Wild Freckle

Well it doesnt seem like 5 minutes since I arrived on Mull and started blogging - but here I am - about to spend my second Christmas on Mull and Island blogging is coming to an end. Such a friendly and welcoming group of people - seems as if everyone is going in different directions! Not sure where I will blog in future - had a quick look at the new Island blogging so will perhaps go over there! Just some photos taken over the last couple of weeks. The weather here has been incredible - with snowy tops, beautiful blue skies and crisp days - the only downside was I had to go to work but needs must. I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their kind comments and would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful 2009.
(resubmitted - hopefully pictures will appear this time)





Duart Castle





Paps of Jura from Ardalanish Bay





The Wilderness from Bunessan





Ardalanish Bay - just beautiful!





Iona from Fionnphort





From Ardmore Forest looking towards Tobermory and the Mainland





Loch Frisa





Reflection on Loch Frisa

Well I gave myself a good talking to and said - sit down and write your blog! Its been too long! So here I am, on Sunday evening with the sun going down leaving the most incredible sunset.Is it still Autumn or has winter started - is there an official start date - we've had snow already and still some on the top of Ben More! but the last few days have been glorious - clear blue skies, warmth in the sunshine, touch of front first thing in the morning. The thing I love about autumn is the colours - up here, I dont know whether its something to do with the air being fresh, clean and pure, but the colours are breathtaking - trying to capture them on film just doesnt do them justice. But here are some anyway.



Craignure Golf Course



Sun bouncing off the "Isle of Mull" - snow on the mountain tops behind





Iona from Fidden



Follow the Leader!



Ears Fors



Aros Park - Just outside Tobermory



Aros Park



The Japanese Garden, Torosay Castle



Bertie (think every buzzard is called Bertie) who has taken up residence in our garden!

Hello everyone in IB land! Its been sooooo long that I thought I had better just drop a line to let you know that I am still alive and well and on Mull - just with the summer hols flying past at a fair rate of knots - and working full time - welll, school full time anyway, just not enough hours in the day. As with the rest of the country, its been damp but we've had the odd bright day - autumn is truly upon on - as I gaze out of the window, there is a mist hanging over the Morvern hills, and our sea eagle has returned to sit on the rocks where I can keep a beady eye on him or her. Everything is now a lovely shade of russet, yellow, and so many shades of brown - the evenings have a nip in the air and even hubby has relented and put the heating on for a couple of hours! Our red deer are about to rut, there seems a sense of urgency of getting everything done before winter really sets in. The Autumnwatch crew are here at the moment filming our sea eagle chicks, Mara and Breagha so watch out for them! I was there the morning they hatched so feel a bit maternal towards them. Pepper is well - still terrorising the vole population and Jessie just plods on in her own way, bless! We are getting ready for the Rally here then it really will be the end of another season. Hope you are all keeping well.

As the locals will have seen in the Oban Times, Princess Ann visited our shores - she came to Tobermory to open the new harbour building which is great - its all new and shiny and still smelt of wet paint! Lots of lovely clean loos, and facilities, and Sea Life Surveys are located in their too. In the evening we had a free concert with lots of local musicians including Iain Thomson, Sam Sedgewick, Sorren McLean - and all finished off by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers who were fantastic - hubby had to work so missed it all but daughter and I had a great time and rolled home at 1.00 in the morning.

Some photos of the event - didnt get piccies of the concert as too busy dancing about!



The new harbour building



The harbour was full - Princess Ann went down the pontoon to meet some sailors!



That is a really steep gangplank!



Thee must a caption competition for this one - what is he saying to his mate?



The Gaelic choir sounding and looking wonderful!



A wee dram for the journey?



Farewell - it was lovely meeting you!



Tobermory looking splendid from the window of the new harbour building



and finally, one of my fave birds - this was one of our White Tailed Sea Eagles flying over the garden being mobbed by a hooded crow - not a great picture - just very difficult in the excitement of the moment to focus, make sure the right lens is on etc. guess that what separates a professional photographer from amateurs like me!

Off for a week to Speyside - staying at Grantown on Spey - touring round the area - its a fantastic location - beautiful scenery - wildlife - and just kicking back!

Having lived on Mull for over a year now and prior to that visiting for holidays, we have seen a huge amount of wildlife - but we have never seen dolphins or any whales - we have seen dolphins over on the east coast but we have never seen any on our home shores.

So I saved up my hard earned pennies, organised for the little one to be looked after when school finished (the trips dont taken children under 14 as its an 8 hour trip) - the weather has been fab for about the last 8 weeks so went ahead and booked the trip for last Monday. Oh dear! On the Sunday we had spent a fabulous day at Calliach Point, blue sky and sun - we saw the Whale watch boat and thought "that will be us tomorrow" all excited anticipating what we were going to see.

We awoke Monday morning to grey, damp skies and a fairly strong rustle in the bushes. It will brighten I said as I took my sea sickness pills! We set off from Tobermory in a slight drizzle, very grey and threatening skies - we donned our survival suits on top of the 25 layers I was already wearing.

It got rougher and wetter, windier - any wildlife out there? dont be silly - they are all tucked up under the duvet!! I have come to the conclusion I am destined not to see a dolphin here - I took part in the whalewatch survey last year at Ardnamurchan - mid June - the rain was horizontal then - should I take the hint??

I managed to take a couple of shots in between the rain to prove we did go out - we did see a basking shark - not sure how well it will come out here but at least I can tick that one off! Lots of seabirds and green faces!





This huge cruise ship had been moored in Tobermory - thought dolphins might have ridden the bow waves - but no!



I love watching gannets - luckily there were some about!



Its a basking shark - honest!



theme to "Jaws" playing in the background - basking shark looking mean!



Guillemot



Just a wee flower looking beautiful, taken the day before the fateful whalewatch trip



Jessie - the famous spaniel mermaid

Oh well- will just have to save up again - or just find myself in the right place at the right time!

We had a visit from Mother in law last week and decided to take her across to the Treshnish Isles and see a puffin close up. The weather was fantastic - the puffins had arrived and were going through their mating ritual - bit of beak kissing - and I caught one getting bits for the nest - they are lovely little birds and make the strangest noise, almost like a low throb of a boat engine - bizarre.
We are all enjoying this lovely spell - too scared to look at the forecast in case its going to end.



"this is my best side"




"do you like my beak?"




This will make a nice lining



Give us a kiss!



Staffa - at the side of Fingal's cave - MM does this have a name??



Threesome!



You put your whole beak in - your whole beak out and you do the hokey cokey




the rock was so pink inside Fingal's cave - MM what is this??




The Carnaburg Isles from Lunga




"Is it safe to come out?"




Ben More on Mull from Lunga




I couldnt resist this one - a baby Highland coo - I love them!

The famous double headed lamb missing from the previous blog!



During the Easter hols, Hannah and I headed south to visit friends and relatives. One friend lives next to Canary Wharf - so we had to the sights - considering I am London born and bred and knew most of London very well, so much has changed. The docks were docks when I lived there - now they are full of penthouses, shops, and tall offices. Canary Wharf itself has a small town underneath it! This machine stopped me in my tracks:




How bizarre - an umbrella machine - as you buy your can of coke and its raining you can buy an umbrella too - soon all shops will disappear and everything will come out of a machine (I'm bit of cynic in case you hadnt guessed!)

some shots of London:



the London skyline, with St Paul's standing proud, the Natwest Tower and the gherkin building - St Paul's has had major clean up and looks beautiful - always worth popping inside for a real feeling of peace!



Nelson poking up over The Strand!



Houses of Parliament and Palace of Westminster from the London Eye



That's enough of London - I was very pleased to be on the ferry back to Mull - I got that excited feeling in my tummy like when we used to come on holiday only now it is just one way!

Not sure how this will come out on the blog, but the sea eagle flying over the back of the house, as it was almost into the sun, its almost a silhouette.

and especially for FC, one of Pepper



I'm hiding from her indoors!

Seems such a long time ago that I wrote a blog - but we've been getting a derelict wooden hut ready for the tourists and happy to say, that's now done and we can get down to the serious business of seeing what's going on in the big wide world - not sure I like what's going on out there - sometimes its easy to bury your head in the sands - other times you have to stand up and be counted - that's just a general observation and not aimed at anything in particular. Hope everyone is well in blog land - although I've not written anything, I've still managed to take the odd photo. My daughter has just gone back to school after her 2 week Easter holiday - and for a change the weather was fantastic. Our first week we went on our UK whistle stop tour visiting friends and relatives - hubby stayed behind to look after Pepper (meeow) and Jessie (woof). Whilst in London, I took my daughter on the London Eye (the views are stunning but not good if you dont like heights!!), and the usual sights - it was amazing the difference in the trees and plants - all the blossom was out, so much greenery on the trees, and lots of garden plants in bloom, compared to when we left Mull, it had just snowed, and only swollen buds on the trees, plenty of daffs (at least the ones the deer havent eaten). Our second week, we went out and about, the weather was beautiful, a day on Iona, the statutory trip to Oban for shopping and those bits we cant get on Mull. I've also been busy with EagleWatch - which is such a fantastic treat - hopefully chicks soon!
MM has been doing a fantastic job as usual - anyone who comes to Mull cannot but be amazed at our rocks! I know very little when it comes to geology - MM makes it sound so interesting - when you see it in the flesh - you cant help but be amazed and touch it!
Anyway - enough rambling - a selection of photos.

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Hundreds of little lambs on Iona - the double headed variety??
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Mother and baby - aaah!" >

How cute is this?
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Lots of these cuties over the Island too!
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Now ... would these fit on my lounge wall??
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Blossom in London
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Having a huge picture clearout as my poor computer cant cope anymore - it was about 5,000 at the last count - the weather is due to break tonight - it was good while it lasted.

Yesterday on Mull was decidedly spring like! Did I image it?? I dont think so - it was a very very still day, the sky blue and that big round thing in the sky, the sun, I think its called - its been so long since I've seen it! It was quite mild too but you could feel a change - My daughter and I have been debating when our first daffodil will pop! I say this Saturday she thinks Friday - its like just waiting for Spring to pop her head out - I spent the day demolishing an old shed which had been built in the 60's - real physical work but in the sunshine it was great and at the end of day, with the shed gone the place was transformed - new views to admire - and lots of muscles aching that I didnt know I had.

Now this morning - well - normal service resumed - wet and windy but not cold - but I'm still hopeful (even though its early February) that I can feel Spring just round the corner.

If I had a pound everytime someone said that to me, I could retire - well if it doesn't snow - then what is this..........



Our back garden at 8.15 am on Saturday morning!





Pepper sneaking out - thinking no-one has noticed!



Jessie - just looking daft as she always does



Synchronised flying from the Oystercatchers



Glenforsa airfield



Ben Talaidh from the Glen track



Salen Village from the bay



Is it Christmas??



this little fellow came so close - shame we didnt have some crumbs for him (or her)



The wrecks at Salen Bay



The Old Pier at Salen - notice the grey bananas in the foreground!



Wrecks at Salen - they are so photographic!!



Across to the mainland from Salen Bay - sorry dont know the name of the mountain - perhaps someone can help??





I took over 300 pictures on Saturday - a lot of my daughter - sadly in this day and age, I am not happy about putting her photo here but just to say her face was just sheer joy - a 7 year old just enjoying snow without a care in the world - I was glad I was able to capture it. Apologies for overloading the system with photos - I bet IBHQ has been bombarded this weekend with "snow" photos - for us it was a first - we had never experienced snow on Mull and this is all part of our first winter - by Saturday evening it was raining and when we woke on Sunday there was not a trace of snow left - just the photos to remind us that we didn't dream it - it really happened - truly magical.- I hope everyone else enjoyed it as well and it didnt cause too much disruption


But as they say "it never snows on Mull"