Winter in Scotland. Dull dull dull. These pics taken on jaunts around the 22nd, 23rd and 24th November. A daunting and depressing time to be alive. I know I should be grateful I have my health, I can run, and there are no majorly bad issues in my life. But I find the business of the getting through the dark months of drizzle very difficult and unrewarding. Taking photos, one of my favourite things, is reduced to 50 shades of grey. Not sexy. And my optimistic outlook(!) nose dives into a grumbling morass of complaints and bad moods. It seems to get worse year on year. An occasional sunny day can lift spirits but even when the sun comes out (about once every 2 weeks) there is still little in the way of wildlife and I do feel I am wasting months of my life waiting on the return of Spring and the creatures I love to photograph. For a while I thought maybe I needed a new hobby - something to fill the Winter months - but it turns out I just need a new venue. The Tenerife holiday, from which I just returned, proved that. However, first, here are some dull photos from back then. Feel free to skip past them...
cute and friendly pup at Inverleith Pk
bumped into Jamie in Easter Rd where we all used to live.
Mary pleased with her weigh-in on these
derelict cyclepath scales
salty
even this jolly allotment shed struggles
to be cheerful in the drizzle
a month early, fucking misery
These curious creatures were spotted on the leaves of a bush near the toilets at Gullane. Very small and easily missed I was sure they rang a bell and I had seen them somewhere. Later I flipped through the laminates I had bulk bought off the internet. Some of these info charts, like the butterflies, moths and dragonflies fliers I check regularly. Others, Ladybird Larvae of the British Isles, not so much. Turns out they are Harlequin Ladybird larvae. On the following trips the several bugs I had seen had transformed into button-like pupae and welded themselves onto leaves of the same bush. I checked them out every trip but never found the adult beetles. I think they were emerging (rather than hunkering down all winter in the pupa stage) but then probably heading down into the leaf litter. I hope so.
Because yesterday, Christmas day, when we were there for another run, the whole area had been "pruned." When I say pruned I mean slashed and burned to less than a foot off the ground. The buddleia (the butterflies enjoy), the California Lilac (the Holly Blues light on) and the furry leafed shrub that was home to the ladybirds, chainsawed to ankle height. Bit heavy-handed methinks. Hope it all grows back in time for Spring and the return of these creatures.
pupa stage
trimmed back or massacred?
Continuing the wildlife theme I was lurking in the toilets at Yellowcraigs and saw this advert (below) for a book about East Lothian wildlife. It was actually published in 2011 so I'm not sure who is doing this sales drive now. But I went online and bought a second hand copy (recycling and all that). While it is very good, and has some photos by the legendary Abbie M, I was already fairly familiar with much of the content and all of the places. However it is all good stuff and you should buy a copy.
lurking
that time of the year when the sea buckthorn berries are out
nights now begin mid afternoon, ðŸ˜
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