THEBE - IMO 9199696 - Callsign V2OS

THEBE - IMO 9199696 - Callsign V2OS cruising by just off Flisk Point on its way to Perth two days ago. Now it's sea bound heading to the Tay Bridge and beyond at the time of this report.

IMO: 9199696
Name: THEBE
MMSI: 304011026
Type: GENERAL CARGO
Gross Tonnage: 1846 t
Summer DWT: 2500 t
Build: 2000
Flag: ANTIGUA & BARBUDA
Home port: SAINT JOHN'S

Wild Rose flowers North Fife

A drive of 5 miles to Newburgh today, The verges and hedgerows are a wealth of wonderful wild roses. I tend to drive slowly, just taking it all in. Later of course in the Autumn all is speckled with deep red coloured rose hips, a brilliant product for syrup.

Roses and Broom in bloom.

Sheep North Fife

Just 10 Metres from my house is field of sheep, whenever I pop out our eyes meet, I'm thinking mint sauce, I hope they don't pick up on my carnivorous nature.

The Ewes are Romney, offspring...have black faces and legs, must be a cross of some sort.

Sunset North Fife 11th June

Sunset over The River Tay, a view from my garden. The world is in constant change, weather, growth, life death. I'm bursting into song....what a wonderful world....

In a second or two the sun dipped below the horizon.

Wild Roses North Fife

Roses in abundance, along the roadside from home to Newburgh North Fife there are stands of intermittent roses, some white others pink and deeper pink.

I love this time of the year, it's getting warmer, a delight to be about and enjoy the succession of different flowers.

Along with the roses are the occasional Elder trees the flowers and fruit providing a rich addition to foods and wines. Rose hips and Elderberries follow on.

Orange-tip Butterfly North Fife

Orange-tip ( Anthocharis cardamines )  North Fife. This very lovely butterfly has become numerous and wide spread locally this year. Only the male is tipped with orange, the female largely white with similar black markings to the male.

A mating pair of Orange-tip butterflies.

EATS, Food for Free North Fife.

On Friday 30th May interested peoples assembled in Newburgh North Fife to partake in a seminar on how to create an EATS (Edible And Tasty Space) A grass roots movement. Converting public grassed spaces into productive and attractive amenities for the benefit of all.

Refreshments before the start.

Kevin O'Kane starts the ball rolling in Newburgh Church of Scotland, the use of donated free for Christians and mainly others. An appreciated gesture.

Lesley Riddock speaks eloquently on empowering communities and the importance of food and her recent book. Blossom.Blossom: What Scotland Needs to Flourish (Viewpoints)

Greig Robertson instructs in an entertaining and anecdotal way of his experience in converting moribund spaces into productive amenity communal gardens. See

Alan Carter enthusing Forest Gardens beyond the allotment fence. Basically planting trees, shrubs and plants that require no maintenance, all in accord and in the right place. Alan's web site reveals a lot of good information.http://scottishforestgarden.wordpress.com/

David Ross with help from his daughters replanted the space in front of the Laing Library Newbugh. Instruction was of planting a mixture of edibles mixed with flowers, Marigolds, for instance scent the area and mask cabbage from butterfly laying eggs and so it goes on....mindful planting that requires no maintenance . This is how it was last year.

Newburgh Community Orchard. Goes beyond the ordinary.

Bullfinch North Fife

Yesterday I was drawn outside by a plaintive cry of what turned out to be a juvenile bullfinch which at first I thought was a fledgling chaffinch.

From the living room window, the dad had arrived to oversee events. Usually a fairly shy bird I just wanted to see more of it. As if by telepathy this handsome bird obliged by roosting close by the window.

May Blossom May North Fife

The River Tay at Newbugh yesterday evening, low water revealing the deep channel in which the ships are pilot  navigated along to Perth Docks.

 Today, pleasantly warm with more sunshine.

In the garden a mixed hedge is in full Hawthorn bloom

The leaves, flowers and berries can be eaten as a healthy food supplement.I've allowed the hedge to grow quite tall as a defence against the agriculture chemical spays. It's a sad fact that farmed countryside is now more hazardous a place to live given the noxious poisons regularly sprayed on the fields than industrial areas.
Pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, you name it. Dig soil in a field and you'll never find a worm and probably loads of other natural organisms/elements important for a balanced environment.
As a consequence my wee unkempt patch has become an oasis of living.

A tractor spraying the field of oilseed rape that surrounds my garden. I did inhale what ever it was in taking this shot.

North Fife Cloud May 2014

Yesterday, unusual cloud formations above and around my garden. I think they are called Mammatus, could be wrong of course, if you know differently, let me know.

Bluebells & Whitebells North Fife

Bluebells, this year there seems to be a lovely profusion, certainly over the last week or so they have taken my eye. Amongst them there are Whitebells which to be honest I've not noticed before

Hyacinthoides non-scripta (formerly Endymion non-scriptus or Scilla non-scripta) is a bulbous perennial plant, found in Atlantic areas from north-western Spain to the British Isles, and also frequently used as a garden plant. It is known in English as the common bluebell or simply bluebell, a name which is used in Scotland to refer to the harebell, Campanula rotundifolia. In spring, H. non-scripta produces a nodding, one-sided inflorescence of 5–12 tubular, sweet-scented violet–blue flowers, with strongly recurved tepals, and 3–6 long, linear, basal leaves.

H. non-scripta is particularly associated with ancient woodland where it may dominate the understorey to produce carpets of violet–blue flowers in "bluebell woods", but also occurs in more open habitats in western regions. It is protected under UK law, and in some other parts of its range. A related species, H. hispanica has also been introduced to the British Isles and hybridises with H. non-scripta to produce intermediates known as H. × massartiana.
The white variety have no name that I can find, a genetic malfunction though there are a lot of them about.

Also, as white became my focus this white Campion  caught my attention.