Nearly there, the spring.

The foster lamb and his new mother.

The day brightened after a wet start.

This magnolia tree is flowering a month later than usual.  Not nearly as many flowers as last year, and not as intense a colour either.

This is the same tree in March last year.  Quite a difference.

The field of daffodils are out though, and looking beautiful in the military lines running down towards the sea.

This rhododendron is sheltered from the wind and flowering profusely.

And this one. So much wind damage in other bits of the wood. The exotics are in a minority now, and the natural woodland is taking over again, as fallen trees decay, and young seedlings emerge.

Loving the moss.

And the currant bush.

And these nosey ewes who seemed to think Coco was something very odd.

Life goes on though

We had to go to Bonar Bridge last week, so we left Fishnish on the 7.25am ferry. It was cold but it was beautiful and dry for most of the journey. Lovely to take that road from Drumnadrochit over the hills to Beauly. Saw a huge windfarm being erected on the hills above Bonar Bridge which was not there when we last went past, collecting Farmer from the Lochaline to Durness walk in 2010.

We encountered snow and sleet showers, with a dodgy windscreen wiper, stuck behind agricultural traffic on the A9. Daffodils, cherry blossom, tulips, lambs skipping - and wintery showers.

We enjoyed a better evening in Inverness (no wintery showers) with a walk along the river, a delicious meal, and a comfortable bed & breakfast. And we discovered the returned Three Graces and enjoyed a tweet or two with Matt Baker about them with a link to: http://sacrificialmaterials.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/marks-of-time-iv.html?m=1

Back home. Last days of the school holidays. And some fundraising in support of courageous haircutting in Dervaig Village Hall - delicious baking, raffles, bric a brac, good craic.

Good weather for a walk along the beach at Calgary, although we didn't ourselves.

Good weather for air drying the laundry.

Good weather for a bit of gardening. Gooseberry bushes showing no ill effects from the pruning they received in the winter.

Some winter frost damage on ancient pots.

A birch tree that hitched a ride with some raspberry plants from the garden where I grew up in Angus. Shieling in the background.

The rhubarb suffering from lack of rain/watering.

Seedlings planted out in the Keder.

The Aracona cockerel has finally called his hens together in the one flock. Hoping that the guests are not woken by him as early as we are.

One of the highlights of the trip was Farmer being asked in a shop in Inverness if he was from Treshnish?! Imagine his surprise. The enquirer was Murdo, who writes a shepherding blog from the Isle of Lewis and we have been in contact by email at times. He had recognised Farmer from photographs on our blog!

I love the small world we live in, and how connections like this arise. It was really nice to meet Murdo, to put a face to his name, even though it was only for a moment as we had to rush to get to Lochaline for the ferry. Murdo's lambing on Lewis is over already, ours is about to start. Because of Farmer's back operation last year, and his subsequent dependency on others for help, we delayed our lambing date so that Jamie could do the lambing on another farm before ours started. In usual years, we would have started by now.

The week in pictures at Treshnish

Winter sun on reeds near Haunn.

Hopefully not. New chicken shed door.

Our oldest hen. Scots Dumpy.

Getting cottages ready for half term guests.

Ancient geranium in Shian window.

Signs of growth in the garden. Rhubarb.

Mist over Caliach Point.

Blue light over Sound of Coll.

Concentrating sheep dog.

Winter maintenence.

Daffodils showing through, days getting longer

Last weekend we went to meet up with friends at Inveraray. The journey we envisaged when planning this reunion, was to take the ferry to Oban, do the chores in Oban (buying specialist items we cannot get on Mull) and to take a leisurely drive down to Inveraray, arriving mid afternoon in time to meet our friends who were travelling up from just south of the border. We should have known better. XCweather forecasts showed lots of wind for Saturday and going on recent performances lots of wind meant lots of ferry disruption. We couldn't leave home in time to catch the 11am ferry from Oban (which turned out to be the only crossing to Oban that day). Farmer had cattle and sheep to feed before we left. So we decided to aim for Fishnish in good time for the 'service review' mentioned on the Calmac app at 12.45. Nothing happened for a while. The flashing sign continued to give old news for a while. Then we saw the ferry nudging its way out from Lochaline into the Sound. The photograph above was taken before the sea state worsened - in front of our eyes. One minute this gentle roll, the next minute huge swell. The ferry turned round and retreated into Lochaline again. Next review was eventually given as being at 4pm. We decided not to wait at Fishnish, but went to Tobermory for lunch at 'the Pier', a new cafe on the pier, under Cafe Fish. The weather came in in drifts, some moments the bay looked relatively calm and the next wild. We had a very nice lunch. We filled up with petrol at MacKay's Garage.

We went back to Fishnish. We waited. And waited. Then we saw the ferry appear again. The sea state had gone down. The ferry came slowly across and eventually reached the jetty. The ramp was lowered. Cars drove off. 2 cars drove on. Suddenly the staff were not waving us on, but hands up in firm No - Stop gestures. Ferry slid sideways off jetty, wind powered. Out into the Sound again, and tried again to land. And again. Each time the wind blowing it off the jetty. Quite exciting? So near and yet....? Luckily for us on the third attempt the ferry managed to stay attached to the jetty for long enough - we were hurried on up the ramp, waves lashing against the jetty at our heels. Once all were loaded, off we went. Mildly disconcerting then to read a text from Calmac mid crossing, telling us that sailings on that route had been cancelled for the rest of the day! Actually the crossing was not bad at all, and we were soon safely on the other side. Faced with a 94 mile drive to Inveraray. We considered ourselves lucky to have got off the island at all. In the end our journey from Treshnish to Inveraray took longer than our friends journey from Cumbria! Woke up Sunday morning to a flat calm Loch Fyne, and sunshine accompanied us for most of the day, a quick and easy journey home and all the Oban chores done on the way.

Calving will start very soon, and the cows who have been in the cattle shed for some weeks now, need to get their annual dosing against worms and fluke. This cow seen here trying not to swallow her medicine is No 63. She was one of the foundation heifers of our small herd. We bought her from a farm near Huntly along with 5 others. We were given a very generous kick start by a Aberdeen Angus cattle farmer who farmed near where I grew up - she took our heifers in for some months of bovine B&B and put them to her pedigree bull. We hoped the majority of their first calves would be female so that we could increase and improve our breeding stock, but of the 6 there was only one heifer that year! (typical). Anyway that was in 1998 and 63 has been with us all that time! She is the only 'original' one we still have living on the farm, and she will live out her days here. Farmer was impressed, yesterday, that she has all her teeth still and was looking good and healthy!

It can seem like it does nothing but rain and wind here sometimes, but yesterday was sufficiently beautiful that I could not resist the temptation to flee the office and go in search of some vitamin D.

Dusting of snow on Rum (in distance above) translated into hail freezing on the ground here and made for an exciting (icy) run over the hill to Ulva Ferry School to meet Mike Mackenzie MSP along with 2 SNP Councillors - Mike was at Luss when Farmer got to the end of his Cycle for the Schools last May, and he had said then that he would like to come over and see what USCA were doing. The USCA story seems to be attracting alot of attention, and we are grateful for the support we are getting from home and afar. By the time I left to come home again, the road had thawed and the sun was still doing its very best.

This is the lochan next to Duill Cottage. There are 2 pairs of Mallard on it just now, and a patient statuesque Grey Heron most days.

In between regular cattle and hogg feeding duties Farmer managed to get into the garden this week as well. This compost bin had been blasted by the wind during one of the gales, it looked as if it had exploded from within. So here it is rebuilt and in a new hopefully more sheltered position!

The vegetable beds are mostly a mud plain just now, but there is some growth coming in the young rhubarb crowns.

The walls of the polytunnel have so far survived the gales. I know I will really regret allowing the thistles to set seed, but they are so beautiful. Snowdrops are still flowering prettily, and some of the daffodils are already several inches high.

But how much longer this pane of glass will stay put I don't know. This window frame was used in the filmset for the Eye of the Needle starring Donald Sutherland which was partially filmed here in 1981. The sills are rotten too. (something else to add to the never ending maintenance list)

Walkabout, chores and corncrake

Ferns are unfurling in lots of different shapes and sizes, beautiful heads uncurling and last years fronds dying back into the soil now.  Unfortunately the bracken is also coming up, in ever increasing places.  Farmer has been 'walkabout', taking a well earned break from day to day Treshnish life and all that entails.  This has left Daughter and Self to take charge of the chores with the help of Local Sheep Contractor who looked after the well-being of cows and sheep.  

With the warmer weather the heating system at Treshnish has used alot less wood-chip, but the boiler  needs some TLC every now and then - the level of chip needs to be checked, visible slithers taken out where possible, ash bins emptied and a daily walk past to make sure everything is as it should be.   Sometimes the Fall Chute Cover Opens and you have to stop the boiler, turn it all off safely and investigate.  It happened earlier in the week but thankfully the blockage was easily cleared without needing to call the engineer for help.

The corncrake is still around, audibly and visibly!  This is great news and proof that the conservation measures we take really are creating suitable habitats for them. The Haunn corncrake has been entertaining guests in the garden of East, Middle and West this week and showed no fear when the strimming was done either!

We often have strong winds at this time of year and lose the apple blossom.  It hasn't happened yet and I am enjoying their colour.  Gooseberry sawfly have hatched though - my annual problem in the veg garden.

The Recycling Shed has come into its own now - a collection point for recycling glass and plastic bottles, batteries, used light bulbs, jam jars, tins and cans, paper and cardboard and raw vegetable waste which we use to make compost for the veg garden.  Cyclists can store their bikes here and we have a supply of logs and kindling for sale.

Making up the milk for the bottle fed lambs has become more part time, they are only fed twice a day now, though three of them (all bar Breeze) baa loudly still whenever they see anyone going past despite having plenty of grass and a trough full of nuts to nibble at.  For some reason Breeze refuses to improve her bottle technique but she is first in the queue when the trough is filled up so there are no concerns there!