Back to the woolly jumper :-(

I should have put the woolly jumper back on days ago but I was determined not to wear it in May, well today I gave in. After yesterdays hail showers and the forecast of more to come I was taking no chances this morning after a particularly chilly Thursday. It was nice enough when I left the house a little early with my boys ‘Crosman King Ratcatcher’ in search of Sunday dinner, one can have a little too much pork you know and Bambi is well out of season 🙂

Not very far from the house I shot dinner through the head and continued onto work with it in the spare wheel on the bonnet, try doing that in central London 🙂 I cannot sing the praises of this little CO2 gun highly enough and it’s provided us with many a good meal. It’s only good up to around 25yds but I can’t see much further than that anyway 🙂

I knew it was going to be cold but I was still a little surprised to see fresh snow on the Cuilins almost three weeks into May 😦

As, I’m sure were the passengers aboard the Lord of the Glen

that was still tied up on the end of the pier.

She could have been tied up in a Norwegian fjord 🙂

The rest of the day was just one shower after another with spells of sunshine but little warmth in between.

The ‘department bull’ came over at 11:30 to spend the next few weeks on Raasay serving all the cows, I dunno what sort he is but he certainly seemed content as I drove home eight hours later.

The ‘Department bull’ is a service provided by SGRPID the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspectorate Division which is a reincarnation of the Department of Agriculture Food and Fisheries. For many years they have hired out a prize bull to small communities and crofters in the Highlands and Islands and there have been a few mishaps over the years. On one trip to the small island of Scalpay many years ago it jumped over the side of the boat and swam back to Skye 🙂 Famously a similar incident on Vatersay in 1986 resulted in the loss of Bernie the bull and a famous court case against the crofters transporting the bull at the time.

“During the 1900s the island became known mostly for rearing beef, and for lobster fishing. Cattle were transported to market by ferry from Castlebay, but they first had to swim the 250m Sound of Vatersay to Barra. In 1986 a prize bull called Bernie drowned while making the crossing, and long-standing calls for a fixed link to Barra increased.”

from http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/vatersay/vatersay/index.html with some pictures here of the victorious crofters who won their case http://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-613-348-C

Today’s bull comes over in a trailer but it was not always so on Raasay 🙂

Here’s how it was done in 1993 🙂 🙂 The elfin safety bods would have a flakey, many thanks to JA Gillies for sending me that photo and for Dr Crieghton for taking it.

I know it’s pretty lame but it’s after 22:00 now and I’m needing my bed 😦

Look at that, with the wind chill it barely got above 4 degrees all day 😦