The first charge.

The Mull and Iona Community Trust building at Craignure now has a charging point for electric cars, funded by Scottish Government as part of their 'Plugged In' programme.  One of the conditions is that the electricity for charging is supplied free of charge.  Treshnish & Haunn Cottages are happy to be able to help by sponsoring the cost of the electricity.

18 months ago I had started to look into installing one at Treshnish to take advantage of wind power from the Proven turbine, but I hadn't managed to work my way through all the technical side of what was the best option/choice et cetera, so nothing further was done!

This inaction has worked in my favour as MICT have been working away to try and encourage a island wide network of charge point installations, and I have just signed an application to the Energy Savings Trust for a charge point here - hopefully we will be successful.  MICT have done all the hard work and research - I for one am extremely grateful.

This photograph is of Peter Pinnington (who also happens to look after our website) and his G-wizz at the MICT charge point - the first charge! He lives near here so I expect we will be seeing him a lot if our application is successful.

Lifeboat Day, and back to work on Monday.

Sunday was Lifeboat Day in Tobermory and we had to drop a friend of Daughter off to take part, so were there from beginning to end.

We had coffee at CafeFish as they were opening up before Lifeboat Day started. The smells coming from the kitchen were amazing, and the view from each window was delightful.

One of the raft race entries.  This one from the Council. At the other end, a sign said No Dumping.

Along the seafront a robin sings its heart out on Loch Duich.

I took a very short trip with Sealife Surveys across to Calve Island, to look at seals and on the way back we came past this waterfall and the little painted boats.

The fire brigade team won the adult race.  They then dowsed everyone else.

It was a great occasion, and hopefully raised much money for the RNLI!

Back to work today, and Farmer tackled the ragwort in the Graveyard field.  Our main silage field this year is the one directly below the house.  He wants to cut the graveyard field as well and cannot afford to leave ragwort standing, as it is poisonous in the silage. As the bracken mower is broken he has been pulling ragwort by hand to stop it going to seed. The graveyard (Kilmaluaig) is barely visible under the Rosebay willowherb and bracken.

Nice to see lots of Marsh Woundwort growing in the field.

Not the best activity for a Farmer with a bad back.

But satisfying.

The dogs enjoyed their afternoon, though Cap (left) doesn't venture far from the buggy given half the chance.

Farmer picked up a bag of sea plastic that we had collected earlier to put in the recycling.

Spanner in the works.

It has been one of those days.  

This morning, Farmer needed to level the wood-chip as we are trying to use every last bit before we get another load, so that we can do some maintenence to the store.  In the process he discovered that parts of the floor are rotting through, because the flooring used does not seem to have been made using marine ply.. so the moisture in the chip has slowly been dampening and rotting the floor.  Replacing it will be a big job.

The orange flowers in the right hand corner of this photograph are the Bog Asphodel seed heads.

Then Farmer went off to cut some more bracken and the gear box on the mower went.  He came back to the farm and the final straw..

 ...was breaking his spanner doing this.  What was there left for the poor man to do?  He came for a walk with me to Haunn.

 It has been very windy today, so not very good for capturing flowers.

Heads, hips and burns

Daughter and I skipped off for another holiday before the schools went back.  Farmer kept himself very busy in our absence.  He has been cutting bracken, topping thistles, mending things, preparing for silage making, cutting more bracken and pulling ragwort - to name just a few activities.

The weather has been a mixture of rain and sun over the last few weeks.  The fields are changing colour. Knapweed (hard-heads) and Devils Bit Scabious are flowering beside the heathers, studded with the beautiful Grass of Parnassus.  

The burns are running again. Coco was looking for mink, having found one here a few months ago.

Cap and Jan were trying to get away from Coco.

Farmer has been recycling engine oil from the tractors - protecting the wooden sheds and buildings about the place with it, mixed with a bit of creosote..

The Studio hips.

Loch na Keal.

Ragwort near Fishnish.

Apologies for the quality of all but the last 2 of the photos posted here, they were taken on my phone.

PS There are one or two vacancies at the end of August.

A new weapon.

After last night's rain the sun came out.  The wind has not dropped, but it is warm wind.

We are still waiting for the helicopter to come and spray the bracken.  This is some of the bracken we are targeting this summer on the in-bye.

Farmer has a new weapon to use himself though.  It arrived today.  It is called a weed wiper and is a very efficient way of treating the bracken.  It works by contact rather than spraying, so is more controllable.  You can raise or lower the drum according to how long the bracken is, and what is underneath it - so that you only kill the bracken. Obviously he can only kill bracken using this contraption in areas where he can drive the quad with this towing along behind it.

Wind blown heather behind the steading.

The clouds over Ben More from the Reudle cairn this evening were dramatic.