In these distant isles ladybirds are rare gems. Every year I search the garden and polytunnel for these beneficial beetles, whose larvae gobble aphids at a prodigious rate, and I’m lucky if I find one or two.Whether it is for reasons of geography, climate or an unpredictable food supply we only find the 11-spot ladybird
In April and May, when these islands in the far north-west are caught in a northerly air flow the long days are bathed in sunlight. The cold air brings a crystalline clarity to the light and on calm days the distant islands of the archipelago appear to float on the horizon. We have not entered
We were sitting enjoying the late evening sunshine and a glass of wine, watching the skydancers and musing as to whether we’d have a spectacular sunset when the Ardivachar gods gave me a nudge in the ribs. A beautiful male Hen Harrier, resplendent in pearl grey and black livery, had the temerity to fly through
After two weeks of long sunny days I’m as brown and wrinkled as a December Egremont Russet, my hands rasp like sandpaper, the finger nails are all broken and very grubby, and my joints crack and creak. All but the most urgent domestic chores are neglected and my e-mail auto-responder reads “gardening I’ll get back
The Daisy Bellis perennis is usually dismissed as a lawn weed, but here it is one of the earliest and most important of the machair¹ wildflowers. It is one of the few food sources on the machair for the early emerging Bumblebees. For the technically minded it is one of the indicative plants (along with