Wednesday 27 March 2024

Beautiful Easter decorations

 I passed by Corstorphine Community Centre yesterday and took some photos of the lovely Easter decorations that are on display outside the front entrance of the centre. The whole thing has been knitted and includes lovely details including Easter chicks, daffodils, Easter eggs and of course plenty of rabbits! Here are the photos I took







Isn't it all beautiful? 

I made Easter cards for family and friends a few weeks ago, you can see them here.


Tuesday 26 March 2024

Young Larch Cones

 This is the time of year to really pay attention to larch trees! It's ten years now since I first discovered the beauty of the female cones on larch trees! You can see the development of the cones through a whole year in this blog post from 2014

Meanwhile, here are some of the very young female cones I saw today. 


And here is a photo showing a young cone next to a mature cone. 

 

If you look carefully, in the background, you may be able to see that many of the branches have a lot of pink cones on them. It seems to me that many larch trees are having a bumper year for new cones this year! 

Also, at one point today, I had the good luck of being able to watch three Nuthatches as they flew around collecting nest materials! It's not so many years ago that the Nuthatch first appeared in Edinburgh, as it moved northwards in the UK. Now it's not an uncommon bird here, but always lovely to see.


Monday 25 March 2024

Spring in Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens

 Yesterday I met a friend for a walk round Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens. The weather was beautiful.

I was surprised by how many of the rhododendron bushes were already in bloom

It was lovely to see this butterfly, my first Comma butterfly of the year!


Sunday 24 March 2024

Spring in the Hermitage of Braid

 We had a lovely walk yesterday in the Hermitage of Braid. We started at Blackford Pond, where we had heard toads were around (there have been a lot of toads seen in the area recently, making their way to the pond to spawn). There are signs around the area warning people to "Mind Your Feet! Tiny Toads Migrating!"

The Midmar Paddock Twitter timeline has photos and videos of the local toads (and other nature sightings in the area). Unfortunately, we didn't see any toads at all! However, we did see this female Shoveler who has been at the pond over the past few weeks, hopefully she'll be able to find a mate soon. 

Although superficially looking like most other female ducks, the Shoveler is easily recognizable by her large shovel shaped bill. 

Mute Swans seem to be about to nest at the edge of the pond, here's just one of them

The pond is surrounded by vegetation, including a few clumps of Marsh Marigolds

We then walked to the Hermitage of Braid, passing Midmar Paddock, which is still threatened with development (it would be a shame to lose this green space, which has always felt like an integral part of the Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Pond Local Nature reserve).

The walls around Midmar Paddock are beautifully covered in ferns, mostly Maidenhair Spleenwort. 

We then walked into the Hermitage and along the Braid Burn

We were very pleased to see several patches of Wood Anemone in full bloom.

and this Grey Wagtail that was moving too quickly to allow for a clear photo 

Friday 22 March 2024

I'm With the Bears edited by Mark Martin

 

Subtitled Short Stories from a Damaged Planet, this is a collection of stories (though three are, disappointingly, actually excerpts from novels) from writers including Margaret Atwood, T C Boyle and David Mitchell. They're mostly grim, post apocalyptic stories, the intention I guess being to show us how bad it could get and instil in us an urgency to act. But there isn't exactly a great deal of hope in most of the stories. I found the collection to be overall oddly disappointing and lacklustre. With one exception. 

Hermie by Nathaniel Rich is a wonderful, very short story about a professional scientist who is visited by the hermit crab that used to be his imaginary friend. Hermie the hermit crab asks what is the scientist actually doing to save Hermie's old home that has been devastated by storms and inappropriate developments? It's a heartbreaking story, highlighting the need for hands on conservation work as against academic abstractions. 

Royalties from sales of this book go to 350.org, an international grassroots movement working to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.  

I'm with the Bears edited by Mark Martin, published (2011) by Verso.


Wednesday 20 March 2024

First Butterfly of the Year

 We had a lovely lunchtime walk in North Merchiston Cemetery yesterday. The Pussy Willow tree is looking wonderful




and we saw our first butterfly of the year, this beautiful Red Admiral 

Thursday 14 March 2024

Walking Meeting in Newington Cemetery

 Post lockdown, when many people were still wary of crowds and confined spaces, the idea of walking meetings became popular. Rather than sitting in a stuffy meeting room, why not meet outdoors and walk while talking? 

It's not only ecologists who talk about the benefits of walking meetings, business people do to, for example this article on seven benefits of taking your meeting for a walk

Personally I love being outside and definitely find that ideas can flow better when walking in nature. It's also of course a nice way to fit a bit of exercise into your day, as well as seeing more nature. Yesterday's walking meeting took place in Edinburgh's Newington Cemetery. This is one of the city's cemeteries that is specifically managed with nature in mind and now features a tree trail, new since I last visited. Guides to the tree trail are available in a neat little leaflet dispenser near the entrance to the cemetery, though unfortunately the leaflet dispenser is currently being used as a bin... 

Before the tree trail was officially set up as a trail (with numbers on the notable trees) the cemetery already had information boards about its trees. You can find out more here on their website

The upper part of the cemetery is particularly rich in trees and shrubs


The crocuses are out at the moment, adding some lovely colour to the cemetery


There were plenty of birds in the cemetery and at one point a flock of around fifty Jackdaws flew over and round about.