Happy Christmas Happy New Year

I am not at sure what happened to December.  It just disappeared.  I am sorry I haven't posted a blog since the 6th December. No Christmas greeting, no looking back on the year, no well wishes for the coming new year.  I had good intentions but things just got in the way and I didn't get any written at all. I think I am finding it quite difficult to keep 2 blogs going and I am thinking of bringing the two blogs into the one place on the website but I haven't completely decided yet!  

I hope you have all had an enjoyable Christmas and that 2017 brings happiness, health and peace to you all.

We have had a busy Christmas and New Year in the cottages and in the farm house with lots of family and friends staying - the last of whom departed today.  Lots of socialising and cooking and all of that, as well as the usual farm chores!    Wind and gales affected some of the ferries before Christmas so guests arrived early to avoid the cancelled crossings.

Farmer's enthusiasm was a little over the top when setting light to the Christmas pudding this year - thankfully no damage done to anyone or anything! 

My last blog post mentioned the tups were out and that the weather had been kind so far!  The weather continued to be quite kind until we were hit by Storm Barbara and Storm Conor.  I think Conor was worse than Barbara for us but we were lucky not to have any damage (that we have noticed yet...!)   The ewes were all gathered before tupping from the hill and along the coast so this ewe on the top of Dun Haunn is not likely to have a lamb as she will not have seen the tup! 

We had some great walks with friends and family - always reminds us of how lucky we are to live here!  

It is now time to separate the tups from the ewes as they should all have mated by now.  We will find out how many are in lamb in February when the scanner comes to scan the ewes.  There is always a concern that the new tups are all working and that we won't find a large number of ewes not carrying a lamb, which would indicate there might be a fertility problem in one of the tups.  It hasn't happened yet, and long may it stay that way!

We haven't really been very far off Treshnish but we did venture to Tobermory for the Bells on Hogmanay - it is a friendly gathering to exchange good wishes for the New Year with everyone around you - and to watch the Fireworks which were wonderful.  

We are doing a bit of work in Toechtamhor this winter so it is blocked out from the end of January.   West is changing around as we make the bedroom an ensuite kingsize bedroom rather than a twin and reduce the number the cottage sleeps from 2 + 2 to 2 + 1.   The living area will be more spacious and still enjoy those wonderful views of the sea.   Middle is also getting a kingsize bed as is the Studio mezzanine bedroom!  

We have already got a lot of bookings for the year ahead which is wonderful.  A large percentage of our bookings are repeats, and it means a lot to us that so many people want to come back - time and time again too!  We really love sharing the beauty of this extraordinary piece of land, and it is great to know that lots of people appreciate the place as much as we do. 

Incredibly beautiful day

From just after midnight...the aurora borealis fighting through a bank of cloud.  I never take for granted how lucky we are to have this on our doorstep, when all the different forces of nature work together.  We even saw it last Hogmanay.  In fact if you would like to take your chances, why not have a look at the spaces we still have for Christmas and New Year, and take advantage of our 20% discount! 

Sun rising pinks over Rum with an ice dog rainbow.

In charge of all she surveys?  All the in by fields have sheep in them with a varied assortment of brightly painted tups.  This ewe was on her own, sunning, on a knoll, with a perfectly still Calgary Bay behind her. 

That ewe gave me the idea to get a memorable photograph of Cap.  This weekend we are going to look at a new sheep dog and if we like him he will join the team.  Cap has been top dog since he arrived at Treshnish in April 2007, just in time for lambing.  He is finding the hills a bit tough now, at the age of 11, so he can take it easy and do what he loves second to working with Farmer - playing with whatever toys he can find.  Thank you Cap. Farmer says he has been the best dog he has ever worked with. 

So, so still.  Not a ripple.

The Aurora Borealis is forecast for tonight, so I won't say any more for now. Except that it has been an incredibly beautiful day.

Christmas skies and boiler house blues

Last year we had Auroras over Christmas - this year we have had the full moon over Christmas!   The full moon was stunning both on Christmas eve night and on Christmas night itself. There have been clouds too, but enough clear skies to get some wonderful winter sky landscapes.  The winds at times have been quite ferocious, but also at times blissfully still.

We had a lovely Christmas despite the erratic behaviour of the woodchip boiler, which stopped working on Boxing Day morning.  That was okay though, we turned the oil back up on, which meant the cottages would still be warm, but not the farmhouse.  (We have a woodturning stove similar to the one in Studio, which is amazingly warm so we were not cold!) 24 hours after we turned that on, a mixer valve stopped working, which meant no heat was being delivered round the system!  What a nightmare!  Through more luck than anything else, we tricked the valve into working again by turning the woodchip boiler control panel on!  No idea why that worked but it did!  

The boiler is 6 years old now, so finding a new mixer valve might have been difficult were it not for the wonderful ESBE website which provides a table pairing discontinued parts with new equivalent parts! Hey presto!  Minutes later, we knew there was one in Glasgow.  A friend of Treshnish came to the rescue through Facebook, and this morning picked up the new part from Bellshill, and will deliver it to us tomorrow!  We can now relax knowing we have a replacement.  Thank you M.

Resorting to using oil is not good for our carbon footprint, but luckily it has only happened once or twice in 6 years.  We are grateful, however,  to have the option in an emergency so that our guests can be blissfully unaware of any issues behind the scenes in the boiler house!

Yesterday, D came to have a look at the wood-chip boiler - he is an exceptional engineer with an admirably inquisitive mind. One of the faults appearing on the wood-chip control panel was the fall chute switch, so he was going to test it for us.  He had a look at all sorts of things, and by gently nudging the tipping grate motor, which moved back into position. They turned the boiler back on and it started working again!!  Thank you D.   For a few hours we wondered what was going on as it seemed to be in a mode that we had not used before and we couldn't get it to stop!    A phone call to another Froling boiler owner in Tobermory helped over the phone with that. Thank you A.  We did as he suggested and finally got it back in in the old default Trans Operate mode.  Farmer stayed up until midnight to keep checking on it, and up again at 6am to make sure it was still on.  Thank you Farmer.

Farmer has opened up all the gates now, so that the hill ewes are no longer confined to the Point.  They can range all the way through the Haunn fields and the Black Park.  There are quite a few walkers around at the moment and we don't want to risk losing sheep over cliffs because someone has let their dogs run wild, and the sheep have fled without looking where they are going.  (Sadly it does happen...)

The Christmas guests have either departed or are departing tomorrow.  New Year guests started arriving this evening after a storm disrupted route, and more arrive tomorrow and Wednesday!

We all joked when the Met Office starting naming storms at the beginning of December that we would be through the alphabet before the end of the year.  I think Eva has just past and Frank is due tomorrow!  So far we haven't had many winds above 60MPH but tomorrow night they are forecasting gusts of up to 80MPH, which is when we start losing bits of polytunnel and worry about what other things might move or blow.

After New Year Farmer will gather the ewes to take the tups off.  He will keep any back who don't seem as fit as the others, mostly the older ewes probably, and put the others back to the hill, once they have had a Co-secure bullet and any other treatment needed.   There are one or two tups which need to go to market - there is usually a sale mid January for them.

  

A Christmas Day Primrose - albeit a little nibbled around the edges.

It would be wrong of me to imply through these photographs that we have had nothing but sunshine over the Christmas period... as it has been very very wet too.  This was taken yesterday as I drove from Calgary back to Treshnish, through the windscreen as I wasnt going to risk getting my camera wet!

Just in time

I had been watching the forecast as avidly as ever, with the prospect of the Geminid Meteor shower, and didn't hold out much hope that we would see much as it looked as if we would have a lot of cloud.  

A sudden burst of aurora activity took me by surprise on Monday night, just as I was getting ready for a meeting. We had thick cloud, but I did a test shot anyway.  There was a tiny thin line of bright light running along the horizon to the north, peaking out from under that heavy cloud.  Fantastically vivid photographs on Facebook made me feel quite green with envy.  After the meeting I did a test shot and the sky was so pink it was reflecting purple on the sea.. wonderful! 

I went off down to Croig to see if the sky was a bit clearer there, it was about the same but the aurora was fading.    Back home and the sky was clearing - sometimes a strong wind can be a good thing.

I didn't get any photographs at Croig that I was at all pleased with, but when I got home the sky was still showing some lovely colour.

There were lots of shooting stars as I watched - the wind was roaring through the trees and it was cold.  

I went to set the time-lapse up before going to bed, and saw that the light had got brighter in the north sky, with even less cloud.  The colours picked up in camera were rich and lovely!

The time-lapse caught some great activity while we were all asleep!  Do have a look if you have time.  It is here. 

Last weekend Farmer and family headed out for the early ferry on Saturday morning - this meant leaving home at 5.15am!   Take about bleary eyes!   The Isle of Mull boat is off in dry dock and we were on the Isle of Arran instead.   There is always a different atmosphere on the ferry when it isnt the Isle of Mull boat.   The Isle of Arran has a smaller cafeteria and so it always feels very cosy!  The regular boat change at this time of year also becomes almost part of the Christmas ritual.  Foot passengers with heavy bags of shopping, families like us disappearing off for a pre-Christmas trip somewhere - an anticipatory feeling in the air!   

We were in Perth before 10am so the early start was definitely worth it.  We were in and out of B&Q within minutes, having found everything we needed - those little things that you just cannot get on Mull, but desperately need - like an 'inch and a half stop end' for West Cottage bathroom waste pipe - neither builders merchants on Mull had them!  We were out of Perth, Christmas shopping gaps filled, within an hour!  The Angus Glens were dusted with snow as we headed east.  We had lunch at the Drovers Inn pub in Memus, a few miles from where I went to primary school. Memory lane! 

The sunrise on Sunday morning was beautiful - a heavy frost and clear crisp air.  We don't get weather like this very often, and so it was a treat to walk through crunchy frosted fields and watch the light and colour in the sky change as the sun rose.    There was a loch near where we were staying and we could hear the geese.  A huge skein flew overhead, pink foots, heading south.

We stopped in Forfar to do some visiting, and then headed back towards Oban.  A low midday sun peered through the dappled clouds every now and then - wonderful reflections all along Loch Earn, the air was so still, the water so mirror calm.

The work is very nearly done in West Cottage. Farmer and I moved the furniture back in yesterday.  I am off out there to hang pictures whilst he puts new fire bricks in the stove, and does a few last minute odd jobs.   I think the new look in the bathroom is great, and I hope everyone will enjoy the new insulation and the new bedroom floors!