on insect world.  I am not sure what is going on here!

This is the field next door which we will cut for silage in September.  Lots of ox eye daisies, amongst buttercups and hawkweeds and red clover just coming into flower.

The sun went in, behind grey cloud over Coll.

And then it started to set.

Sunday afternoon flora