fit for purpose

 

11th October
Regulars will notice there was something of a gap between last post (28-09-25) and today. This was due to coming out of retirement to do the paint-work for Hugh and Seona's gym The WORX, previously Pedalhouse. I worked with them ten years ago when they established Pedalhouse spin-gym at Beaverhall. Then when they moved to Conference Sq. off Lothian Rd 5 years ago, I painted their new premises. They asked me to consult on the painting of the re-brand but I said I'd pick up my brushes and help out for the week they closed. Complete change of look and (nearly) every wall and ceiling re-painted. Two others were roped in to help and the place is now open again for business and looking FAB! From what I understand they have moved from mainly spinning (and rowing machines), adding ski-ing machines and circuit training to workouts, while continuing spin and rowing classes. 

Pilrig St berries

It sounded just what I need in my life. Since giving up full-time work I have noticed I have got fatter and flabbier. It doesn't help that my primary coach (Mary) hasn't been running, so hasn't been inspiring me to keep up training. My previous running focus has been replaced with wildlife walks carrying a heavier camera. Which is also a poor substitute for cycling around town with tins of paint, climbing tenement stairs with a loaded bike and spending all day on my feet doing a physical job, up and down ladders for 8hrs a day. In short I need to join a gym. And then this job presents itself. I am not superkeen to join clubs or gyms or do a weekly task on schedule. Which is why I haven't even got round to lifting the indoor weights we have at home. However once you get to 60 this is no longer optional but obligatory, unless you want to sag, flop and die. Best pick up those weights, dumbell!

autumn colours

So how did it feel cycling 2 miles after breakfast and working out for about 8hrs daily? Well, quite harsh and hectic, but also somewhat rejuvenating. I felt younger and fitter for it, rather than past it (which was more what I was expecting.) I did feel tired in the evenings (natch) and slept through a couple of TV programmes.

I broke myself in by starting with a half day on the Sunday that the place closed, then did Mon~Fri and after a recovery Saturday off (out on this blog) did another half day Sunday. You can't really appreciate the joys of getting out of jail if you don't ever spend some time in jail. I did my time and we got the job done. It made the subsequent time off SO much sweeter and once again I really savour my retiral.

small white

It also helped that we were enjoying a few days high pressure and something of an Indian Summer. I had planned on a trip a bit more adventurous on Saturday (a drive somewhere with Mary perhaps) but she has been under the weather with a cold so we just stayed local and wandered along to the Botanics. At this end of the season there is likely a better chance of more butterfly species in town than down the coast where the landscape is perhaps more exposed. I was just glad to have the day off and go for a walk in the sunshine.

cerostigma minus - a butterfly favourite

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of butterflies and insects in the rock garden. It did not bode well and I wondered if today was going to be one of these days when the weather is near perfect but nothing shows up. I tried to find joy in the spectacular autumn colours and amazing plants but knew I'd be hacked off if there was nothing else to photograph. We saw lots of lovelies but it was only when cutting through the cafe next to Inverleith House, that we saw and photo-ed an admiral on the bushes beside the buddleias. It was in not bad nick and fairly obliging. 

Spanish Chestnut

very striking colour

ginkgo biloba

I love these ordinary yet spectacular leaves
and the light going through them, casting shadows

always impressive trees at the top of the Chinese Hillside

spot the ladybird?

close up - a harlequin 
as were most of the many ladybirds I saw today

red admiral near the cafe

this sundial was really quite accurate last few trips
but was now about 40minutes astray - taken about 12.48, showing 1.30pm

really angry rhubarb?
(Chard)

lots of tempting apples

one of my favourite photos today

The Queen Mother's garden was open but no butterflies. I was growing frustrated and felt maybe a trip to Warriston was needed. Mary was happier to go home as her legs complain after about 4 or 5 miles. We made to leave via the East gate.

normal squirrel

short-eared version

who are you calling short-eared?

As we walked near the Willow (duck) Pond I saw these flowers in the sunshine and said out loud there really should be butterflies on those. Moments later one flew by and (with them being in such short supply today) I jogged back to find it. It was Mary who spotted this absolute beauty. I haven't seen a peacock in quite some time. Most of the later Summer specimens will have found a spot to hibernate - in a shed, culvert or a nook in a tree. Somewhere sheltered for the Winter. This one may have felt the warmth of the sunshine and popped out for a last feed before battening down the hatches. I felt it was some compensation for the lack of numbers today. 

peacock

Mary headed home while I went up Inverleith Row turning right at Warriston Gardens. Still just the singular entrance / exit at the cemetery. It was a bright, warm day and there were loads of ladybirds. I thought I caught a glimpse of a small tort near the crypts but it flew away and despite chasing it, I never saw where it went. Curses. Suppose I best check out the ladybirds then!

I have previous at this game. I was standing near a favoured gravestone, its face squarely warming in the sun. Maybe 50 or 60 ladybirds crawling quickly about the marble, a few taking off and flying, more landing and folding away wings. They weren't that clever and I could feel several landing on my bare legs below my shorts, and on my neck and head and arms. Some settled but many crawled to a high point and took to the air again. Days like today may well account for the large clusters of huddled ladybirds you can find on certain agreeable stones, around the cemetery. It may well help survival to huddle together, or maybe they just enjoy a chat. 

Anyway, I had put the macro lens on although not the flash or diffuser - there seemed to be plenty of sunlight to work with. The ones landing on me were the best to work with - the fliers. I'd feel one land and gently lift it off. On my hand it would run up to the top of a finger and sensing it was at a high point, take off. I had the camera in pre-burst mode and immediately on take-off push the shutter release fully down and capture the take-off after the fact by going back in time a full second. 

While this had a reasonable hit rate often a ladybird would opt not to take off but walk round a finger in a spiralling route or leave the scene while I was still trying to focus. But I was standing in sunlight surrounded by hundreds of potential subjects and there was no shortage of volunteers queueing up to have their photos taken. Sadly one species outnumbered all the rest probably fifty to one. The invasive harlequin ladybird. 

to infinity and beyond!

Harlequins have been around for a while. They established themselves in the South of the UK in 2004 and have been spreading North since. While it has been suggested they out-compete native species, being larger and will predate ladybird eggs and larvae, studies are as yet inconclusive as to the damage being done to native species and the food chain. Here is a fairly non-hysterical article. They certainly seem to be invading our cemeteries and parks in a successful manner, although numbers were down last year, being a very damp Spring and Summer, and they suffered. Unlike the orange ladybirds, Halzia sedecimguttata, who thrived in the damper conditions. However the harlequins seem to have bounced back this year and were the dominant species out and about on Saturday. I struggled to find any that weren't harlequins. They have a large number of colour varieties and patterns and are difficult to tell apart from other species except in size and having a white triangle on their heads.

I put together a video of still photos of take-offs. Obviously no soundtrack (because photos not video) so I added some music to cheer up the visuals - Safe and Sound by Syeyl (pronounced Sea-el). Having photographed the near-impossible I decided to video the absolutely impossible - hoverflies in flight in slo-mo. Just near the tunnel there was a column of sunlight occupied by a couple of hoverflies. There was no nearby branch or leaf for them to recover on between jousts and I found if I held my hand in the air nearby they would land on it, enjoy a little break, have a breather and then fly off. It was rather friendly and allowed me to point the camera in their faces which they were okay with up to a point. While they were flying I'd try to get them in the centre of the frame and then pull the focus back to them before they flew off and push the shutter release in slo-mo mode. 

I still had the macro lens on and I think next time I'd try with the zoom to get the hovers a little bigger in the frame. I further cropped in when editing in post but they are still pretty small and I think with some patience it might be fun to try and get them much bigger, while in flight, in slo-mo. The reason nobody is doing this already is that it's not as easy as it looks. But I have the right gear at least which is a good starting point. Results are at the bottom of the page. Better than I expected, but work in progress.

friendly flier

speckled wood

There were loads of flies on this leaf.
They weren't terribly keen on having a group photo though.

The light wasn't very good at the tunnel and the stream that runs along there. I put down some seeds and nuts but the only takers were a chaffinch and a robin. Nice to catch a glimpse of the grey wagtail but he wasn't much for photos. I was tempted to return to the ladybirds and also see if any butterflies were about, nearer the crypts, including that maybe small tort I'd seen earlier. 

close up of flowering ivy - which attracts many pollinators around now

obsidentify says Syrphus torvus - Hairy-eyed hoverfly

a rare example of when I am forced to do portrait format
rather than landscape

not the end of the tale

all of these ladybirds are harlequins
despite looking quite different from each other

rosebay willowherb

quite a few wasps about

common wasp, Vespula vulgaris

not a harlequin! a seven spotter on a pine needle

tons of these in Holyrood Park early in the year

stig of the dump - Helina sp?

a harvestman - Phalangium opilio

I had already tried to leave at least once and I thought I'd do just one last circuit past the crypts. I knew there were some asters flowering atop the West side and checked them out. I was very surprised and pleased when I discovered the (same?) small tort I'd seen earlier sat there. Only when I got very near could I see it behind the flowers. It was a bit ragged at the back but a cheerful sight nonetheless. I took loads of photos and then climbed over the barbed wire fence and got a better angle. Success! Could be the final tortoiseshell of the year.

okay I can go home now

brown rat

In the past I'd have left via the Tescos step-over or even the Powderhall bridge. Due to those being fenced off with rather ugly barriers, now I have to leave by the front gate which is a bore. (I'm not alone in my complaint about this but the council have yet to come up with a feasible and inexpensive work-around that meets their inflexible H&S regs. Also there are unmarked graves at several crucial possible entrances. Frankly I don't believe unmarked (non-recent) burials are worthy of respect as basically everywhere with soil is an unmarked, unknown grave) but alas the authorities are not in agreement with me on this.

On the upside it discourages lots of visitors and so I am disturbed less often by other people. On the way home I looked over the bridge which is the tunnel when you're downstairs. To see if anything had found the seeds and peanuts I left. Indeed they had! There was a squirrel sat stuffing itself. There was also a rat which was being deferential to the squirrel. (see video) I was surprised by this as I thought rats were likely the more intelligent and resourceful, not to mention probably more tenacious in a tight corner. However although this one was interested in the food stash it was giving the squirrel a wide berth. Interesting!

if you know, you know

autumn leaves

I'm not really a fan of the herons (and their murderous ways) but the light was so fantastic I had to take a couple of pics and some video. Doesn't mean I love these nosferatus!

berries, McDonald Road
(Common whitebeam)

Edit: I have been for my first session at The WORX. It was tough but fun. Well some of it was fun. I hate lunges and certain abs exercises, but quite enjoyed the deadlifts, running, pushing the tank and rowing/spin/ski machines. Plenty variety so nothing hurt too much, for too long. And next day I'm not feeling too bad as I deliberately chose lighter kettlebells to ease in gently. Small friendly group and the 50mins whizzed by. I may be stiff as a plank (pun intended) tomorrow and will leave it at least another day or 2 before signing up for my next session. I chose to be partly paid in classes for the paintwork so have plenty torture exercise coming my way. 

7miles in 5hrs