Sunday 5 June 2016

Visiting Edinburgh's Parks with my parents for 30 Days Wild

My parents are visiting this weekend and for 30 Days Wild we've been visiting a few of Edinburgh's parks together.

Yesterday we visited Braidburn Valley Park

and Princes Street Gardens

Today we visited Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, where many of the rhododendrons and azaleas are still in full bloom and looking stunning in the bright sunshine




The main pond is also looking great after its recent draining and refurbishment

We admired the display of alpines and other plants in the newly redeveloped alpine garden

In this area too, we were able to do one of the activities specifically listed in the 30 Days website, which is to follow a bee. I had seen a very small bee in the flowers, which Crafty Green Boyfriend told me was a solitary bee of some sort (there are about 200 species of solitary bees in the UK). I then found some of the holes where the bees live(you can see two in this photo, one in the soil just to the right of the cross shape and one further to the right of that)

Crafty Green Boyfriend then used his patience and the extra zoom on his camera to capture one of the bees entering one of the holes, covered in pollen that it will feed to its young (you nay need to click on the photo to enlarge it, the bee is just burrowing into a hole near the green leaves just below the centre of the photo)




11 comments:

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

What a perfect weekend. If your mother and dad are anything like us, they had the time of their lives enjoying the beautiful outdoors with you. I love the 'follow the bee' activity ... and of course the beautiful spring rhodies and other flowers are just wonderful.

sage said...

The gardens are beautiful!

Draffin Bears said...

Hi Juliet,

You must have enjoyed visiting the beautiful a parks with your parents - really lovely and how beautiful the azealas and rhododendrons are.
Have a great new week
Hugs
Carolyn

almtsbb said...

Great picture of the bee. Thank Crafty Green Boyfriend for his patience in taking the picture.

Naquillity said...

sounds like a wonderful day. what a beautiful area. some of the pics remind me of a nature preserve my husband and i visited last year. have a great night~

Magyar said...

__Nifty walk, and from the wee green growth at the ground bee's nest opening... . _m

seam in the walkway
a dandelion blooms through
our nature will be

Janneke said...

So beautiful the Edinburgh Botanic Garden but I also admire you for noticing the little things in nature like a bee burrowing into a hole.
Have a wonderful week, here the sun is shining.

Optimistic Existentialist said...

What beautiful weather for a parent's weekend visit! Amazing photos :) I hope you have a great Monday!

Lynn said...

That's lovely - following the bee.

That pond shot is stunning.

HKatz said...

I love the idea of the 30 Days Wild initiative. And your photos are lovely. (Also I'm remembering now when I visited Edinburgh in 2005 and walked through the Princes Street Gardens in May. I hope to return some day to Scotland.)

Lowcarb team member said...

So nice to spend time with your parents.
Your photo's are lovely

All the best Jan