It’s my birthday in two days time and today the postman brought me beautiful flowers from my youngest daughter, really made me smile and brightened my day. K had arranged them via a local lady here in Uist 🙂
Blog
Day 75 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023
Popped to see Seonaid this morning, we sat for a couple of hours talking about all things camino – all our other friends and family just glaze over at the very mention haha! Chatting while Seonaid made the coffee (and finding the homemade date slice for us, yum!) I was looking out of the window at the bird table which is just outside and despite the rain there were lots of Goldfinches.
Day 74 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023
Did our monthly BTO WeBS counts today, slightly delayed due to the poor weather of the last few days.
Loch Bee:Â Most numberous birds were c390 wigeon and c340 Mute Swans. A good count of 82 Whooper Swans spread out over a fairly wide area. 24 Goldeneye, 100+ Tufted Duck, 3 Shelduck, c60 Mallard, c80 Teal, 23 Redshank, c70 Oystercatchers, 65 Dunlin, c60 Golden Plover, 3 Greenshank, 6 Buzzards, 2 White-tailed Eagles and a male Hen Harrier.
A colour-ringed Oystercatcher was photographed and we found out later in the day that it was originally ringed by our friend Chris at Dawlish, Devon, on the Exe estuary, 4th February 2018. It was seen the following year at Larne Harbour, Co. Antrim, 17th February, 2019. Possibly seen at Askernish beach in very poor light on 16th February 2023 by Bill and now our sighting today.
South Ford:Â I was surprised to find c112 Barnacle Geese along with several groups of Greylag. Out on the estuary the waders were starting to gather again as the tide dropped, c300 Bar-tailed Godwits, 110+ Grey Plover, c140 Dunlin, 17 Curlew, 4 Knot and a single Ringed Plover. c115 Black-headed Gulls were in the area near Hebridean Jewellery.
Day 73 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023
I was woken with a start during the early hours of this morning, “wow“, I thought, “that rain is heavy“. It was absolutely hammering down. It wasn’t until I got up and looked out of the window that I realised that it had been hail not rain!
Day 72 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023
An absolutely awful day weather-wise, getting so fed up of bad weather and the cold and winter, the only thing I did today worthy of a photograph was popping to the Co-op for some supplies. Poor MisterT, as i’m still not able to lift heavy bags, he got the job of packing the shopping into the van and taking the trolley back!
Day 71 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023
Part way through the morning a friend from North Uist phoned, I was chatting merrily away to him and suddenly he disappeared. “Hmm strange“, I thought. Phone rang again and he was on his mobile, “we had a power cut” he said. After we’d finished chatting I thought, “time for coffee!” I headed into the kitchen and was met by silence, total silence. I realised not even the fridge was running and that we also had a power cut. We are not usually off for long but I really needed coffee and my camping stove was handy on the worktop, ready for taking on a wee jaunt so I fired it up and made a brew.
The power cut was island-wide, from Lewis to Barra and also part of Skye and lasted a few hours. I don’t know what the problem was.
Day 70 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023
Took a break from the crochet and tittled about (that’s a technical phrase…) doing some image editing, I was quite pleased with this one…
Day 69 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023
More bad weather, more crochet…
Day 68 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023
Dug out one of my crochet projects today – Sophie’s Universe – thought as i’m trying to be good and rest up to heal from my op I should make a concerted effort to get this finished!
Day 67 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023
An almost magical scene outside today with the snow 🙂 Today is always bit of a sad day – the anniversary of the death of my younger brother. I had a walk to the shore to sit in quiet contemplation. I miss you little bruv x