Standing like a lone sentinel looking north over Lochan Doire a‘ Bhraghaid, to distant but beautiful views of Loch Linnhe and Ben Nevis, this old tree watches over the small Lochan whose name translates roughly as "the small loch of the grove of the upper ridge".

Presumably there were many trees here once but now only this scarred old warrior remains along with another smaller tree on the other side of the road for company.

Ancient, hollow, twisted and scarred, long entwined with metal grating, covered in old Lichens, battling Ash die back disease, but still reaching for the sky. I wonder how long this gnarled old warrior can continue to stand guardian over the loch.

The last time I stopped to take some photos on the 18th July there was a noisy family of Stonechats making the most of the cover that the tree provides on the hillside.

I hope to be able to continue to stop to say hello to my old friend for many years to come.

I’ve been pretty lucky and have seen lots of Common, and Bottlenose dolphins, Porpoise, Basking sharks, and Minke whales, but what I really long to see is the iconic Orcas, and the incredible Humpback whales that have started appearing in the last two years.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to travel up to Gairloch to do one of the whale watching tours up there, as they have a higher chance of seeing the big cetaceans.

It’s a long way to travel even from Mull, we’re based on the very south end of Mull so just to get to the ferry and off the island is an hours drive. Then a five hour drive up the breathtaking North West side of Scotland past Fort William, up to Invergarry and then up along the A87, past the spectacular but very touristy Eilean Donan Castle, and then on to Lochcarron towards Kinlochewe, via Loch Maree and finally beautiful Gairloch.

The weather was predicted to be calm and pleasant, perfect for a boat tour, and we’d booked a couple of nights at a gorgeous campsite overlooking the dunes and the sea, wonderful!

I checked the weather again, it was looking perfect, booked my tour for the next day and got confirmation, only to receive an email five hours later to say the tour had been cancelled due to bad weather conditions that were predicted for the next day.

I was confused and disappointed! I’d checked the weather so carefully and it looked perfect, sunny, calm….. why on earth had they cancelled!

What I didn’t realise is that the Minch, that big area of ocean between the mainland and the Western Isles has its own weather system that very often bears no resemblance whatsoever to what you may see on the weather reports no matter how much you check!

Sure enough the following morning started calm and sunny but by 9.30, when the trip was supposed to take place, a sharp cold wind had picked up and was whipping the sea up into a frenzy below brooding clouds, despite the weather forecast saying it was still lovely!

I’m not sure where the boat operators get their weather data from but they were spot on.

I didn’t get to go out whale watching that day but Gairloch and the surrounding area is so spectacular that it’s worth visiting just to do some exploring.

We took a drive along the A832 towards Poolewe and then turned left along the A8057 towards a little settlement called Cove. It’s a beautiful drive along the coast, past little houses and hamlets, and the breathtakingly beautiful Firemore beach, eventually arriving at the little car park at the base of the hill where the Artic Convoy war memorial stands and the Cove Light Anti Aircraft Battery keeps its vigil watching the skies out over the Minch.

There’s a stunning rocky cove to the left of the car park, just through a little gate, and to the right is a steeper path that leads up the hill to the memorial.

I’m not really one for reading signs, so while other half was reading the information board I was searching around for plants and wildlife. I could immediately see there were lots of wild orchids, including a white one that I wasn’t familiar with - the lovely Lesser Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera bifold) which loves the damp acidic heaths, moorlands, and open grasslands of the west coast.

As I left the car park my eye was caught by a bright blue glimmer in the grass verge, and on closer inspection I found another beautiful little flower that I wasn’t familiar with.

A later search and a conversation with the BSBI recorder for the area told me it was American Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium montanum) an introduced but non invasive species of interest, so I was lucky to spot this little lone specimen!

A short but steep walk up to the top of the hill takes you to the war memorial and incredible views out over the Minch towards Lewis, and off to the right across the bay is the charmingly named Mellon Charles (Charles’s little hill in Gaelic).

The Artic Convoy war memorial stands in directly front of you as you reach the summit, a moving tribute to the lives lost in World War Two.

Then as you step forward, you are surrounded by the very impressive and quite well preserved Anti Aircraft Battery buildings that you see in the video at the start of this article.

Also known as the Loch Ewe Defences, these are the remains of an observation post, two gunhouses, two searchlight emplacements, generating rooms, magazines and emplacements for anti aircraft guns.

A walk back down, and across the road to the right, and another short climb to the top of that hill and you’ll get wonderful views back along the coast towards Cove and Deargann Cave.

Uamh nan Deargann, is also known as the Cave of the Fleas or the Preaching Cave!

Amazingly the cave was used as an outdoor church until the early 20th century, and it was even fitted with a pulpit and wooden pews.

I’m not a religious person but I’m sure worshipping in such an incredible place would bring you closer to whatever you believe in.

I wanted to get some photos of Firemore beach as we drove back, but we and Dizzy dog were all too tired after a long day, so here’s one from Tripadvisor

If you ever find yourself that far up the west coast of Scotland, I can highly recommend taking this fantastic drive.

We spent two days at the stunning Sands campsite, I can highly recommend it, nice clean facilities and a very good shop and cafe.

On the way home we decided to take a different and even more scenic route, over the incredible Applecross pass, passing Eilean Donan Castle and the bridge to Skye on the way.

Mull is amazing and I love it there, but there’s also so much more to see and experience around the rest of Scotland.

I’m hoping to get back up there to Gairloch in August for a late whale watching trip before the season ends, if the Scottish weather permits!

Recently I’ve counted over 50 types of bird around where I live, I’m sure there’s many more but I’m still learning about them.

Many of these birds are summer or winter visitors, migrating all the way up from as far away as Africa or down from much further north of the UK to shelter, feed up or breed, some like the Shearwaters are even global travellers, but we do have plenty of wonderful permanent residents too.

From the top of the hill where I live I can look over the water towards the islands of Staffa and Lunga just a few miles away.

Both are home to lots of sea birds and each summer I visit to spend some time watching the Puffins, Razorbills, Shags, Guillemots, Fulmars and plenty of other fabulous sea birds.

From my garden I can look out over the bay where we have many waders, ducks, geese, divers and other coastal species.

In the boggy land on the hillsides around me we have breeding Curlews, Hen Harriers, Short Eared Owls, and Snipe.  We’ve been watching the male and female Hen Harriers regularly patrol across the land along our shoreline but I haven’t managed to get a decent photo yet.

Last year was the first time for me of hearing the haunting thrumming sound of the male Snipe, a noise you won’t easily forget once you’ve heard it.

Curlews are a real favourite of mine, another bird with a beautiful haunting call.

I was lucky enough to get close to these lovely little Plovers too, in fact coming scarily close to where they were sitting on eggs without realising it, as they’ve chosen a really bad place right on a well used path!

Last summer was a really good one for Short Eared Owls, there seems to be fewer this season so far, or maybe I just haven’t been around at the right time to see them.

Last week we passed this juvenile White Tailed Eagle near the shoreline of the loch, they’re much happier to come down and sit on the ground or in the trees, unlike the elusive Golden Eagles that tend to stay up high. The White Tails are doing really well on Mull, some say to the detriment of the Golden Eagles and the lamb population!

Buzzards are abundant, and a few days ago we witnessed this brave little pipit facing up to a young one, I can’t help thinking the Buzzard looks a bit astonished at his tiny adversary!

We have lots of lovely visitors to the few trees here, and to the garden feeders.

Starlings are another favourite, such lively characterful birds, and so very beautiful close up! They also have an amazing repertoire of notes and sounds in their songs, they’re great imitators!

The Goldfinches are busy with fledglings and I managed to grab a shot of these babies being fed on the fence, absolutely delightful to see!

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing just a few of my recent favourites, there are so many more I could share.

While the rest of the UK has sweltered through two heatwaves, here it is 13 degrees today (feeling like 7 in the windchill) with blustery rain and the endless wind.  I try not to complain about the wind though,  because on the rare days when it drops during the summer we are swamped by clouds of biting midges!

The other week I talked about managing the ticks, so it has been really rewarding to see the ewes and various birds enjoying the freshly cut grass where Ive cleared away the bracken. Mr Cat isn’t so pleased with the loss of cover though, and has had to resort to skulking around a bit further down towards the shore.

The seals lying out on the rocks in front of the house don’t seem mind the weather too much, they just slip into the water if it gets too grim, but the sheep and cattle have been looking bedraggled and somewhat miserable.

There are fewer lambs this season, evidenced by some tufts of bloody wool lying close to the fence, another one that didn’t make it.

We watched a desperate sheep who had been sheltering in our ruin lose her struggle with the cold and lack of food earlier in the spring, the crofters were doing their best, but were so busy with the lambing that they didn’t get to her in time despite us letting them know she was in a bad way. Crofting here can be a really tough way of life.

If that all sounds a bit bleak I don’t mean it to, it’s the reality of life on a Scottish island. The rewards of living here are many and far outweigh the difficulties. The weather is nearly always dramatic, we seldom get the long dull grey days of East Anglia, where we spend the other half of our time.

Yesterday we did have a couple of dry sunny hours predicted, so we quickly decided to go in search of the rare and elusive corn crakes that are nesting on Iona at the moment. We’re fortunate to live only 5 miles from Fionnphort, where you can catch the ferry over to Iona, a quick 10 minute boat trip.

No matter how many times we do it, I always love the approach to Iona, the gorgeous white beach, turquoise water, bobbing boats and views over to the Abbey and lovely old buildings along the shore.

Turning left upon disembarking, a short walk soon took us towards some old meadowland that runs close to the shoreline, where amazingly we immediately heard corn crakes! They’re secretive birds though and it was impossible to actually see them.

Some people may ask why you’d want to see a rather drab brown bird that looks a bit  like a young chicken, but if you’re a bird lover then you’ll understand. My other half just came along for the pretty walk, although he did actually get a little excited when we first heard the corn crakes.

We carried on over the top of the island and down to the very beautiful Back of the Ocean beach, where the only company joining us was a flock of sheep making the most of the sunshine.

More corn crakes heard amongst the buttercups on the walk back, none spotted! A gentleman stopped and told us there could be as many as 14 pairs nesting this year.

Then something long and brown moving along an old stone wall towards the road where we were standing, a large otter, bold as anything, stopped just a few metres from us, had a good look and then slithered calmly into the ditch. I had just put my camera back into my backpack when this happened so I missed it, only managing to get a blurry shot of its tail as it disappeared, typical!   Here’s one of my older otter photos.

A restorative stop off at a new little cafe called Ailidh, where we had the most delicious langoustine bisque, then a cup of luscious hot chocolate from Iona Craft Shop before taking the ferry back to Mull.

A gentle afternoon to be treasured.

I’d like to share a glimpse of the precious last few pockets of temperate rainforest that we have left on Mull, known as Atlantic Oakwoods.

These ancient woodlands, fed by high rainfall and a mild climate, are a lush vibrant green tapestry of diversity, heavily draped in rare mosses, ferns, and lichens.

A mature oak tree can be host to over 2000 species of invertebrates, birds, mammals, fungi, ferns, lichens and mosses.

A walk through the forest is a walk back through time, to a place where you can imagine wolves, bears, lynx and other lost creatures could still exist. Dripping green branches reach out, the scents in the air richly fragrant and earthy, clean and damp.

The sound of the rain is a calming patter through the leaves, and the river babbles gently at the bottom of the hill. For an hour I’m transported to another world.

This beautiful poem by Katharine Towers seems perfect to celebrate

Katharine Towers

A Green Thought

Say instead it was an evening in head-high

bracken with its smell of dark and medicine.

Thinking green of the infecting fern

where you may crouch and not be known,

lodging your feet for good amid the stalks.

A bower is a dwelling place or once it was

a cage for pent-up singing birds.

Look down to see the warp and weft of root.

All the world is in these clutches.

Look up to clock the fern's drab underneath

blotched with spores you mustn't breathe.

Breathe in deep. There's nowhere else to live.

I have a three year old smooth collie named Dizzy, who has an extremely rare neurological disorder (she was born with part of the left side of her cerebellum missing) which affects her balance and coordination, as well as a genetic condition called MDR1 meaning she absolutely cannot tolerate flea and tick medication of any kind.

We have an awful tick problem here on Mull as we are surrounded by heavily grazed croft land, which has both cattle and sheep on it all year round.  To add to the problem we have several beautiful red deer who regularly visit and rest in the garden if we aren’t here.

The land on the outside of the fence has been covered in increasingly dense bracken which hasn’t been managed in the four years that we’ve lived here, and if there’s one thing that ticks really love it’s bracken!

Last year we were overwhelmed with hundreds and hundreds of ticks of all sizes, and I’ve had a steep learning curve in learning about tick management.  Having nearly lost my mum to Lyme disease 20 years ago it’s something I take very seriously!

Fortunately this year the owner of the land has given us permission to clear some of the bracken, which I have now spent quite a few hours doing after first checking for any wildlife or ground nesting birds.

Actually only thing I’ve seen using the bracken is a neighbours cat,  who uses it frequently as a hiding place from which to hunt the many birds that come to my garden!

We’ve also reluctantly had to cut some paths and clear areas through the lovely meadow lawn that we’ve cultivated, as the long grass that touches Dizzy’s face when she’s in the garden makes her very disorientated.  Fortunately there’s still plenty of meadow left for the insects and birds that come.

I’ve spent many happy hours in the last few years watching the goldfinches, thrushes, pied wagtails, chaffinches, greenfinches, siskins, meadow pipits, wheatears, stonechats, bluetits, black caps and many others that visit the garden.

After a very difficult two years learning about Dizzy’s issues and how to cope with them, I  think we’re finally achieving that balance.