North Merchiston Cemetery

 I had a lovely lunchtime walk around North Merchiston Cemetery yesterday. The sun was shining brightly and the dandelions were looking beautiful. The council manages this cemetery to benefit wildlife and this means allowing dandelions and other wild flowers to thrive in amongst areas of longer grass. 

Dandelions are very important as a source of food for pollinating insects, but this year although there are dandelions everywhere (it looks like more people are starting to learn about how important they are) there are very few insects on them - normally you would expect to see several small flower beetles in a dandelion, but mostly this year so far, the flowers are empty

The cherry tree is in full bloom 

It was lovely to see the first Speckled Wood Butterfly of the year, hopefully the first of many as this species is a common visitor to the cemetery these days

There is a small area of Wild Garlic in the cemetery, which will soon be in bloom

Late Afternoon in a Suburban Garden

Late yesterday afternoon, we visited Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum and spent some time in her garden. For a relatively small garden it has a wealth of fruit trees and wildlife. It's looking beautiful at the moment, the rockery is particularly colourful with a variety of grape hyacinths and bluebells.

It's nice to see the occasional dandelion in there!

There are also violets

and Germander Speedwells

and Marsh Marigold by the big pond 

The first wild strawberry has come into flower (the fruit from these plants are delicious!)

 

The pear tree is wonderfully in full bloom at the moment 

The young plum tree is also in full bloom 

The cooking apple tree is in bud and it will be nice to see it come into flower over the next few weeks, but I'll post more about that in my Tree Following posts. 

There weren't a lot of insects around (this is something that I'm noticing everywhere at the moment, far fewer insects than I would hope to see). I did get a photo of this Eristalis sp hoverfly

and this very poor quality photo of a Dark Edged Bee Fly 

 

Two handmade tote bags

I've just finished my latest craft project! This lovely tote bag is made from fabric scraps and buttons from various sources (several friends have given me scraps over the years as they know I can often use such things!) I'm quite pleased with the way it looks, though the fastener is slightly wonky.

The blue buttons match the blue in the main fabric so well, I just had to include them as decorative details! 

This is the second tote bag I've made and involved quite a lot of design and sewing. 

The first bag I made a few years ago, was easier to make as the bag part was already made and I just added the handles. 

 

Corvids and other Birds

 We just got round to looking at Crafty Green Boyfriend's photos from our weekend walk around Arthur's Seat. Some of them are amazing! Look at these Jackdaws

and this Carrion Crow 

He also got a much closer and better photo of one of the male Tufted Ducks than I did

and a close up of a (very small) Small Tortoiseshell butterfly 

Another Day in the Dells

 

I was in the Dells alongside the Water of Leith again today. It's one of my favourite places and being a regular volunteer with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust means I have a good excuse to walk along the river every week. 

The Bird Cherry Tree is in bloom now.

The flowers seem to be smaller than many other varieties of cherry and they're arranged in quite a distinctive way. The tree is also well named - this particular specimen is often full of birds.

The Lesser Celandines are in full bloom in many areas of the Dells now

 

My favourite patch of Lesser Celandine is this one

The birds were all singing, including Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers. Great Spotted Woodpeckers were drumming loudly. 

I rarely see Rabbits in the Dells, but they feature in my favourite part of the mural in Colinton Tunnel

Gorgeous Gorse on Arthur's Seat

On Easter Monday, we walked around the bottom of Arthur's Seat and down to Duddingston Loch (see this blogpost). Yesterday, we walked uphill (though not to the top, as I find the final stretch up to the summit of Arthur's Seat impossibly vertiginous). The gorse is beautifully in bloom at the moment 

and offers a lovely frame for views of Edinburgh

Dunsapie Loch is a lovely wee loch, and Mute Swans have built a nest on its shore this year. There were also several Tufted Ducks, this male looking very smart. 

The light was playing beautifully on the surface of the water

 Birds were singing all over the place, including Dunnocks, Chaffinches and Chiffchaffs. We also had good views of a Raven (these large but elusive corvids nest on Arthur's Seat, but you need to be lucky to see them!). A flock of Jackdaws was chasing a Kestrel.

We walked home through The Meadows and sat for a while under this Wych Elm and watched the Woodpigeons eating the flowers. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you may be able to see some of the Woodpigeons!

Spring in the Dells

 

Most weeks I carry out a voluntary river patrol in Craiglockart and Colinton Dells alongside the Water of Leith. This is a beautiful area of ancient woodland that is looking particularly lovely at the moment. Some of the cherry trees are in full bloom at the moment

Some of the larch trees are also in full bloom, though their flowers are much more likely to be overlooked. If you look closely at a larch tree, you may be able to find these pretty flowers:

In the undergrowth, the Lesser Celandines are in flower too, though in shady areas, they're only just in bud. This patch gets a lot of sun!

I saw my first butterfly of the year, this Peacock, which seems a bit faded, so is likely an individual that hibernated over the winter.

It was a day of firsts in fact! I heard my first Blackcap of the year and my first Willow Warbler! These summer migrants join the Chiffchaffs, which arrived back from Africa a few weeks ago. I also saw my first Dark Edged Bee Fly, which sadly didn't pose for a photo. 

Grey Squirrels were running about all over the place, but only this one allowed me to get close enough to take a good photo!