Thursday, 27 February 2025

My Next Craft Project

 I've been bored with this t-shirt for a while now


 but today I was given some lace ribbon which will work perfectly in brightening it up and giving it a new look

I should of course, first finish customising the jacket I'm working on. This is the jacket as it was originally, when all I'd done was replace a couple of buttons.

It now looks significantly different, but I've not quite finished it yet. So I should get round to doing the fiddly finishing touches.

I'll share photos of both items of clothing once I've finished customising them.  

**

It's Seachdain na Gaidhlig (International Scottish Gaelic Week)! The Highland Countryside Rangers shared an excellent post on their Nature Unveiled Substack blog about the connections between the Scottish Gaelic language and nature and landscape. You can read it here

Wednesday, 26 February 2025

A Memoir by Charlotte Mitchell

 

On Wednesday 12 February, I went along to the launch of Charlotte Mitchell's Memoir that has been produced with the support of CAPS Independent Advocacy, which provides collective and individual advocacy fur users of mental health services in Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian. You can read about the launch event in this Facebook post from CAPS Advocacy

Charlotte comes along to one of my writing groups and, along with several members of the group I was keen to support her at this event. 

I've now read this short book too. It outlines Charlotte's life, starting with her early love of nature:

"I still vividly remember the walks we took up Ben Lomond with its gurgling stream and waterfall. There were traces of hedgehogs though I did not call them hedgehogs but Mrs Tiggy-Winkle after Beatrix Potter's book"

The account then follows her to her studies in Switzerland through to her struggles with her mental health. Life may have been difficult for Charlotte but she has always committed to helping other people. She has been active in the self advocacy movement  since 2006 and recently completed a Professional Development Award - Mental Health and Peer Work. She has also been a craft teacher for disabled children and a political and environmental activist. An example of her activism is when "the incinerator at Powderhall was spewing out particles which were landing on parked cars in the neighbourhood. We wrote to the council asking them to deal with this."

This memoir is an inspiring example of how someone can cope with mental health issues and use their experience to help others. 

Free copies of this memoir are available from CAPS Advocacy by emailing:
contact@capsadvocacy.org or phoning 0131 273 5116

 

Tuesday, 25 February 2025

Crocuses in Full Bloom

Crocuses are a lovely sign of Spring and are currently in full bloom in Edinburgh. These photos are from one of the city's most famous crocus displays in The Meadows. 



Monday, 24 February 2025

Haiku for Peace

waiting for peace -
a storm of petals
in the garden

**

originally published on Shadow Pond Journal here.

Sunday, 23 February 2025

Winter Birds at Musselburgh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

view from Musselburgh, looking across to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh

Yesterday we had a lovely visit to Musselburgh, in East Lothian, a short bus journey away from Edinburgh. It's always a favourite place for birdwatching, especially at this time of year when the winter birds are still here and the summer birds are due to arrive. Plus, the resident Skylarks are starting to sing. We were lucky to hear probably three Skylarks singing high above us and even saw one of them, a small silhouette against the clouds. 

Meanwhile on the River Esk we saw a large number of Canada Geese

along with a few Goldeneyes, the males trying to impress the females, by throwing back their heads. I'm not sure whether the female in the photo below is impressed or not, but the male is certainly putting on a show.. 

Walking further, along the Firth of Forth, we saw several birds out on the water, the most impressive being this male Long Tailed Duck

We also visited the hides on the Lagoons, where we were impressed by the numbers of Wigeon gathered at the far side of the lagoons, and were also pleased to get some photos of this Curlew that came quite close to the hide. 




Tuesday, 18 February 2025

He Used to Do Dangerous Things by Gaia Holmes

He Used To Do Dangerous Things

He Used to Do Dangerous Things is the debut short story collection from poet Gaia Holmes. These stories deal with a range of issues including family relations, grief, loneliness, depression and environmental protest. One of the things I enjoyed was how certain motifs occur in several of the stories (eg power cuts and batteries) creating connections between the stories.

The title story He Used to Do Dangerous Things focuses on Mick, who used to do dangerous things to raise money for charity, after being diagnosed with depression. Mick sees his depression as a black dog: 

 "He said he couldn’t walk through depression or away from it, but he could walk with it. He said that sometimes when he was out, it was as if the dog had seen a rabbit and it would race away from him through the gorse. It was a beautiful and powerful thing to watch, such a big, heavy beast running so quickly and weightlessly.”

Unloved Flowers follows Connor, a security guard in a garden centre with a strong feeling for nature. I can totally relate to this description of a train journey: 

“The sun’s just coming up, wheat fields a dull gold in the light, eagle on a telegraph pole, swallows swooping, deer. The woman sitting beside him is researching off-grid techno-detox holidays. She scrolls through Instagram photos of barefoot people and yurts and campfires... package holidays, ‘be free with the trees’, ‘Wild women’. The man across the aisle is in some angular virtual world shooting killer robot rabbits and outside there are trees, the smell of rain and foxes, a kestrel, a field humming with the blue of cornflowers, a heron, a huge lolloping hare. Look up! Look out, he wants to shout into the crowded carriage but he doesn’t.”

Connor gets to know a group of homeless people living in a greenspace that becomes threatened with development, becomes part of the community and joins in their fight to save their home, culminating in a beautifully surreal ending. 

Environmental protest also features in 198 Methods of NVDA (NVDA is Non-Violent Direct Action)  which takes the form of a diary of a participant at the protest against the Newbury bypass. The story gradually reveals the diary writer's motivations for protest. 

In Poached, the narrator gives us three inter-related stories. She and her partner are regularly enjoying the eggs from their adopted rescue chickens while watching the nesting birds in their garden and worrying about their own inability to conceive a child. A story that starts off sweet but ends up in a much darker place.

In Ratguts and Lola, a long distance lorry driver picks up two hitch-hikers and introduces them to his goldfish, Lola, who is losing her shine. The journey seems to have a transformational effect on the goldfish. 

Two stories explicitly deal with COVID. Defrosting, in which a woman who lost her husband to COVID ponders death as she wonders what to do with the left over Christmas turkey and her husband's favourite robin who has just died in their garden. Surge shows us how one lonely old man tries to cope with lockdown in his block of flats where the neighbours barely acknowledge each other in the stairs. He finds a unique way of dealing with things and is then suprised by an act of generosity by a neighbour. 

The other story I want to mention individually is Taste the Raisin, in which a visit from the plumber takes an unexpected turn, with very positive effects for the narrator.

This is an excellent collection of varied stories that show people finding ways of coping and helping each other through difficult situations. Often surreal, sometimes amusing and occasionally dark, these are stories that you will want to read again. 

He Used to Do Dangerous Things by Gaia Holmes, published (2024) by Comma Press

Disclaimer: I was sent a free pdf of this book to consider reviewing.

Sunday, 16 February 2025

Arthur's Seat in the Mist

 Yesterday, Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat and the surrounding Holyrood Park was shrouded in a very atmospheric mist. Here are some of the photos I took:



Looking over to Salisbury Crags 

and from another angle

Looking down to Duddingston Loch 

Mute Swans on Dunsapie Loch - the one on the right was obviously feeling a little camera-shy

The Jackdaws are paired up already (they have a very strong pair-bond and usually stay with the same partner for their whole life).

The gorse is beautiful 

as is the Grimmia pulvinata moss, all covered in raindrops