Monday 3 March 2014

First Wildflowers of Spring

Yesterday morning, with a deteriorating forecast for the afternoon, we took a quick walk to the top of Druim na Gearr Leacainn, the ridge behind our house.  This view looks southwest along it, towards the green of the abandoned fields of the settlement that preceded the crofting township of Ormsaigbeg.  Some rig and furrows can be seen, but the area is criss-crossed with workings, witnesses to a long-departed population.

From the ridge-line we looked north across thew twin lochans towards the craggy lump of Stacan Dubha and beyond to the inner isles.  The vegetation looks absolutely dead but....

....look closely and there are the first signs of spring amongst the sogginess.

Near the highest point of the ridge, above the dark cliff into which a Hurricane crashed during World War II, we followed an indistinct sheep track with led to this little shelf with its carpet of turf.  Obviously a sheep who, like us, enjoys a view had chosen this point as a bed.

Today we enjoyed a morning of sunshine interrupted by a couple of short hail showers.  But the sun was joyfully warm and, when we walked down to the shop to collect the paper, we found the first wildflowers of the spring, a lesser celandine and....

.....a daisy.  We won't be getting excited about seeing daisies again until next spring.

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