Wildflower Meadow at Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament building sits at the edge of Edinburgh's Holyrood Park. The landscaping around the building includes wildflower meadows that look lovely at this time of year. These are wildflower meadows that have grown from specially sown seeds, rather than being actual natural wildflower meadows, but they are still valuable for pollinating insects and at this time of year birds such as Goldfinches feed on the seeds of some of the plants. Yesterday, I was leading a birdwatching walk around Arthur's Seat and arrived early to take some photos of these wildflower meadows.

The poppies are looking at their best just now 

as are the scabious plants, which are still in bloom

even though some of the scabious flowers have gone to seed (and the seed heads look lovely)

The Common Carder bees seemed to be enjoying this plant 

I was very impressed with this sign in the car-park near Holyrood House

I hope lots of people take the chance to use the provided litter pickers to carry out short litter picks! And to return the litter pickers afterwards!