Full Metal Wheelbarrow

On Sunday we toddled into Craignure (a matter of a mile or so) via the forest footpath and had lunch in the pub there, I can wholeheartedly recommend their Glamorgan Sausage. Rob was a little less impressed with his steak, but the chips were very nice.

When we got back to the cottage it was nice enough to sit on the grassy mini-cliff above the beach and have tea, remarkable for March.

The trees were fluffy with this lichen:-

A couple of birds arrived shortly after and the bird book identified them as a Black-Throated Diver in winter plumage and a female Goosander. We saw them several times during the week, always together and on one occasion they appeared to be working together to drive a school of fish. The really odd thing was that the Goosander appeared to have learned the Diver's fishing technique - swimming flat on its tummy with its head below the water to spot the fish.

One of the walkers passing as we were watching the birds kindly told us of a good place to watch Sea Eagles.

On Monday Rob wanted to walk up the big hill behind us to get better views across the bay. It was raining, but we went out anyway, not knowing if the weather would get any better. This is a view of Loch Don from partway up the hill :-

Partway up the hill, the Call of The Teapot made itself heard and we toddled back to answer it.

Baby Hielan' Coo at the bottom of the hill :-

A rather larger one :-

Tuesday was another walk to Craignure and much better weather. We attempted to go via the Hedgehog Wood path and went completely wrong. This wasn't entirely a bad thing as we found a high point to take pictures from and trundled past another herd of Hielan' Coos actually in their field. Rob took pictures of them too, but I was a bit too alarmed by their proximity. Fortunately they lived up to their reputation for placidity. We then found the other end of the Hedgehog Wood path, so we'll know where it is next time :-)

Wednesday was a trip out to look for Sea Eagles. We were amazingly lucky and found them, where the gent on Sunday had said they were likely to be. We had a splendid view of them through our telescope, but the zoom on even Rob's camera wasn't enough to get a good picture of them. We did see them mating though, so hopefully there'll be some chicks later on.

Thursday's jaunt was out to Glen More to take pictures of the Three Lochs. It was a bit misty but this is my attempt :-

And opposite was this rather nice khaki hillside :-

And a rather windswept tree....

In the afternoon we went walking from Garmony to Fishnish, which would have been much more pleasant if it had been less boggy, but was still good.

Then on Friday we tried climbing the hill again and got all the way to the top this time. The wind up there was very harsh and it was too misty to tell how good the view might be otherwise. Daft really - we had amazingly good weather for March and picked the two worst visibility days to climb the hill :-) Lots of primroses to cheer us up near the bottom though.

Friday afternoon we unkinked our tired legs with a toddle around the gardens of Torosay Castle, which are lovely and had a surprising number of flowers for the time of year. I found this one particularly striking :-

I think it's some variety of Arum Lily.

And here's Torosay Castle from the gardens :- 

And then we had to leave :-( But we have another week there in May!! And there will hopefully be Puffins!