The rain forest

After midnight, the moon rises above the hill behind the steading.  The sky is clear.  Stars are out. It is mildly breezy.  Everyone has gone to bed.  Except the moon.

The wind got up and brought cloud and rain this morning.  We fought our way through the wooded wilderness.  It is wet and muddy underfoot, with the added hazards of brambles and fallen trees.

It was tragic to see this huge tree felled by age and the weight of its branches in leaf.  (Not like we had a big storm or anything recently.)

The damp and shade loving plants thriving under native hazels and birches - a natural rain forest.  Delighted to see Sweet Woodruff coming into flower and to smell the heady scent of the bluebells.

Meter readings

The builders are getting on well.  We have even talked about when to ask J to come along to do the tape-ing and filling. Things will slow down tomorrow right enough, as A is off to show hens at a poultry show and sale and won't be back til Monday.

Things do have to get worse before they get better though.  The track is looking a bit muddy with all the comings and goings of diggers and trucks.   I have been ordering all the additional materials we need (that aren't in my Grand Treshnish Design budget) like the wet wall panelling and the microscopically thin insulation board for the new bathroom in Shian....  Also I have been looking at kitchen tiles and floor coverings - and wondering how ever we succeeded in researching these things before we had the internet.

We had a curious email from Ecotricity this week.  They have noticed that our meter readings were a bit higher this quarter, so they have assumed there was some mistake, and have stopped our payment.  Could we re-read the meter and let them know what the reading was.  I have obliged, wondering at the same time, whether they had noticed that we had had violent storms for much of November and December, which could have resulted, perhaps, in a slight increase in generation.

The sea has been quiet for much of the week.  The waves look so brightly white on the reef across the mouth of the bay. 

Yesterday was horrendously dark and damp until about 3pm, when I noticed this golden glow on Duill windows.  It was still raining lightly at the time, producing a moody rainbow.

And this exquisite golden sky which lasted all the way down to Calgary on the school run.

The sky cleared and so the moon shone really brightly all night.   It set just before 8am this morning.

Farmer has done nearly all the sheep. The Blackface are back to the hill, and he only has the Cheviots and Zwartbles left to do.  Tomorrow we are heading off to Ardalanish Farm to talk about tweed and weaving Treshnish wool into scarves.  Watch this space!

All times of day and night

The winter hay has arrived. It is good to know we have a full load in store in case we run out of silage for the cows.  Farmer has brought the hoggs in to the cattle shed, so that they can be taught to 'feed' (eat supplementary food such as hay and 'nuts').  This winter we have chosen to buy a multi purpose supplementary food in bulk.  Farmer lined the feed container with plywood to keep the food away from the walls of the container, and the lorry arrived one morning and 'blew it in'. I wasn't here to take a photograph but apparently Farmer appeared out of the container covered from head to foot in floury dust.  Thankfully he had been wearing a face mask. Since then, other farmers have said they never stand in the container whilst the food is being blown in!  You live and learn.

Winter is advancing, but it is lovely to see the sage still flowering in the polytunnel, as well as sweet peas.

I missed the Northern Lights the other night as we had friends staying and I failed to look out and check. However, the moon was bright and I took the tripod off to take photographs in the moonlight once everyone had gone to bed.  I took photographs in the polytunnel, though it was challenging manually focussing.

You could walk around without a torch. This is the stack yard gate, between Shian and Shieling. The white spots in the sky are stars, not dust on your screen.

Next morning, Coco's presence in the garden (on a lead!) chased the one surviving chick from this summer into a tree.  Quite high up in the tree.

Showers over Rum in the afternoon.

And the moon this morning beginning to set with showers over Coll.  The hill over behind Ensay is dusted white with snow.  We are waiting for the 'man from the Dept.' to arrive and count the sheep.