Cresting the hill!

Last year we didn’t do the long (9 mile) round walk via the ruined villages of Craickaig and  Glac Gugairidh as V wasn’t feeling strong enough but this year he’s much better so here’s a blip of his triumphant cresting of the hill.  It’s a tricky path to find, causing mild anxiety every year until one is on it but to add to @treshnish ‘s excellent directions on her website I can divulge that the What3words to what I think of as the starter rock, are mandolin.holly.glassware.   


We were so lucky with the weather today, still not warm but it didn’t rain at all and was sunny for much of the walk. 


Drama first thing when a bird fell down the long internal chimney of the wood burning stove.  We could hear its frantic attempts to get back out but the flue was too narrow for it to fly.  We reached into the stove but the exit was angled and felt too constricted to reach through.  We spent a miserable few minutes thinking we’d have to listen to its demise when I saw it flapping about in the stove.  It was a starling and so we shut all the doors and let it into the room and then funnelled it out of the window.  Phew. 


Loved walking the floral road down to Haunn and seeing so many different flowers and then through the Shut and Fasten Gate Gate down to the cliffs looking out to the Treshnish Isles, Staffa and Iona. Even glimpsing the Abbey above its white strand.  The weather was glorious and we picnicked by the driftwood monument.  


Drama number 2 we saw a Minke Whale from the walk (round about where you saw the Basking Shark @xtoph1).  We spent some time watching it and could see it wasn’t a dolphin as it didn’t come that far out of the water but it had a fin and it did show quite clearly.  Big excitement. 


Worthy too of note was the sighting  of a flower that I have tried to identify before, growing high up on a cliff.  Bright, vivid pink but with delicate petals like a poppy or a cistus. Will have to ask an expert (@treshnish)


We then climbed up to the villages and ate chocolate to celebrate the arrival. The ash tree still looks relatively good with not much more evidence of die back than I saw two years ago.  


Tea with Charlotte who’d baked a delicious Victoria sponge with strawberries.  


Drama number 3, we saw a baby adder emerging from the steps of Charlotte’s Tin Shed Gallery.  It flicked its tongue at us and we could clearly see the mark on its head.  Charlotte was slightly perturbed to feel they would be beneath her feet every day. 

We walked the last mile home with a bag full of potatoes I purloined for supper.  I thought I saw a glimpse of a Hen Harrier but it could have been a buzzard.  Smaller and brighter though. 


I made a lamb stew this morning and we had that with garlic and parsley mash and raspberries.  All v delicious.  


Lovely day.