Long journeys and autumn discounts!

This umbellifer has appeared beside one of the bird feeders.  It is Wild carrot.

It is the time of year for lamb sales.  This year Farmer has done the same as he did last year - where he booked a lorry to take the bulk of our male lambs all in one go.  In previous years he has taken the livestock trailer over with 60 or so lambs, but this is very time consuming as it takes several weeks to get through selling them all.  So last Tuesday the 29th our wedder (male) lambs all went off to Oban to be sold.   We were not as pleased as last year with the prices, which was an average of £4 a lamb down.   And we made a new record - by selling one lamb for £2.  (Bear in mind, it costs about £3 to get the lamb to market in the lorry and about £4 in medicines so there is a loss in there...)

Aurora spotting season has started.  Here is my first (very faint) tick, a faint one fighting with the light from Shieling outside light!  I couldn't see anything with the naked eye.

The late summer growth in the garden was buzzing with bees, loving the comfrey in particular which we have in huge clumps.

The Herdwicks have been in the field around Shian and Duill for the last week or so.  They are sharing it with our ewe lambs (the hoggs).  They are so noticeably friendly compared to the Blackface - who leg it in the opposite direction when they see you!

I ventured down to Croig to collect some crab from the local fisherman.  It was beautiful down there, so still and quiet.

The Devil's bit scabious are thriving this summer.  I have never seen so many.

Sadly I think it is only a matter of time before the swallows take off on their long journey to Africa.  The air is noisy from their gathering song and flight.  Such a wonderful sound of summer, but bittersweet to hear it now, and now that they will be off any minute.  This year it seems like there are more swallows, certainly, than last year.

We still have some spaces in October and are offering a £50 discount on a week booking or £150 off a two week booking taken during October or November.  Please contact us for details. 

Not the guest blog

I have been asked to write a guest blog for a farming website, and I am finding it really difficult to know what to write.  It feels very different sitting down to write for something else - what I write here comes almost without me thinking, as you can probably tell.

So having not written a suitable word for this other blog, and the sun having finally appeared, Farmer and I took to the fields below the house for a walk.  

The weather, it is fair to say, has been mostly wet this week.  The fields are sodden underfoot.   We are grateful to have got the silage all done in reasonably good weather.

A walk through the weather

Up on last year.

It was a major achievement to get all those bales wrapped before dark on Monday.  What a relief!  The more silage we can make the less feed we need to buy in.

The calves had gone off on Sunday to be put on a lorry bound for Monday's Traditional Breeds Sale at Stirling.  As the haulier was unable to take them on Monday they arrived a day early and were looked after by the stockman at the mart.  Aberdeen Angus cattle were the last breed to be sold, so it was late afternoon on Monday before we got a call from the mart telling us what the calves had made.  Farmer was pleased. Up on last year, up on the year before.  I still don't think he will buy me a new hat, but it was a relief to get a fair price for them.

Once the additional bales were safely in the field by the house, Farmer was able to move the cows from the Hill Park into the field below the house. 

On Tuesday Farmer, J and D managed to make another 8 bales in the little field beside Kilmaluig graveyard.  It is always difficult getting the machinery in and out because of the very old stone bridge, and the lovely over-hanging hazel trees.

Wednesday was misty and damp and a trip to Tobermory was required, so we took a van load of cardboard and fish-boxes filled with bottles to the Council dump/recycling centre.. It made sense, as we were so close, to go to Glengorm for lunch.  A stretch of road through the forest at Ardmore was covered in these fine silken webs catching raindrops.

Our guests have been far and wide in pursuit of local food this week, not just content with what the north of Mull has to offer... Am Birlinn, Glengorm, Cafe Fish, Boathouse on Ulva... The prize for travelling to eat goes to Studio, who went down to Fionnphort to eat the NinthWave! They said was unbelievably good.  We have never eaten there, but we must. Carla and her husband John grow a lot of what Carla cooks and John catches the shellfish. They had sourced their rack of lamb from us too.

Today has been quite grim.  Rain all day.  Look what it has done to the burn beside our house.  This brave Alchemilla was flowering beside the track.

The burn burst its banks.

Farmer showed me what we think is 'Slime Mould' (also known as Dog Vomit fungus, I can't think why) earlier today, but unfortunately I didn't photograph it until late this afternoon, by which time the rain had washed a lot of it away. It grows around the grasses which looked quite spiky, coated in this yellow eggy slime.  It apparently feeds on rotting vegetation, in this case our 'lawn'. Apologies as now it does look quite like dog vomit.

The damp skies have lifted a bit and we had a glimmer of a sunset which has been a joyful respite from a very wet day.