A Spring Gale

As forecast, the wind has been gusting towards gale force through the morning and early afternoon.  This picture was taken from the Ferry Stores looking across Kilchoan Bay during one of the fiercest squalls.  The wind is in the northwest, so this side of the peninsula is in the lee of the hills - it'll be even more lively on the north coast and at the lighthouse.

On the Sound of Mull, the cliffs at Leac na Bo Riabhaich opposite us look as if they are one fire, but these are the two burns which cascade down the cliffs in quieter wet weather, while today the wind is blowing them back on themselves.

Then, suddenly, the sun comes out, here seen along the croft lands of Ormsaigbeg - but that's the next sleet/hail/snow shower bouncing in across Maol Buidhe.

It's miserable weather for the early lambs, though these have some excellent accommodation in an old pickup cover.  They're two of the nine which Nan MacLachlan's ewes have produced so far, of which there are three pairs of twins.

Meanwhile, in the centre of the peninsula at Achnaha, Tony Thain's pheasants were queueing up for breakfast at the back door.

As Tony describes it, "They steal food from the containers used for filling the small birds' feeders but appear not to want to get their feet cold - so they stand on mine!"

The oystercatchers take the rough weather stoically, hunching their shoulders and enduring....

 ....except if a young lady comes past, when they suddenly wake up and and start strutting around.

It's a funny sort of spring, with gales all around and the first bracken shoots appearing in the more protected clearings in the woodland.