Edinburgh in November

A few photographs from my visit to Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. We were blessed with lovely weather, cold frosty mornings and bright blue sky days.

We are lucky to be able to visit the city several times a year and like to revisit favourite places as well as find something new. This time we went to Holyrood Palace - no pictures as photography was not allowed. The photograph above is Holyrood Park with Arthur's Seat on the skyline.

The skyline of Edinburgh is very distinctive and you often get glimpses of parts of it as you walk around the city. Above is a view of Carlton Hill from the Royal Botanic Gardens.

The Botanic Gardens are one of my favourite places to wander and look stunning at any time of the year. I am always drawn to the rock garden with its little paths and amazing array of plants,

still beautiful in November.

There were a few roses flowering in the Queen Mother's garden.

Although Edinburgh is a busy bustling capital city, quiet and calm spaces exist within it. The Water of Leith runs through the city providing another habitat for wildlife.

And of course right in the middle of the city, in the shadow of the castle, Princes Street Gardens are the perfect place to relax in the late autumn sunshine.

the bluebell wood

There is a small, narrow patch of woodland about half a mile from home that we have always called the bluebell wood. There is a footpath running through it and we make a special effort to walk there in late April/ early May when the bluebells are in flower. The photograph above was taken five years ago when I posted several pictures and wrote about how peaceful and calm the wood always felt.

This winter we were out for a walk and found the little wood looking like this. The forked tree in the centre of the photographs remains but many many other trees had been cut down.

The whole place looked very open and bare, not a woodland any more. We wondered at the time whether the bluebells would have survived. It was obvious from some of the tyre tracks that there had been heavy vehicles in the wood and the soil was quite rutted and disturbed in places.

This week we went back. There are bluebells but it is very different from five years ago, much brighter with all the trees gone and sunlight reaching the ground. This is the same forked tree in the foreground.

It looks very different from May 2010. Below is the footpath now

and next, the same section of path five years ago.

It feels completely different without the trees, I preferred it as it was.

There haven't been any trees planted yet so it could be interesting to watch it regrow naturally. Some of the hazel stumps are already sprouting and I am sure there must be a few acorns that might grow in the sunlight. In time it may well be a woodland again though there won't be any mature oaks in my lifetime,

but at least there are still bluebells.

an English spring

I know that in parts of the northern hemisphere the weather is not at all spring-like but here in the south of England we are making up for our cold, grey, wet winter with a few glorious spring days. Today it was cold and rainy again so spring is not settled but I enjoy the bright days we do get.

These photographs were taken near home a few days ago. The greens at this time of the year are so fresh, young Horse Chestnut leaves

and Dog's Mercury.

Lots of spring flowers, Celandines

Greater Stitchwort,

Wood Anenomes,

 
in the hedges, frothy Blackthorn blossom

and another sign of warmer days, this Small Tortoiseshell has woken from hibernation.

today's walk

I decided to take my camera out today and look for autumn colour. I started off well with this wonderful creeper growing over a brick wall which I have been admiring as I walk past it each day but once I left the village I realised that I was still a little early. There are signs of autumn but the hedges and trees are still green.

There is a feeling of autumn, with freshly ploughed fields,

blackberries,

rosehips,

acorns,

holly berries

and wild crab apples.

This Michaelmas daisy has been growing in the bank for years. It must have escaped from a nearby garden and has spread to form an impressive clump.

Today it was full of bees.

Lastly, one tree that does seem to be putting on its autumn colours is the Horse Chestnut. I'll wait a couple more weeks to catch some more colour.

dawn chorus

This is the best time of the year to listen to the dawn chorus, in fact Sunday was International Dawn Chorus Day.

We are lucky to live near woodland, there are many birds and I hear the dawn chorus from my bed most days. On Saturday when I woke just after five, I dressed warmly including a woolly hat(!) and went out into the garden. I stayed for about half an hour, drinking tea, listening to the birdsong and watching the sky turn from dark blue to pale blue with pink tinged clouds as sunrise approached.

I would have had to get up at 4:30am to hear the start of the dawn chorus but between five and six it was still worth getting up for and a lovely way to start the day.

Unfortunately many british birds are declining in numbers. When I was little we always seemed to have starlings and sparrows in our garden, this year I have noticed just one pair of sparrows but we haven't had starlings for a while. I hope we can stop numbers of our wild birds decreasing further so that we can all enjoy the dawn chorus for many years to come.

Of course, if you don't want to get up early to hear the birds sing there is always the "dusk chorus" just as the light is fading. It isn't as loud as the morning version but still worth stopping to listen for a while.

a daily walk and the first cuckoo

We have one car in the family now, a change which has required some adjustment to our routines as we make sure it is in the right place at the right time depending which one of us needs it. On a weekday I drive my husband to the railway station (we are lucky to live in a village with a station) first thing in the morning and then I have use of the car during the day. In late afternoon I drive the car to the station and leave it in the car park ready for him when he returns and I walk the couple of miles home.

At this time of year it is a lovely walk - here a few photographs from last week.

The hawthorn hedges near the railway station are sprouting more fresh green leaves each day, no flowers yet but the buds are formed and growing.

The blackthorn is perfect, frothy white blossom along the footpath.

At the bottom of the hill the ground has been flooded for extended periods during this long wet winter. The fields have dried out now but in many areas nothing has grown. A cereal crop (probably wheat) has been planted but there will be a much reduced yield for the farmer from this field.

We have had a few April showers but not too much rain and the stream is more or less back to its normal level.

Piles of logs are piled beside the lane waiting to be taken away.

Looking across the field I can see that the little woodland on the far side has been thinned out considerably.

I looked back through my photographs to find a before picture for comparison - below is the same shot in february 2012.

The trees in the photograph below are oak on the left and ash on the right.

"When the oak comes before the ash,

Then be ready for a splash.

When the ash before the oak,

Then be ready for a soak."

This year the ash seems to be more forward than the oak - maybe a wet summer.

I took these pictures last Wednesday, the 24th April and nearing the end of my walk home I heard the cuckoo for the first time this year. Cuckoos are declining in the UK so I am always pleased to hear the familiar call.

The cuckoo comes in April,

Sings her song in May,

In June she sings another tune,

In July she flies away.

A little record of my daily walk, perhaps I will post again later in the year and notice the changes along the way.