"Scottish Snippets"

"Colour Supplement"

15 April 2006

Each week the Scottish Snippets Newsletter includes a number of photographs which illustrate the weather, flora and fauna of the current week around Scotland. There are so many such graphics worth including that a separate "colour supplement" is created so as not to totally overload the Newsletter. Here is this week's crop!

Aubretia

The first two pictures in this section illustrate very well some of the weather in Scotland this week - heavy showers and sunshine. What this graphic of Aubretia covered in water droplets cannot convey is the strong wind and the low temperatures for this time of year.

Anemone Nemerosa

Anemones of different types flower in various seasons of the year. This small, delicate Anemone Nemerosa, seen here at the National Trust for Scotland Geilston Garden near Cardross in Argyll, is the spring-flowering variety.

Geilston

Although the National Trust for Scotland Geilston Garden is technically in Argyll, it is not far from Dumbarton, overlooking the Firth of Clyde. The delicate yellow flowers on the shrub beside the stream are Corylopsis. For more on Geilston, see Places to Visit - Geilston.

Kids

These young goats were born at Ardardan Farm between Cardross and Helensburgh only recently. The working farm has a shop selling fresh produce and a popular tearoom with home baking. It's not often that you can see the free range chickens that supplied the eggs that you buy in the shop or which go into the cakes you eat with your afternoon tea!

Skunk Cabbage


The botanical name for Skunk Cabbage (also known as Bog Arum) is Lysichiton. The yellow variety comes from the west coast of North America. The yellow shoots are not actually flowers - they are "spathes", a leaf-like, open ended tube, which has a spike inside. The insignificant flowers are laid out along this spike, which can grow to about a foot long.

Magnolia

A few days before this picture of a Magnolia bursting into blossom was taken, there had been a sharp frost which scorched many of the other blooms on this tall tree at Glenarn House in Rhu, turning them brown. Many of the Camellias in the garden had also been damaged by the frost.

Rhododendron

Although the Magnolias and Cammelias had been affected by the low temperatures, there were many other flowers which had coped very well - such as this magnificent Rhododendron.

If you want to look back at earlier editions of this Colour Supplement, there is an Index Page



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