April skies

 

June 24th 2018 #30DaysWild

What a beautiful day.

Farmer was out on the hill with the 'bracken basher' bashing bracken.  Until it stopped working that is.  

The battle against bracken is multi pronged.   Farmer cuts it wherever he can get the tractor with the mower.  He crushes it in other places using the 'bracken basher'.  He strims it in smaller tighter areas, or places that are too steep.   And finally as a last resort we use a spray to block the proteins which effectively stops it from growing for a few years.  It is always going to be a battle!

In the late afternoon I went back to the wetland area to photograph the Marsh cinquefoil with the drone.  Walking across the field to the gate, I could hear strange animalistic cries coming from the hill above Toechtamhor.  I think they were young Ravens - calling each other.

Marsh cinquefoil in the middle of the wetland area. 

Wetland in the foreground with the Marsh cinquefoil, looking over to the Haunn Cottages. 

The wetland area.

The Haunn cottages with the bog cotton in the foreground on the Point.

Later in the evening, I flew the drone to capture the colour of the grasses from the air, and then walked down into the field below the house.

The most beautiful sunset.  And the astral twilight - awesome.

Days of calm

This autumn into winter spell of weather really has been very calm and relatively dry.  It is now the 6th of December and we are expecting the first storm to hit any time.  Today was astonishingly clear and they do say that when it is very clear it means it is going to rain!

What has been happening on the farm? Well, the tups have been out for nearly 17 days, so it is time to move them around a bit.  The Lleyn tup has been out for the first ovine cycle and as Farmer wants to put the Cheviots into one large flock now he needs to take him out so he is not onto his daughters.  This means catching him somehow in a large open space and manhandling him into the back of the quad bike trailer.   The other additional tups will be put out with the Blackface ewes on the Point. Sometimes tupping time can be very wet so this good spell of weather will have been a great start. Hopefully!

Then of course there is the arrival of Nyje.  (pronounced like Nigel but with out the L).  Nyje is the latest addition to the sheep dog team.  He is 15 months old and we bought him from the same farmer where Cap came from. We had a lovely day out up Glen Lyon, JUST doable on a Sunday from here if you leave home early and catch the 9am ferry and come back on the 6pm.   As the crow flies it is not far from the Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy/Glen Coe road but to get there by road involves quite a lengthy detour.   It was a very beautiful day for a drive though, with snow on the mountains and much sunshine so we had a good day out.   Nyje is younger than any other dog we have bought and needs a bit more training.  There are one or two traits he needs to learn not to do, and one or two things he needs to learn to do..  however he is keen and has a good friendly nature which are two important traits.  We think he is pretty cute too! (I will post a photograph of him soon)

Studio and Shieling are a bit of a mess at the moment!  Intentionally that is.  We have been replacing the old shower units and are now waiting for the shower for Studio to arrive this week. On track to be finished for Christmas visitors!

Night skies have been clear and starry but no really strong visible auroras for a while now.  I have been catching them on camera but only seeing the glow (rather than the colours) by naked eye.

Duill Cottage sits beautifully under the stars with guests cosy by the fire, whilst I wander around in the frost! 

The winter feeding regime sets the scene for winter days, up and out before breakfast, though sometimes breakfast is delayed by a bit of chatting.  Well, it was the weekend and Jamie had come up to feed his heifers who are in our shed.

It is easy to assume that sunsets are all about summer, but actually the winter ones can be so dramatic.  This was taken over Shian's chimney.  We were waiting on the man from the NFU to turn up for a late afternoon meeting so I couldn't go down to Haunn which would have been amazing!! 

The mid afternoon sky was rich with these wonderful wavy clouds, and then an hour later it went cosmic! 

June 6th 2016 - #30DaysWild

Sunrise over Calgary Bay.  Farmer wanted to move the Cheviots and the Zwartbles into the park early  to avoid the heat of the day, which isn't good for the dogs.  As the temeperatures were in the mid 20's today this was very wise, but it did seem very early!

Farmer went off to help another farmer sort their lambs, I went off to Oban to see the accountant.  It was a beautiful beautiful day. The sea was so calm and silvery.  It was hot.  It was a relief to finally get home again, and to know that we had a long sunny evening ahead. 

I stole off to have some time on my own down below the house. 

Bluebells and Pignut colour the banks and slopes.

Dandelion clocks about to blow.

The Birds foot trefoil seems to be flourishing this summer!  The heat/warmth/sunshine of the last few weeks seems to have accelerated all the flowers, and I have a feeling they will be over very quickly this year.   If you look at the blog from today's date last year, you can see Common Twayblade just coming into flower.

I wanted to see if the Common Twayblade had begun to flower by now.  The last time I was down in this field, I found some leaves but the stems weren't beginning to show at that time.   They are certainly in full flower now!   There were hundreds of them.   

A lovely sunset to end another amazing summer day.