Apple Trees, Allotments and a Young Collared Dove

 I should have posted this photo of the collared dove yesterday, but forgot as it was Crafty Green Boyfriend who took the photo and I only looked through my photos before posting the blogpost! So here is the lovely young collared dove that we net by the pond at Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens yesterday. It was eating sunflower seeds that we scattered for it. 

Today we went with Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother and brother to the Rouken Glen garden centre for lunch and a walk round the allotments there. 

 It was quite chilly and overcast but there were still a few small toirtoiseshell butterflies around

It was nice to see the rooks at their nesting colony near the allotments (zoom in on the image below to see their nests in the trees)

and we were very impressed by this clever piece of upcycling in the garden centre 

After lunch, we returned to Edinburgh and spent some time in Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden. Her apple tree is looking magnificent at the moment 

and no doubt will produce its usual huge harvest of tasty cooking apples later in the year.

For Nature Notes.