Monday 26 May 2008

Common Grazing







Another glorious Sunday so Ailsa and I headed for the hills to explore our common grazings. We have two lots - these are taken from the main part immediately behind the house, the other is a couple of miles away to be explored another day.

Maybe Lulu can help me to identify the plants? We have lots of orchids hereabouts - I think the Heath Spotted Orchid - but orchid identification is a bit subtle for me - especially as the same species can have many colours.


There are several lochs in the grazings - this one appears to be very shallow - but the main one, is very deep apparently.

The views are of Strathnaver - scraping the barrel of my school geography it appears to be a classic U shaped glacial valley. There's a riding school by the sands and most weekends you can watch punters trotting off and splashing in the sea - pretty bloody wow. I think this is the beach Mikethebike fancies for kite buggying - but when?

5 comments:

Lulu Stader said...

OK then: the purply thing with the fleshy flat leaves at the bottom is a Liverwort, I think, and carniverous.

The Speaking Goat said...

Carniverous! Sheete that was close!

The Speaking Goat said...

But I don't think it is a liverwort - having looked around google. Liverwort seems to be a name applied to many plants - but not this one...... try again?

Lulu Stader said...

Oops, you're right: Butter-, not Liver-. Pinguicula vulgaris. Eats insects to supplement the low mineral levels in the bog it lives in.

The Speaking Goat said...

Yes that's it!

Thanks Lulu.