Daisy and I went for a lovely walk with the dogs in Clothie – my separate five acre croft land that is a little way into the open hill grazing.

Having climbed the hill, I sat on an old windowsill of the derelict croft house and admired the view, happy that the postman had dropped off an important parcel (for an exciting craft project I am about to start).  I watched him driving off back up our track.

The grass is nice and high in places. This is the old horses and ponies’ winter grazing for a few months.  The dogs found it hard work to walk through and had to bounce over it to see where they were going – I hoped this would use up lots of energy and tire them nicely out, while we didn’t have to walk very far.  It did.

The beautiful abundant summer flowers are now all dying back.  Summer is beginnning to feel over here.  It has been a very good year for them.  So much colour.

I found a good patch of Devil’s-bit scabious which is my favourite. It was competing with the buttercups and hawkweed.  Interestingly, the horses and ponies won’t eat it.  It always looks delicious.

Daisy and I wandered around our field for a bit while the dogs did their own thing. Last time I was here, Pepper came home with a dead polecat that she had hunted down.

Given any chance at all, Pepper is a keen hunter, always on the look out.  I don’t discourage her because a) it is my own land and b) it is one less polecat to try and kill my chickens and ducks.