Hornbeams

Aha, as Spring progresses and I can recognise trees better I have been reminded that there are other hornbeams near the large, damaged hornbeam that I've focussed on so far for Tree Year. This is excellent news, not only for the presence of hornbeams along the Water of Leith (where they are a historically important species given that their wood is very hard which made them important for use in the mills that used to line this river) but also for my blogging for Tree Year as now I have better access to the details of leaves and catkins. Unfortunately last time I was there my catkins photos didn't really turn out too well. I've not quite got used to how best to use depth of field in my new camera and it often leads to blurring. I may collect some fallen catkins next time I'm along the river and photograph those. The make catkins are quite lovely at this time of year, though its still the chandelier female catkins that are the most beautiful feature of this interesting tree.

And look here for a photo of the large bee fly, which I've seen a couple of times recently, including along the Water of Leith earlier this week. What a lovely insect it is, isn't it! (I couldn''t get my own photo unfortunately!).

for Shadow Shot Sunday