Lake District June 2019, Day 1

A pottery morning finishing the packing and loading the car.  The journey up to the Lakes went really well with swathes of beautiful oxeye daisies on the roadside verges, especially on the A66.  We were soon settled in and then spent the evening at friends Anna and Gordon's for a superb pre birthday meal with a theme of the times we spent together at Tudweiliog on the Lleyn peninsula.

Butterfly Hunting in the cemetery

After a warm and bright start the sky began to cloud over and by early afternoon it had become overcast, but warm and humid.  I was keen to go and check on the white helleborines that I had found in May.  To my knowledge they were first discovered growing here in 2015 and I went on 7th June to check them out.  Although I only managed to find 20 I understand the official count was around 200.  Whilst walking through on May 15th this year I found them again despite there being none in the intervening years.  In May I found five and today six and they had seeded so hopefully this will mean more in years to come.  I also found a single bee orchid and and a solitary pyramidal orchid in the same spot.  Great news indeed.

The other aim of my walk was to look for butterflies in the adjacent woodland cemetery.  Unfortunately the cloudy conditions meant that there were none about and I had to make do with a couple of green veined whites.  Still, these are lovely butterflies and good to see.  There was plenty of hogweed in flower and also dog roses, one of my favourites.  In the main cemetery there was plenty of lesser willow herb and the grass was thick with daisies.  Birdsfoot trefoil or 'eggs and bacon' was growing rampantly on some of the older, les well tended graves.  Blackbirds were plentiful with some singing males and it was pleasing to hear a singing male blackcap.  There were plenty of magpies and wood pigeons about as well as flocks of fledgling and adult starling busily foraging in the grassy areas.  I really enjoyed watching a pair of wrens feeding their brood of fledglings - a success story.

White Helleborine

White Helleborine

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid

Pyramidal Orchid

Birds Foot Trefoil

Green Veined White

Scotland, Spring 2019. Day 8

Finally an improvement in the weather today.  As we had a long drive home the next day, Heather and I decided on a walk up Glen Fyne from the head of the Loch.  We donned water proofs to begin with but as the day went on the weather improved.  A splendid river runs through the glen and we enjoyed watching dippers busily feeding.  The path led past a hydroelectric power station, like the one at Cruachan, built into the mountain.  There is a lochan at the 5oom contour which presumable drives the turbine.  After passing through some gravel workings the valley became quieter and much more remote with excellent views up the glen to Beinn Bhuidhe at 948m and 216 in the munro hierarchy and the Arrochar Alps on the other.  We soon reached a point where the river narrowed and there was a fine bridge crossing it.  We started to notice people on the track crossing the river and when we reached it there was a constant stream of people.  We knew that there was a large beer festival back down at the Fyne Ales Brewery by the main road.  At first we though it was people out the stretch their legs; but this many?  We discovered that as part of the beer festival there was a walkers' bar 3 miles up the valley from the festival.  Good thinking!!!  We continued as far as Glen Fyne Lodge and then retraced our steps to the bridge before returning on the opposite side of the valley past the brewery.

After our walk we drove over and down to Lochgoilhead through some wonderful oak woods and on alongside the loch to have a look at Carrick Castle which stands impressively on the loch side.

Soon it was time to return as I needed to buy the ingredients for our final evening meal together before heading home the next day.  I prepared steak and chips with a whiskey, cream sauce followed by the piece de resistance, the scottish specialty of cranachan: layers of toasted oatmeal(I used granola), fresh raspberries and whipped double cream blended with heather honey and whiskey.

Scotland, Spring 2019, Day 7

Sadly another wet day today so we decided to visit Inveraray Castle.  The castle was splendid.  There is an excellent view of on the approach to the village and the inside lives up to expectations.  It was a bit of quick whizz around the excellent gardens in the rain which was a shame.

Scotland, Spring 2019. Day 6

A thoroughly wet day with heavy rain all day.  We had a very lazy morning before launching to drive down the far side of Loch Fyne to Otter Ferry and the Oystercatcher bar and restaurant.  We turned off the main road back to Loch Lomond onto ever smaller roads along the side of the loch.  We kept meeting lots of groups of wet and bedraggled cyclists and found even more at the pub.  We discovered that they were taking part in a two day charity ride from Arran to Aberdeen.  We really felt for them, but fortunately the forecast was somewhat better for the 'morrow.  Just before arriving at the pub we stopped to watch a flotilla of male eiders.

Lunch at the Oystercatcher made the best of a dismal day for weather.  We all opted for Cullen Skink or smoked haddock chowder and excellent it was.  We took an alternative route home and called that the day.

Scotland, Spring 2019. Day 5

A long day today so we were up and breakfasted early.  I wanted to drive up to Seil Island on the west coast and we had promised Thomas that we would go to Oban bike helmet shopping.  Although it was not the promising day of weather as we set off, the sky rapidly cleared the further north and west we went and we had a magnificent day.  The weather was very local, however as the Munro Baggers on the Arrochar Alps had a very wet day.

Our journey took us once more to Lochgilphead, this time turning north along the Crinan Canal, rather than South towards the Mull of Kyntyre.  Seeing a sign advertising a coastal view point we called in at Askneish Bay where found an attractive hotel and bistro.  What a pity we were somewhat pushed for time and it wasn't lunch time.  We also discovered some excellent gardens that we separately became lost in.  Slightly more formal that Ben More, they were still magnificent with ferns, azaleas and rhododendrons.

Continuing north, it wasn't long before we were crossing over to Seil Island over the narrow strip of 'sea' separating it from the mainland via the very hump-backed Clachan Bridge, known affectionately as The Bridge Over the Atlantic.  Crossing the island we parked up at the superb viewpoint of Port a'Mhuilinn where we had lunch in the warm spring sun looking across a sparkling sea dotted with islands ranging in size from Lunga, Scarba and Jura to the tiny Garvellachs.  The rocks were dotted with beautiful delicate sea pinks which made excellent foregrounds for photographs.

Lunch over we continued the short distance to Easedale which we enjoyed pottering around and photographing.  The views to the impressively steep cliffs of Mull were fabulous.

All too soon it was time to continue to Oban to complete our errands.  The owner of the bike shop alerted me to the fact that there were black guillemots nesting in the harbour wall.  This was too much to resist so, while Heather pottered round the shops I wandered round to try my luck photographically.  Mt information was correct and my only regret was that I hadn't driven round with the big 500 lens - ah well!!

I did get some images with the 200, however, and I found a very cooperative hooded crow foraging on the tideline.

All too soon, having secured a bike helmet for 'the boy' it was time to continue our journey.  We drove east from Oban, along the north shore of Loch Awe, stopping briefly in increasingly overcast weather to photograph the magnificent Kilchurn Castle.  We had our eyes open for the ospreys that breed along here and caught a brief glimpse of one as we walked don the the loch side.  It didn't seem long then before we arrived back at Inveraray in increasingly deteriorating conditions; we had certainly had the best of the weather.

Scotland, Spring 2019. Day 4.

A rest day today.  A relaxed start to see the Munro bagging team depart.  A few regrets there.  Even last year I would have been with them - although there are lots of contours very close together so maybe having an easy day was the better option.

Heather and I pottered into Inveraray where I had a doctor's appointment for an INR test.  Fortunately it has gone up!!  Only a week to go now before cardioversion - fingers crossed.  Following this we explored the town and I enjoyed looking at and photographing The Vital Spark.  A semi derelict old Clyde Puffer, this old lady is awaiting restoration and was the inspiration for Neil Munro's novels based on its exploits: The Tales of Para Handy.  These books also formed the basis of both a 1960s and 1990s television series.  Munro was actually born in Inveraray.  Coffee and scone followed before our return to Stonshira House.

While the remainder of the party went off for an excursion I remained behind to play at being a bird photographer again.  I had a very pleasant time down on the loch side, now at low tide.  I was delighted with my shots of a heron dealing with a large fish and enjoyed watching goosanders, common sandpipers and oystercatchers.  Sand Martin's were skimming the water surface over the mouth of the small river that flows into the loch here.  I also managed to pick up a tick which I fortunately found before it bit and dug in; later in the week I discovered on that had bitten and dug in!!

At 5.45 I feel a preprandial beer coming on!!