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 […]
Oops!! – this wee burn is beginning to freeze over! Whilst out for a walk on the Lomond Hills, a couple of weekends ago, it got so cold that the wee stream (‘burn’ in Scottish) began to freeze over! (It was partially frozen from the night before.)
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!
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.
As part of this weeks Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge : Orange & Green, I’ve posted eight more photos taken from Balbirnie Park, near Glenrothes. The photographs were all taken just after dawn, at the beginning of this month, on a day which started quite misty (well foggy very first thing – see last photo), […]
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).
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!! 🙂
After a day of fog and rain yesterday, I thought I’d post a few photographs taken during the summer, of some interesting (to me) Cirrus clouds. All the photo’s are B/W images, which have been edited a wee bit. They were all taken from home.
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.
One of the places I really enjoy walking is a smallish circular walk from the Balbirnie Park, nr Glenrothes, through to Markinch, up to Star and Kirkforthar, and back to the back entrance of Balbirnie Park. This would definitely be classed as a ‘Happy Place‘ for me. A few weeks ago, I had decided to do […]
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.
I took this photo last summer, just before they put in a cinder path from the East Lomond car park back down towards Glenrothes.
Boundaries can come in many different forms, walls, hedges, fences, country boundaries, sports field boundaries, the list goes on and on. The two photos below show the boundaries between a clear crisp view of the landscape above Glenrothes, and the early morning mist/fog that had formed in the valley.
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, […]
I took this photograph on the same day as the photo from yesterday’s post. It was taken on the back road from Kinghorn to Auchertool, just to the west of Kirkcaldy. These two sycamores are on opposite sides of the road near the brow of the hill and remind me of an old loving married […]
I took this black and white photograph during late summer, last year, just to the North of Kinghorn. The way the wheat was blowing in the breeze in the foreground and the rolling hills in the background really appealed to me, they reminded me of the sea.
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 Geological Photo – 325 Million Years Old Worm Burrow Trace Fossils This rock bed, part of the Lower Limestone Formation at Seafield Castle beach, near Kirkcaldy, is approximately 325 million years old. It shows the casts from burrows of worms, that lived way back in Carboniferous times, in the warm shallow seas surrounding what […]
Textures, Colours and Geology I like this photo primarily because of the geology that it represents, but from an artistic point of view, it does have some interesting textures and colours. Geologically speaking, it’s approx 320 million years old, and part of the Lower Limestone Formation. This sequence of mudstones, siltstones, sandstones and limestones were […]
Kirkforthar, Nr Glenrothes
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.
Black & white photograph I took last Tuesday, on a walk from Glenrothes to East & West Lomond Hills. This small clump of trees is in a field of wheat, on the edge of the Formonthills to the north of Glenrothes.
At the beginning of July, whilst we still had a summer, I took a trip up to Craigmeade on the Lomond Hills, in Fife. For the map of this location, click here. It seems crazy it was only a month ago, Autumn seems to have arrived very early this year just a few days after […]
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 