Flower survey on the Machair at Calgary

Spear thistle

Spear thistle and Lady's mantle

Harebells and sand 

Knotted pearlwort

Carline thistle

Hawkbits and sea

Forget me not

Yarrow

14th June 2020 30DaysWild

The machair at Calgary is closed to grazing from the beginning of May until the end of August.  2020 is the third year of this grazing control.  As April is often a dry month and with the sheep still grazing on it, the machair takes quite a time to recover, but the middle of May it is beginning to flower again.  It has been a very dry spring and early summer. 

There are certainly more Northern marsh orchids than last year, and this one was an especially fine specimen! 

Hawkweeds are beyond my knowledge and so I never know what they are. They are beautiful though. 

July 2018

The lorry is booked

It is August (already) and it is time to start thinking about selling the lambs.  Farmer has booked the lorry and booked our pens at the market.

With shearing behind us, Farmer has turned his attentions to the bracken and been out whenever the weather allows him, to weed wipe or mow.  So far he hasn't used the knapsack and lance but he still has plans to do behind the Haunn cottages.  For this you need a still dry day and it has either been too breezy or wet.  The bracken has started turning in some places already so it may be too late and some bits will have to wait until next year.

The tups are in the field in front of the farm house at the moment.  I don't think I have ever seen Brownie (below) asleep! 

The woodland between the Ensay Burn and the farm is peppered with these beautiful Angelica.  

Here is an indication of recent weather as seen by the view straight out from the farmhouse office to Calgary and Caliach headlands.  I am biased but I do think it is lovely in all weathers.

Before and during the storm

I never thought I would litter my blog with car photographs, but I had an opportunity to try out an electric car yesterday, and as the sun was shining, I thought I would charge it using the PV panels.

The Croig boat making the most of the calm before the forecast storm.

We had dog training in Dervaig in the afternoon, so we took the electric car.  Moray from MICT had asked me to take some pics of it in strategic places, the turquoise waters of Calgary Bay being one of them.  On the way home we came back via the Hill Road and Torloisk. It was faster at going up the hills that our own car is.

Farmer making the most of the calm before the storm, driving round the Haunn field like a maniac, picking up two bales at a time and loading the borrowed trailer, trying to get all the bales moved before the storm/before we went out for the evening.

Farmer managed to move all these bales into the yard by the cattle building so that he can wrap them in situ. With minutes to change, we set off to Tobermory to go to The Painting School pop up restaurant at  Sgriob-ruadh Farm - open here for one night only. 

The setting was lovely, the food was truly superb, and the company was great.  

All the fresh ingredients were local to Iona (where the chefs currently live and work) and Mull (where they hope to start up a restaurant with rooms), grown or caught by an extended family of local producers which gave the dinner an added dimension.. truly knowing where your food is coming from...combined with the skills in the kitchen in creating 5 delicious courses with some successful taste surprises. Pity you can't do scratch and sniff blogs.

We drove home as the wind began to speed up, but it was still dry.  I didn't really notice how heavy the rain was in the middle of the night, but Farmer was woken by it and said it was pretty torrential.  We had feared the worst having looked at the forecast, which showed rainfall of over 20mm at 4am.  The burn by the house was raging when we got up. Farmer had always thought the replacement culvert  pipe under the track was 'overkill' but actually it was nearly full. 

The road to Calgary didn't fare so well. There has been a minor landslide before, but this poor rowan had nothing left to cling on to.

The river Bellart burst its banks in 2 places, closing the Glen Bellart to Aros Bridge road as well as our access from Treshnish to Dervaig and Tobermory.  It was impossible for anything other than a high ground clearance 4x4 to get through. 

This meant a round trip to Dervaig via Ulva Ferry, Salen and Tobermory - in excess of 80 miles all told, instead of 16, in order to collect Daughter from her friends house.... lucky for us it is beautiful scenery.

The sun has come out now, but more showers over Coll as I type, but the wind is due to rise again this evening.  

Tonight the road is open again at Dervaig and between here and Calgary.