A walk in the woods

We woke this morning to a misty day, with the wonderful view almost completely obscured. We sat around and chatted and decided to go out for lunch at one of Daughter One’s favourite cafes, the oddly named Lazy Cow at Creich, down a side road on the way to Fionnphort. We had to wait for a while as the food is all freshly prepared, but it was worth it.

After lunch we drove to Knockvologan, to walk down to the Tireragan nature reserve on the SW tip of the Ross of Mull. I was promised a half hour walk to an amazing old oak tree, so we set off down the road. On the way we passed a field of sheep, where a wee lamb was sleeping down by the fence while his Mum grazed some 50ft away. I spoke to him and he woke up, stuck his head through the fence and butted my hand, trying to suck my fingers. His Mum baa-ed at him but made no attempt to come to him – I thought the poor mite was hungry! He’s my Blip today.

We entered the path to the reserve and set off down a path of mud – I sank up to the top of my wellies more than once. We endured ticks sticking to our trousers, twigs in our eyes from the dwarf birch forest and arrived at our destination after an hour and a quarter! The tree was incredible – it had obviously fallen and split open many years ago, the branches layering themselves in to the ground and continuing to grow. We sat around for while, enjoying the scene and looking at the mosses which covered the branches before returning to the car – only a three hour trip! I was glad to be back, but as we walked down to road to the car, the lamb, who sat 50 ft away with his Mum, ran down to the fence to meet us. How could he know! We drove back to my daughter’s place. The tree is my extra today.

Quote of the Day: “To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.” ― Thomas Hardy,