Catching up in photographs

Farmhouse garden Snowdrops

Our winter has been relatively calm, not too many storms.  

Rainy days bringing interesting light along Loch na Keal. 

Aurora Borealis, from the farmhouse window. 

When it does rain, it rains heavily and cuts out gouges in the sand. 

The Moon is setting on the left with a slight Aurora on the right. 

The daily tasks of feeding the sheep continue. 

Some lovely sunset light, almost unbelievable colours, but I promise as true as I can get them to the sight itself! 

Steps up to West Cottage in the morning sun. 

Nowhere lovelier..

Trips to a very quiet Tobermory every now and then.

The old ewes from the hill, in the fields in preparation for lambing, still a few weeks off. 

And along Loch na Keal again, my absolute favourite trees! 

 

Ice cold on Mull

This last week or so has been very cold.  No snow to speak of, but bright dry cold days.  These 2 pictures are of Loch Cuin from the air.  It is always particularly beautiful with a thin layer of ice rising and falling with the tides. 

Snowy mountains on the Isle of Rum. 

The view from Reudle. 

Crackaig in the morning sun. 

The first Primrose of 2021.  Tucked away beside the burn protected by the willow growing around it.  Near Crackaig. 

Rum from near Larach Mhor on the way to Crackaig. 

The view from Toechtamhor to Rum, late afternoon. 

Loch Cuin again. 

There was even ice on Calgary Beach. 

 

Extreme beach cleaning

Over the last 18 months Farmer has been picking up marine plastic/rubbish along the coast below Crackaig back to the Whisky Cave.  He started during lambing in 2019, whilst waiting for a ewe to lamb, and decided to keep doing it.   By the end of last summer he had filled two tonne dumpy bags. This at least stopped it all from blowing around.  The only problem though was how to get it home.  That bit of coast is not accessible by quad bike, and being well over a mile to the nearest point where you can get a quad bike it was not going to be possible to carry it.  

The coastline is too rocky for it to be safe for a boat to come in and get it, so the only other option was to get a helicopter to do it, but goodness knows what that would cost.   So what with everything else going on, we just left it.  In the autumn we went down so that Farmer could replace one of the bags as he was worried about it being to photodegrade in the sun.  

Just before Christmas our prayers were answered when we heard that Skyhook Helicopters (part of island based TSL Construction) were going to be lifting huge quantities of fencing material into place on the Isle of Ulva, and so we contacted them and explained our problem.  They very kindly agreed to move the bags for us when they were doing the Ulva job.

Last weekend we got an email saying they were on their way! Delayed by the weather on Friday, it was nice and calm on Saturday.  

Farmer and I both felt quite emotional seeing the bags being lifted up and taken to the roadside over the hill.  

We are so grateful to Skyhook Helicopters for their kindness in helping us.    For the moment that bit of shoreline is clean, hopefully it will stay that way...