Ruach Country Park

I have an acquaintance who owns a large building plot at nearby Harlosh. A house, to be named Ruach, will eventually be built there. The owner lives in Sheffield, and doesn't get up here very often, so actual development of the site, although underway, happens in fits and starts.

Mr Ruach (as I call him) has has a pond dug on the site, and has also planted a few shrubs and trees. He has asked me to be a kind of caretaker for the site, so I pop over from time to time, check the storage container for damp, or any other problems, and generally keep an eye on things.

Last summer, the site disappeared beneath a thick jungle of growth of all kinds - it is nicely natural, but completely inaccessible! So this year, I am going to try to manage the site a little. During the winter, I have created a couple of bridges over drainage channels, and plotted a pathway through the jungle, which I plan to keep strimmed. This will provide access round the back of the pond from the road entrance.

Here's a few pictures taken today...

Allotment news...

...well... there isn't any really. The beans in their pots in the shed are all up and trying to look out of the window. The brassicas are also in their pots (apart from the cauliflower, which will be potted tomorrow) and getting bigger by the day. I've earthed up the potatoes this afternoon - they have recovered from the frost damage from the other day, and were all poking up again, but we could be in for a cold night, and I don't want them getting nipped again.

Sheds away!

It was getting a bit old and leaky anyway... and only contained junk...

A squally gust of wind finished off the shed at Rowan Cottage yesterday. Our very kind neighbour helped me this morning, to recover it from the burn where it is resting in this picture, and tomorrow, I have to job of reducing it into small enough pieces to get it into the van. Some will go to the dump, the rest will come back to Roskhill to be further cut up to go on the stove this coming winter.

It gives me something to do!

Story with a happy ending

I was upstairs making up beds for our next visitors this morning, when a sudden 'bomp' outside was the unmistakable sound of a bird flying into a window. Thankfully, this doesn't happen very often - birds doing this can sometime break their necks. So I peeped quietly outside, hoping I would find the bird was fine and had flown away.

However, I was somewhat dismayed to see that there was a small bird standing on the sloping roof of our ground floor bedroom. It was obviously alive, and looked unharmed, but it was wobbling on its feet and opening its beak - not a good sign.

I watched for a few minutes, and nothing changed, so I decided that the right treatment for shock was to keep the patient warm, and with that, set off to the shed to get out the ladder. Having climbed up to the roof, I could see I would be able to reach the motionless bird without actually climbing onto the roof, so I cautiously stretched out, expecting the bird to hop out of reach, but it didn't move, and I was able to take the almost weightless little scrap into my hand.

The bird was a male wheatear. It would have only recently arrived on Skye, as these birds spend their winters in Africa, and come to NW Britain in spring to breed.

The tiny bird seemed completely unafraid of me, just lying in my hand and letting me gently stroke its beautiful plumage. There is nothing quite like getting up so close to a living wild creature! I willed it not to die, and sat in the garden keeping the bird warm in my hand for a good half hour. It made no attempt to struggle at all. 

Eventually, the bird looked to be taking more interest in what was going on around it, turning its head this way and that, so I opened my hand, expecting it to fly away. No - it seemed to like this cosy human nest, and it stood up onto its feet on the palm of my hand, and allowed me to walk into a more open area. I gently dropped my hand, and my little friend opened its wings. I tried again, and the same thing happened. The third time, it took flight and swooped off over our garden and out of sight.

I hope it has a happy summer on Skye, and keeps away from windows!