A few special things

It's grassland survey time of year again. The last couple of Saturday mornings, and with a few more to come, I have been at the Aberlady Nature Reserve with my fellow conservation volunteers, rummaging around in the undergrowth. We found sixteen different species in this 2m square site, and in the surrounding area a few other special treats.

The common spotted orchid

a big clump of hairy violet, which was quite a find,

and the Northern Marsh Orchid.

Ragged robin

and viper's bugloss are two of my favourite wild flowers, the latter also beloved by bees!

And here are two firsts for me. For a long time I have known that butterflies love to lay their eggs on stinging nettles, but I have never seen proof of that, until now! We passed dozens of these black caterpillars crawling around on nettles. They are the caterpillar of the peacock butterfly. What a transformation they are will be undergoing!!

Finally, this dainty little thing is a moth. The latticed heath moth, Chiasmia clathrata.

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In a vase on Monday - colour

The intense colours in my vase this week come from nasturtiums, sweetpeas and a single glorious zinnia! Their beauty and love of life speak for themselves and need no further words from me! Enjoy!

Colonsay postcards - on arrival

The first thing I do, once we have unpacked our car, which has been groaning with all the stuff we need for a week's stay in the holiday cottage, is head for the outer gardens of Colonsay House. It is a place of wonder for me! I particularly love the leaves of the giant rhododendrons. There are many different varieties, all planted in the early 1930s. The outer gardens are generally overgrown, having had little tending over the decades. That makes them even more magical! The old woodmill falls apart a little more every year, but that's fine by me because I love corrugated iron and especially if it's rusted! And of course the bees. Colonsay's beekeeper, Andrew Abrahams, has one of his apiaries on the edge of the pine wood. So lovely - the hum of busy bees and the heady smell of the pines. We are here - finally! Delayed by four months by the wretched virus, but now I am on holiday! Hooray!

Found items IAVOM

I am on holiday on the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay. It is my happy place. Thoughts of Colonsay rattle around in my head each and every day I am not here! I haven't got a vase to share this week but some lovely things I have found over the past few days, which are just as beautiful as a vase of flowers! I hope you agree! Here are some leaves of giant rhododendrons, growing in the outer gardens of Colonsay House. Some skeleton leaves of magnolia. The dried stem of a kelp seaweed. A couple of conkers (can never resist those!), and a branch heavily populated by a number of lichens. The air on Colonsay is so clean that lichens flourish here!

the running wave

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