Autumnal October

After lamb sales, it is time to think about tups.  Have we got enough?   We have 3 different flocks of sheep - and they each need new blood every now and then.  

We bought a Suffolk tup from Lettermore on the side of Loch Frisa, a handsome Herdwick from James Rebanks in Cumbria but we still needed several Blackface tups.  

We went up to Glengorm and bought a tup from there, and we bought one from the Dalmally Tup Sale.  Then our friend RM gave us a tup she didn't need any more. So we had all we need. 

Still days.  Some sunny, some not.  

And some very strong auroras.  99% of Aurora activity is seen to the north but on this particular night the activity was so strong, we could see it to the west (as in these photographs) and the south. These pink rays were visible to the naked eye. 

 

A chance at summer

After a pretty wet summer September has given us some warmth and lovely dry days.  

September is a busy month on the farm.  Long days in the fank sorting lambs in preparation for the weekly or fortnightly trips to market in Oban.  Early starts loading lambs into the livestock trailer, setting off in the almost dark to catch the ferry, along with dozens of other farmers and crofters heading in the same direction, with the same goal.   With each journey back from Oban the fields are emptier and the transition to the winter slowly begins. 

The latest farm biodiversity contract we have with the Scottish Government started this spring, and allows us to make silage any time after the 1st of August.  

Over the last few years we have noticed that the fields seem to be more fertile than they were a few years in to managing the grazing.  We have realised that we were almost being too protective of the fields, and the late cut silage we have made for decades has been quietly increasing the fertility of the grazing.  The other change is that by cutting so late in the summer we seem to be encouraging plants like Meadowsweet and Knapweed, which flower later on - the early summer flowers are being throttled by the secondary flush of grass growth. 

Being able to make silage in August rather than September, was, we hoped, going to allow the early flowering plants to successfully set seed, before the usual flush of late summer grass growth.   However the weather in August did not give us the chance to find out if this was going to make a difference!  After a very wet month we finally made silage in the Haunn field on the 31st August.  It will be another year before we see if it makes any difference. 

Still days, warm air and sea haar. 

Clear sky nights with wonderful Aurora visible with the naked eye. 

At the end of September our last guests of the season stayed in the Shepherd's Hut.  It is closed now, water turned off and the bath put away until the spring. 

This last photograph is the skull of a large Cod, found on the shore by F and N, a couple from the Netherlands who are great friends of Treshnish.  What an extraordinary find. 

 

The Salen Show

We weren't showing the Herdwicks at Bunessan or Salen this year, but Farmer was helping Rhoda with her Blackface ewe lambs.  And she came away with several rosettes and one of them, a Champion! 

The Salen Show is a friendly sociable event, a chance for the farming community to catch up with their neighbours and other farmers.  Plenty for visitors and families to do too. 

It was lovely to see the Show Shed (gifted to the Mull and Morvern Agricultural Society by Ardtornish Estate in the 1880s) full of the Poultry classes again.  Bird flu must be less of a threat now. 

Alice

Sad news last week as Alice, the Cheviot lamb 8 year old Daughter adopted, and subsequently reared, died in her sleep.  She was 15.   We will all miss her.  Having been bottle fed she was more friendly than most though she did mainly come when she thought there was food on offer.  She bore many strong lambs for us and when she retired she lived with the Herdwicks and at times in the shed with Brownie (another pet lamb, a year younger than her). 

The last photographs I got of her were in the fank earlier in the month.  She came over to say hello.   

Orchids!

May and June are my favourite months of the year, as the wild flowers and particularly the orchids appear. 

There are 14 different species of Orchid on the farm.  Some of them are very easy to find, and quite abundant. Others don't flower as regularly or nearly as abundantly.  Those we tend to keep their locations more private as some of them are tiny and easily trodden on by even the keenest eye. 

During lockdown I decided I wanted to find each one in the one season.  The Bird's nest orchid only flowers every few years so once we had seen that I knew we were in with a chance.   The two species I hadn't ever seen were the Lesser twayblade which is TINY and the Early marsh orchid.  We found the Lesser twayblade plant but not in flower.  We didn't find the Early marsh.  

We put that right on Friday evening this last week though, as we found several plants up in the bog just north of the path from Larach Mhor (Reudle schoolhouse) to Glac Gugairidh.  I was very excited! 

Here are some of the ones I have photographed so far this summer. I will add more as I find them! 

Early marsh orchid

Early marsh orchid

Early purple orchid 

Early purple orchid 

These grow on exposed bits of cliff beyond Haunn and out on the Point.  They are hardy and the first of our orchids to appear in the spring. 

Fragrant orchid

Fragrant orchids smell divine.  They grow in grassland, and begin to flower at the beginning of June.  We have in the past been able to smell them before we saw them.  This was in the Black Park, but sadly the Bracken has encroached from all sides and they are not as numerous as they were. 

Heath spotted orchid

These are very numerous.  They grow on heathy and poorer ground.   This one is much shorter than most - it was growing on a rocky outcrop with very thin soil!   This could account for its strong pink colour.  The colour does vary - from white to this strength of pink.  Sheep love them! And if the sheep accidentally get into a field of orchids they will all disappear overnight. 

Narrow leaved helleborine

There are one or two of these growing on the way up the track from the bridge over the Ensay Burn towards the tin schoolhouse.   They are protected by cages to stop the rabbits from eating them.   Their numbers are slowly increasing, thanks to Prasad's care for them.

Northern marsh orchid

You can find these in the garden at Haunn, just by the gate there is a ditch and Northern marsh orchids grow in there.  They also grown in the Black Park and the Haunn field, visible from the track.  Their deep pink/purple flowers are easily spotted in the grass. 

Aurora May 10th/11th 2024

There has been a lot of Aurora activity during the winter.  Sometimes the weather works and sometimes it doesn't!

Unfortunately on the night of 10th/11th May when there was the strongest activity in decades, Treshnish and a lot of Mull was clouded out.   It didn't stop me from taking my tripods outside and trying to make a few photographs.  

These photographs are pretty unremarkable compared to some of the extraordinary photographs that appeared online over the next few days.  Those parts of the UK which had clear skies really saw some astonishing activity. 

With the naked eye I could see the pink colour coming through the cloud.  This is unusual on a cloudy night but shows how strong the activity was that I could see the colour through cloud. 

Usually the activity is from the north, so I always aim my camera north.  This night I had my camera facing south and it was picking up the activity south and west.  An indication of how strong the activity was. 

For all the cloud, it was still lovely to be outside and witnessing something very special. At home.