So May and June have been busy. Really busy. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have noticed a few trips back and forth to Edinburgh and that's because I've got myself a graduate job! I'm very excited to be staying in Scotland but understandably things have been a little hectic trying to get organised and "officially" move myself out from London. 

A trip to Birmingham to pick my brother up from his first year at uni almost felt like a holiday. Yes, I was buried up to my head in bags and clothes and textbooks sitting in the back seat but as a reward for managing to get the boot shut, we went to the Botanical Gardens.


Although it was cloudy and spat with rain a bit, it was still warm. We explored a good portion of the grounds, which reminded me of a scaled down Kew Gardens. There's actually a lot of horticulture packed into a comparatively small area and a nice (albeit expensive) tea room.

Plants aren't particularly a passion of mine (perhaps that will change when I have a garden of my own) but I really appreciated the herb and health garden and the historical gardens, built to reflect the styles from Roman, Medieval and Tudor times. 


The birdhouse was a pleasant surprise too! 


Truthfully though, this trip was an excuse to brush the dust off my macro lens and get some pretty photos of plants...
1 - Into the Woods
2 - October
3 - Bonfire Night
4 - Flat Christmas
5 - Dissertation Lab
6 - 'Adventure'
8 - Balquhidder and Loch Voil
8 - April Showers?

9 - Bluebells in the Hermitage Wood


10 - Riverside

At the risk of becoming far too emotional (I'll save that for the graduation post!), I'll try to keep things brief! This year has flown by faster than any other academic year in my memory. I've lived with wonderful people, conducted my own psychology experiment, written a hefty dissertation, and somehow still found the time to explore new parts of Scotland. 

My room is all packed into boxes ready to be loaded into the car and it hasn't quite hit me that I won't be returning to this beautiful campus in September. I won't have another year of attempting to navigate the labyrinth of Cottrell, the weekly pub quizzes at the union, or narrowly avoiding an altercation with the swans when walking to the Atrium... 

All I'll say is people better watch out at graduation. There will be enough bittersweet tears to create Loch Airthrey three times over. ;)

It's April and the weather is all over the place. When I had this post in mind, I thought I was going to be welcoming the return of the sunshine but this week it has decided to snow. It's late April and it's snowing. If that isn't a sign of climate change, I don't know what is. 

Regardless, last week my flat had a lovely picnic in the sunshine. We took a walk down from our halls and round the loch, passing by this nesting swan. The groundskeepers have set up a protective fence as the nest is very close to the path so the mamma swan is safe (and more importantly, so are we...)


Up on top of the hill, we sat to appreciate the sunshine and fresh air and eat nice food. April is a month I enjoy a lot due to its warmth (usually..) and a distinct lack of grass pollen that has me sneezing for most of May and into June... 


This little picnic turned into my first time geocaching! For those who don't know, geocaching is like a modern day treasure hunt. You download an app to your phone, turn on your GPS and it directs you towards the area where the cache is located. Once you're close enough, you have to scramble around and look for the cache! We successfully found the Blue Whale, logged our success in the little blue book and left something blue, as instructed! 


Other than this nice afternoon, this month has mainly been finishing up final bits and pieces for my undergraduate degree, so not a lot has happened. It's hard to believe I've handed in my last assignment now. Rather anticlimactically too, via online submission. After receiving my TurnItIn receipt, I sat back and had to marvel at how fast these past four years have gone. All I have to do now is turn up to graduation in June. It feels so strange. 


Side note: I was featured by the University of Stirling's student newspaper, The Brig! A big thank you to them. The article displays some of my favourite photos that I've taken (some of which aren't on the blog).