Let sleeping gulls lie

A contented calf sits by the gate into the field by the house, access to Shian and Duill cottages. 

Our wild 'burn garden' is developing nicely beside the house. 

Farmer went to check the cows beyond Haunn this morning so I took advantage and walked through the Haunn field/Coronation Meadow.  Small white, fragrant, northern marsh and lesser butterfly orchids all flowering, along side bluebells, wood sage, wood bitter vetch, heath pea vetch, pignut, eyebright and more.. no better way to start the day!

We went to Tobermory to see a friend who was on Mull for a few hours.  

We also went to a book launch at Tackle and Books, of Lynne Farrell's book on wild flowers of the Isle of Mull, which gives Treshnish a good mention. She signed our book with a lovely inscription about keeping up the good work, so that was very nice!

Thence to the High School for Parents Evening. Farmer was able to talk to another father who does the shearing for us about coming to do the hoggs, so that was a bonus!  Home, and something to eat...

Then I managed to get some flowers in, walking the dog before sunset.

I have often wondered who eats the Burnet Rose.  Now I know.

A mixed week

With all but a handful of in-bye ewes left to lamb, we are half way through, time wise.  The tups are usually with the ewes for 6 weeks (from the end of November until just after New Year) which governs the length of time 'lambing' goes on for - give or take a few days for premature or late lambs! The ewe fertility cycle is 17 days and so we expect 75-80% of our ewes to have lambed by the end of the third week.  This doesn't mean Farmer can put his feet up through.  You still have to check as often for 5 ewes as 50.  However, it is a relief to be able to see that most of the ewes have lambs now, on the hill as well as in bye.

Yesterday was horrendously wet and cold and so Farmer was on the look out for lambs who might have misplaced their mothers (or vice versa) and got too cold.  This morning he has brought a new born  lamb into the house whose mother appeared to have walked off (sometimes happens with gimmers/ewes having their first lambs) and having had a feed, it is currently warming up under the lamp.

I accidently disturbed a greylag goose from her nest on this stoney little beach on the east coast of the island between Salen and Fishnish. Such big eggs!

Coltsfoot.

There is lots of wild garlic around and it is lovely to see the marsh marigold coming up now in sheltered damp spots.  The larch is brilliantly green and the needles at the soft and luscious stage.

Clumps of foxgloves growing. I am NOT looking for the first bracken fronds.  I know some people have seen some, but I don't want to see it.  We will be not looking for it on the 77 hectares that we had aerially treated last summer, but anxiously hoping it will have been successful.

The copse of geans have suffered in the wind, just as they were beginning to flower. The ground underneath is littered with their delicate petals.

Guy has been helping out with a few chores - putting in styles and hanging gates. At last we have a style beside the graveyard.  Cap is moving kennel and Guy has gated the kennels now so that they are more private.  Cap is a very passive unaggressive dog, but quite often dogs (walking through the yard with their owners) would run up to him in his kennel, so now he can be undisturbed as they won't be able to see him. 

Another job which Farmer has been desperately looking for time to do, is cutting back some of the brambles in the in-bye fields.  As I have written about before, with the grazing restrictions at certain times of year, the brambles have really been growing upwards and outwards in several of the herb rich fields. So it is good to have had Guy's time cutting them back a bit. 

Along Loch na Keal.  

Tobermory - Wednesday afternoon sunshine.

The goldfinches are really enjoying the seed feeder. Bird photography is not my forte, but I crept up on this one as I only had a 100mm lens on the camera at the time. 

The RSPB are coming to do a twite survey on the farm next week.  They will be comparing the results of this year's survey with the last one they did here in 1999.  We were 4 years in to the ESA conservation management scheme then,  and 1999 was the year we went organic although we had stopped using artifical fertilisers a few years before that.  Hopefully the survey will show an improvement in numbers!!  I was busy earlier in the week getting some photographs and information ready for Plantlife as they are doing a Case Study on the farm for a paper on farming for wildlife.  

The River Bellart bursting its banks yesterday after a day of rains.

Highland Wood Energy came to service the wood chip boiler this week.  Apart from a cracked grate (which will need replacing at the next service), everything was deemed to be working well, so that was good to hear.

A week of contrast

Farmer had the camera with him on Good Friday morning.  So here is the rainbow in front of Toechtamhor at cattle feeding time.  The kind of day when you can see the weather coming, and watch it going away again. 

 And this is the view from the tractor on the way home from Haunn.

Good Friday.  It feels like the season has really begun now.  Warmth in the air and the great sunset we had reminded me of showing in the guests at Haunn one Easter 10 or so years ago, when those cottages were still off grid, powered by LPG.  The pre-season rush of getting everything ready, finished just in time (phew), bit of a panic.  Everyone had arrived.  We welcomed them in as their children were playing in the gardens near the cottages, letting off steam from long car journeys in Easter traffic.  Walking home to Treshnish afterwards, warm sun, evening light, when a skein of snow geese flew overhead, and landed in the grassy field beyond us.  It was a magical moment. The snow geese (see Prasad's blog) stayed and nested that year but gradually the numbers became fewer until they stopped coming.  

We received an order of food for the sheep yesterday.  Ewen Stewart delivered it to Ensay, the neighbouring farm, as he was going there anyway.  Farmer decided to cover it to avoid any 'self service' before he could store it in the feed store.

I had the camera with me later on.  A trip to Tobermory on Good Friday afternoon, having first visited the  new craft shop at Glenfgrom - Castle Crafts - full of lots of locally produced crafts.   The main street was busy with shoppers and visitors and the sky was blue.  The paint on this boat has seen better days, but the seaweed was enjoying it. 

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The light on Shieling door often reflects the light over the sea at sunset.  For another photo of sunsets on Shieling, look at the Almost Daily Photo.

Seaweed and winter sunshine

After winter storms, rich pickings are found on nearby beaches. We help collect rotting seaweed for the local eco school, carrying it in recycled cattle tubs and fish-boxes found on earlier beach-combing forays. And more, we take home to fertilise our own vegetable garden.

Fly by church on Tobermory sea front. Today arctic winds bring cold bright weather with brilliant blue skies followed by intense but fast moving showers of hail or snow.

A shower of hail starts out on Rum this morning, coming our way, as the first rays at sunrise came over Ensay Hill. Watched the shower tip out of rotund puffball clouds above Rum's shivering peaks tinged pink as it moved across steely grey sea, reflecting pale warm hues on the water as it moved. Lost sight of, first, Caliach Point and then, Calgary Point as the storm approached. A silent fog of hail. And as quickly as it came it cleared leaving behind a thin white veil on the ground.