Tuesday 19 April 2011

De-comissioning the Methil Power Station

The Methil Power Station is gradually being taken down. The main building is now just a shell. The site is expected to be cleared by the end of the year.

A pair of mute swans with four juveniles seen just off the pier in Lower Largo, with the Methil Power Station in the background. I will miss the view of the power station's chimney from the pier, as it defined the Western end of Largo Bay

Monday 11 April 2011

Keil's Den - First Walk of the Year

The grain of the wood on this fallen tree makes a wonderful natural sculpture. Gorse is flowering in the background.
We had put off a walk through Keil's Den because it can be muddy slippery underfoot in wet weather, so this was the first time that we had visited this year. Early Spring flowers were in bloom particulaly celandine and wood anemones, but there were also small clumps of primroses and wood sorrel.
A carpet of wood anemones clothing the banks of the Keil Burn
Dog's mercury. (Mecurialis perennis). At first sight this plant appears to have no flowers, but on closer inspection there are small flower spikes. Although it doesn't contain mercury, it is poisonous, the poison being in the volatile oil from the plant.
Great wood-rush (Luzula sylvatica). This plant is widespread near the burn in Keil's Den.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Spring Flowers in the Serpentine Walk

 Celandine flowers line the banks of the Largo Burn which flows through the Serpentine Walk.
 In the above photo celandines are flowering with butterbur.
Daffodils line the side of the path in the Serpentine Walk. Blackthorn flowers are also beginning to come out.