The middle of August

The middle of August has gone by in a flash. The Salen Show signals the beginning of the end of summer for us as the schools go back the following week, always.  And now unbelievably they have been back for more than a week, and we are staring at the end of the month! 

We have had moments of good weather, but there has been a lot of weather forecast monitoring before outdoor decisions are made.  

Tomorrow Farmer will be gathering the hill in order to spean the lambs on Tuesday and send most of them to market in a lorry.  

The fields are getting that ragged end of summer look.  Prasad has been monitoring the Painted lady caterpillars on the creeping thistle down below the house.  There are still a few around. It seems a bit late to be seeing them, as they still have to pupate and then fly off back to Africa before it gets too cold. 

#30DaysWild - Day 14

We had time for #30DaysWild today, and what's more it was fantastically clear and sunny.  Mid afternoon, armed with thermos flask and tin cups, we headed out onto the Point.

We could see for miles and miles.  Between Canna and Rum, the north west of Skye was visible.  On Iona you could see the white sandy beaches glowing, and on Tiree roof top silhouettes break the skyline. There was a cold nip in the air, but the sun was so dazzlingly bright.

There were Heath spotted orchids,

Glistening patches of Bog cotton,

Bloody cranesbill just coming out,

Wood bitter-vetch in 3 phases of flowering,

Wonderful clumps of Bird's foot trefoil,

Steep tumbling cliffs with Thrift and Sea campion,

More of the cotton grass,

And the fully out florets of the bitter-vetch,

East, Middle and West were looking lovely.

As was Toechtamhor.

As for the Treshnish Isles..

Home in time to do the chores, and then cook and eat late, watching the sunset.

Breakfast at sunrise

A buzzard (wrong lens) fly past.

The Duill lochan had a fine layer of ice this morning.

Farmer had to rugby tackle one of the tups this morning as he had twine on his leg.  Brownie took advantage of Farmer being otherwise engaged to start his breakfast before everyone else.

Into the Haunn field, and the ewes were waiting.

All in 12 hours