High Tide and Calm Seas

Strange weather today, still, warm, and cloudy yet bright, conditions perfect for photography - which was fortunate as the Diary was out and around in the village this morning early, on business with Mr Hughie MacLachlan of pig fame.

From the old church of St Congans up on the hill above Meall mo Chridhe, the views back across Ormsaigbeg were stunning.  The grass is still growing so it's brilliant green while, in contrast, the first autumn colours are becoming evident.  The red is mostly from the heavy fruiting of the rowans this year, while the deciduous trees are adding to it with their autumn hues - and one has to admit that, much as one may dislike the invasive character of the plant, the bracken gives a very warm colour to the hills.
 

The tour round the village coincided with high tide which, as usual, had left a sheep stranded on an island in Kilchoan Bay.  With the harvest moon just past, we've had a series of very high tides, fortunately without any gales to drive them in.

Round at Mingary Pier the coble salmon fishing boat lay at anchor in front of Mingary Castle.  The coble is used by one of the few fishermen who still employs traditional methods to catch wild salmon off the west coast of Scotland.  There are some superb pictures of salmon fishing from a coble at the site here.

Back at the pier an hour or two later, with the cloud cover rather heavier, the CalMac ferry Eigg came in on the 11.00am run from Tobermory.  She's a bit of a surprise as we haven't seen her for several years - our usual winter replacement is the Raasay.  We've had the much bigger Loch Linnhe on this summer, and there are still plenty of visitors crossing the Sound, so we didn't expect her to be replaced by a smaller ferry so early.