Wednesday 14 May 2008

Up to Tolsta

Tuesday 13th May 2008



The day looks set fair

After a morning in the garden GB took me along to the nursery “Shrubbery Shop” at Tolsta. He and Muriel swapped stories about their respective winters - New Zealand and the Caribbean - and then we loaded the car with Berberis darwinii in the hope of making a more successful windbreak above the pond.



The scattered dwellings of Tolsta


On the way past Gress we had seen a Great Skua pass over the car but there was no chance of photographing it. They are easily identifiable by their size and the white flashes on the underside of the wings. Hereabouts these pirates of the sky are known as Bonxies.



The old mill at Gress





We called in at the Garden Centre in town and while GB discussed the wind direction pointer - which isn’t working - I photographed a Chinese Water Dragon. I don’t know if it was the same one there last year but if so it had certainly grown.

In te evening a Fishery Protection Vessel went past outside the bay whilst the Stornoway lifeboat came right into the bay and decanted its dinghy - presumably on an exercise.




There were a couple of sheep on the croft in the evening. The grass generally is very long and the heather has grown a lot since last year. It seems to have been grazed very little and could, at this rate, revert to moorland before too long.





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