Shadow Shot Sunday

It's raining heavily today but it was bright sunshine on Tuesday when I took these photos at Musselburgh.

For Shadow Shot Sunday.

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And for those who are interested I have a new poem up on the Ogilvie Edinburgh Creative Review website, you can read it here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Some beautiful shadows from the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens

You can see more photos from yesterday's visit to the Botanics here. 

For Shadow Shot Sunday

Shadowy Cherry Blossoms

At last we have warm sunshine! It's beautiful out there today! Perfect weather for shadows.

for Shadow Shot Sunday.

The Other Side of the Hill

We walked a differenet part of Corstorphine HIll today, starting at the most beautiful bus stop in Edinburgh where the verges are left unmown for the flowers including buttercups and common spotted orchids

We then walked through the meadow where the grass is only mown to provide paths between the flowers and the rest of the meadow is yellow with buttercups

and the lovely Yorkshire Fog grass

It was very warm out there so we were glad to find the shade of the woodland. Look at the lovely shadows in the elder leaves (which struck me as perfect for Shadow Shot Sunday!)

and these wonderful tree roots 

We walked for a long time through parts of the woodland I don't walk through very often but we eventually joined up with the path we usually walk on Fridays and met this lovely young kudu in the zoo, which, along with its whole family was visible from the path!

Out and About for 30 Days Wild.

Ivy Shadows

It's another dull and drizzly day today so I'm sharing these photos from Tuesday for Shadow Shot Sunday. I love these shadows in the ivy in Spylaw Park, Edinburgh.

You can see more photos from the same walk here.

For Shadow Shot Sunday.

Experimenting with photography for 30 Days Wild

As anyone who reads a few of my blogposts will realise, I enjoy taking and sharing photos here. Over the last couple of days I've been taking advantage of the bright sunshine to take some more abstract photos of the natural world

I love the effects of dappled light through the trees (above and below)

I also love the way the light plays on the grass in the photo below

the sparkling sea at West Voe from our recent trip to Shetland

and the patterns on the sand on the same beach

Over this weekend, we're enjoying various of Edinburgh's greenspaces with my parents who are visiting. I'll post more about that tomorrow!

For 30 Days Wild and Shadow Shot Sunday

Hide in the Shadows

It was a beautiful sunny day when I visited Musselburgh on Monday. Perfect for shadows in the bird hide! I like the way alders (the trees behind the hide in the photo) look at this time of year, their catkins and cones both out before the leaves.They love growing by water, so the area round the hides at Musselburgh Lagoons is perfect for them.

 and here's the view over the lagoons and across to Fife, most of the birds are right at the far end, to the left of the edge of the photo. There were lots of teal (performing their beautiful and entertaining courtship dance) and wigeon that day and a couple of shelducks and shovelers. Also curlews and oystercatchers.

You can see more photos from the day here.

For Shadow Shot Sunday. 

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more. 

Shadow Shot Sunday

These stairs are on the Water of Leith Walkway, near Redhall allotment gardens.

For Shadow Shot Sunday

Autumn woodland

The woods on Corstorphine Hill are stunning in their autumn colours, specially on a sunny day like today!

We found lots of interesting fungi and took lots of photos so we could try and identify the species! We're about half way through the list now and I'll do a blog post tomorrow with photos...

For Shadow Shot Sunday

Shadow Shot Sunday

Lovely Shadows in Colinton Dell by the Water of Leith

for Shadow Shot Sunday

Wild garlic

At this time of year, many of our woodlands are full of ramsons, also known as wild garlic. The luxuriant leaves grow like carpets and fill the air with a strong scent of garlic even before the lovely white flowers come out. Wild garlic is edible and tastes lovely in salads or pesto.

This is a beautiful wild garlic lined path in Dalkeith Country Park:

and here is a close up I took recently alongside the River Almond:

for Shadow Shot Sunday

and I also posted a shadow shot over on my Shapeshifting Green blog.

Tulip shadows

I was fascinated by the tulip shadows in my parents' garden last weekend, both inside the flowers and on the new paving stones on the upper part of the garden.

(the photo above is available to purchase as a digital download in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy ahop).

for Shadow Shot Sunday

Ivy Shadows

Ivy has a shadowy side, although birds love it as a place to build their nests in spring and to roost in the winter, it can damage trees, though I recently read that the effect isn't as bad as we had been lead to believe in the past. These cherry blossom trees look slightly uncomfortable though.

for Shadow Shot Sunday.

choked by ivy -
the cherry trees
blossom.

for NaPoWriMo.

Dragonfly Gate

I love this gate by the side of the Union Canal towpath. 

for Shadow Shot Sunday.

dragonflies
in wrought iron and shadows -
none on the water.


for NaPoWriMo.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Shadowy Trees and Signs of Spring

I love the tree shadows on these warm orange walls in Musselburgh by the River Esk. 

And the subtle shadows in these beautiful crocuses just the other side of the river, a real sign that Spring is on the way!

I posted more photos of crocuses on this blog yesterday. 

More shadows over on my Shapeshifting Green blog.

For Shadow Shot Sunday

Shadows on the Trees

 Lovely shadow of tree on tree in Edinburgh Botanic Gardens today.

For Shadow Shot Sunday. 

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Meanwhile, I'm delighted to have one of my beaded bookmarks featured in this Russian Doll themed treasury over on Etsy.

And I put together this Etsy treasury in advance of the forthcoming Chinese New Year. Each item in the treasury contains at least one Chinese coin, a symbol of good luck and prosperity.

Shadows in the Borderlands

 I love the shadow thrown by the much eaten and holey leaf in the shot above.

Below, a lovely view from the Scottish Borders, near Peebles, all framed by shadows.

For Shadow Shot Sunday

Seeking Shade in the Dells

As regular readers of this blog know, I volunteer for the Water of Leith Conservation Trust. I patrol the Colinton Dell area of the river every week, picking litter and recording wildlife. It's a beautiful place, I love watching how it changes through the seasons.

I took this photo on Tuesday. It looks like summer!

For those of you who were disappointed that I had to cancel my guided walk of Colinton Dell, which had been scheduled to happen on Monday 27 May, you may be interested to know about a guided tour of the Dell on Sunday 26 May (tomorrow!), run by the Water of Leith Conservation Trust. Booking is essential for this one!

For Shadow Shot Sunday

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more

Windowsill garden update

Our windowsill garden is doing well. the mixed salad leaves and coriander are doing better than ever on our living room windowsill. Our tomatoes are doing well as well, most of them are on the spare room windowsill, but one is on the living room windowsill. Creating nice shadows on the wall!

For Shadow Shot Sunday, early I know, but my parents are visiting this weekend and I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to do!

In the shade of the trees

 These photos come from my walk along the Water of Leith on Tuesday this week. The lovely yellow flower above is the lesser celandine, one of my favourite spring flowers, it comes out so early and is so lovely and bright! I like the way the ivy leaves form an arch above the celandine! Below is a wonderful shape in the trunk of a tree, I'd never noticed this before, in all of my walks along this part of the river (and I'm there every week as part of my voluntary work with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust).

For Shadow Shot Sunday

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.