The Island of Oronsay,

Oronsay is a small island located off south Colonsay which can be reached at low tide by walking or driving across the sandy causeway known as the Strand, we opted to walk over the sands.
We arrived at the Strand early so walked along the coast for a while and sat on the rocks waiting for the tide to go out, which gave us time to eat our lunch before walked over to the island.

We crossed a little too soon so waded in places but the sand was firm and it gave us longer on Oronsay.

Oronsay is an island managed by the RSPB, with a ruined priory, Mesolithic shell mounds and iron age fort so far too much to look at in the four hour window provided by the low tide.

Oronsay Priory
A 14th century Augustinian priory, it is said that Oronsay was the original landing place of St Columba, but as he could still see Ireland he moved on to Iona, this cannot be confirmed as no Celtic Christian remains have ever been found, but I like the story. Beautifully maintained, I could have spent all my time on Oronsay sat within it's walls, looking at all the wonderful stone work on the two crosses, walls and carved stone grave slabs which are now housed in the old Priors House .

The Priors House

The grassland area or Machair
lots of nesting birds including lapwings and red shanks here, so we stuck to the tracks as much as we could.

Didn't get to see as much as we'd have liked so we will just have to return another day - such a shame!!!!

Kiloran Bay Island of Colonsay

Having just enjoyed a glorious week on The Island of Colonsay in the Hebrides and taken hundreds of photos, I have to share just a few with you.

We spent the first five days of the holiday in a cottage over looking Kiloran Bay, so I thought it only fitting that I show you a few of the views from around the bay as an introduction to this beautiful Isle.

 

Looking across Kiloran Bay towards the cottage where we were staying 



looking across Kiloran Bay 

 

looking down towards the shore



great surfing day



upstream from bay



looking upstream from bay



Sunset - our last evening at Kiloran

Clun

All I asked, was to go somewhere with a tea shop.
So Clun was chosen as it was somewhere we had driven through but never stopped to have a look around.
On our way we stopped off to take in the magnificent views from the Shropshire way, we just had to imagine how much better the views would have been if it hadn't been so cloudy and oh how my ears hurt by the time we returned to the car - such a cold wind why didn't I take a hat?

When we arrived in Clun, we headed straight for 'The Maltings' where we enjoyed a pot of tea and cake - slab of chocolate cake for Mr S, and scone with jam and cream for me, before heading up to the castle.

Clun Castle dates back to the early twelth century in the times of the Normans

Swift flying over the ruins

 As well as the screaching swifts which I heard before I spotted, there were also a handful of jackdaws flying around, and then while walking alongside the river Mr S disturbed this common blue butterfly hiding in the grass, it really wasn't warm enough for butterflies today and this was the only one we saw all day.

Common Blue
Polyommatus icarus

Common Blue
Polyommatus icarus

Small Copper butterflies, Valerian and Guelder Rose

The cattle still haven't been brought onto the common this year and so as a consequence of the lack of grazing, we are enjoying a fantastic show of flowers.
Including this mass of Marsh Valerian.

Marsh Valerian
Valeriana dioica

Which appears to be a haven for small copper butterflies.

Small Copper
Lycaena phlaeas

Wind blown Cotton-grass

Cotton-grass
Eriphorum

And in the hedge we found this stunning Guelder Rose, just starting to flower.

Guelder Rose
Viburnum opulus

Don't mind me! I'll just hang around and spin my cocoon!...

Or at least I think that is what was happening here ...

on my breezy walk this afternoon I was absorbed watching this speckled wood butterfly

 when I saw something swing in front of my face. Once I managed to focus on it I was transfixed, watching it hanging from it's silk thread twisting it's way higher and higher into the branches of the overhanging oak tree.

Once it reached the height of the sheltering hedges on either side of the lane the caterpillar was swinging around far too vigorously to watch anymore.

Damselfly and friends!

My first damselfly of the year

Enallagma cyathigerum
The Common Blue Damselfly

Celastrina argiolus
Holly Blue Butterfly

Coccinella septempunctata
7 spotted ladybird

Blackbrook Nature Reserve

Welcome to Black Brook.

as you can see by the welcoming poster, this is a large Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Reserve, in fact it is their largest to date and unfortunately we arrived quite late in the day, so didn't have much time to explore it.

We did find time to walk up to Gib Torr, and take in the spactacular scenery.

                                         While we were up on the rocks we could hear the curlew on the moors and we saw a green hairstreak butterfly - my first ever so even though it was a wind blown fly pass, it was very special!

This is somewhere I need to return to and explore more

Our Magnificent Dandelion

I don't think there are many people out there who would view the dandelion as anything more than a pesky weed which should be eradicated from their lawns and flower beds at all costs. Thankfully our neighbour doesn't seem to think that way and their lawn is a stunning carpet of yellow at the moment and is an absolute joy to behold! I haven't photographed it as it is on private property so you will just have to trust me!

I want to dedicate this blog post to the wonders of this stunning flower. It will be an unusually long post for me, with a lot of words as well a pictures.

I was fortunate to have lived on the edge of the countryside and spent many a happy day playing in the fields near to the village, I would often pick the flowers, to take home and put in a jam jar.
The next period in my life when I actually started to think of this flower as being of any use was when my children had pet rabbits, then we would gather armfuls of the leaves for the rabbits to munch away on.
Last year I was bought a camera and the way I viewed flowers changed totally. I noticed how absolutely stunning they are. In fact I only noticed this year how similar they are to Van Gogh's sunflowers!!!

Browsing through a book the other day I came across a list of colloquial name for these flowers in  - 'Food for Free' by Richard Mabey, please take time to read these!!!!
'Bum_Pipe', Burning Fire', 'Clocks', 'Clock Flower', 'Clocks and Watches', 'Combs and Hairpins', 'Conquer More', 'Devils Milk-Plant', 'Devils Milk-Pail', 'Dog-Posy', 'Fairy Clocks', 'Farmer's Clocks', 'Golden Suns, 'Horse Gowan', 'Irish Daisy' 'Lay A-Bed', 'Lion's Teeth' 'Male', 'Mess-A-Bed', 'Pishamoolag', Piss-A-Bed', Pissimire', 'Pittle Bed', 'Priest's Crown', 'Schoolboy's Clock', 'Shepherds Clock', 'Shit-A-Bed', 'Stink Davine', Swine's Snout', 'Tell-Time', 'Time Flower', 'Time-Teller', 'Twelve O'Clock', 'Wet-Weed', 'Wishes'.
It goes without saying that some I like more than others and I was in two minds whether I should include all of them or not!

Apart from feeding the rabbits, dandelions have other uses which may one day come in handy to know.
You can collect the flower heads to make a dandelion wine. Apparently you only need 2 litres of flower heads; a gallon of water; a Campden tablet ( whatever one of those is); 4 oranges; 3lb of sugar; 1 teaspoon of wine yeast and 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient.
You can also collect the leaves for inclusion in a salad although you should be warned that it is also a mild diuretic!
So for the time being I am happy to enjoy it for it's beauty and enjoy walking down dandelion lined lanes such as these:-

It won't be long before all this yellow turns to white fluffy fairy clocks instead - and that will be another post but for now here is just a taster of what is to follow.