Spring is Here

Spring has finally arrived on the Isle of Mull.
When I last added to the blog we were still experiencing those cold easterly winds which seemed to last for weeks, although they did come with nice sunshine.
The weather changed back to normal, and the rain filled up the waterfalls again. Mull just is not right when it is dry. To think there were wild fires raging out of control it had become so dry!

So here are some pictures of water. All within a short walk of the house.

The boat is now in the water! We have been out on it a couple of times. We have seen so much from it already. Staffa Island, Treshnish Isles, the Fossil Tree at Burg, puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes, and even one of our eagle next door neighbours checking it out just in case we had a fish.

A wee boat!

The Fossil Tree, at the Burg

The Burg

Staffa

We managed to catch the puffins on the first day they had arrived back home to breed. This one wasn't too happy with the boat paparazzi.

What better for a spring day than a walk on a white sandy beach? This one is a nice secluded one on Iona.

The garden has started growing and we might be able to figure out what all those plants are. This is a suspected plum tree.

Everywhere on Mull the gorse is in full bloom.

Spring has also brought some different visitors to the garden. This brambling is, I think, on the way to Scandinavia, but he has been hanging around here for the last week.

So, what else has been happening?
Well, we have had quite a few visitors over the Easter holidays, and a good time was had by all.
The vegetable growing has commenced. We're talking spuds, carrots, radish, rocket, broccoli, cauliflower, and I can't remember what else. We haven't started the tomato seeds yet! Then there's lettuce, parsnips, beans .........
Joe has started gardening in other people's gardens too! (thankfully they pay him).
And I have started marking Actuarial exams. Joy.


Finally, what spring would be complete without a wee lamb?

We have a ring side seat for the lambing season. The farmer has been run ragged. There are ewes that need help birthing, ewes with blocked teats, orphaned lambs, ewes with a dead lamb that might adopt an orphan if you make it smell right, and they all still need fed because the grass isn't growing fast enough yet.
And the most valuable lesson from all of this is, never shake hands with a farmer. I've seen where their hands have been.

Oooh, I almost forgot to mention, the white tailed eagles next door (so to speak), are expectant parents. The eggs are due to hatch on May 3rd. Hope all goes well. Good luck Fingal and Iona!

The next blog post will be on 1st June. Bye for now.

Easter on Mull

Happy Easter from the Isle of Mull!

It's not really Easter weather. That easterly wind has been blowing for a long time now. This has given us clear, sunny days, and cold, moonlit nights.
We have barely been touched by snow. One or two days had the appearance of a blizzard, however it only settled on the hill tops.
There has been little moisture falling from the sky of any description for weeks, and folks are starting to worry about their water supply. A lot of people, including us, get their water from a nearby stream. Ours is still looking good at the moment.

Fingal and Iona, the white-tailed eagles, now have their own kind of Easter eggs! Luckily the worst of the weather had gone before laying day, which makes it easier to sit at the top of a tall tree incubating eggs! Two eggs are expected to hatch on May 3rd. The visitors to the hide can at the very least expect to see one bird sitting tight on the nest. Fingal and Iona share incubation duties, each allowing the other to get a well earned break.

The cows are giving birth right now, so let's have a cute picture or two of some future burgers.

Sticking to the animal theme, these sheep think Joe is the farmer with some food, as he has a similar looking silver pick-up. They crowded around us when we stopped to take a photo.

We've seen one or two lambs on Mull, but in our area the lambing has not got going yet. It's a bit later than in more southerly parts of the country, probably because the sheep know when the grass will start growing and that's about May! ... assuming it rains before then.

A red deer stag on top of a distant cliff top. At this time of year the boys and the girls don't like to mix. The stags hang around in groups, forgetting the fact that the previous autumn they were knocking the hell out of each other. Their antlers will fall off soon, but new ones will be ready for action in the autumn rut.
The hinds also keep together with the youngsters. Mostly, they all stick to the hills, but you often see them down at our level. There is a hind and a calf in the adjoining field to the house most evenings.

Time for some more photos then.

Snow on the top of Ben More from Loch Na Keal

Gorse flower

Loch Na Keal

Scarisdale wood, Loch Na Keal

Loch Na Keal

Here's my attempt at stitching together photos to try and capture that view I talked about last time around. It overlooks Balmeanach, and then out to sea, where you can see Staffa, the Treshnish Isles, and Coll and Tiree. To the right is the mouth of Loch Na Keal and Inch Kenneth. To the left is the beginning of the wilderness of the Ardmeanach peninsula.

View over Balmeanach

Due to the cold weather, and lack of rain, things are still not busy in the garden yet. The seedlings are however doing well in the greenhouse / sun room, and the veg beds have been built.
From March 21st until September 21st we will have more hours of daylight than those further south, so it won't be long before things get growing.

The weather has not been nice enough to merit putting the boat in the water yet, as being on a boat would not be that appealing in the cold wind. But, the mooring has been planned in the minutest detail, the creels have been acquired, and the anti fouling paint job is ready to be done.

Visitor numbers are starting to pick up on Mull. We have even had a celeb appearance! I saw Gordon Buchanan, a former local lad, open the Tobermory Marine Visitor Centre, which among other things had a very nice display of the skeleton of the Tobermory celebrity otter, Elvis.  You'll be glad to know another otter has stepped into Elvis's shoes and is regularly seen from Main Street. You can see his exploits on Facebook, just "Like" the page of Tobermory Otter Fund.

Here is a picture I took of Elvis in 2009.

That's all for now. The next post will be on 1st May. I intend to do a post once a month from now on, as that means the gap is sufficient to ensure there is something to talk about. And as we will have a lot of family visiting in April, I probably will not have time!