White helleborine

Our priority today was to get some supplies.  But first we looked at the weather forecast- looking good till Tuesday, then more unsettled - and decided to book a boat trip for Monday.

Then we drove, slowly, towards Dervaig, passing Calgary Bay (1st extra).  Calgary is clearly a popular spot - lots of cars, parking would have been difficult.  

But just after the beach, we saw a sign to Calgary Art in Nature, so I pulled in.  There was a shop and gallery with lots of items I would have given house room, but we restrained ourselves.  And there was a woodland walk with sculpture items.  We paid our £2 for a guide.

It was lovely.  Woodland is our favourite walking terrain, and this was lovely woodland, but with the added bonus of sculpture items at intervals.  We braved the ladder on 4th extra to get the benefit of the views over Calgary Bay.

Towards the end of the walk, we were looking up to our left, where a carving of some fish was perched, when a chap asked us if we were looking for the white helleborine.  Well, no we weren't - we didn't know we should be, but once he had pointed them out, I was very pleased to get a photo.  I gather they're quite uncommon.  If the chap hadn't pointed them out, I might have noticed them, but I certainly wouldn't have known what they were.

After our lovely walk, a cuppa and cake in the cafe was essential.  Then we drove on to Dervaig to get our shopping.  And drove back to the cottage, also slowly!

Many bikes on the road, but we also realised there was some sort of organised round Mull bike ride tomorrow and decided we would not try to drive anywhere, but find a local walk.

Edit on 5th June: on reading more about these plants, I think this is actually a narrow leaved helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia) rather than a white helleborine (Cephalanthera damasonium). My informant yesterday implied these were two different names for the same plant - not so