This morning's walk took us through coniferous plantation from the tiny settlement of Littleferry to the shores of Loch Fleet. The bell heather under the trees is much less stressed than its cousins out on the links where a dry summer has burnt it, so it is in full and exuberant flower.
As always, the ling is later and only just coming in to bloom. The heather under the trees grows in small patches in one of which we found....
....the first white heather we've seen in Sutherland. There's plenty of heather here but the incidence of white flowers seems much rarer - on Ardnamurchan we not infrequently came across white bell heather, white ling and white cross-leaved heath. I have a particular soft spot for white heather as....
....one of the few portraits I have of my Wilson grandfather George shows him sporting a sprig of white heather in his buttonhole, though I think it's ling as opposed to the white bell heather we found today.
The tide was low in Loch Fleet when we reached it, to find masses of seals lazing out on the extensive sandbanks. I counted 118 though I'm sure there were more, some of them....
....this year's pups. That there are so many seals looking plump and sleek suggests there are fish to be had though when we circle round though the forestry for a brisk walk out on Littleferry beach, there was, once again, absolutely nothing washed up along the tideline.
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