Here’s a few photos from my usual Sunday morning walk. Starting to see many signs of Autumn fast approaching. Where did the Summer go?

Blackberries

Rowan

Buddleia

Speckled Wood

Red Admiral

One man (Stephen) and his dog (Rufus) My home town of Ards in the background.

Scrabo Tower.

Strangford Lough.

Mourne Mountain in the distance.

Mountain Ash Berries ripening.

Who says trees in nature don’t have one branch growing below another? This big Spanish Chestnut disagrees.

Morning sun in the upper branches of a beautiful Scots Pine.

Fuchsia growing wild below the tower.

A cottage in the country.

The North Quarry, long disused. This is where all the famous Scrabo stone comes from and the pink sandstone can be seen on many of the old buildings in the area. It was also exported all around the world. The quarry is now home to Peregrine Falcons and Kestrels.

Ben brought along his berberis on Friday night for advice and a trimming. Personally I think he would rather it was me getting spiked to death with all those spines!!

This is a cracker little clump that we had worked on back in the Spring. He has already had to remove the wire and we added a few more to pull a few new shoots into place. It’s a year or so off coming into shape but with the great care it’s getting, I expect this to be a cracker little tree in years to come.

Before trimming…

and after…