Alice

Sad news last week as Alice, the Cheviot lamb 8 year old Daughter adopted, and subsequently reared, died in her sleep.  She was 15.   We will all miss her.  Having been bottle fed she was more friendly than most though she did mainly come when she thought there was food on offer.  She bore many strong lambs for us and when she retired she lived with the Herdwicks and at times in the shed with Brownie (another pet lamb, a year younger than her). 

The last photographs I got of her were in the fank earlier in the month.  She came over to say hello.   

Orchids!

May and June are my favourite months of the year, as the wild flowers and particularly the orchids appear. 

There are 14 different species of Orchid on the farm.  Some of them are very easy to find, and quite abundant. Others don't flower as regularly or nearly as abundantly.  Those we tend to keep their locations more private as some of them are tiny and easily trodden on by even the keenest eye. 

During lockdown I decided I wanted to find each one in the one season.  The Bird's nest orchid only flowers every few years so once we had seen that I knew we were in with a chance.   The two species I hadn't ever seen were the Lesser twayblade which is TINY and the Early marsh orchid.  We found the Lesser twayblade plant but not in flower.  We didn't find the Early marsh.  

We put that right on Friday evening this last week though, as we found several plants up in the bog just north of the path from Larach Mhor (Reudle schoolhouse) to Glac Gugairidh.  I was very excited! 

Here are some of the ones I have photographed so far this summer. I will add more as I find them! 

Early marsh orchid

Early marsh orchid

Early purple orchid 

Early purple orchid 

These grow on exposed bits of cliff beyond Haunn and out on the Point.  They are hardy and the first of our orchids to appear in the spring. 

Fragrant orchid

Fragrant orchids smell divine.  They grow in grassland, and begin to flower at the beginning of June.  We have in the past been able to smell them before we saw them.  This was in the Black Park, but sadly the Bracken has encroached from all sides and they are not as numerous as they were. 

Heath spotted orchid

These are very numerous.  They grow on heathy and poorer ground.   This one is much shorter than most - it was growing on a rocky outcrop with very thin soil!   This could account for its strong pink colour.  The colour does vary - from white to this strength of pink.  Sheep love them! And if the sheep accidentally get into a field of orchids they will all disappear overnight. 

Narrow leaved helleborine

There are one or two of these growing on the way up the track from the bridge over the Ensay Burn towards the tin schoolhouse.   They are protected by cages to stop the rabbits from eating them.   Their numbers are slowly increasing, thanks to Prasad's care for them.

Northern marsh orchid

You can find these in the garden at Haunn, just by the gate there is a ditch and Northern marsh orchids grow in there.  They also grown in the Black Park and the Haunn field, visible from the track.  Their deep pink/purple flowers are easily spotted in the grass. 

Aurora May 10th/11th 2024

There has been a lot of Aurora activity during the winter.  Sometimes the weather works and sometimes it doesn't!

Unfortunately on the night of 10th/11th May when there was the strongest activity in decades, Treshnish and a lot of Mull was clouded out.   It didn't stop me from taking my tripods outside and trying to make a few photographs.  

These photographs are pretty unremarkable compared to some of the extraordinary photographs that appeared online over the next few days.  Those parts of the UK which had clear skies really saw some astonishing activity. 

With the naked eye I could see the pink colour coming through the cloud.  This is unusual on a cloudy night but shows how strong the activity was that I could see the colour through cloud. 

Usually the activity is from the north, so I always aim my camera north.  This night I had my camera facing south and it was picking up the activity south and west.  An indication of how strong the activity was. 

For all the cloud, it was still lovely to be outside and witnessing something very special. At home. 

 

Wild flower season begins in earnest

It feels like the wild flowers start quite slowly in April.  But as the month progresses so many different ones start flowering, it is difficult to keep track.  Every year I think I am going to do a portrait of each flower and every year I become overwhelmed by the number of new species flowering and I fail! 

Blackthorn

Butterbur

Speedwell 

Wood anemone

Cuckoo flower 

Early purple orchid

Spurge

Marsh marigold 

Wood anemones 

 

March in photographs

From the office window

Golden hour round the farmhouse

The trough and the daffodils 

Down in the woodland garden

A gateway in the stone dyke 

First sightings

Marsh marigold

Larch flowering

Arums have been flowering since February

First Coltsfoot, bedraggled

These 4 ewe hoggs have gone to live on a Tobermory croft

Aurora

Aurora fighting the moon

Feeding the Herdies - the Greylags are back

Chasing the feeder

Dun Haunn, sphinx like 

Walking along the coast

Feeding - a daily winter activity

The Common gulls start following the quad 

A faint Aurora

Along the road towards Calgary 

Aurora and the light of a dredger 

Re-purposed structure as a sheep pen

Port Haunn

Shieling 

Another Aurora 

The path to the coast at Haunn 

Treshnish Point 

Spagnum moss on the Point

Scrub regenerating on the Point

Lichen on the rocks

Magnolia in the woodland 

Full blossom!