This is Why I Love it Here

I'm not the greatest wordsmith, indeed I'm not any type of wordsmith at all, so I'll let a few pics from this afternoon tell the story for me. The weather was glorious, I just laid back and soaked it up

Wych Elms - just about bursting into leaf

For the first time this year, I finished work and just lay flat on my back in the middle of the hotel garden, gazing up into the Wych Elm canopy. It struck me that branches from neighbouring trees don't touch each other, there are clearly defined gaps between each. How do they know when to stop growing before touching?

I took these pics whilst laying halfway up the top lawn, sprawled out and soaking up the rays!

The boss hates the daisies and "buttercups" (Lesser Celandines) in the lawn, reckons "they make the place look like a pikey site". I've been on many a pikey site in my time and trust me - they really don't look like this! Anyway, I'm the guy who mows the lawns so...daisies and "buttercups" it is then!

View from across the bay this evening. Hell yeah, I've lived in worse places!

I've been running the light trap for about a month now. It's been great, a few mis-identifications on my part, but it's been a long while (20 odd years) since I did any trapping so it's to be expected that I'm somewhat rusty. However, there's a female Chaffinch and a Robin that have been paying way too much attention to the goings on at the trap. This is what I found this morning

Hmmm...I'm not particularly thrilled about this 

Of course, I'm being a complete hypocrite. So it's perfectly acceptable for me to kill insects, but not the birds? Pah! Talking of killing insects, I caught (and duly killed...) a small hoverfly a few days back, one that needed to be whacked under the microscope for detailed inspection of small features before I could come to an ID. This particular genus of hoverfly (Cheilosia) often exhibit strange bumps on the face, creating a rather comical profile complete with nose, mouth and chin. This one reminded me of the T-1000 Terminator from the Terminator 2 film

Cheilosia pagana aka the T-1000 Advanced Prototype Terminatorfly

Tomorrow I'm off to Armadale for a birdwatching walk followed by a general nature walk, both with the Skye Nature Group. Typically the weather is due to be fairly shite. But I don't care, I still love living up here. Skye rocks, ain't no denying it! 

So. Gardens and Terminator films, where the heck do I go with this? Aah...

And this one just because it's fkkn ace! Mmmm, I feel a GNR evening coming up....enjoy, folks!