On the Road

With Mrs Diary off into town do some shopping this morning, we walked down the Ormsaigbeg road early to catch the 7.50am, once-a-day bus from Kilchoan in to Fort William, which leaves from outside the shop.

Although we walk it almost every day, there's always something of interest to be seen along this road. Slow worms were long thought to be snakes, and I have always wondered whether it was they, rather than the much rarer adders, which gave Ormsaigbeg its name - ormr being a snake or serpent in Norse.

The slow worm seemed frozen to the tarmac, perhaps because he had been caught out in a heavy shower of rather cold rain.

This little bird, along with its brother or sister, was more of a surprise, and was only easily identified once it took off and flew away, when it displayed a very characteristic white rump.

It's a juvenile wheatear, the birds earning their name from their white arse.