More of a Blow

We seem to be stuck with grey clouds and a continuing strong easterly for the rest of the week and beyond. It's not as fierce today - though it's forecast to be much more energetic tomorrow - but the waves are....

....much larger, breaking right across the sea wall below Dunrobin Castle and across the track where....

....one of the trees blown down over the weekend, blocking the coastal track from Inverness to Wick, the ancient equivalent of the A9, has already been cleared by the Estate.

I was looking for yesterday's sick cormorant and found a corpse close to where we saw it but this may not be it as....

....there were two cormorants sheltering behind a creel and very unwilling to move as I approached, much like yesterday, while others....

....immediately took to the sea where,  despite the waves, they commenced fishing.

So it's pretty dismal weather here but perhaps we should learn from a rhododendron in the castle grounds which has decided that this is absolutely the right time....

.... to burst into flower.