I was away on Sunday taking photographs for some friends on the Isle of Skye. I left just as IainT got underway shearing our hoggs and the tups. He and Farmer spent most of the day in the cattle shed, which is in its summer (sheep) configuration at the moment. This year, there is even a tea table. Catering staff no longer need to take up flasks of tea. They have their own kettle and biscuit tin.
The hoggs (last year's ewe lambs) go into the cattle shed as hoggs and emerge without their fleeces as gimmers. Last year, Farmer marked those ewes which didn't have a lamb (the eild ones) on the horn. This meant that on Sunday when sorting through this year' eild ewes, he could see that some of them had been eild the year before - so there was clearly something amiss with their fertility.
I got home last night. There was a sea fog in places and increasing cloud as we got nearer to Mull. We woke this morning to thick cloud, whilst the other side of the hill was in blazing sunshine!
This evening Farmer and I went to Haunn so he could check the cows. All was peaceful and quiet, and the foxgloves were looking amazing in the Haunn garden. The air was filled with the sound of buzzing bees. It was getting a bit late for taking photographs, but I took some anyway.
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