Nearly halfway through May already! Doesn't lockdown time fly by? Myself and Mary have been exploring unlikely corners of Edinburgh and elsewhere while out running and cycling. Here are a few photos I wanted to put here for posterity. The exercise isn't always riveting (though fun at the time) so I won't go on too much except to say graveyards are the new running tracks. Well not quite, but we visited a couple and they were worth a walk round. First, a run along Leith / Granton provided these photos...
This sign opposite Alien Rock at Granton. We watched the first episode of Tiger King and might watch some more but I think we got enough of the flavour without doing the rest. If I had a horn I'd beep.
Newington Cemetery. (Above.) Out for a cycle round town and we popped in here on the way home. Ken had recommended it as a potential spot for butterflies and although we only saw a couple of whites it looked like it had potential for a good deal more. It is also quieter than just about any parks in town which are choc-full of families and dog-walkers and cyclists and skateboarders and packs of kids and parents with pushchairs. I have been meaning to return to have a decent explore but it lies on the diagonally opposite side of Holyrood Park and once I go in there I always get distracted by butterflies before I get out the other side. Worth a visit it has the feel of an older and less pristine more rambling cemetery. Bit like Warriston. Which I've also been meaning to visit.
Small White
Not my favourite butterfly as they are a bit boring and have a tendency to not settle for photos. I thought their absence might look significant if I look back next year and see NONE! So here is one. Plenty flying by, just not landing much. I told you they were boring! Now there's a challenge - produce an exciting photo of a small white. Maybe.
East Preston Street cemetery. Out a run on the empty lockdown streets rather than parks and riverside paths for reasons above, and we passed this graveyard. Must have walked or cycled past there a hundred times (I used to live in West Preston Street), so we went in for a walk round. Not as rambling or tree filled as Newington, nor as good for butterflies I suspect, but some interesting grave stones which had been there so long the names had washed off. The example above was the front side that had had the inscription on. It had all transformed into something rather lovely. Worth a visit!
So on the 6th May the forecast was great. I decided to cycle to Gullane. Any notion that there was a time limit to our daily exercise had been dismissed by the BBC saying (on 25th April) there wasn't. And then on the 1st May the UK Government produced guidelines saying no time limit on exercise but stay local and be responsible. I felt that gave me the thumbs up to cycle to Gullane. It was really nice and I saw next to nobody after leaving the city.
Speckled Wood before Aberlady
Mother Shipton Moth
Small Copper
Wall
my first of the year
While in Gullane I went up the hill to check for Holly Blues (not a sausage!) and Walls on that sunny wall there (nope!) And Red Admirals on the rocky outcrop at the top there. (Nope again!) However it did not dampen spirits, being such a terrific day out.
Large White
I was in 2 minds to go to the other end of Gullane to check the other H Blue sites. But being a lovely day I did (still no sign of HBs) and it was a good call. I found these 2 Lilac bushes and they were being visited by every fly-by white that wasn't stopping anywhere else. And had Speckled Woods right beside them. And they had a heady perfume that nearly made me giddy in the heat! They look a little like buddleia and have the same (butterfly and bee) pulling power. Most of the decent photos taken that day were all in that spot. The icing on the cake was the wind on my back on the cycle home. A brilliant day out!
Orange Tip male
Orange Tip female
Large White
GVW
Speckled Wood
Peacock too
No comments:
Post a Comment