Blog
Herb spiral
When we were doing up our kitchen a few years ago we bought in some pieces of slate and when the job was finished there were lots of small pieces left over. Alasdair decided to make a herb spiral and it was very successful both aesthetically and as a useful addition to the garden.
We have sage, two kinds of thyme, rosemary, chives, parsley and marjoram and, as it is just outside our door it is very handy.
cottageinskye 2012-10-15 17:09:00
Just brought in a few hydrangeas and the lily in the bottom left hand corner of this photo.
I find the hydrangeas dry very well if the vase is left to drain of water as that way the flowers keep their colour throughout the winter for a good colourful display indoors.
The lily was beautiful for the last few days filling the house with a lovely scent. I only ever seem to get one head though and when I planted more lilies last year the rabbits ate them which was very disappointing.
Rainbow seen from Breakish Moss Cottage
The weather has been lovely the last few days and lots of really clear light on the hills.
This was a lovely rainbow and I rushed out to get the photo before it disappeared. It is landing directly on the the island of Pabbay. I wonder if there is gold there!
Blueberry mulch
Just picked the last of our blueberries for this year. We have been picking them for 2 months now – so this was the best year for production since we planted them about 15 years ago. Some of the bushes are quite tall now – about 5 ft – and the most productive bush we have is called Bluecrop.
We have now mulched them with sawdust about 4 inches thick as that is what they like. Acid soils suit them best and one mustn’t feed them anything but sawdust!
Last fling with the window boxes
Now starting to tidy away the window boxes and the sort greenhouse ready for an early start next year.
Weeding the vegetables for winter use
Monkshood flowers
Getting the bull to the fank
Today five of us went down to the common grazings to walk the community bull to the fank ready for uplift. He has been with the cows all summer and now he is being taken to Inverness for the winter as he belongs to the department of agriculture and those crofters with cows hire him for the season. This is quite expensive, but much cheaper than keeping him full time as he would need to be fed and housed by the crofters over the winter.
He is quite docile and went easily to the waiting pens though we had to leave some cows to keep him company till the transport arrives this afternoon as he was not happy to be left there alone.
Getting the bull to the fank
Today five of us went down to the common grazings to walk the community bull to the fank ready for uplift. He has been with the cows all summer and now he is being taken to Inverness for the winter as he belongs to the department of agriculture and those crofters with cows hire him for the season. This is quite expensive, but much cheaper than keeping him full time as he would need to be fed and housed by the crofters over the winter.
He is quite docile and went easily to the waiting pens though we had to leave some cows to keep him company till the transport arrives this afternoon as he was not happy to be left there alone.
Beautiful cloud patterns and light in Lochalsh
On Saturday I was lucky to be invited to go sailing in Lochalsh and we sailed from Eilean Donan Castle back to Kyleakin. There was not a lot of wind for our journey so we eventually had to motor most of the way but you could see in the clouds that above us there was much more wind. Here are a few photos to show how lovely the clouds and light were that day.
Here are a few photos of the lovely cloud patterns