"Scottish Snippets"

"Colour Supplement"

11 August 2007

Each week the Rampant Scotland Newsletter includes a number of photographs which illustrate the weather and the seasons, plus the flora and fauna of the current week around Scotland. This separate "colour supplement" displays some more pictures, in a larger format. Here is this week's crop of Scottish views!


Teasel can be a most imposing plant, growing to nearly seven feet high with large flower heads 3/4 inches long. The purple flowers attract lots of bees. Then in autumn the seeds provide food for goldfinches and other seed-eating birds.


Earlier this year, many of the fields in Scotland, particularly in the east, were bright yellow with oil seed rape flowers. Now, many of the fields are turning purple as farmers turn increasingly to growing Phacelia. This field was in Fife.


This is a close-up of the purple flowers of Phacelia. It is one of the top 20 honey-producing flowers for honeybees and is also highly attractive to bumblebees and hover flies. It is usually ploughed into the ground at the end of the season and is beneficial for following vigorous cash crops such as potatoes.


A picture of swallow chicks being fed appeared in this colour supplement about six weeks ago. Those youngsters will be fully fledged by now, looking after themselves - and the parents are now rearing a second brood. It's amazing that these little scraps, with their mouths wide open, will be flying to tropical Africa in only a matter of weeks.


This striking variety of Scabious or "Pincushion" flower was growing in the walled garden at Cambo Estate on the northern coast of Fife. The garden is a riot of colour at this time of year - and a haven for butterflies!


The rosebuds in this picture will soon be bursting forth to add to the display in the rose garden at Kinross House, overlooking Loch Leven.


Both the red and the white flowers in this picture are of Lavatera, the tree mallow. Some Lavatera are perennials that grow to the size of a large bush. These ones, however, are showy annuals that will flower from mid-summer until the first frosts in autumn.

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





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