Casualty

This birch tree has been home to a wonderful growth of lichen and fungi during the past thirteen years that we have lived here. It has never looked in the best of health yet it kept standing through many gales and storms over the years, until last night. Finally, storm Pia felled the character-laden specimen and it has left quite a gap. We will replace it with a more youthful birch.

It has been very windy for much of the day, causing our ferries to be cancelled, and the forecast looks much the same for tomorrow. No doubt this will have some effect on the Christmas travel plans for quite a few folk.