Endings and beginnings

Beginnings of spring.

Our first lambs born yesterday morning, orphaned shortly afterwards.  Luckily Farmer was on hand and brought them home for bottled colostrum and bottled lamb milk, which they are hungrily noisily enjoying.

Ending of the aurora season... the days are getting wonderfully longer, which I really enjoy, bringing the sunset skies over the Isle of Coll and early morning sunrises - but also taking away the visual delight of the northern lights.

Last night was one of the season's last nights, utterly magical.

An autumn break

The weather is being to turn today. It is windier and overcast, though there is still no sign of rain. 

I had errands to do yesterday which took me along Loch na Keal.  It was so clear you could see the houses on Iona from just beyond Ulva Ferry.

Farmer was at home with an equally long list of tasks, including spiking the silage areas so that when it rains again the ground where the wheels have compacted the soil, will drain better.  That is the hope any way.

Last night I was hoping for more northern lights, as the forecast was good. A faint but lovely glow was all I saw.  We are really so lucky here that there is no light pollution. The moon was strong and the stars were bright so I wandered around, whilst everyone else was asleep, practising my night time photographs.

Farmer and his family are taking a break tomorrow, but will be back soon.  We have an army of different helpers looking after sheep and cows, dogs, hens, cats and cottages.

Farmer goes back to school

Farmer has gone back to school this week.  He always thought he had grandfather rights over his ability to use a knapsack sprayer, should he need to, to control the bracken in areas he can't cut. Well, apparently these grandfather rights are going to expire in 2014.  Butterfly Conservation Scotland and Coille Alba got together and have been funded to run a course, whereby the students, about 12 of them,  do the training for free, in exchange for some voluntary work later on, utilising their new found skills.  So off down to Craignure he goes - Monday Tuesday and Wednesday this week. 

 We had good weather again on Saturday.  Mild and sunny.  The cows have the range all the way from the farm to the Haunn field, but funnily enough they prefer the Haunn field. 

The fuchsia is still flowering beautifully outside East Cottage, buzzing with bees too. 

We have a new arrival coming next week who Farmer will have to train up to help.  He is called Walter.  More news after the weekend...

The hoggs are also ranging but they seem to like the hill park best. The red deer stags are roaring a lot now, Farmer heard them above the Haunn cottages.

The Greenland Wheatear was still around.

Trip to Tobermory at low tide Sunday. A damp wet windy day, until the sun...

set...

The nerines were left over from the previous owner and provide some strong colour in the veg garden.

Today was chip arrival day.  Thank goodness we only asked for 10 cubic metres, we normally get 12! There would not have been room.  It has been so mild we have not used as much as usual. 

And this afternoon, Nigel and David from Mullwind came to tinker with the minuscule chip in the Proven turbine (just about 4 years old now amazingly), to see if reprogramming a new chip will improve its performance, and bring it closer to the second turbine which was installed last November, and produces a lot more electricity.

Just taking the dog out before bed.... a bit of a glow above the clouds....

Half an hour later still out there - this bottom photograph has a dash of headlight in it from a rally car practising for the rally this weekend.

I was invited to write the first guest post on the new Higher Nature Value Farming website, which was a great honour, and I laboured over it for weeks.  I finally built up courage to submit it this week, and it was published yesterday. Even if you don't read my blogpost, it is a great looking website, full of interesting information about farming with nature in mind.