Devil's Bit Bertha

(Hurricane) Bertha has made her way up the country since Sunday, and landed on Mull mildly on Monday, with wind and gentle rain most of the day, but opening up into this glorious technicolour sunset that night.

Yesterday morning Farmer finished off wrapping Sunday's silage. He had to bring the digger back from Haunn which only moves at a very slow digger-walking pace.

The wind was getting up a little and the Devils bit scabious blows beautifully in the Black Park.

The pods are Yellow rattle, the wind very effectively spreading the seed.

Last night brought a lot of heavy rain. Farmer went to collect the bins from the top of the road and saw this out of the corner of his eye.  He told me about it when he got back. It was at the roadside, dead.  A young Adder, only about 8 inches long.

Some guests reported a sheep on a cliff ledge near Port Haunn so we went down to investigate with ropes and the lasso.   Farmer was pretty sure he knew where they meant, quite often ewes are chased onto the cliffs by walkers' dogs running (not under 'close control') along the flats.  There is no shortage of grass at the moment so the likelihood of sheep deliberately grazing themselves onto a ledge is pretty low.

In the way through the beyond Haunn field, we found this glade of abundant Grass of Parnassus, so beautiful, even though lots have lost their petals due to Bertha blowing through.

The dogs wait for their Master's command.

We searched fruitlessly for anything stranded on a ledge.  We could see a ledge which had been grazed down to nothing around it but there wasn't a sheep to be seen.  I am afraid to confess in these circumstances you scan the cliffs themselves but you also check below in case they have fallen down.  Thankfully there was nothing below either.  We then walked the nearly cliffs in each direction to make sure we hadn't misunderstood the location, but thankfully there were no stranded sheep to be seen anywhere. 

Beautiful scabious growing protected up a gully in the rock face above the Port. 

We met three happy walkers (despite the onset of more rain as we stood talking) who were enjoying the wilderness and the views. Whilst we had been searching for sheep, they had been watching a sea eagle!

The new hens are settling in well.