HELP PRESERVE BUTTERFLY HABITAT

Where did the Summer go? Just last week I was photographing butterflies in East Lothian and then, yesterday evening - huge rain clouds rolled in over the Firth of Forth as the sun set behind Edinburgh. Now today, brrr, it's freezing cold and the rain is pouring down as I write! Just as well I got my walking in first thing this morning. Tho' in truth - I do have a huge golf brolly and, with waterproofs and wellies, a wee bit of rain is never going to stop me getting outdoors. Yes, in all seasons - it's a joy to be outdoors and every season offers us something different to enjoy in Scotland. Beautiful scenery and wildlife in our natural environment which we should never take forgranted.

Sunset over Edinburgh from Musselburgh East Lothian
Shona McMillan © All Rights Reserved

Incredible to think that such fragile creatures as butterflies can visit us from so very far across the sea. And, so important that we each do what we can to help them survive our ever changing world. If each gardner left just one nettle and one thistle plant in their garden for them to feed on - what a difference that would make in halting the frighteningly quick, steady decline there has been in their numbers over recent years. Once, it was a common sight to see butterflies in Edinburgh but now, it takes a lot of effort to find them - and the above two were not in the city but down the coast in East Lothian.

Seacliff, East Lothian
Shona McMillan © All Rights Reserved

There are various flowers which are particular favourites of butterflies and these are also much enjoyed by Honey bees which are equally under threat from loss of habitat, man's increased use of pesticides and changes in our climate. The following link gives a lot of helpful information for what you can do to help our threatened insect wildlife www.ukbutterflies.co.uk And of course, for information to help our 'feathered friends' you can visit the website of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) http://www.rspb.org.uk

Swans photographed at the foot of the River Esk, Musselburgh
Leith and the built up Edinburgh skyline behind
Shona McMillan © All Rights Reserved

We have a wonderful environment, one we must strive to preserve

so that generations to come have the same opportunities to enjoy and appreciate this world as we do.

Dawn: Looking from Edinburgh to East Lothian
Shona McMillan © All Rights Reserved

For more photos from Scotland, please visit my website http://www.shonamcmillan.co.uk and you can also follow my regular "Out and About" postings on my Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/shonamcmillan.celticreflections

By the Firth of Forth
Shona McMillan ©  All Rights Reserved

TIME TO BEGIN AGAIN

Easter Sunday was a perfect day for me, from start to finish. A frosty sunrise, to a sunny, increasingly warm day with a hot afternoon before the evening clouded over again.  By then, I welcomed the drop in temperature. Nevertheless, at the hottest time of the day, how pleasant it was to have sat under trees by a loch watching butterfllies - such delicate creatures to have come through the last harsh winter. Easter seems to be the time, when all around us we can see Nature's hand in the creation of new life beginning again.

Yesterday, invited to visit an art exhibition in a church, at the venue there were bookmarks with the picture of a butterfly settled on some blossom and the statement "Easter, time to begin again" - an interesting selection of words open to many interpretations. Later, looking at butterfly photographs I had just taken, I thought again about the bookmark phrase in connection with words a best friend had read to me on Good Friday. Whilst on the phone, she accidently knocked items to the floor and stopping to pick these up, she read to me some words from where a book's page had opened - beginning with the sentence about time, that "There is a right time for everything: A time to be born and a time to die." And we had talked about this, myself remembering my mum saying "people fear death and yet, some die without ever having lived and that should be feared much more." How precious was our time, our share of life.

TIME: There is a right time for everything;

There is a right time for everything;
A time to be born, a time to die

A time to plant;

A time to harvest;

A time to kill;

A time to heal;

A time to destroy;

A time to rebuild;

A time to cry;

A time to laugh;

A time to grieve;

A time to dance;

A time for scattering stones;

A time for gathering stones;

A time to hug;

A time not to hug;

A time to find;

A time to lose;



Easter - Time to begin again?



A time for keeping;

A time for throwing away;

A time to tear;

A time to repair;

A time to be quiet;

A time to speak up;

A time for loving;

A time for waiting;

A time for war;

A time for peace.

All around nature is beginning again, flowers coming in to bloom, young animals being born, birds nesting on eggs soon to hatch. To do something 'again', some can focus on an action being repeated because it wasn't done correctly the first time around. Yet surely, it is more liberating to focus on the positive - that with wisdom from past experiences, a person can take a new opportunity to "begin again". So, here is to new beginnings at the start of a New Year, at Easter or indeed, whenever they are taken - "Life is to be lived!"  



The verse above about 'Time' is from the Bible, Ecclesiastes Chptr 3. And I think, whether a person is religious or not, The Bible can make interesting, thought provoking reading. In this chapter, the passage moves on to question "What does a person really get from hard work" and states "Everything is appropriate in its own time." We can not see from the beginning to the end of eternity but we can conclude "there is nothing better than to be happy and to enjoy oneself as long as possible - to eat, drink and enjoy the fruits of our labour."

With a smile, I could translate the above as knowing when it's the right time to go with the flow and when instead, it's the time to paddle as hard as you can! Yes, sometimes, it is best to drift down stream with the current but, at other times, you need to face the immediate situation - find the strength required to paddle your own boat against the flow, safely steering your own course (as best as you can) through whatever storm in life it is that you face.

Yet, after the storm, embracing the need to pull your boat safely up on to the shore, taking time out for a walk to relax and reflect. By a loch, on a beach or looking down from a hill at the beauty below. Anywhere scenic is always a great place to think and focus the thoughts so that calm and refreshed we are ready to "begin again".

Easter Sunday, my day perfect from start to finish. Some clouds at sunrise causing the sun to illuminate the sky with an orangey hue. Then the continuing sunshine warming up the earth so that dormont butterflies took to the air. Then in the evening, after a long, hot day, the temperature finally dropped and by then, high above East Lothian on the Duns Road, I watched the misty clouds roll over the Firth of Forth. Time, is as always moving on. Easter Sunday drawing to a close before the start of the post holiday working week and my Monday morning - a time to begin again.