One of the things I noticed when I first moved up to Fife, was the lack of the very common flower/weed. ragwort! Personally I don’t mind the plant, it supports a reasonable amount of wildlife, but to farmers. it is a nightmare, as it is poisonous to horses and cattle – however, most horses and […]
An interesting effect of our recent weather, something I’ve not seen before, is the profusion of fungi that are coming up at the end of June/beginning of July. We had a very dry, (76mm of rain over March, April and May (100mm less rain than average), according to the Scottish Environmental Agency) and relatively warm […]
Over the last few years, we appear to be getting ever increasing numbers of jellyfish getting washed up along Fife’s coastline. The two most common species are the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish and the Moon Jellyfish – these often appear as blue or orange jelly ‘circles‘ on the strand-line of any given beach. Lion’s Mane […]
As part of this weeks Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge, I have enclosed seven photos where the focal point of the photograph is at the ‘Centrepoint‘ of the image, and thus breaking the rule of thirds. The three flower photographs, because of their circular nature, make placing them at the centre an obvious choice. The three insect […]
My final post this week, as part of the Eye Spy theme, for the wordpress photographic challenge, is two photos of actual eyes. The first is a picture of my dog, who loves it when I go to the beach to either take photos, or in this case look at the rocks!
To me, the view through a raindrop is like looking into another world, an upside down world full of curved creatures and plants!
As part of this weeks wordpress photographic challenge, Eye Spy, I’m posting three photos taken in Glenrothes. The first photo comes from Glenrothes Town Park, and shows ‘The Good Samaritan’, a sculpture by Ronald Rae, unveiled in 1988 to mark the 40th anniversary of the town. The sculpture depicts a fireman carrying a victim to safety, […]
The Peacock Butterfly The Peacock Butterfly (so called because of it’s markings, like those on a peacock’s feathers), uses it’s ‘Eye’ Spots to great affect for deterring predators such as birds and mice. When viewed head on, the rear ‘Eye’ spots create a head, with the body appearing as a large beak! The peacock butterfly […]
As part of this weeks ‘Eye Spy‘ Weekly Photo Challenge, here are three photos of the very common and popular foxglove plant. What many people miss though, is the beauty of the individual flowers and their ‘eye’ spots. Just as an extra wee note, did you know that foxgloves will only grow on acid soils […]
In response to “Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge – Diagonal Lines“, I’ve enclosed seven photos taken from in, and around Fife. I’ve also posted three extra photos, for Thanksgiving, showing things I am grateful for, about living in Fife. The first of the photos for Cee’s Challenge is of Cramond Harbour, on the outskirts […]
As my penultimate post following the theme of ‘Trios’ from Fife (as part of the Weekly Photographic Challenge – Trio), I am posting two photos. The first is of a ‘trio’ of pine cones, the second is of a ‘trio’ of ferns.
Continuing my theme of ‘Trios’ from Fife, as part of the Weekly Photographic Challenge – Trio, here is four photos of animals & insects in threesomes. The first two photos are of cows (or coos in Scottish!) on a misty summer morning in a field above Glenrothes.
In response to this weeks ‘Weekly Photographic Challenge – Trio‘, I’m posting seven wild flower ‘trios’ all taken around Fife in the last few months. The Iris flower head was growing in the wild, but is a garden escapee.
My final post, for a while, from Balbirnie Park, is of some bracket fungus. Like the lichen, I’m no expert on fungi, so I’m unsure of the genus or species of this particular mushroom.
This photo was taken last spring, in the gardens of Balbirnie House, near Glenrothes. I love the way the sun has really highlighted the vein structure of the leaves (typical leaves from a dicotyledon, as distinct from a monocotyledon that has parallel veins).
Today’s photograph is another from Balbirnie Park, this time a macro style image of a fly (blue bottle?) on a flower spike. I’m normally reasonable at identifying wild flowers, but for the life of me I can’t think what this one is 😦 If anyone knows, please let me know in the comments below 🙂 […]
Continuing my Balbirnie Park theme, whilst continuing to get all my previous posts located on the above menus, I took this photo of the flower head of a Ramsons, in late April this year. Ramsons are part of the major group of flowers called the monocotyledons. ‘Monocots’ are principally distinguished from the other major group […]
As you may well be aware of by now, I’m no expert on lichens, even though I love taking photographs of them. I’m guessing this lichen, which I found growing on a small rotting branch in the woods at Balbirnie House Park, is a member of the Fruticose Cup or Trumpet group of lichens. If anyone […]
Continuing my series of short posts from Balbirnie House Park, nr Glenrothes, here is a couple of photos of peeling tree bark. The first photo is of logs from an ornamental cherry tree, the second photo is from an old silver birch log.
This very plump Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) is a member of the orb weaving group of spiders. It is very easily distinguished by the ‘cross’ markings on its back. The next bit about them (below the photo), is not for the squeamish!! 🙂
Whilst re-organising my blog, I thought I would post a few photos of some flowers and insects, all of which were taken locally in the last few weeks, including this very common, but often much overlooked, daisy.
I headed out yesterday with the intention of catching some more of the fabulous Autumn colours in the foliage that we are getting this year. The weather was still a wee bit sunny, the rest of the week is set to be dreich 😦 But alas, I ended up at Holl Reservoir in the Lomond […]
Whilst photographing the storm clouds at the back of Kirkforthar at the end of August this year, I couldn’t resist stopping for five minutes to take a few photos of these Field Scabious flowers.
The Lomond Hills are my ultimate ‘Happy Place‘ in Fife, partly because they are the closest thing to mountains, and partly because the open moorland reminds me so much of West Cornwall.
There are many sites in Fife that I would class as a ‘Happy Place‘, places that just relax me totally. One such place is the Balgonie Bleachfield Project just outside Glenrothes.
Finally, some photographs Autumn, that are obviously more typical for the theme ‘Change‘ for last weeks’ Daily Posts – Weekly Photographic Challenge. The first set of photos are of a dog rose, Rosa canina, and it’s associated rose hips (seed pods), taken in Glenrothes park two days ago (more photos to come in another post).
I photographed this small clump of lichens on the sides of Falkland Hill last summer. I think this lichen is of the Genus Cladonia (also known as pixie cups, which is a far more magical name!!), but as to the species, that requires an expert. It’s one of the over 1500 different species found in Scotland!! […]
I really need to spend some time getting to know all the names of each part of a fungus. I spend more time trying to identify them from pictures and photos, than I would spend systematically identifying from the various attributes that each mushroom has. Today, I found an excellent on-line key for mushroom ids, […]
This is one of those photos where you get lucky. I just happened to come across these logs whilst the dusk mists were forming in some woods near Ladybank.
This was a photo I took back in early July, just after getting back from taking the photos from the post “Early Summer Insects and Flowers of Balgonie Bleachfield Project”. About 5 mins later, I was watching the torrential rain from the pleasant confines of the car!
Another photograph from my walk last Tuesday. Originally I’d intended just a shortish walk up to the top of Falkland Hill and back, having just had a bowl of cereal to eat early that morning. But it was such a wonderful day, I decided to do a brisk walk across to West Lomond Hill too. […]
A very common spring to early summer flower found usually in woodland clearings and fringes. When it rains, and at night time, both the flowers and the leaves close up. The leaves fold downwards along the axis seen in the middle of each leaf.
At the end of last week, after a trip to Dunfermline, I dropped in to Lochore Meadows for the first time. As I only had a couple of hours, I didn’t manage to see that much of it, but from what I saw it looks like a great place to take the kids (and adults), […]
A couple of days ago, between the rain in the morning and heavy showers in the late afternoon, I managed a short walk on the north-eastern fringe of Glenrothes, up the Coul Burn to the edge of the Formonthills. I wanted to try out my tripod with the Nikon Coolpix L25 compact camera. Of late, […]
The Balgonie Bleachfield Project near Glenrothes, Fife, has a wealth of flowers and insects, including the Six-spot Burnet Moth. For the location of the small nature reserve, see the post “Early Summer Insects and Flowers of Balgonie Bleachfield Project”. This common moth is the only British Burnet with six red spots on it’s dark […]
Whilst taking photographs of ‘Wild Angelica’ (Angelica sylvestris), down at the Balgonie Bleachfield Project in Fife yesterday, I knocked off a small lime green green spider.
Last week I headed down to the Balgonie Bleachfield Project/Nature Reserve, just outside Glenrothes, in Fife, Scotland. The nature reserve is on the site of an old ‘Bleaching Works’, used for bleaching textiles and linens from 1746 to 1957. From the mid 1960’s till 1996, the location was used as a landfill site, which was then […]
This is a short walk (approx 3.75km or 2 miles) from Woodside (Glenrothes) to Coaltown of Balgonie, Fife. Starting from Woodside Way in Glenrothes (the blue star on the map above), head eastwards along the tree lined footpath which starts at the bus stop. There is a hanging sign marking it, the ‘Lady’s Walk’. Lady’s walk […]
Fife Photos & Art 