Monday 30 May 2011

Burn

The strange light that lit the sky around ten last night cast such a glow indoors that it brought us outside thinking there must be something burning. The thundercloud that sat on Ben Hiant, caught by the late sunset behind us, was typical of the weather we now have, with sunny intervals hot enough to give a determined worshipper a healthy tan interspersed with hard showers that always arrive just when one least wants them.

One of the effects of last Monday's storm is visible everywhere - the way the wind and sea spray have burnt the leaves. In places the branches are almost stripped of their foliage....

....and it's not uncommon to find trees which have been singed only on the upwind side. The rowans seem to have suffered worst, though this may be because they are often lone trees standing in the middle of fields.

The tips of large swathes of bracken have died. Plants which were a vigorous green last weekend looking brown and tired - not that most of us are unhappy to see the bracken suffer a bit.

One shrub which seems impervious to ill-treatment is the rhododenron. It's in full flower now, particularly spectacular around Glenborrodale, mostly in this shade of pale purple. Sadly, for all its beauty, it's a plant that takes over the countryside to such an extent that there have been grants available to those who want to rid their grounds of it.

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