It has been one of the easiest lambings on Rona this year. Almost one lamb every day and sunshine to boot. We had a couple of days of heavy rain where we put the small lambs in the barn but otherwise all the ewes lambed well and the lambs are bouncing about, great fun.

Bouncing About

Sometimes the heat gets a bit much and they are ‘flakers’!!

Flakers

On wet days they will find a corner to shelter.

No Heat Here

The sheep are never far away when the feed bag comes out despite the sunshine the grass is still very slow to come.

Early Morning feed

Apart from the lambs it has been (as usual) a busy week. Ably assisted by Calum we found the sunshine a great encouragement to get things done.

At Last

I had finished the fence down at the shore I had been trying to do all winter, I had started it in sunshine but the rain that was forecast came a bit earlier than planned and it very quickly turned to the Battle of the Somme. So wet it has been it does not take much to turn it back into mud. So I abandoned that and noted that we would return to it when Calum came.

Clear Up

After the winter storms and the general decay it is always a good time to have a spring clean.

Rescue

The first job for Calum was to help lift the IBC that had been blown off the pontoon in the winter storms out onto the shore (at low tide) for the pick up after the flood.

Pick Up.

We towed that back to base and made a plan to do a tidy up around the shore later.

Path Work

Sometimes when you cannot get the digger in you just have to get going with the shovel. There was plenty of discussion about Calum’s Road when we were doing this!!!!

Bad Timing

With the plan  made for a boat trip in the evening, I set of for Dry Harbour to pick up Lorraine. I felt a bump as I caught a stone on the road and when I arrived at the cottages I found that I had a puncture (and no spare). It must have been the only time I have ever driven to Dry Harbour with my slippers on. So it was not the most comfortable hike back to get the recovery team. No harm done, we quickly replaced the wheel and got back to get the boat ready for an evening sail.

Monkey Rock

It was a beautiful evening with a promise of more for the next 5 days ahead. We sailed round to Dry Harbour, there was a lid from one of the fish farm boxes on the shore to pick up but when we got there it had disappeared, possibly the wind had lifted it into the sea. No harm we found some more plastic and headed back, the rocks were well lit up with the low sun, very dramatic.

Staffin From Rona

There was a length of fish farm feed pipe on the shore just inside Big Harbour and it has caused problems before so we decided to lift that and pull it back to the beach in front of the bothy for pick up in the morning. The sunset was stunning and it had been a very enjoyable sail.

Sunset Tow

Saturday the Archaeology party arrived for their annual survey. Lorraine’s brother came too with his work colleague all the way from Canada. It was flat calm, a bit foggy but a super day. We had everything ready for the ferry coming then I remembered Kevin’s order of two ‘Rona’ fish boxes. He was just in the harbour when I finished the ‘M V Aspire’ stencil and got the name onto the boxes. Quite incredible to consider that there were thousands of wooden fishboxes on the go a few decades ago and now you can hardly find one. To date I’ve made about 30 and am just about to order some timber for another ten.

We got the visitors installed and spent the rest of the day catching up. The plan then for a boat trip to see what was about. Going down through the Gap between Raasay and Rona we were treated to a wonderful display from the Sea Eagles. They seem to be living around Eilean Tighe and are often ‘floating’ about there.

Sea Eagles in The Gap

Dave is a keen hill  walker and was looking to explore the South end of Rona and the Islands so I took them round in the boat and dropped them off.

Enjoying The View.

There was a bit of activity on the Range with a sub’ lying off RTB (Applecross), there were a few fishing boats about but no sails of approaching yachts. Early yet!!

Ongoing Repairs

The list of jobs is not getting any shorter but it is good to tick them off as done, this chimney cowl was blown off in the winter gales and I only found it last week when I was looking for a lamb one morning.

Late Evening Cloud

It had been such a good week, week end and so warm. It was no surprise to have two yachts sail in last night late. We had a bottle of Prosecco up at the cabin but no film last night, too warm and bright but when we came down from the cabin the sky was shaping up for a lovely sunset. Here I am Monday mid day writing the blog and as promised blue skies but a cooler wind is blowing from the South East.

Rona