Bugs
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A little dreamI would love to be someone who can walk through a wood and go, "Ah, that's a such and such singing...over there, on that wotsisname tree. And do you see that patch of thingymajigs around it?"
Sadly, apart from Treadodactyl, I know about the most of any of my friends and family about this kind of thing (although I'm still eyeing up an Italian colleague who claims to know her way around a mushroom or two). So I'm reduced to learning about things through books and CDs (for the birdsong), and the very occasional course.
Any tips would be gladly appreciated but mainly, I just wanted to feel sorry for myself 
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jema
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I certainly have a m8 who can do the bird song ID bit, and spot the little blighters at distances that make me say where what.....
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Kirstie
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Aw bugs  Same way as I learn Im afraid, books the best way as I am tending to be able to recognise quite a lot of birds, plants, fungi and trees, unless you can chat up your Italian colleague and maybe she could teach you about some of the mushrooms 
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SparklyWellies
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Surely Jema that's a dismissable offence? M8?
I hope u r ok xxx
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wellington womble
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Me too, me too! I highly reccommend you buy bill oddies how to watch wildlife - I missed the whole tv series, but bought the book on wednesday, hadn't even opened it yet, but yesterday I saw an owl! Bloody good book!
Also reckon we have a wood full of anemomes (well they look like the picture anyways!) I have now started the book, but I haven't seen anything else yet.
I'd like to have an idea of what's yelling/fluttering/growing/hiding around me - no aspirationns to be any kind of expert, just recognise commonn things, and we do walk in the woods every day.
& stp tht txt stuf. I cn onle rid it OUT LOUD. And it reminds me of officer Crabtree out of 'Allo 'Allo!
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ButteryHOLsomeness
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bugs
instead of being down on yourself for not knowing 'enough' maybe you should be proud of yourself for knowing a lot more than most and having the burning desire to know more!
i was so pleased with my self last summer when i recognised that we have a huge beech tree in our shared communal gardens, dh disagreed with me but somehow i just knew and i was right. yesterday i discovered some wild garlic by sight (then confirmed by smell) even though there was a plant next to it that looked very similar i knew that it's leaves weren't broad enough, i was so proud of myself as i've only seen wild garlic once in the wild before and you couldn't miss it then, the forest stank of garlic 
every time i recognise something new i get a wee high! dh is actually amazed because i just seem to 'know' but methinks it's just all this reading i'm doing... don't worry bugs it will come, the more you want to know the more you'll teach yourself and the more you'll recognise. it's not going to happen really quickly now because you aren't forced to live or die by your ability to identify. be happy of that and take your time to learn the easy way (much better than learning the hard way in my humble opinion )
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jema
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I can't wait for Cabs Epping forest meet and tutorial session.
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ButteryHOLsomeness
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i don't suppose anyone is planning anything up in scotland? we've got some great green areas in edinburgh and definately out penicuik or balerno way... please please pretty please
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jema
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| ButteryHOLsomeness wrote: | | i don't suppose anyone is planning anything up in scotland? we've got some great green areas in edinburgh and definately out penicuik or balerno way... please please pretty please |
I love Edinburgh, probably my favourite ciy in many ways 
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moggins
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Epping Forest? How am I supposed to get to Epping Forest????
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ButteryHOLsomeness
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| jema wrote: | | ButteryHOLsomeness wrote: | | i don't suppose anyone is planning anything up in scotland? we've got some great green areas in edinburgh and definately out penicuik or balerno way... please please pretty please |
I love Edinburgh, probably my favourite ciy in many ways |
i really love it too, we have lived on skye, in glasgow and in edinburgh in the 6 years that i have been in scotland and edinburgh is definately my favourite!
i know that glasgow is supposed to mean 'dear green place' but edinburgh is definately greener overall (and i used to live in the west end of glasgow quite near to the botanic gardens where it is very green over all) i love going up to princes street and seeing the huge park taking up one entire side of the main shopping strip! we live in a conservation area in newington and we have mature walled gardens everywhere it is soooo pleasant to walk my dd to nursery and see/smell all the flowers and hear birds chirping and even though you'd think there would be a lot of light pollution here, i can always see the stars clearly at night.
we are a 5 minute walk from arthurs seat (if you lean out our kitchen window you can see it  ) it's a nice walk around there and i'm sure we can find some nice edible plants if we went looking. i also know of quite a few wooded areas around here that are easy to get to. also with scotland having no trespassing laws we have free access to any hills /forests that we want to visit as long as we are respectful to the property owners... it's a great place to live!
now, is anyone going to have a forgaing group here, i really want some first hand experience!
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jema
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We have walked from the centre to Arthurs Seat and beyond. It is quite a compact city in some ways
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mochyn
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Where possible, try to get pics of plants/birds/butterflies or whatever. Post them on here and someone's bound to know! It's happened once, with the evergreen alkanet in a thread called something like "What's This?", so I don't see why it shouldn't happen again. Perhaps we need a separate category for idents? I can do most garden plants and a wide range of wild stuff. I'll even have a go at conifers!
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