Comely Bank cemetery and National Galleries

 I took a short time out to wander round Edinburgh's Comely bank cemetery yesterday. The light was beautiful

and I was delighted to see my first snowdrops of the year - not yet in full bloom!

Today I went to the Women in Revolt exhibition at The Scottish National Galleries Modern 2 and took some photos to take advantage of the light

It's good to see that the gallery now has an allotment area in its grounds, though it's not clear who does the gardening here (are they growing vegetables for use in their cafes or are community groups doing the gardening?)

The is well worth seeing before it closes on 26 January (and in fact I'm going to see it again tomorrow!).  

I posted more photos of the Gallery building over on my Shapeshifting Green blog, you can see them here.

Frosty Weekend Walk

 The temperature has been down as low as minus six in Edinburgh in recent days. It wasn't quite that cold yesterday and we wrapped up warm for our walk round Arthur's Seat. We had excellent views across to the snow covered Pentland Hills (click on the photo below to enlarge the image)

Crafty Green Boyfriend zoomed in with his camera for the photo below

 The frosty grass was beautiful 

and Dunsapie Loch was frozen over 

We didn't see any Ravens on Saturday but this Jackdaw was happy to pose for a photo, with Duddingston Loch in the background

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you've had a lovely, relaxing holiday break. We've had some lovely walks in our local area. here are photos of some of the highlights.  

We walked into the centre of town on Christmas Day, hoping to be able to walk round Princes Street Gardens, which used to be a Christmas tradition for many people. However, in recent years the gardens have been shut on Christmas Day so that they can be prepared for the Hogmany Party, which this time round had to be cancelled because of high winds.

We had a lovely walk at Musselburgh, starting out walking along the River Esk 

then continuing along the coastal John Muir Walkway to the Boating Pond 

 

and Levenhall Links where we sat in the bird hides for a while. 

We also enjoyed a walk around Corstorphine Hill, where we saw a good selection of fungi including this Scarlet Elf Cap

We also had a good view of the Grevy's Zebras that live in Edinburgh Zoo and can often be seen from the main path around the hill

On Saturday, we visited Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens, with fingers crossed that we might see a Kingfisher at the pond. We did indeed see a Kingfisher, if you look very carefully, you might be able to see it in the bushes on the left hand side of the photo below

The pond was fairly icy and it was amusing to watch the Mallards skating

As ever, there were a lot of Grey Squirrels in the gardens, though only this one allowed photos.

**

I've had a haiku published in the latest issue of Shadow Pond Journal, you can read it here (scroll down to read my haiku, but take the time to read all the others too!). 

Thanks to Allyson Whipple, editor of Haiku Girl Summer for nominating one of my haiku for a Touchstone Award. You can read all the nominated haiku here. 

**

If you're in the UK, you may want to take part in this year's Big Garden Birdwatch, which takes place between 24-26 January. You can do the birdwatch in your own garden or in any greenspace.

Season's Greetings

 

 

Season's Greetings 

to all my blog readers!

Oh Christmas Tree!

A couple of days ago, we collected our Christmas tree from Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden. It's in a pot and will be returned to the garden after 12th Night. Today I decorated the tree with my usual eccentric collection of odd earrings, gifted, thrifted and handmade decorations and necklaces that I would never wear, but that look pretty draped over a tree. 

 

Here's an interesting article about real vs artificial Christmas trees.

It's been Snowing!

We hadn't been quite sure whether to believe the forecast for snow, but it did snow yesterday. We were determined to get out there and enjoy the snow while it lasted, but all the buses in Edinburgh were cancelled by the time we left the flat, so we contented ourselves with a walk round North Merchiston Cemetery, which looked lovely in the snow. 

Frosty Leaves

It was -5 this morning! That's cold! Slightly later in the day, when it had warmed up to -1, I took these frosty photos in a local park on the way to teaching a haiku class.

Enjoying Our Local Parks

We spent time in a couple of local parks this weekend. On Friday lunchtime, we visited Harrison Park, which borders the Union Canal. 

The daffodils are out in full bloom

as are the crocuses

and this beautiful Blackthorn tree

From Harrison Park we popped into North Merchiston Cemetery, where the snowdrops are still in full bloom

and ladybirds are still hibernating on some of the gravestones - the larger ladybirds in the photo below are two different colour varieties of Harlequin Ladybirds while the smaller ones are Pine Ladybirds. 

Yesterday we visited Saughton Park which borders the Water of Leith. 

 

We saw plenty of birds in the park, including a Dipper

and a Song Thrush 

The miniature daffodils and crocuses were looking beautiful

Signs of Spring

 It was freezing cold this morning, but the sky was bright blue and there were signs of Spring everywhere. I was doing my regular patrol of the Dells alongside the Water of Leith. I'm not picking litter at the moment (taking it easy after my recent cataract surgery) but there was plenty to do recording all the wildlife. 

This little path is always a delight during late Winter and early Spring. The snowdrops are already in full bloom and the daffodils are starting to open 

In another part of the Dells, crocuses are in full bloom 

The cold weather didn't deter the birds from their Springtime activities. I had a wonderful view of a Great Spotted Woodpecker, which was drumming enthusiastically, and a Magpie that was collecting nest material. Dippers and a Grey Wagtail were busily dashing around along the river. Lots of birds were singing including Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin and Wren.

Linlithgow Loch

 

Yesterday we went to Linlithgow, primarily to walk round the Loch 

 and to hopefully see the Great Crested Grebes in their courtship displays. We only saw about three Great Crested Grebes, and they weren't courting yet, though the male did seem to be practising his moves. However, we enjoyed our walk and did see a lot of lovely birds. Here's just a selection:

There seemed to be a lot of Robins about and some of them were very bold - this one sang beautifully for us:

We saw a group of Bullfinches - three females and two males, the bird below is a male:

Also in the trees, we saw Treecreepers, Wrens, Long Tailed Tits, a Dunnock and a Sparrowhawk. 

There were plenty of birds on the Loch as well. As well as the Great Crested Grebes we saw a good number of Mute Swans:

Several Coots

a Grey Heron hunting for frogs

and (particularly lovely to see) a Kingfisher that didn't really want to have its photo taken 

The Black Headed Gulls were starting to get their Summer Brown heads - this bird below had the most brown on its head.

On the water, we also saw: Tufted Ducks, Mallards, |Goldeneye, Goosanders, a Little Grebe and Cormorants (some of which can be seen below hanging on branches with their wings outstretched to dry them)

**

I was very pleased to find my poem 'A Landscape Viewed through Cataracts' in the responses to the painting Green Terrain, by Kelly Austin-Rolo on the Ekphrastic Review website. You can read all the responses here.