Spring catch up

This lovely Turtledove has been around for the last couple of days, the first one of the year, and the earliest record:

These beautiful but now scarce birds always remind me of some verses in Song of Songs in the Bible:

"Behold, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone,
The flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come
And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in the land"

After such a wild winter, the warmth of the sun, the sound of bird song and the sight of the spring flowers is particularly welcome!

The spring season is well under way and has required a transition to a slightly different rhythm and pace of life.....we have been lambing for 5 weeks now and there are just 10 ewes left to lamb, while more than 400 lambs are spread over various pastures from the mountain to the west.
As the lambs grow and the days warm up, groups of lambs can be seen chasing each other along the cloddiau or lying contentedly asleep in the sun!

Calving began with a very slow start with only one calf in the first two weeks of April - followed by four in one day on wednesday!
A new  bull was transported on to the island yesterday; a very large and handsome Welsh Black called Gwynfor...

 He couldn't quite turn around in the horse box, but managed to reverse in the end!

He trotted up the track to the north end, in pursuit of his new ladies...

...who seemed quite pleased to meet him!

Meanwhile, we said goodbye to the old bull, Samson, who went off on the return boat:

The polytunnel has been planted with new potatoes. tomatoes, peas and salad crops...

Rachel has been busy sowing herbs and salad in her keyhole garden...

and some winter willow projects have begun to sprout!

Once again, we have planted plenty of spuds in Cae Gwennyn; hopefully they will be as successful as last year and provide both a source of new potatoes for visitors in the summer and a supply to store for next winter.

The craft shop is up and running, having been re-stocked with products made over-winter:
Baskets...

Rushwork...

Felting...

Weaving...

Rugs...

and photographs...

 Many of these can also be found on a new website I've put up, specifically to sell wool rugs, and willow work:
www.bardseywillowandwool.co.uk

The cafe has also been fairly busy over the last week.

I cant leave out the geese and the goats!!
Here is mother goose with 6 new goslings:

and Eira and Morwenna enjoying the sun!

Happy Easter to all! :)

More storms!

February has continued with the same theme as January  - only worse!  

Here are some more stormy scenes....

The buildings have come through the storms relatively well, considering the hammering they have received.  The boat-house roof has suffered quite badly though...

Steve has managed to take to the skies in the very rare lulls between storms...

and has captured some of the night skies on camera...

 Saturn...with the Cassini Division (the gap in the rings) visible and also tonal differences in the northern cloud bands.

 Jupiter with the Great Red Spot....this is a huge anticyclonic storm that has been raging for hundreds of years and is twice the diameter of Earth. There are cloud details visible in most of the bands and zones that form Jupiter's atmosphere. Both the above shots were taken with a DSLR camera attached to a 10" reflector telescope and using the movie crop mode. The frames were then sorted and stacked with software to yield the final image.

A Stormy New Year

Stormy weather has been the theme for the last month, as intense low pressures have moved through with hardly a pause between each one.  Very strong winds accompanied by a 10 metre spring tide just after new year was recipe for the wildest weather and waves that we have ever seen!
Here are a few attempts to capture some of the awesome ferocity....

At times waves from both sides of the Narrows were meeting in the middle!

Cafn... and the Gabians, under the waves!

Spot the Ben!

Surveying the seething mass of waves on Solfach side...

We did move our boat, Pererin before the next high tide!

The whole coastal fringe of the island received quite a battering, and consequently there is plenty of damage... Solfach hide has completely disappeared!

The concrete slipway onto Henllwyn is in pieces, and has moved!

Stones and shingle cover the coast, and in some places there has been so much eroded away that it has changed shape!

Some huge rocks thrown up by the waves..

Happy Christmas from Enlli!

Steve has just about finished replacing fencing at the North End, including putting in the last new kissing gate...

and some nice new gates...

and stiles...

We've had one storm roll in after another bringing some pretty wild weather.  The last few days that were settled were at the beginning of December, when even the goats gave their approval by joining me on daily walks!  Here they are at the top of the mountain (enjoying a nibble of Heather!).

The wind was just right for Steve to try a flight off the East side...

(he didn't land in the sea!)

Steve's pressie to me last Christmas was a DIY hot tub, which has been put to good use!

Steve, Emma and Connor are stuck here for Christmas, so two Christmas trees were required from the plantation (which needs the wind break conifers thinning out anyway).  Hence an expedition to the north end...

It's not the most impressive Christmas tree we've ever had, but it brightens up the corner of the living room..

Thanks to Ernest and Colin who braved a large swell to come over with three weeks worth of post, we have now been amply stocked with goodies and christmas pressies!

We have used this beautiful image of a firecrest (that Ben took last December) on our Christmas card this year, although many have not made it to the mainland yet....

We wish all our friends and family a very peace-full Christmas and blessings for 2014...