Pink PerfectionThrift, Sea Pink, Rock Rose, Moss Pink, Our Lady’s Cushion, tonna chladaich, Armeria maritima As May approaches our wildflowers are still deep in slumber – sleepy heads waiting for the temperature to rise. However this tough little cushion plant has been in flower for the last two weeks or more – a nectar treat
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
As the days lengthen and the sun makes an appearance, the sap rises in the Croft Garden team. Spring fever? More like running a slight temperature. Like everything else in these islands, Spring happens slowly and cannot be rushed. So last week the gardening tools were locked in the shed and out came the concrete
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