First Signs of Autumn in North Merchiston Cemetery

Recently, I've started to notice the first signs of autumn! In North Merchiston Cemetery, one of the lime (linden) trees has a few yellowing leaves:

Also in the cemetery, there are some large mushrooms, not for eating, I'm not sure what species they are, and even if they're (edible) large field mushrooms, I'd be wary of eating fungi that's so likely to have been visited by dogs. 

There were several speckled wood butterflies flying around the cemetery, mostly flying far too quickly to be captured on film. This one flew straight towards me but then did its best to hide

The Pocket Book of Insect Anatomy by Marianne Taylor

 This is a very good introduction to insects for anyone who is interested in these fascinating creatures. 

The book is clearly written and beautifully illustrated with line drawings and photographs. It's also fairly comprehensive, covering everything from how insects breathe, to how they reproduce, their biology at a cellular level, different groups of insects and issues around conservation. It also includes fascinating details such as the location of an unexpected colony of Monarch butterflies; the strange connection between the large blue butterfly and a species of ant and the insect species that look after their young. 

I also like the way the book is divided into very short sections so that you can read a bit at a time. 

I definitely recommend this book if you want an introduction to how insects work. It is very definitely an introduction though and may well leave you wanting to find out more! 

The Pocket Book of Insect Anatomy by Marianne Taylor published by Bloomsbury (2020)  in association with the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.)

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I'm delighted to have a story in the forthcoming CATS (Cycling Across Time and Space) anthology of SF stories about cats and cycles! You can support the Kickstarter campaign for the book here and you can read an interview with me here.

 

 

 

Crafting Update

 I've been busy beading in my spare time over the past few weeks. I've just finished making a beaded necklace and a pair of beaded curtain tie backs, both featuring beads in a range of autumnal colours. In each case, I've used a mix of beads - most of these come from the bags of broken and unsellable jewellery that some second hand shops sell. These items are now in my Crafty Green Poet Etsy store. 

This is the necklace:

This necklace is for sale in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop here.
 

This is one of the curtain tie backs: 

The pair of curtain tie back is available in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop here.

Fungus and Galls on Corstorphine HIll

 We had a lovely walk round Corstorphine Hill, and luckily we had put on rain jackets as it was raining fairly heavily for part of the time! 

We were interested to see the various different galls on one of the oak trees, this tree usually has galls at this time of year. I'm not sure if all these galls are caused by the same species of wasp, here are just two of then to give you an idea of the variety:

There's a dead tree by the side of the path which is usually covered in fungi at this time of year. 

Sulphur polypore (chicken of the woods) is growing all round the roots of the tree, along with some dead man's fingers 

CORRECTION: I've been reliably informed this fungus isn't yellow enough to be sulphur polypore and is more likely to be giant polypore. 

Here's a close up of the dead man's fingers 

There's a lot of bracket fungus growing on the trunk of the tree and we noticed this was covered in fungus gnats, dancing around in their courtship displays! Click on the photo below for a better view!

Snails both Big and Small and a Devil's Coach Horse

 I noticed a lot of snails on the gravestones in North Merchiston cemetery today! There were very large garden snails:

and some tiny snails in the letters of some of the graves 

Meanwhile, I was delighted to see this devil's coach horse beetle on the path in the cemetery. This is the first of these beetles I've seen in the cemetery. 

 The Friends Group for North Merchiston Cemetery is now on Twitter, you can follow them @FofNMC here.

Photos of Hoverflies

 Crafty Green Boyfriend took some amazing photos of hoverflies in Spylaw Park the other day, here are just a selection of them! 

 Three Epistrophe grossulariae.

Marmalade hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)

 

 long hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta).

 Sunfly aka Footballer hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus).

Syrphus sp.

The Grass Boat by Imogen Forster

 

 This is a beautifully produced book full of poems, many of which show close observation of the natural world. Watching gannets fish the seas around Shetland, is captured beautifully in Cliff at Noss: 

Gannets, saffron smudged,
their tails stiff as whittled wood,
bank on ink dipped wings, hang
as if strung on wires, plunge
in arrow showers.

In this and several other of the poems in this pamphlet, the poet uses arresting images and comparisons, which lends a great freshness to the work.

Not all the poems here deal with the natural world, there are also poems about Forster's childhood, a drummer and one about the packaging of oranges.

This is a lovely book, well worth reading. 

The Grass Boat by Imogen Forster, published by Mariscat Press (2021).