Extreme Weather

The Raptor's superb picture graphically describes the winds that batter Ardnamurchan Point and scour the peninsula. One day, during a particularly vicious storm, we stood outside our house at the Ferry Stores and watched a near-hurricane strip slates off the roof and send them bowling down the road. The next morning, this end of the peninsula was cut off in no fewer than six places along the road back to 'civilisation'.

More recently, we've looked across the Sound to Mull and seen the water of the waterfalls that tumble down the cliffs opposite being picked up and hurled back inland and....

....we've sat snug in our home and watched the ships fight their way into a full force eight gale.

We've lost count of the number of times lightning has blacked out the community, sometimes sending surges along the lines which have blown up computers and game boxes and telephones and, of course, knocked out our fragile broadband connections. What is noticeable is that these thunderstorms are mainly features of winter, not summer.

This is hardly a case of extreme weather but it is one of the strangest weather phenomena we have witnessed here, the whole of the summit of Ben Hiant appearing to be on fire. It wasn't: the sun had heated damp vegetation to the point where it 'steamed'. On a calm day the column of steam rose until it met an inversion, which caused it to spread out.

It hasn't happened for some years but there was a time when the burns froze in winter creating what our young daughter referred to as 'icefalls'. This one was on the Millburn, just upstream from the telephone exchange.

Many thanks to the Raptor for the use of his picture.

Snow

It doesn't snow here much but, on the rare occasions on which we have enough for the snow to lie....

....the landscape is transformed.

My impression is that it has snowed much less in recent winters. In the days when we had the shop, I can remember the community being cut off, the main problem being located, as always, at 'the back of the ben'.  This picture was taken in 2009.

As always, it's the play of light - such a feature of this place - that makes a snowy landscape so special. This photo looks across Kilchoan township to the land around the cleared township of Skinnid and, on the left, the forestry on Beinn nan Losgann.

Snow on distant hills is more common but, again, it's the light that makes a picture. This view is across the mouth of Loch Sunart to Auliston Point on Morvern, beyond which is the Sound of Mull and the pyramid shape of Beinn Tallaidh on Mull.

Warm, Sunny Intervals

We've been enjoying fine, dry weather for the past couple of days, but with the wind in the north - the direction which brings the best weather - there's a chill in the air even though the temperature in the sunshine has, at times, reached a dizzy 22C.

The buddleia under our bedroom window has been in flower for ten days but it's hardly seen a butterfly until yesterday, when a tortoiseshell appeared. It was soon joined by a couple of....

....very smart red admirals.

When photographing these beautiful animals there's a tendency to concentrate on the brighter upper side of the wings, yet....

....the apparently less showy undersides can be far more spectacular. This is a red admiral but the painted lady, of which we've not seen one yet this year, is an outstanding example.

The buddleia is now a mass of insects though there are some which appear to spurn it. The most common butterfly at present is the green-veined white, yet they don't feed on this plant.

It's high summer but, with that chill in the air, there are the first signs of a changing season. Crane flies are flying erratically around the place before crashing into the undergrowth....

....the cob nuts are swelling on the hazel, and....

....tucked into hollows in the damp soil, puffball toadstools are appearing. With the Scottish schools back next week, summer seems to be slipping away. But.... I prefer autumn.

Swimming

The weather has given us two days of blue skies and light northerly breezes, so the ladies of the household have been swimming. Rachael took to the water off Ormsaigbeg yesterday evening with a juive - a cross between a jump and a dive.

This morning they enjoyed the rather warmer waters at Sanna. This is our favourite of the various sandy bays at Sanna, on the far side of the Sanna Burn, but....

....we found the beach already occupied by a single compass jellyfish. While the ladies agonised over whether it was safe to swim - the compass does give a rather nasty sting - some of us....

....relaxed on a rock in the sunshine and watched the ships go by. This is the Eda Fransen, L208, a 1938 lobster boat built in Denmark.

In the end they decided to swim, and the jellyfish stayed away.

Sunrise

5.07am - dawn across Kilchoan Bay with a light northerly moving mist across the summits of Beinn nan Losgann and Ben Hiant.

5.26am - the sun's first rays touch the summit of Ben Hiant. The trig point is clearly visible.

5.42am - sunrise on the shoulder of Glas Bheinn.

11.26am - a perfect morning.  Picture looks across the marshes at the back of Kilchoan Bay to Ormsaigbeg and Maol Bhuidhe

Kilmory Sunset

Ritchie Dinnes writes, "This image is of the sun going down behind Muck. The summit of Hyskeir can just be seen to the left of the sun."

Many thanks to Ritchie for a superb picture.

Night & Day

These pictures are from the Raptor and show the start of Wednesday's sunset, looking across from the road by the new fish farm offices to Mingary Pier, a sunset....

 ....which caught fire as the evening progressed, and....

....the Raptor was out again early to see the dawn - this picture, looking across from Pier Road to Ormsaigbeg, was taken at 5.30 in the morning.

Many thanks to the Raptor for the pictures.

A Feast of Small Boats

The internet chose to start playing up yesterday, perhaps because it was one of the warmest days and certainly the most perfect day of the year. By checking with neighbours, it became evident that it was just our line which was misbehaving and, according to the very helpful person at BT, it is because we have a severe case of 'drop off' along our line. Our upload speeds are fine, it's just the download, which is now 0.12mbps.

So to get away from  the stresses of internet withdrawal symptoms, we took to the hills behind the house - this view shows Ormsaigbeg with Kilchoan Bay and, beyond it, the heights of Ben Hiant.

Another distraction was the parade of small boats of different sorts that seemed to swim through the heat haze in front of the house, like the always-busy Tobermory creel fishing boat Jacobite.

The Majestic Line's Loch Tarbert, works at a much more sedate pace, as it should. It's one of three small cruise ships they run which we often see in these waters.

The nigh-impossibility of accessing sites like the AIS sites is one of the problems of low download speeds, so I don't know which ship this is. With it coming in as close as it did to the Ormsaigbeg shore one would have hoped to have been able to read its name, but many owners seem to be shy of advertising their ship's name - a pity, as this is a very good-looking boat.

Another good-looking and evidently well-maintained vessel is this one. She probably has her name somewhere but I can't see it, but one has to envy the people lazing in the sun on her decks.

Losing some of our broadband capability makes one even more sympathetic to those living in places like Glenborrodale for whom 0.12mbps is the norm. We, at least, can look forward to a repair, hopefully on Tuesday, and, at some future date, to even better speeds when super fast broadband - originally promised by Openreach last September - finally arrives. For Glenborrodale, it's satellite broadband or these miserable speeds.

Ships & Birds

We crossed the Sound of Mull to Tobermory this morning on the eight o'clock sailing for the usual reason - a visit to the dentist - through weather which looked, and felt, more like winter than full summer.

Fred Olsen's Boudicca, a regular visitor to these waters, is a large ship carrying over 500 passengers but she was lost in the mist in a Tobermory Bay which, as the mist began to lift....

....was crowded with a variety of ships, including the Lady of Avenel (nearer) and the Dutch registered staysail ketch Steady - more about her here.

Once the weather decides to change, it does so quickly here. Within a few minutes of our landing the mist was rolling back to reveal a marina crammed with yachts mirrored in the still waters of the bay.

 Despite the presence of a cruise ship the town was remarkably empty, probably because....

....many of Boudicca's passengers were being whisked away to enjoy a wildlife cruise. This is Sealife Survey's Sula Beag.

On our way back across the Sound we, too, were able to enjoy the wildlife. At first we found a few guillemots, some with young in tow, but....

 ....they were soon joined by gannets diving from high above, a sure sign that they were working at bait fish. Then, as we neared Kilchoan....

....the air was suddenly full of sea birds. There are reports that, while the mackerel have been in for some weeks, if not in great numbers, there are plenty of good-sized sand eels, a welcome arrival as we haven't seen them in any numbers for some time.

Sunset

This was last night's sunset - picture courtesy Kilchoan Early Bird

Summer Weather

Sometimes, Ardnamurchan's weather just has to be endured.

The Insects of Druim na Gearr Leacainn

This part of Scotland hasn't been enjoying the warm, sunny weather of the rest of the country so the sun's appearance this afternoon was very welcome - and we took advantage of it to walk up the back of the house, through the croft land and the gate at the top onto Ormsaigbeg's common grazings.

Druim na Gearr Leacainn, the ridge that runs along the back of the township, is cut by a number of steep, narrow glens which provided shelter for insects from the cool northwesterly breeze. There we found....

....the first common blue of the year, a male, and....

....the first ever orange underwing moth.

We also found a small pearl-bordered fritillary basking in the sun while it enjoyed sipping from a tormentil flower. It's a pretty butterfly but....

 ....spectacular when it closes its wings. The closed wings also show it's a male - the female has the paler patterning all over the underside of her wing.

Small heaths were by far the most common butterflies, this one - appropriately - choosing a spotted heath orchid to rest on.

Butterflies are beautiful but so is this shy beast, a large toad perhaps looking for a butterfly meal.