Garden

As I've mentioned previously in this blog, the backgreen garden behind our flat is part of one of the areas chosen for regeneration by the Edinburgh Backgreen Initiative. We were involved right at the beginning when the project was in its planning stages for our backgreen but then because we had difficulties getting a key for the backdoor of the stair and because a lot of workshops were on dates that clashed with other things, we weren't able to get involved. But yesterday, at last we were able to get to this month's workshop! About ten people from the surrounding tenement flats were there and we all worked on different aspects of the garden. I spent almost two hours removing brambles, nettles and obstructive branches from the pathway that leads from our stairwell to the communal area of the garden, only removing enough plants to make it into a serviceable path - nettles may be horrible stingy things (yes I did get stung!) but they're great for butterflies and there are still plenty of nettles around out there!

It was really nice to be out there on such a lovely evening. We saw loads of swifts, and one of our neighbours pointed out where one pair are nesting. Now that we've seen how the backgreen maintenance is managed, we'll be down there regularly to help keep it tidy - and to watch the swifts. Photos will follow in due course!

Also yesterday I saw a beautiful spider on a plant at Gorgie Farm, looking through photos on the internet , I realised it was a Candy Stripe spider (Enoplagnatha ovata).