West Coast Islands Blogs
Blogs (web logs) provide an ideal opportunity to explore the traditions, culture and wildlife of Wild Lochaber. We have put together a collection of local blogs and provide the titles and text snippets to give a taste of each entry with direct links to the main blog entry on the host website. We hope you will find time to explore the full articles and further information on the host blog sites.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any suggestions for blogs you would like to see here.
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles
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Recent days have been fine and sunny so I have spent a lot of time gardening. More digging and tidying have resulted in several more caterpillars but they have looked too difficult to identify for me to try. A single click beetle larva (wireworm) in one of the vegetable beds does not concern me ...
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Neil has sent me a couple of records from February including this nice patch of Hymenophyllum tunbrigense (Tunbridge Filmy-fern) from the Drinan area – the first record in NG51 since 1995 and in pretty much the same place as one of the two records made than. Hymenophyllum tunbrigense (...
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Having gone into isolation to avoid Covid-19 this blog is currently reduced to what I find in the garden – or our bit of seashore. Normally by this time of year I am planning summer activities based on analysis of previous records, but this year I have cancelled Skye Botany Group meetings...
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If you struggle with sundews, particularly Drosera intermedia (Oblong-leaved Sundew) and Drosera x obovata (Obovate Sundew (D. rotundifolia x anglica)) there is a useful new guide here. Drosera intermedia has, in my opinion, been over-recorded in the past in our area. (N.B. Ignoring a very small...
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The square-bashing for Atlas 2020 is over but yesterday Neil, Seth and I took a walk along the River Chracaig in Portree and made a cracking start to the new year’s recording. We started with a look at some snowdrops Seth had found. As well as the standard Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrop), as he...
wondering wanderers
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Prior to this past week I am not sure I have actually gasped at anything other than TV drama and action movies. Now I am gasping daily while watching the news, logging on to social media or reading things online. Gasping with horror, with shock, with dismay. I’m also finding myself with...
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Last week it was the one year anniversary of our move back to the mainland. As it’s not that long since our bad, good, learned round up of 2019 I have not made the others sit down and do the exercise again about our first year away from our Rum life. We have all been reflecting on it...
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‘But you haven’t done a winter’ is a phrase which has rather followed us around in our life choices since we started this blog. The notion of managing a winter in our campervan volunteering was the first one. Actually, we didn’t manage that. We’d always planned to...
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For the last few years rather than acquire more ‘stuff’ we have instead tried to choose experiences as gifts for Christmas and birthday presents for ourselves. We still exchange small tokens but aim for either things which are going to be consumed quickly (nice chocolates, nice drink,...
Marc Calhoun
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I am sorry to report that due to the Corona virus outbreak we are unable to go forward with the April guided cruise. Northern Lights has rescheduled it for a year out. The cruise will follow the same itinerary. I had announced earlier that the 2020 cruise would be my last time as a guide. But...
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The photo is of one of the three beehive cells on the Flannan Isles. It shows hundreds of puffins flocking around the smallest cell on the island. The stones in the foreground (lower right) are the top of the largest beehive, a triple cell with an oratory chamber in the middle. I have been in...
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After writing the last post on IKEA lighthouses, I remembered another memorable minor light I'd visited long ago; one that has also been replaced by an IKEA tower. This particular light stood at one of the most iconic locations in the Hebrides, the Point of Sleat, the southernmost tip of the isle...
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So, what exactly is an IKEA lighthouse?A lighthouse enthusiast was on my 2019 guided cruise last July. As we were motoring past the Garvellach Isles he mentioned we were passing an IKEA lighthouse, and I had to ask what he meant. It turns out the term refers to the modern pre-fab beacons the...
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I have posted before on a long walk I made to Glengarrisdale on the northwest end of Jura. (It was also the subject of chapter 7 in Book 1.) That walk was made in 2010. Ten years have passed, and, sadly, I've not had a chance to return to Glengarrisdale. I say sad for two reasons: the first is that...
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In May of 2017 I camped for two nights by a beautiful loch in the remote interior of southwest Lewis. I had not planned to camp there. I'd wanted to make it all the way to the Aird Mhor, at the mouth of Loch Reasort. The hike had started at Kinlochrog. But due to the difficult terrain, after eight...
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Due to a cancellation, there are two places available for my April 25th cruise aboard Hjalmar Bjorge. For more details see the above 2020 Guided Cruise tab, or visit the Northern Light Cruising Company website.Frame capture from a Flannan flyover video taken by Alan Brook during the 2017...
Treshnish Farm
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We have had all sorts of days in February, and a lot of them wet. There has been some sunshine in between the showers and some great waves. Waves at CalgaryBetween Calgary and TreshnishA Cormorant, victim of the storms lying beside the deer fence.Rum, Skye, Eigg, Muck - from Ben DuillThe...
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February has been a continuation of the wild and wet weather of January and as we approach the usual weekend for Dan the scan to appear, we anxiously watch the forecast trying to work out when to gather, and trying to fit the weather forecast in with when D and J can help. This year it meant...
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Once or twice a year we need to order tractor diesel which is delivered by lorry. Farmer rang to order it and all appeared to be fine, we were waiting for it to arrive. Then we had a call from the local depot who asked us what the weight limit on our bridge was, because they couldn't...
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I know I have been blogging less and less, but this is the longest gap ever. The main reason being that Farmer and I headed south for January. We spent a month away leaving Treshnish in many capable hands: B and S who stayed in Shian and looked after the dogs, hens, bird feeders...
