Autumn is my favourite season and we usually get away with the motorhome as often as we can this time of year. However with the Covid-19 restrictions that has been very difficult (unless we want to go touring the City of Edinburgh in a motorhome) and I am sure that you are all feeling the pain.
So this blog is all about the joys of Autumn at Hamelldaeme (for those of you not familiar with the phrase it's a Scottish Staycation). So let's start with the static status of our New Vannie over this period, aptly illustrated in this little time-lapse video:
A lovely view of Autumn colours out our rear window.
We have had plenty of wildlife visiting our garden over the Autumn months, including the following birds:
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| Wood Pigeon on the grass |
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| Starling Posing on Fence |
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| Magpie on Fence |
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| Jackdaw dining locally |
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| Starling Party |
Relatively common birds, but interesting none-the-less. We have had a few more unusual species in the garden, such as this small flock (of three or four) Bullfinch:
Sometimes it was interesting behaviour that caught my attention, such as this Great Tit searching every potential nook and cranny for a spider or other such titbits to eat:
We usually have a little Wood Mouse that regularly makes an appearance but I haven't seen it since late Summer when it ventured out to eat some bread put out for the birds (I know you are not supposed to feed bread to the birds):
In the summer I also made a pond in our front garden; well I dug a hole, put my son's old baby bath in it and filled it with rain water. It seemed to work and attracted some insect larvae and a couple of water beetles. In the late summer I put out my trail camera and found out we had some nocturnal visitors to the pond:
I soon realised that I had to make a gap in the perimeter fence to let the Hedgehog in to the pond, I had thought that it would come through the hedge.
In the Autumn it was taken over by the birds as a place to wash and drink:
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| Home-made Pond in Front Garden |
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| Blackbird and Sparrow visiting pond |
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| Sparrows and Starling at pond. |
This little video shows how busy it could get at the pond
Can't wait to see if we get any pond residents next Spring.
Whilst looking out my front window one morning in late Autumn I was surprised to find there were no birds at the pond, I also noticed there were no birds at my neighbour's feeder either (it is usually hoaching with Sparrows), a quick glance at my neighbour's hedge revealed the reason:
A male Sparrowhawk was perched on the hedge, it looked like it had just made an unsuccessful strike and was resting up, it didn't hang about long.
It's wrong to say that we didn't go anywhere over the last couple of months, we did go out for a few local walks, such as this little jaunt along Home Farm Road to Dundas Castle and Back:
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| Moira on Home Farm Road |
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| Autumn Berries |
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| Autumn Caterpillar |
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| View Towards The Bridges |
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| Heading to Dundas Castle |
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| View Towards The Pentland Hills |
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| Dundas Castle |
Dundas Castle doesn't look too impressive in this photo, but it does have impressive grounds with an impressive driveway:
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| Dundas Castle Driveway |
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| Bent Tree on Driveway |
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| Nice Treescape |
The driveway used to be even more impressive before it was cut in half by the A90 way back in the early 1960's. The half on the other side of the A90 is known locally as The Dark Entries!
We are quite lucky to have interesting places we can go for a walk locally, although they are all noticeably busier this year. The walk down to Queensferry shoreline is quite pleasant, but we tend to go mid-week as it can be busy at weekends. Here are some photos of one such walk:
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| The House on The Hill |
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| The Rail Bridge |
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| The Road Bridges |
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| South Queensferry Shoreline |
There are usually a few birds to see on the shoreline, especially when the tide is out:
The Rail Bridge always looks impressive in photographs..........
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| Forth Rail Bridge and Hawes Pier |
...........but it's not until you get right under it do you fully realise the scale of it:
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| Under The Rail Bridge |
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| Looking Towards Fife |
The scale of The Bridge is also emphasised when you seen a train going over it:
A heavy diesel train can be made to look like a toy.
After admiring The Bridge and the views across the Forth we headed back uphill, using the steps behind the Hawes Inn, known locally as Jacob's Ladder:
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| Looking Up Jacob's Ladder |
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| Looking Down Jacob's Ladder |
This leads to the old railway line that runs from Dalmeny to Port Edgar, which is now a cycle/walkway; which was surprisingly quiet this day (it is usually busy with dog-walkers, cyclists, joggers and strollers):
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| An Empty Cycle/Walkway |
Half way along this lane there is a great photo opportunity with a fantastic view of The Bridge (which I couldn't resist):
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| Yet another Rail Bridge photo |
I also noticed that the large tug (which is usually based at Hound Point Oil Terminal) was testing its water pumps, which I think are part of its fire-fighting capabilities; whatever they are for it was impressive:
We headed on back home, passing the New High School and the demolished remains (basically rubble) of what was the Old High School.
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| Rear Entrance to New High School |
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| Demolishing The Old High School |
Bang goes my son's old school and my evening woodwork classroom (wonder when we will get back to woodwork classes?)
It was an enjoyable and interesting walk that day, but I still miss being able to go away for a few days with the motorhome.
I will leave you with another time-lapse video of the passing of Autumn, as viewed from our front window:
That's All Folks!
Hope you all have a Merry (but careful) Christmas and a Happy (but safe) New Year
Take Care
Teddyedward
