#30DaysWild - day 24

An early walk for Day 24 of #30DaysWild, far earlier than usual! I woke up at goodness knows what time, before 4am anyway, and saw this gentle glow in the sky to the east.  Sunrise. The forecast for the Aurora has been incredibly strong for the last couple of nights, but with our long midsummer days and short dark skies, it was going to be unlikely for us to see anything. Just in case though, I had set the time lapse to see what was happening while we were asleep! Noctilucent clouds were more of a possibility if the sky stayed clear.  My time lapse showed neither, the sky had been fairly cloudy over night.

I donned dressing gown and wellies, and headed into the field to photograph the colour over the sea.  The sky was a wonderful changing tableaux of colour. The sea was mirror calm, and picking up the colours beautifully.  The fishing boat we had seen last night in Calgary Bay had already picked up its anchors and disappeared.

It was very very still.  It was very quiet. I could hear the gulls, and a blurring of beautiful birdsong (IDing birdsong is not my forte) from the trees as I walked in the field overlooking the sea. The sunlight reflected on the windows of Shian and Duill was stunning and I wondered if there was anyone awake to enjoy the sunrise - they would barely have had to get out of bed!

The cows were very settled in a friendly group, grazing or sitting chewing the cud, as the sky played overtures reflecting in the calmness of the sea and the morning.

It was purely by chance that I looked away from the sunrise, and found this stunning double rainbow. For most of the year our sunrises are at a respectable time and appear over the hill behind the house.  Rainbows nearly always appear over the sea, or Calgary headland. I don't ever remember seeing one over the Point before, and it was lovely to recognise the difference in the passage of the sun, and therefore the rainbows when the days are so long and the sun rises in a different quarter of my sky.

I walked towards the woodland I was walking through last night, and over the brow of the field, there were the three hares sitting still, looking away from me.  (You will have to take my word for it, I didnt have the right lens for hares..) I had a good moment of enjoying them being there, before they saw me and off they ran.

It was lovely to see the sun rise on the Point from that angle too, so different from the winter sunrises which light up the other side.  The sea was so still, and I could hear the sheep on the Point, as well as murmurings from the cows.

I came back indoors an hour later, a little damp from the drizzle, and went back to bed.   When I woke at 6.30 the sky was grey, the sea was silver - no trace of the colours of a few hours earlier.

#30DaysWild - day 23

Day 23 of the #30DaysWild challenge.

Walking at sunset, a little later than I had hoped, but the light improved as the walk progressed, into a beautiful sunset with even a patch of rainbow cloud.

The Fragrant orchids are beginning to appear in more numbers.  They almost appear to have come out of nowhere.

We are still hearing the cuckoo, this evening it was calling from the  trees round the house, very close, for a few minutes before flying off towards the wood between here and the Point.

Lady's bedstraw is just about to flower, another yellow to add to the mix.

Northern marsh orchids.

Fragrant orchid, on the cusp.  I even found one growing where we have cleaned out the old drainage ditch, on a sod of turf moved by the digger.

The fragment of rainbow cloud or sundog.

The Wood bitter-vetch and the bee.

I left Daughter and Farmer to walk about to the farm via the track and I headed across the natural regeneration wood.  There doesn't seem to be as much bog cotton here this year, but it is feeling more and more like a woodland area, and given how wet certain bits of it of it are, it is wonderful to see all the young trees, growing and spreading.  The bog myrtle was in leaf, last time I walked through here it was flowering that strong browny orange flower. The scent when I rubbed young leaves through my fingers transported me to when I lived in London and used to take a branch of bog myrtle with me, to remind me of Mull.

I have a bright green poncho which I use when I lie on the ground to take photographs. I think the tups thought it was a feed bag.

A swirling number of noisy Common gulls again flying up and down from the lochan. A heron flying up from the sea to the woodland where the nests are. 

#30DaysWild - day 22

#30DaysWild Day

At 3am I woke and imagined I saw a patch of pink in the distant sky.  I woke up 3 hours later to brilliant sunshine! It has been with us all day, and what a wonderful feeling has been with me all day.

The morning view doesn't get much better!

Poor Robin. I don't know what has happened to his feathers. He was frequenting Arlene's cafe in Craignure. (as were Farmer and I, on an errand concerning a very heavy pine wardrobe from Castaways and a van)

Greenfinches, Redpolls and Siskins at the feeders today.

I managed two wild walks today.  A short one first when Prasad took me to see a Small White Orchid he had found in the Black Park.  I was able to point out yesterday's Yellow Eyed Grass.

This evening, the second and longer wild walk down below. Coco was my patient companion sitting waiting while I photograph Common twayblades, and Farmer walks through the cows in the field next door to make sure they are all okay.

There is a colony of Common gulls which breed here every year, and this year it would appear they have been very successful.  Dozens of gulls flew from their nesting area on the hill above the farm, down to the sea, and back. Again and again and again! Calling noisily all the time.

All in all, a very exhilarating walk.

#30DaysWild - day 21

It is Midsummer's Day today, and what should be more suitable (not) than a swampy damp walk on a grey afternoon of #30DaysWild - Day 21.

Farmer had to mend the fence where he had cut it yesterday to get the heifers out of the woodland.  I walked down through the Black Park and into the woodland where the cut fence was lain on the ground. I don't remember spending time in that particular corner of the woodland before.  It was beautifully still and quiet.

Far off, a female cuckoo's bubbling call. Closer to us, varied birdsong from the trees. We saw chaffinches and after a brief rain shower, gulls flying low over the field and with an ungainly turn/tumble,  swooping down to the ground and then as quickly lifting off again. They were too quick and just too far away for us to see what they were catching, but it was clearly worth it as several were doing the same thing.

This low corner of the woodland is quite wet, with a patch of Phragmites stretching from the fence back to the lichen laden hazels.  Walking through the bog, the strong sweet scent of Water mint bursting out from the watery earth beneath my feet. The pretty blue and pink eyed flowers of Water Forget me not, which is so enchanting peering out through the rushes.

I found Yellow Eyed Grass again, on the burn where I had seen it last year.

The first Ragged robin of the season.

Somebody's leftovers, quite a distance up the burn from the sea.

Pignut is working its way to the top of my favourites list this year. It is so common here, but it is so pretty.

This was growing in the bog, I think it is a Hypericum but I don't know which one.

Ragged robin just about to unfurl.

Water forget me not.

 Marsh thistle.

New growth hazel. 

Huge marsh marigold leaves.

This Water forget me not had been flattened, perhaps by a marauding heifer yesterday?

So pretty.

Marsh marigold.

The wagon, with the fencing materials in the back.

Two ferns growing in a wet and dark corner.

Water mint.

Lichen droplet.

Scottish thistle.

A pale Flag iris.  They don't grow that abundantly at Treshnish, so they are always lovely to find.

Home again, and the clouds are lifting.  Perhaps we will have a mid summer sunset after all.