High Summer in the Botanic Gardens

Yesterday was ridiculously hot. Thankfully the nature writing class I was leading was meeting in the Royal Botanic Gardens, a place with lots of shady spots under the many beautiful trees.

I wandered around taking photos before class started. I was particularly wanting people to write about detail and thought that lichens would be a good subject to use to think about that, particularly as the Botanic Gardens has a dedicated lichen trail (which I first blogged about here).

This Xanthoria lichen is on a poplar tree, which is part of the lichen trail

I love the yellow colour which is also mirrored in the pictorial meadow outside the glasshouses

There were a few bees, wasps and hoverflies in amongst these flowers, though not as many as I had expected.

The Botanic Gardens have a lot of wonderful trees, including this dead horse chestnut, which has been left to stand as a habitat for invertebrates.

The gardens are also home to many birds including this family of moorhens (how many of them can you see?)

 It was lovely to sit in the shade of a tree and write about all the wonderful nature around us. It would have been unbearable heat without the trees to sit under. Already too hot to enjoy and that it's only going to get worse as climate chaos really sets in.