A Change in the Weather

The fine weather has brought on some of the early spring flowers that have found a sheltered spot.  These are the first violets we've seen this year, growing out of an old stone wall.

The peacocks have been out in force whenever the sun's been shining, sunning themselves on south-facing rocks and then suddenly taking flight when someone approaches.

It's been a difficult winter again for the greenfinches.  For weeks we didn't see any in the garden, then they reappeared.  We were just thinking how good it was to see them back, quarrelling with the usual hoards of chaffinches, when....

....we found one of them lying on the ground under one of the peanut feeders.  He was too far away from a window to have died in a collision with the glass, and he looked in good condition, so his death is a bit of a mystery.

After almost eight weeks of increasing drought conditions - today's Oban Times of warning of water shortages - yesterday turned strangely murky, and wet things began falling from the sky.  At one point someone suggested it might be snow - which would be a logical follow-on to our recent weather - but today saw the return of an old friend, drizzle.  The change in the weather coincided with the arrival of the first cruise ship of the year, the Marco Polo, which, if you look very carefully in this picture, was anchored in Tobermory Bay this morning.