The jewel of August

We had our Green Tourism inspection today.  It is always good to talk about green issues and I always learn something new!  We were talking about how to close the gap between the electricity we generate and consume.  It would be so easy to put another turbine up so that we generate more, but actually we need to consume less.

It was nice to get out into the fields and the flowers later on.

Devil's Bit Scabious in the Black Park.

The cows and calves are in the new field.

We were looking for the Grass of Parnassus.  The cows came too.

We found hundreds of them.

And the Ling heather flowering on the cliff tops.

Lots of white heather.

Devils Bit Scabious.

Roots.

Field Gentian.

Some very late Common spotted orchids.

Bees..

Fast growing lambs.. as we start to think about lamb sales.

 This ewe looks as if she will be glad for the lambs to be weaned.

And here it is, the jewel of August, the Grass of Parnassus.

The first charge.

The Mull and Iona Community Trust building at Craignure now has a charging point for electric cars, funded by Scottish Government as part of their 'Plugged In' programme.  One of the conditions is that the electricity for charging is supplied free of charge.  Treshnish & Haunn Cottages are happy to be able to help by sponsoring the cost of the electricity.

18 months ago I had started to look into installing one at Treshnish to take advantage of wind power from the Proven turbine, but I hadn't managed to work my way through all the technical side of what was the best option/choice et cetera, so nothing further was done!

This inaction has worked in my favour as MICT have been working away to try and encourage a island wide network of charge point installations, and I have just signed an application to the Energy Savings Trust for a charge point here - hopefully we will be successful.  MICT have done all the hard work and research - I for one am extremely grateful.

This photograph is of Peter Pinnington (who also happens to look after our website) and his G-wizz at the MICT charge point - the first charge! He lives near here so I expect we will be seeing him a lot if our application is successful.

Winter feeding and energy planning.

It is always a bit daunting when winter feeding starts. It is not a job that you can not  stop once you have started - until the weather improves in the spring and the grass starts coming again. But the cows are in good condition and Farmer doesn't want them to lose condition as winter gets underway.  

So earlier in the week, the cows got their first feed of the winter - a bag of Hill Cow Cobs.  This means they can be fed on the ground, in a different place each day, no need for the troughs (better for Farmer's back) and with the ability to move the feeding spot each day there is less chance of poaching the ground when it is wet underfoot. 

They run for the bag!

Time to stand back and check how they all are.  

This cow was very ill as a heifer, and didn't go to the bull until she was a year older than the other heifers.  Since then though, she has had successful calvings every time. She is very calm and having been so ill, she is quite used to being at close quarters with humans.

Coming to have a look.

The weather has dried up after a week of fairly grim wet weather.  It has been lovely the last few days, and particularly good sunsets.  Calgary Tearoom was open this weekend for a Christmas sale, so we headed down there for tea and cake - and a walk at sunset on the beach.

This view of Treshnish Point is at the corner just beyond Calgary tearoom, before the road drops down to sea level.  When we first moved here, my stomach would turn over as we caught sight of it, in a sort of ' oh god what have we done?' way.  It still catches me now, 18 years later - no regrets at all - but still moved by the headland's powerful shape and drama.

The sunset. 

Calgary headland.

And Treshnish headland again.

The moon and the T LEC CAB sign.

Lichens at Haunn.

Another view we cannot tire of.

I went to a Visit Scotland energy saving event at the Tourist Office in Craignure earlier in the week.  I took leaflets from the Green Business Tourism Scheme to hand out to anyone who was interested in joining.  It was a horrendously wet day and not very many people ventured out, even though Brian from Energy Saving Trust was there with lots of information.  He and I know each other from the school closure threat days, so we chatted and he gave me some very useful advice about interest free loans for businesses (including farmers).  This was good to know as the last time we tried to get one we couldn't because we farmed.   More form filling though.  We are going to have one of their energy audits done. This will give us a chance to apply for the interest free loan. We will be especially looking at Toechtamhor which is a higher user of energy, being bigger and of a different construction than the other Haunn cottages.    We have plans to put better windows in, using the same airtight method as we used in the farmhouse - and possibly an air to air source heat pump to reduce electricity consumption.

Studio is already for the builders to arrive to do some eco-improvements in the living room and downstairs bedroom - we are increasing the wall insulation and putting in a wood burning stove as well as a window in the north wall of the bedroom.

We have had kindling supplied for the last 10 or more years by a sawmiller from Salen.  Unfortunately he has just told us that the next 10 bags (for our Christmas and New Year guests) will be his last delivery.  This is because of the difficulty he is having in sourcing dry wood.  So now we are looking into what we can do instead.  If the community woodland supplied them we could buy them from there, but I don't think they do them either.  So if we cannot source them on the island - what to do? Do we stop supplying kindling altogther, and get guests to bring their own? Do we supply firelighters instead? You can get eco ones, but we are having problems finding out where they are made and where they come from.  Do we provide an axe and allow guests to chop their own kindling?  

The hoggs are doing well on learning how to feed, and they will be able to go out again soon.  The field in this photograph is one of the fields Farmer is finding it difficult to put the hoggs in - because of the brambles. Hoggs will often get 'caught' in the brambles and whereas the stronger ewes can pull themselves out of them, hoggs tend to get stuck. This is a side effect of our environmental management agreement which prevents us from grazing cattle at certain times when the brambles are growing. In areas where the cows can graze during high summer, the brambles are kept in check.   So the Black Park is one of the fields where the brambles are spreading, so there is an increased risk if the hoggs are in there.  Even with daily checking. 

Farmer has been out checking the tups.  The blackface ewes and tups are on the Point - so he goes with Jan and walks quietly through them, spying through his binoculars to make sure every one of them is present and correct. 

Farmer used his new livestock trailer this week. He took some left over lambs and cast ewes to the sale in Oban.  We managed to get an all-time record price for one lamb - but not in a good way - £2.  This would not have even covered the cost of getting it to market. 

We had 3 nights this week when there was no one staying at Treshnish apart from us. This is the first time since early March.  It feels very different when there is no one here, but this weekend some regulars have come across from Edinburgh for a long weekend, having seen the weather forecast (good here for the next few days) and other regulars are staying in West Cottage for a week - they only ever come in the winter!  

Sunshine and no showers - yet

Marsh Marigolds down by the boathouse.

The 60 Cheviot Gimmers, lambing for the first time, are nearly finished lambing. Early evening sees teams of 'little angels' playing together, jumping down rock faces and kicking up their hind legs.

Rockpools reflections in evening light, looking back into Calgary Bay and towards the Beach.

We are getting to grips with the new management programme for Conservation. It is quite complicated having done things for 15 years in a certain way, to suddenly have different dates and grazing rhythms with complicated stocking densities to remember. When we walked round the farm last summer with Dr Tom Prescott from Butterfly Conservation Scotland, he was keen to help us get the right system in place to continue to improve the quality of the bio-diversity on our fields. And it all seemed quite flexible whilst we walked through fields knee deep in flowers. But as soon as you sign on the dotted line it becomes inflexible and we have to hope, at this stage, that we have got it right! Time will tell, and a review is built into the 5 year scheme anyway.

Water Avens, by the old boathouse.

Beltane is the day each year when the bull goes out. This means that the separation is ended and he runs with the cows for the next few months. On Tuesday our older cows go to Market in Oban. We are selling 4 cows, 2 of them with this year's calves. One of the cows is one of our first home bred cows - No 7. The others are Highland Shorthorn crosses we bought from one of our neighbours. It will be sad to see them go, and the dynamic of the herd will change without them. It will take a while for the new order to establish.

Loading the cows into the lorry Tuesday morning.

In March, in Berlin, at the inaugural VESTAs European Sustainable Tourism Awards, we were chosen as one of 6 'Outstanding Examples' of European Sustainable Tourism in the Accommodation Category! We are chuffed to bits with this recognition - we were nominated by Visit Scotland after the Thistle Awards last year, but never thought a small business such as ours would have a chance on a European level - still can't quite believe we have! We did not travel to the Reception in Berlin - too far to go for just one evening we felt.

I have just bought sleeper tickets for our trip to London Green Tourism Week in June though! We were told in February that we had been shortlisted for the GTBS Gold Star Awards, and a couple of weeks ago, we were told that we are now one of the Finalists! The email informing us of this great bit of news said that we are "now officially one of the top 2% of Green Tourism Businesses in UK and Ireland" - so that feels pretty good too. No pressure then... The winners are announced at a Reception at the Royal Thames Yacht Club, and we decided this time to go - as we can do the whole journey effortlessly by train. Quite excited about being in London for a day.

Tractor in garden - again. Thank Goodness it is dry.

Work continues apace on the office extension. The bulk of the woodfibre insulation arrived before Easter, and the roof pitches were fully insulated and covered in 2 very long days. The second of which our builder was on his own, so ably assisted later in the day by Farmer.

Today has been one of those incredible days, when I feel more than lucky to live here. We sat having a mug of tea in the sunshine outside the back door this afternoon, looking at the bluest of blue skies, clear air, fresh luminous green leaves on young trees we planted a few years ago, birds singing, swallows diving, breeze blowing. The weather today so very different from one of those dark winter days when the sky barely lights up at all, with wind howling, and rain pouring. So very different as to feel like a parallel world. Perhaps we wouldn't appreciate days like today so much if we didn't have the wild wet wintery days to remember.

The number of lambs is increasing and we are slowly finding homes for the puppies. Daughter, Friend and I delivered one to Lochgilphead on Friday, thinking we would avoid the traffic, but forgetting about the Mull Music Festival and ending up having to drive a very long way as the Oban boats were all full for the way back! Stopped at Kilmartin House Museum which is a great little museum and the girls enjoyed re-visiting the museum and we had lunch. Daughter has made a very mature decision (with no arm twisting) not to keep a puppy so we still have that one (girl) and one other (boy) to find homes for... do get in touch via the website if you can give either a home. A working home would be preferred but a good family home will also do!

Thrift, below the Treshnish Cottages.