The new turf roof

Farmer has always wanted to build something with a turf roof.  We have planning permission for a lovely wooden cabin with a turf roof at the woodland edge - but unfortunately it has a condition on it which means we have to upgrade the junction onto the main road across land which does not belong to the farm.  So we have to sort all that out before we can commence the work!

We have now got a turf roof though on our newest self catering property - The Pollinator's Tower block.

Isn't it beautiful? Built by R who is helping us in the garden.  He has used 100% recycled materials, all sourced from sheds and corners of the farm.  A wonderfully low impact build!!

It will be interesting to watch and see what happens over the summer!

The first daffodils have emerged in the warm weather.

Landscaping is going well around the cottages - a bit of drainage, and some levelling to get finished before the gravel goes down.

I had to go to Glasgow earlier this week.  It was heartbreaking leaving Mull in such good weather.

But the view from the 18th floor of the Premier Inn was amazing.

The cladding on both cottages is finished now.  Duill kitchen is nearly finished.  The tiles in both sunrooms are laid.  It is beginning to feel like we are nearly there!

Farmer has been cleaning out the cattle shed. This is a job reliant on dry weather, otherwise you make a terrible mess running over soggy ground building the dung heap.  It was timely as it meant he could give his full attention to a cow who didnt seem very well.  She had an infection and also a bit of mastitis, which he has been treating under the vet's advice.  Tonight, she is looking better, eating and drinking normally.   Thank goodness.

The first primroses.

The first celandines appearing in sheltered spots in the Black Park.   With the hares in the garden every morning, the longer days, the warmer air, and the birdsong, it really does feel as if spring is coming.  I am sure it will get cold again, it nearly always does, but this last few days has given us a taste of what is to come.  

As I write the hares have just chased across the garden again.  I want to try and get some photographs of them tomorrow morning.

Hunt saboteurs?

Cap was helping the Farmer this morning on the feed run.   The ewes who were scanned for twins are on the Point at the moment.  There is alot of roughage out there, and Farmer is feeding them Ewe Nuts as well.  It was not a good start to the day to find that one of the ewes had died since feeding time yesterday.

This ewe has been scanned, fed appropriately for twins, condition scored, treated against fluke, whatever could have been done to keep her healthy had been done, and still she died. It is soul destroying for any farmer or crofter to lose an animal, and after nearly 20 years he still hasn't got used to it.  As is the way with farming on the island, nature takes its course and by the time he had found her this morning, the birds had started to feed on her.  

He was first alerted to the fact that there was a dead ewe, by the sight of the birds hovering slightly further up from where he was feeding them.  He started to walk up to see what it was, and as he walked over the brow of the hill, he saw the Sea Eagle on the ground picking at her carcass, not more than 10 metres away. A fairly incredible sight.  As he was coming off the Point, he spotted the male Hen Harrier coursing the wetland and gullies beside the Coronation Meadow.

Farmer came back to the house and suggested I went with him to see if the sea eagle might still be there, so armed with my longest lens, we headed back to the Point but unfortunately there was no sign when we got back out there. Only hoodies and gulls.  

I took photographs whilst Farmer walked back to get the quad and trailer.  We have an island dispensation about burying our animals on the farm.  On the mainland you have to get them taken away and disposed of, but we can bury them in specially noted sites away from water courses etc.   It can be difficult if a ewe dies out on the hill, in an inaccessibly place, but luckily Farmer could reach this one with the quad.

On our way back off the Point, we spotted the Hen Harrier again, this time being mobbed by a group of hoodies - the hunt saboteurs....!

I am sorry the images are so fuzzy but I was hand holding and my lens was not really long enough.  You can just make out the fan of his tail...

Yesterday was the 3rd Sustainable Mull and Iona Renewables Fair to be held - at Craignure Hall. It was slightly thwarted by the weather, as yesterday was very windy and Calmac cancelled the Oban to Craignure ferry, amongst many others on the west coast! It meant that some of the speakers and the exhibitors were stuck the wrong side of the water!  However, for those who did turn out, it meant they could take advantage of the exhibitors and advisors who were there.   I like the look of this turbine designed by Hugh Piggott, from Scoraig.  You can do a course to learn how to make one for yourself.

Building sites and northern lights.

The building sites are fairly hectic.  But progress is being made!  

Overcast day looking over Calgary and Caliach Points.

One day of sunshine, and everything feels more spring like.

The sea was calm, but the rollers crashed energetically against the 'bathing pool' down below the house and the Treshnish Cottages.

I am no wildlife photographer and don't have a bird lens, this Golden Eagle was hovering about the garden yesterday for quite a long time.

This is not the Northern Lights, it is looking towards Tobermory again.   The long exposure and the cloud have picked up the glow from the street lights, we can't see them with the naked eye!

Duill sunroom cladding is going on.

The new window in Duill kitchen looks good and will give you another great view when cooking!

Duill kitchen is going in.

Shian kitchen has a lot of washing up to do.

Last night a faint Aurora Borealis over the garden wall.

Farmer is keen to fence these birches off from livestock.  There is little regeneration going on because the sheep and cows nibble any fresh shoots that appear.

A satellite overhead an even fainter aurora.

And finally some great drying weather!

Old news!

Aurora Borealis 27th/28th February. From the garden gate.  

There has been so much coverage of the amazing aurora 2 nights ago, this may well seem like old news, but I wanted to post the photographs on the blog despite. 

We noticed the colours in the sky about 8.30pm. 

 By midnight it was not so active though still very beautiful.

After this, I went to bed.  Exhilarated but exhausted!

Part of a world tour

The last time we scanned our ewes (to see how many were in lamb, to single or twins, or not at all) the Farmer was flat on the floor with a chronic back problem and Daughter was a baby.  Amazingly though, the New Zealander who came along to scan for us this week did our last scan on his first visit to Mull all those years ago.  Scanning sheep in Scotland is part of his annual world scanning tour, and he has been doing it for 13 years.   

We couldn't manage it without help. It means another gather, and then the sort out in the fank before and after.   

This is D, mid scan.  The system is fast and furious.  He calls out Twin or Empty.  Anything else is a single.  Farmer had to quickly dob the right colour paint on the ewe depending on the call or lack of call.  The results were good, and it was an important opportunity to condition score the ewes, and hold back any of the poorer ones for extra sustenance.  This constant damp and wet weather is taking its toll.

But we have had a little bit of sunshine.  R has been busy in the woodland cutting up trees that have been blown down in the storms. Farmer was keen to leave some nice messy piles of timber to rot for the wildlife!

The hens are enjoying the sun.

So are the older ewes, now in the Black Park for extra food.

We still have puddles and pothole filling is on the agenda to be completed before the beginning of April!

The fallen escallonia outside Toechtamhor is beginning to re-sprout.

Sunlight just hitting the Point this morning on the way home from the school run.

One of our winter regular visitors was arriving today to stay in West,  it was lovely, as always, being down there getting the cottage ready.  I always want to stay there myself.

The sun began to shine, which was blissful.

We did have hailstones the size of golfballs (well, perhaps just a little bit smaller) in between times though.  Our wood chip arrived.

Coco and I walked on the beach. It was cold but exhilarating in the sun.  Just us, a pair of hooded crows and some oystercatchers. Bliss.

We came home and the sun was catching the hens in a lovely gentle touch in front of the renovated trough.