One of those days - a day of rain and standing on the Low Ground after a long spell of dry weather I am struck by the fact that in winter, I’d be chest deep in swampy water. But the cows have recently been grazing here and have delineated wonderful solid paths through the yellow flag irises. Huge numbers of moths and midgies to the benefit of the swallows and martins.
Visitors to the Old Farmhouse get a real treat at this time of year because the field in front of the house (called the Farmhouse field obviously) is the cows + calves nursery where the wee ones take their first few steps. When they grow a bit and settle with their mum, they will move to join the rest of the herd in the upper fields.
Farmer David likes nothing better than the challenge of a Big Rock. In this case a whinstone dug out of a field where it was protruding and catching machinery. It’s off down to the loch where maybe it was heading in the first place. It’ll be an integral part of the original stone jetty that David is building up.
Even the bravest Collie can be a bit reluctant on his first swim of the day when overnight it was -3 degC on the grass and this early in the morning it was only 3 degC ambient. I think he hoped the submerged log would offer dry foot access but that didn’t work. But he’s never one to shirk a task…🤗
Sunset on Loch Lomond. High pressure building. Birds all singing their hearts out…
Our drowning earthworms
Not all our posts can be positive and this one is really quite sad. I walked the 700 m of our access road this morning after torrential rain last night. I counted ~460 earthworms - some on the move, migrating to find drier soil but many had lost the battle and were overwhelmed by osmotic pressure. It’s the wee ones that struggle. The big boys dig in deep and find dry soil. I’ve lost count of the ones I’ve ‘helped’ but there’s really nowhere safe to put them. However off the road is definitely safer. Little worms 🪱 RIP
A sore shoulder has meant that Dearg has had a week of restricted exercise. So once it was better, we did some restricted burn-and-ball work. Great relief from the lad when the games began again.
Today’s ball was a sink-y one, which gives Dearg hours of fun dooking for it. However this was a challenging one, given that it was in 2’ of water and he can’t see the orange colour and relies on spotting the shape. There was a minute of even deeper searching before this.
Cutting a straight slice of bread. A mostly forgotten art. Except on Portnellan, where a fresh loaf of wholemeal bread is made daily. The WWOOFers enjoy the challenge of learning this skill. The results lead to much discussion (and occasionally hilarity) as each slice is inspected and approved or condemned as not parallel. A micrometer has not yet come into play yet but competition is fierce. Here Etienne gives a masterclass, with Kaiden and David as judge and jury.
Swimming in the snow! Etienne and Katie after a long days’s farm work 👍😁😵💫
On Sunday evening the Portnellan team attended the local NFU Scotland branch Burns Supper at the The Winnock Hotel, Loch Lomond in Drymen for a fantastic evening of haggis, whisky, bagpipes and poetry. Everyone had a brilliant time including Lilly, who despite evidence to the contrary, did not spend the entire evening snoozing through her first Burns supper! Thanks to all who made the evening such a success!
Balls and burns in spate
Dearg the farm Collie likes nothing better than running his ball down a slope to a burn (a Scottish stream) in spate. Keeps himself completely occupied and his human is just there to spot the orange (which he doesn’t recognise) and direct him to where the ball shoots off to. Usually the loch. Necessitating a bit of a swim but that’s great fun too.
Bob the Robin
Bob is now 5 years old and has grown an attractive ‘grey feathers’ shoulder piece. He’s just as friendly as he ever was and just loves to sit and chew the fat. At least, he chews the fat. I chat to him and ask how his day is going. Today’s was a long story and you have it all here. The post Christmas news from the nest…
Storm Pia comes to Loch Lomond
