Thursday 30 April 2020

A Guide to Eco-Anxiety by Anouchka Grose




Subtitled How to Protect the Planet and Your Mental Health, this book sets out to answer the question: If the very planet we live on seems to be on course for total ecological collapse, how can any of us hope to keep going? While the book only mentions COVID_19 very briefly (it was written before the pandemic hit) much of the content is very relevant to coping with the anxiety many people are feeling about the coronovirus pandemic.

Anouchka Grose is a psychoanalyst and offers easily understandable definitions of what anxiety is and looks at the physiological basis for the feelings. She outlines how anxiety can be used to inform our actions but also shares ideas, including meditation, therapy and medication, for preventing anxiety from taking over. Climate grief is a fear of losing our current way of life and anxiety may well be the sane response to the situation we live in. Can we find a middle ground between climate related nervous breakdown and climate denial? Grose offers insights into why we may treat the earth so badly. looks at two alternative ways of dealing with this grief, the political and the psychoanalytical.


This book gives a condensed history of early approaches to environmentalism and why they failed, most sobering of these failures being the lack of long term impact from the first Earth Day in 1970. Grose also looks at contemporary thinkers such as ornithologist Janis Dickinson whose work addresses environmental issues and mental wellbeing issues together, such as encouraging urban gang members to redirect their energies into conservation work. Dickinson's work also inspired Grose to install a birdfeeder outside her consulting room, which both she and her patients benefit from.


Grose offers advice on how can we manage our feelings in the face of ecological catastrophe; useful attitudes to adopt (such as curiosity, generosity, social engagement, ingenuity, honesty and an active hope). She asserts that if we understand more of our unconscious drives, we may become less likely to act unthinkingly in ways that damage our environment. She urges us to be kind to ourselves, pointing out that none of us can do everything and feeling guilty doesn't help anyone. She suggests that while much mental health advice focuses on extroverts, the quiet power of the introvert could prove very valuable in the looming climate crisis.

She also discusses practical approaches to reducing our personal environmental impact at home, in our gardens, at work and when travelling. She advises how to do enjoy the things you enjoy (for example clothes, food, hobbies) in more eco-friendly ways, often in ways that are less well known (for example she offers some particularly useful advice on how to make tights last longer). Occasionally, however she leans so far towards laissez-faire environmentalism it seems almost no environmentalism at all ("If you LOVE steak, and can handle the idea of a cow being killed and rainforests cut down to clear land for the sake of your enjoyment, maybe it’ll be better for you in the long run to allow yourself to eat it seems a total cop out, though at least she does then say "consciously choosing cows who have at least lived more locally to you". Livestock farming can indeed be eco-friendly (see my review of the film The Biggest Little Farm) but large scale ranching is so damaging that any environmentalist should know never to eat meat that has been shipped in from former rainforests.


Grose picks up on specific issues and situations from across the globe. For example, climate change impacts on travel in Greenland mean that people are becoming isolated, leading to increased depression and causing a rise in the rate of suicides. The current lockdown is certain to be having similar negative effects on people's mental health and well-being.

We live in a world in crisis and it can be very challenging to maintain good feelings of mental and emotional wellbeing. This book does a good job of helping the reader to understand more about eco-anxiety and to find practical ways to manage anxiety about climate change. And it's important to remember as Grose says: "Don’t let environmentalism frighten you into a lacklustre existence. A responsible life can still be utterly brilliant."


A Guide to Eco-Anxiety by Anouchka Grose published (2020) by Watkins.

Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of the uncorrected proof of this book in return for an honest review. 

And if you're interested in the specific effects of COVID_19 on mental well being, you may be interested in this article by Gary Greenberg on the Guardian website



Wednesday 29 April 2020

Dandelion Appreciation Society

 In these strange times that we currently live in, restricted to only exercising in the very local area, it's good to pay attention to those things that sometimes we might overlook. Such as the very common wildflowers that we see every day.  Such as dandelions, which many people dislike as weeds.  However, dandelions  are a wonderful splash of colour on a dull day, have a wide range of health benefits (see for example, this article) and rabbits love them. Pollinating insects also love them. I recently discovered the Dandelion Appreciation Society on Twitter!


Our local graveyards, where we take our #DailyExercise walks, are full of dandelions!

sone of which are already turning to seed


When we are walking round the cemeteries we often see insects enjoying the dandelions:

Here's a small tortoiseshell butterfly 

This is a Syrphus sp hoverfly, a species often found on dandelions



and finally these solitary bees looks to really be enjoying the dandelions



the photo above also shows clearly some of the details of the flower-head (which is in reality made up of loads of tiny individual flowers).

So if you have dandelions in your garden, please consider keeping them for the pollinators, you may well be rewarded with some interesting visitors! 

For Nature Notes and  My Corner of the World.






Tuesday 28 April 2020

Brilliant Birds

We really notice all the birds that are around in the local cemeteries when we take our #DailyExercise walk.

Here are some of the best photos Crafty Green Boyfriend has taken recently

1. Long tailed tit. This individual was flying around near the seeds we scattered on one of the gravestones. 


2. bullfinch: this handsome male was sitting in a bush in a garden that borders onto one of the graveyards


3. stock dove: this species is often overlooked as without looking closely you could think it was a freal pigeon, but its black eyes and relatively uniform plumage are distinguishing features

What birds have you seen recently in your garden, from your window or on your #DailyExercise?

**
The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating. In England, the police advice is that you can drive to a location before walking or jogging as long as you spend more time exercising than driving, the advice from Police Scotland however, seems to be that you should not drive to a location to exercise and should only exercise very locally.


Monday 27 April 2020

Hurray for Hoverflies!

As many readers of this blog will know I am particularly interested in hoverflies, that group of flies that mimic bees, wasps and other stinging insects. Hoverflies cannot sting or bite and there are around 250 species in the UK alone.

We are currently limited, due to COVID_19 lockdown restrictions to walks in the immediate local area. For us that means a local park and two local cemeteries. We're finding that these areas are great wildlife habitats, offering an interesting and often surprising variety of birds and insects.

I blogged on Saturday about the interesting intereactions between two species of solitary bees and a bee fly in the local park.

Today I thought I'd share some photos of some of the hoverflies we've seen in the cemeteries:

There are several species of Syrphus hoverfly which are so similar that you need to be a real expert to tell them apart. These are some of the most common hoverflies in the UK (there were probably a hundred of these hoverflies hovering around one single tree in one of the cemeteries today). This is a typical Syrphus:


Another very common group of hoverflies, again one which includes a number of species that are very difficult to tell apart is Eristalis (sometimes called the drone fly, given its similarity to male bees (drones)):


Many hoverflies have particularly appealing and distinctive patterns, like the Helophilus species, sometimes known as the footballer hoverfly (due to their patterning) or the sun fly because they particularly like to bask in the sun (again there are several Helophilus species that are very similar):


Another very distinctive hoverfly is Epistrophe eligans (though apparently it can be quite variable in appearance). I had never seen this hoverfly species before this year and now we're finding there are a good number of them in both the cemeteries we visit:


Another hoverfly that I had never seen before this year is this Pipiza species, unusual in being very plain and dark:

And finally here is a bumble bee mimic, Eristalis intricaria:

So you can see just from this small selection that there's a great variety of hoverflies!

If you're interested in finding out about UK hoverflies there are three good identification resources:

The Nature Spot Guide to Hoverflies.
All About Hoverflies page.
Steven Falk's Flickr album of Hoverfly photos.

The UK Hoverfly Facebook group is an invaluable resource, a very friendly group who are keen to welcome newcomers and help you to identify the hoverflies you've seen.

The pine hoverfly is a very rare species of hoverfly, found in the UK only in the Cairngorms. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland are involved in conserving this species and you can find out more about their work in this short video.

**
On a different topic, I'm delighted to have a feature in the forthcoming Made at Home book, a collection of creative projects made under lockdown and raising funds for the homelessness charity CRISIS. The crowdfunder has already raised enough for the book to be produced, but is still open and you can donate or preorder a copy of the book here




Saturday 25 April 2020

Of Bees and Bee Flies....

Part of our #DailyExercise walk takes us through the small Gorgie Dalry Community Park that lies behind one of the local supermarkets. We've never really used that park much in the past, as it is mostly taken up with children's playparks, so we've been fascinated to discover the busy world of bees that lives here.

On Friday 10 April we first saw chocolate mining bees (Andrena scotica) flying into holes in the banks at the side of the footpath through the park

We worked out that they were nesting in aggregations in the banks here. (They're solitary bees, which means they don't live in hives, but they often make their individual nests in colonies).

Then on 22 April we saw some tiny little nomad cuckoo bees (Nomada sp).

With a little bit of research, I now think these are Marshem's Nomad bees (Nomada marshamella) as the description fits and this species is known to occur in Edinburgh and known to parasitise Andrena species of bees including Andrena scotica, the chocolate mining bee. There are however other similar species of Nomada bees, so I may be wrong.

Today, we got this photo of both chocolate mining bees and the Nomada bees going into the same hole

Nomada is the largest genus of kleptoparasitic "cuckoo bees." Kleptoparasitic bees enter the nests of a host and lay eggs there, stealing resources that the host has already collected. The number of nomad bees in the park has increased rapidly over the last few days and it seems that they must be having quite an impact on the Andrena bees.

Just to complicate things, yesterday we saw a dark edged bee fly in the park.

This cute and fluffy looking fly is also a kleptoparasite and lays its eggs in the nests of any bees it can find. So in the park, these bee flies will be parasitising both the Andrena and Nomada bees!

And if it wasn't for lockdown, we probably would never have realised any of this was going on just round the corner from where we live!

**

 The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating. In England, the police advice is that you can drive to a location before walking or jogging as long as you spend more time exercising than driving, the advice from Police Scotland however, seems to be that you should not drive to a location to exercise and should only exercise very locally.

Friday 24 April 2020

#DailyExercise in the Sunshine

It's lovely and sunny at the moment and we've been enjoying our latest #DailyExercise walks in the local community park and the two nearby cemeteries. Here are the highlights of our most recent walks.

There are some lovely leafy paths in both of the cemeteries - perfect for social distancing as well as nature spotting

It was just along this little path that we were able to watch this chiffchaff as it searched for food on the leaves (the first part of this bird's scientific name Phylloscopus means leaf examiner, which is a very apt name!)

Lovely to finally see an orange tip butterfly in one of the cemeteries, we had expected to see one earlier, given that this cemetery has a good amount of garlic mustard which is this butterfly's food plant. Here the orange tip is in amongst the green alkanet, which is beautiful at the moment

There's a beautiful cherry tree in one of the cemeteries which is in full bloom at the moment

and a lovely crab apple tree in the other cemetery which is just starting to bloom

One of the cemeteries has all both nettles and the two species of dead nettles, here the nettles and white dead nettles are together, you can see how similar the leaves are (the nettles are in the background and don't have any obvious flowers)

and here we've got red dead nettle and white dead nettle together

Daisies are very common and easy to overlook but many of them have lovely red edges to their petals

There's a lot of this horsetail around in one of the cemeteries and also in the park

and I've found one (but so far only one) yellow poppy

Given how many soitary bees there are in the community park, we really shouldn't have been surprised to find a dark edged bee fly there today, given that it lays its eggs in the nest holes of the solitary bees.



I've rarely seen bee flies before this year and given comments online it seems it's a good year for them generally.

What are you seeing in your garden or on your permitted #DailyExercise route?

**

 The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating. In England, the police advice is that you can drive to a location before walking or jogging as long as you spend more time exercising than driving, the advice from Police Scotland however, seems to be that you should not drive to a location to exercise and should only exercise very locally.




Thursday 23 April 2020

Pretty in Pink

We're surrounded by pink flowers at the moment. If we look out of our windows we see the stunning cherry blossom across the road

Meanwhile on the windowsill, the stem on the amarylis is coming into bloom



and the cactus is also starting to bloom

Edited to add: a beautiful apple tree has just come into bloom in one of the cemeteries we visit on our #DailyExercise walk



Wednesday 22 April 2020

Insects enjoying the sunshine

We've had lots of sunshine recently (after a very wet winter, we're having a very dry spring and need some of those traditional April showers!). The insects are enjoying the weather though. On our #DailyExercise walk a couple of days ago, we were delighted to find this ten spot ladybird in one of the cemeteries

The ten spot is a very varied species (so varied it doesn't even always have ten spots!) you can see how many forms there are of the one species here.

We've also seen these tiny little Nomada bees in the park (I don't know what species they are, if you know, please feel free to let me know in the comments). Edited to add: I think these are Marshem's Nomad bees (Nomada marshamella) as the description fits and this species is known to occur in Edinburgh and known to parasitise Andrena species of bees including Andrena scotica, the chocloate mining bee that also occurs in the park (and which I've blogged about in recent posts).


There are sometimes lots of hoverflies about, this is a marmalade hover fly, the most common species in the UK and generally quite easy to identify with its pretty stripes (though there is also a dark form that is confusing to find!)

I post all my hoverfly sightings in the UK Hoverfly Facebook group and they then get identified (if I can't do that myself), verified (where I have been able to identify, I'm not always right about it, still learning!) and then recorded.

North Merchiston Cemetery seems to be very popular with butterflies, here's another peacock

and another tortoiseshell

What interesting insects are you seeing in your garden or on your #DailyExercise route?

For Nature Notes

**

The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating. In England, the police advice is that you can drive to a location before walking or jogging as long as you spend more time exercising than driving, the advice from Police Scotland however, seems to be that you should not drive to a location to exercise and should only exercise very locally.





Monday 20 April 2020

Friendly Robin, nesting blue tit and interesting Insects

Our #DailyExercise walks through a local park and two cemeteries continue. Yesterday we met this beautiful robin

and we watched this blue tit going back and forth to a hole in a tree where it obviously has a nest - one time it was going in with a large clump of either nesting material or food in its beak (click on the photo for a closer view!)

This male chaffinch was very bold

The sunshine brought out a lot of insects, including this peacock butterfly, which seemed to be somewhat the worse for wear and also smaller than normal (possibly it didn't get enough food as a caterpillar and so couldn't grow to full size?)

and over the last couple of days we've seen a lot of hoverflies including this Syrphus sp

There are hundreds of species of hoverfly and once you start to look closely you realise just how many differnt species there may be in one small area. If you have a garden, look out and see how many species you can see! So far in the two cemeteries we've seen at least five species, probably more (some species are very similar and hard to tell apart and many are so small it's very difficult to identify them). Hoverflies are harmless insects, they don't bite or sting, but they mimic insects such as bees as wasps.
 
There are loads of dandelions in the cemeteries, which are great for insects. Some of them have already started seeding

 

There's a beautiful cherry tree in one of the cemeteries, which is lovely just now



and the cherry blossoms on our street are also at their best at the moment

**
The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating.