The Changing of the Seasons

There's a sense of change in the air. Summer is coming to an end. Autumn stands at the door. One can feel it in the earlier evenings, in the stillness across the Sound....

....in the clouds that linger across Ben Hiant....

....and in the wildfowl resting in the shallows before they begin to migrate.

The summer jobs around the fields are done: most of the silage is made and baled....

....and the sheep and lambs have been brought in from the common grazings on the hills to be clipped and tagged.

The Glasgow weeks are past, when the number of visitors peaks. The Scottish schools are going back over the next three days, though we'll have the English children and their parents around for a couple more weeks. It's been another good season with plenty of visitors. They've been fun, it's been good to see both old friends and newcomers, but for those who serve in the shops and hotels, who work in the visitor centres, who clean the houses and caravans between lets, it's been hard work. There's a feeling of gentle weariness around the place, a sense that autumn is coming but it's welcome, that even the prospect of winter isn't too bad.

Then, in a couple of months' time, the gales will have come and, cosy as it is around a winter fire, we'll be looking forward to another busy summer.

Thanks to Rachael for the photo of the Sound of Mull.