monkey magic

Mary was good enough to take me out on her run on Wednesday. I was going to hold off for club but the weather was great and might not have stayed that way. I grabbed the camera and pulled on my shoes. She was going to take me too "Edinburgh's largest public woodland". Any ideas? It has a tower built to commemorate the birth of Sir Walter Scott. Any the wiser? Last time she was there Mary took photos of Small Coppers. It will give the game away to say we also saw kangaroos and monkeys!

"did you fart?"

We started by going up the Water of Leith. Those barriers are still in place at the Dean Village and the dog walkers have made paths round them. We discussed the possibility of dressing up as council workers in hi-viz gilets and hard hats and "fining" tourists 25 euros for disobeying the signs.

We left the WoL at Belford and went up Ravelston Dykes

Answer: Corstorphine Hill
love the 2 colours of green on the sign

Small coppers, monkeys and kangaroos all visible from the same place. 

blue spotter as well

giving us the evils

the kangaroos responded with great interest when you called
"skippy, tch tch tch"

the grasses looked fab in the sunlight

the fluffy seedheads blowing off the purple flowers were like a snowstorm

We went back down the WoL and spotted this budget festival goer.

ok, don't look at the camera

large white

B is for Buddleia. And butterfly. There is loads of it in flower currently and the butterflies go crazy for it. Especially the white stuff. If you want a laugh post a comment on Springwatch Fans FB page and ask what sort of bush should you grow to attract butterflies? The amount of different spellings you get for buddleia is hilarious. (Will accept buddleja.)

Mary still has a slightly crocked knee or 2 and they were playing up badly. She said they hurt less when she was ahead and I was behind. So I was behind when I saw this comma sat on a buddleia leaf or similar next to the WoL. Mary was round the corner and I couldn't shout her back. I had to wait for the sun to shine, c'mon, c'mon, before it opened it's freshly emerged wings. It was worth the wait.

ta-daa

Superb but I wanted a shot directly from behind. In order not to scare it off I ran back upstream jumped some nettles then crept round lining it up perfectly... at which point it flew off. I was cursing and slowly walked in the direction it took. I was rewarded with the photos below although on closer inspection it is a different comma. Which would suggest there's a few on that section of the WoL between Pizza Express and Inverleith Park. Happy hunting!

small white foreground, comma background

10.8 miles

when I got home I had this scooby-snack