Natural highs and lows

The above photograph was taken around about dawn as I was wandering through to the kitchen, bleary-eyed, to sort out breakfast for Mocha the cat and a mug of tea for myself. As yet, I did not know that I would be attempting Blogtober. The end of September had seen 50+mph winds from the south, which meant that the beginning of October has Autumn on speed-dial. Today, in surprisingly pleasant weather, I finished giving the front lawn its only cut of the year, as all the wildflowers have now set seed. It was, however, noticeable that the year is inexorably turning, with plenty of evidence from our neighbour's trees decorating parts of our garden: Rowan berries, Sycamore keys and a pair of pine cones. There's an off-putting festive vibe to those photos! In the rockery, the Big Geranium (technical horticultural term) is still in bloom, providing nectar for some Honey Bees, whilst in the background, a solitary Sedum was hosting several White-tailed Bumblebees and a Red Admiral butter...

Last weekend, on a whim, we decided to head to Yesnaby on the west coast to see if we could find a Frog Orchid. These small orchids are not as showy as their blousier cousins, and can be difficult to spot on the coastal heaths which are regularly blasted by gales and the Atlantic Ocean, keeping the vegetation lower than more sheltered environments. Having parked the car, we set off northwards into what was quite a significant breeze and diligently searched the Hill of Borwick to no avail. We did, however, find a few Scottish Primroses still in flower as well as some other nice things... Primula scotica with phone for scale A Stocky Mason Wasp Ancistrocerus scoticus nectaring on some Water Mint A Great Yellow Bumblebee nectaring on Devil's-bit Scabious We wandered back towards the car park to continue our search for orchids further south. After much crawling about on the ground and plenty of general chuntering of a needles and haystacks variety, we eventually managed to find one F...

What's this, NaHaL, surely you should be pootling about in the wilderness looking for insects, not blogging? Sadly, after watching the roller coaster ride of a constantly changing weather forecast for a week, the decision was taken to postpone the walk until the end of the month. Hopefully, it will be warmer and drier by then. In contrast, yesterday was glorious, so here are some photos from our garden. I was talking about habitats to one of the builders from the site next door and he was showing me photos of his pond. The conversation moved on to butterfly banks and as I airily waved towards where we are thinking of creating one, this Common Blue appeared. Some sawfly larvae chomping away on our cuttings of Tea-leaved Willow. Using the internet, I managed to come up with the correct genus for them, Euura . However, the local recorder pointed me in the right direction of the species,  E. ferruginea or Rusty Willow Nematine. When Megan had finished work, she took a turn around the g...

At the end of March, work finally began on creating a pond in the back garden at Burnbank. Over the course of the five years since I bought the pond liner, the idea in my head was that it would be a rectangular shape. Recently, I managed to find a scrap of paper from 2020 which intimated that the liner measurements were 8m by 6m. So let's crack on! In the interests of completing the project before climate change renders water even more of a luxury, a local gardening business was recommended to me, and so it was that VB duly arrived, full of enthusiasm and seemingly undeterred by my cautionary tales of tough ground to dig.  VB is very much on board with the whole wildlife gardening malarkey. Indeed, he is an interesting chap with whom to discuss environmental matters, not least because he has his own manifesto available on Amazon. And so it was that we broke ground, although not exactly in a classical rectangular shape.  By the end of the afternoon, VB was coming around to the ...

Did I allude to a lazy morning in a recent blog? Well, it happened. One of those days when one's get-up-and-go has got up and gone. Umpteen mugs of tea did not bump-start my mojo, but hey, we were on holiday, so it's all good. Instead, we eventually sauntered down the hill to the Nethy House cafe for an early lunch, before tromping off into the woods for an afternoon of wildlife watching. En route to the cafe, a Red Admiral and a Small Tortoiseshell were nectaring on a roadside bush. We managed a few photos of the former, but a passing car spooked the latter before we could commit it to pixels. Still, these were our first flutters of the year, and it felt like an energy boost for us too. After an excellent lunch at the cafe, we wandered back over the eponymous bridge, past the village shop and followed a sign for the Speyside Way. This path took us by some sports pitches, then between the Millennium pools where, in a month or so, there will be loads of damselflies and dragonfli...

It's 07.50 of a Saturday morning. One of Megan's cats, Cookie, is staring at me earnestly, as if to say "Look, it's ten minutes to breakfast time, why not do all of us a favour and dish it up now? We'll not mention anything to Megan." To be fair, she'll do this at any time from five minutes after her twice daily feeds. Her sister, Mocha, is dozing on the back of the sofa, seemingly unconscious to the world, but she will unfurl and show a sprightly side to her nature when the first sound of spoon on dish is heard. We are settling into a new routine here at Burnbank, and I realise that I haven't brought you an update on the progress of the guest room. We are quietly pleased with our attempt at co-ordinating soft furnishings, although the room needs a bit more art on the walls. Outside, and I'm sure you don't need telling what this piece of artistry is? A Red Admiral butterfly soaking up the heat shortly after dawn Hang on whilst I feed the cats.....