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!
The village of Luss on the banks of Loch Lomond is in an idyllic setting and nearly every house on the main street has climbing roses in a range of different colours. Luss is a conservation village and the busy Loch Lomond road bypasses it - even so, it needs a large car park to accommodate the many tourists who call there. Luss became even more popular when it became the main outdoor location for the Scottish Television drama series "Take the High Road." The fictional name 'Glendarroch' from the series is used by some of the tourist traps in the village.
Glen Luss runs from the village into the surrounding hills - the original name for Luss was Clachan dubh, or "dark village" as the sun goes behind the western hills while the opposite bank of Loch Lomond can still be bathed in sunshine. There are occasional glimpses of the loch from the road up Glen Luss.
There are a number of different Carpet moths - this one delights in the name of "Beautiful"! Adult Beautiful Carpet moths fly from May to August, mainly in open woodland. But this one decided to have a rest on the door of my garage for several hours and was quite unimpressed by a camera less than an inch away!
Kellie castle in Fife dates as far back as 1150 when Malmure, thane of Kellie, witnessed a charter from King David I. Later, the estate was signed over to a Walter Oliphant and his descendants lived in Kellie for 250 years. In 1613 the property was purchased by Sir Thomas Erskine - who had saved the life of King James VI during the "Gowrie Conspiracy". The King stayed at Kellie in 1617, during his only visit to Scotland after the Union of the Crowns in 1603. Kellie was abandoned early in the 19th century, but a Professor James Lorimer took it over and rescued it. Members of the Lorimer family stayed in Kellie as tenants and eventually bought the castle in 1948. It is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland.
The Campsie Fells (hills) are visible from the windows of my house. They are not very high, less than 1,900 feet, but rise sharply from the broad valley of the river Clyde (and can be seen clearly from tall buildings in the centre of Glasgow). This picture of the Campsie Fells, however, was taken from the northern side, near the little village of Fintry in Stirlingshire. It's when you see all that greenery that you appreciate just how much rain falls in this part of the country!
The Green Lacewing is one of a large family "Chrysopidae" which has nearly 2,000 species. These small, delicate insects have translucent wings with distinctive veining and long antennae. Their compound eyes are often golden or red. Despite their delicate appearance, they are carnivorous, devouring large numbers of aphids. If they are handled they can release a vile smell which results in them having a common name of "stinkflies"!
As mentioned earlier, there were large numbers of rambling roses in front of the houses in the village of Luss. There was a wide variety of colours - including this one that seemed to have been produced by spilling a number of paint pots.If you want to look back at earlier editions of this Colour Supplement, there is an Index Page
