Yellowhammer in a graveyard

After a fairly leisurely start to the day, with a full Scottish cooked by Mr A, P and I headed out to do a bit of tourism. We started off by climbing up to the Fyrish monument, in fairly murky weather (see first extra for the view of the Cromarty Firth and the second extra for "see human for size"). Then we went on a bit of a tour of the Black Isle, stopping at the fascinating Kirkmichael (see also here). Atmospheric and peaceful, although the peace was broken by a yellowhammer standing on a grave monument singing his heart out. We then had an excellent poke around Cromarty, including a coffee, a snack from the Cromarty Bakery, a visit to the Courthouse museum, and an ice cream, before coming across the ferry to Nigg (involving car manoeuvres accomplished easily by P which frankly would not be something I would want to do).

After supper, we had a few people round for drinks and snacks, and sent them away with "doggy bags" of peony blooms. This is the thing with our massive peony plant. About 30-40 enormous blooms all arrive at the same time. There's little point leaving them on the bush as they get blown over because of the weight of the blooms, and anyway we cannot see them from the cottage as they are around the north side where there are no windows. I rescued most of the blooms and put them in a large pot on the kitchen table, photographed them, and then sent all of our visitors away with a large, if ephemeral, souvenir. See third extra for the abundance of peonies.