Counting lambs

J came over to help do the in-by lambs today.  The ewes were scanned in February, which means we knew how many lambs to expect.  Thus Farmer has been able to count up the expected lambs, minus the ones that died during lambing and compare with the number they marked today.  We are several lambs short.  No definitive explanation as to what happened to them.  

In the fank.

Waiting their turn. 

Down below the house, the field is a carpet of blue of the bluebells, forget-me-nots and speedwell and the white of pignut, with dots of yellow creeping in from buttercups and the wild flower meadow essential the yellow rattle.

Who has been sleeping in our field? The stag who got the wrong side of the deer fence the last time we opened the gate to let the hill ewes into a bit of in-by field.

Lady's mantle and speedwell on the washing green.

The roses are flowering beautifully outside the Studio now.

Progress

The polytunnel is showing signs of storm fatigue.  It has lasted well and part of the reason we think is because we have net ends rather than solid ones, so the wind can get through, but after each storm we expect it to be gone!  We have now regular help in the garden which is fantastic, and takes a bit of strain off Farmer.

R has moved to the area and is working for us a couple of days a week.  He has been tidying up outside the cottages and catching up with all the things we never have time to do ourselves.  The polytunnel is looking tidy, the sage is still flowering! 

This is Duill's sunroom base. It won't have French windows to the outside, which will give it a different feel I think.  But it will have the westerly winter sunsets directly across from the headland, not to mention the mid summer ones straight out over the fence.

A big leap today as the Shian sunroom is sheeted. The opening on the left is the size of the window looking straight out to sea.  It was the kitchen window from Toechtamhor which we replaced this time last year.  It seemed such a waste not to re-use them, and as these sunrooms are unheated and have external doors into the living rooms there would be no energy to waste!

It looks pretty messy just now, but in the summer when the ground has healed it will be just magical sitting looking out on that view.  Shian's sunroom is on the east gable of Shian, in between the wall and the car, in the summer photograph below. 

The old shop in Dervaig was catching some sun yesterday when I went to Dougie's to do some shopping, I know it will be gone one day, I must venture out again when my camera comes back from the menders. 

Loch Cuin, near Dervaig, is a good place for a bit of birdwatching too - as we stopped to enjoy the view for a moment or two on the way home.  

It is nearly Christmas!

For the moment the cows are still outside, but Farmer is beginning to give them a bit more feed as the weather will be taking its toll on them. They will probably come in to the cattle shed before the New Year.  The tups have been with the ewes for 5 weeks on Thursday, and so he is planning when he will take the tups out around a trip we have to the mainland before school goes back on the 6th.

Outside East Cottage has been getting a bit of a makeover, the cobbles appear from underneath the grass that has crept in over the last few years since it was cleared last.   It has got a new sofa too, which JUST fitted through the door!

The weather has continued to be stormy and wild!   The turbines are still generating (thankfully still in one piece) but once they have got to peak output the blades turn in on themselves as they cannot produce more than their output.  I think (unscientifically) that this happens on the Kingspan at about 30mph.  We have been having winds for over 60mph at times.

It was sad to see the clump of fir trees at Calgary fall victim to the wind.  Farmer took Daughter down to the school bus, in the dark, and met with a mountain of branches and trunks lying across the road.  It was cleaned up by lunchtime, and the following day they moved the root-balls out of the way completely.

We had guests in Studio for 2 weeks who left on Friday.  We came home one day to a mystery gift on the door handle of some delicious biscuits, and thought it might have been from a neighbour along the road, but on their last day the Studio guests came to say goodbye and brought some more.  She said they had had a wonderful winter break here at Treshnish, and would definitely be coming again, they hoped to try a Haunn cottage next time, though it was the sunroom that attracted them to Studio, and in the worst storms, they could sit in there cosy and warm and watch it all. To think I had been worrying about them with all the wild weather!

Regular visitors to Mull will be surprised by the change in the landscape between Penmore and Calgary. The Langamull forest is disappearing.  The trees they had left on the woodland edge have been falling over in the winds. 

We are finally beginning to feel Christmassy in the Treshnish Farmhouse.  Farmer is making the Christmas cake.  Yes, a little late, but 'somebody's got to do it', and clearly I wasn't quick enough off the mark! It certainly smells delicious.

The view from the hairpins above Dervaig out to the Isle of Coll. 

It has been nice to walk on Calgary beach, it is quite often more sheltered at the moment than walking along our coastline! Lots of flotsam and jetsam on the beach, piles of seaweed and the occasional battered fish box.