Thursday, 29 January 2015

Snow

It's been snowing on and off for the last twenty-four hours, sometimes quite heavily.  Yesterday, it was blown in by a strong, cold northwesterly, which also brought thunder and lightning and the usual short power breaks, but by this morning the wind had dropped.

Conditions along the road out of Kilchoan became bad last night, and some people who tried to drive out this morning turned back when they saw the state of the road at the cairn and along Loch Mudle, but the Fort William bus managed to leave, and the mail came in.

At lower levels the snow didn't last, particularly along the road by the shop and across the marsh at the back of the bay....

....and even on the hills above Ormsaigbeg the snow cleared quickly, as did the roads after the gritter had been along them.

All morning further flurries of snow came in.  This isn't good weather for the crofters' sheep, even for those in the croft fields where they get haylage and salt licks.

Some Kilchoan sheep decided this wasn't the weather for grazing out on the marsh, so they came along to the shop to enjoy the grass on the flat land by the jetty where, in August, the Regatta marquee stands.

 For the sheep in the hills, life is much tougher, and....

....the red deer are having a particularly hard time as they have very little fat on them.  What I can't understand is....

....why, even in this bitter weather, we can't be free of slugs.

Many thanks to Kilchoan Early Bird for the pictures of the hill sheep and the deer.

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