I went in search of hazel leaves

The Woodland Trust was asking on Twitter if there were leaves still on hazel trees. There are some on the Boggy Brae hazel but I went "up the back" by the burn where there are older hazel plants to see what state they were in.

 Loads on young trees (left) and still plenty on older plants (below)

Poking around by the burn, which is splashy after all the rain we've had (which, for comparison, is a mere drip compared with what they've had up in the Highlands over the last couple of days),

and enjoying the rich Assam tea look it has in less tumbly parts of its wee ravine,

I came upon a robin. Actually, I think the robin came upon me. It certainly seemed to checking me out to see if I was turning up something tasty for it. So here's a game of

Spot the Robin

(click on the pics to enlarge)

Are you sure you didn't bring some mealworms?

Making my way back by this path–the burn and the wooded hillside to my right and the Boggy Brae garden to my left–I enjoyed the colours and crinkliness of what I know as Dog Lichen. I believe the dog part of the name means common, so common lichen, otherwise called Peltigera horizontalis/Flat-Fruited Dog Lichen, both by the burn and on rocks and trees back in the garden:

This sample is on one of the old railway sleepers
that the half-collapsed bridge is made of

The sample above and the one to the right are Boggy Brae samples.

Last of all, before coming in for a bowl of spicy lentil soup, I enjoyed the last of this year's Den Rose blossoms, a small flower, and very wet like everything else, but bonny for all that.