Lambs, Flowers & Ships

Although the forecasts haven't been good, and we have had some heavy showers, the weather has continued kind. Today it's sunny with a stiff force 4 southerly wind gusting to force 7, which is raising white horses in Kilchoan Bay.

The twin lambs born on Saturday have emerged from the small shed where they were sheltering and are hiding in some marsh grass. They were ten days late but none of the rest of the flock is showing any signs of producing.

And the sun continues to bring out the spring flowers. Okay, so it's only a dandelion nestling against a south-facing roadside bank, but it's the first of the coming summer's thousands.
To go with the busy wind, the Sound has seen plenty of shipping traffic. Yesterday we watched this rather strange boat heading north. She's the SD Salmaid, the SD standing for Serco Denholm, the company which owns her, a joint venture between the Serco and Denholm Groups. Amongst other things, she recovers buoys, and used to be part of the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service vessels - mainly tugs - which serviced Royal Navy ships while in port. But SD has taken over these services in the three UK naval bases at Portsmouth, Devonport and Clyde. According to this excellent AIS site, she was en route to an 'Exercise Area'.

This smart little general cargo boat which sailed up the Sound yesterday afternoon is the Eidsvaag Sirius, built in 2006, a Norwegian ship whose home base is Trondheim. She carries general cargoes such a bulk grain, and was bound for Belfast.