Groundbreakers by Chantal Lyons

 

Groundbreakers was inspired by the author's dissertation into living with wild boar in the Forest of Dean, which lead to an ongoing interest in this native species of the UK, which became extinct in mediaeval times but that has been farmed here since the 1980s and since then has been escaping into the wild. The boar is increasing in population in this country and is thriving across Europe.

This book explores the history of human - boar relationships in the UK, focussing on the Forest of Dean, which is where most of our boars live these days. Historically people hunted boar for food but also respected them as fellow inhabitants of the land. These days the people who live in the areas with Wild Boar populations are having to relearn how to live alongside such a large, now unfamiliar animal. 

The author describes her first encounter with a Wild Boar: "She was smaller and darker than I had expected. Her ears were fluffy and pointed, like those of an elven teddy bear. Her face was grey as if she had plunged it into a long-cold fire. Below ridges so like human eyebrows, her eyes met mine." 

She meets several people who have experience of living alongside boar in this country, some of whom love the boars and some of whom hate them. We're given a decent understanding of both points of view. She also meets people who live alongside boars in other European countries, where they have always been part of the landscape.

The author shows how boar can alter their immediate environment, often to the benefit of other species, for example, when a boar has been digging, insects and earthworms will come to the surface for birds to eat. On the other hand they've been shown to have a detrimental effect on for example adders in Belgium and Hazel Dormice in the UK. 

The book also discusses the need for management of boar, through hunting and potentially reintroducing predators such as lynx. 

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the status of Wild Boar in the UK.

 

Groundbreakers by Chantal Lyons, published (2024) by Bloomsbury. 

Firsts for the Year

 I did my weekly patrol of the Dells along the Water of Leith earlier today. Crafty Green Boyfriend came with me as he does when he has a free day (today he was using up his last annual leave before the end of the holiday year!). Everywhere is looking beautiful and spring-like. The Wood Anemones are in bloom

There's just one (expanding) patch of these lovely flowers in the Dells. Meanwhile there seem to be Lesser Celandines everywhere, which is wonderful

It was great to see several insects including a number of queen bumblebees (mostly Buff Tailed Bumblebees) looking for nests. The firsts of the year, referred to in the post title were our first butterfly of the year - this lovely Peacock

and this Dark Edged Bee-fly, 

this insect mimics bees and lays its eggs in bees nests. You can read more about this fascinating insect in this article in the Guardian newspaper's Invertebrate of the Year coverage. 
 

Weekend Walk in Hermitage of Braid

 On Saturday we started our walk at Edinburgh's Blackford Pond. 

We were hoping to see some toads, but weren't lucky with that. No toads and no frogs. We were though very happy to see that the female Teal, that we saw in February, has now been joined by a male! In the picture below the male Teal is the duck on the left with the lovely red and green head, the female is behind him, all brown except for the dash of teal green in her wing and the bird on the right is a male Tufted Duck.

I wonder if the Teal pair will breed on the pond this year? 

We were also happy to see this clump of Marsh Marigolds at the edge of the pond

After walking round the pond, we continued on to Blackford Hill, which is currently vibrant with blooming gorse

and through to the Hermitage of Braid

where Wood Anemone is in bloom 

and Horse Chestnut trees are about to burst into leaf, their branches full of sticky buds

Always a beautiful route to walk, especially at this time of year. 

I've Finished Customising my Jacket!

Away back in September last year, I shared that I wanted to customise this black denim jacket: 

 I was getting bored of it and it was looking a little shabby. I had already added in a couple of different buttons a while back, but it was definitely time for a more complete overhaul. So I gathered together some lace and ribbon, most of which were given to me by friends and family, and started designing. I didn't actually start sewing until earlier this year and it's been a slow, but enjoyable process. This is what the jacket looks like now: 

I'm quite happy with how it looks and hope to wear it a fair amount once the weather warms up! 

I've now started my next clothes customisation project, which is less ambitious and should soon be ready. I'll share photos of that once I've finished it.

Turning the Boat for Home by Richard Mabey

 

Subtitled A life writing about nature, this is a collection of essays, originally published in a variety of  newspapers, books and magazines, from one of the UK's best nature writers.There's always the risk with this type of collection of essays that some of them, having been specifically written in response to something in the news or a newly published book, will date quite quickly. That luckily only applies to a couple of these essays. 

I always enjoy Mabey's writing, you can read my reviews of some of his earlier books by following the links below:

Nature Cure by Richard Mabey. 

Fencing Paradise by Richard Mabey. 

Weeds by Richard Mabey. 

Beechcombings - The Narratives of Trees by Richard Mabey.

The essays in Turning the Boat for Home cover a wide range of ecological topics, from the tenacity and adaptability of urban nature through the importance of preserving blanket bogs to foraging, the joys of birwatching (and listening!) and thoughts about tree planting. The quote below is taken from an article marking the tercentenary of the birth of the landscape designer Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, who popularised the planting of trees for ornamental and landscape effect;

"Planting amenity trees seems so self evidently a force for good that it's hard for us to understand what a novel practice it was before the eighteenth century. Why bother when trees appeared so magnanimously of their own accord? Now, addicted to the practice as a ritual of atonement, we've become blinkered to the fact that it's yet another expression of human power over nature. That trees have perfectly adequate, fine tuned reproduction systems of their own seems to have vanished from popular understanding."

Other items include an article on the unexpected nature trail alongside one of the UK's major motorways, an appreciation of the life of 18th century British naturalist Gilbert White, and an introduction he wrote to the book The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen, which I reviewed (very briefly) back in 2008, here. 

Mabey shares his wide ranging knowledge generously and in beautiful prose. His writing is always worth reading and this is a good collection to pick up and enjoy. 

Turning the Boat for Home by Richard Mabey, published (2021) by Vintage.

Handmade Greetings Cards

 I like making greetings cards, using a range of materials mostly sourced from second hand shops. The designs in the photo below are all for Easter (I like to prepare early!). The ribbon and rabbit faces are all self-stick while I needed to glue the butterflies on. All the materials were from second hand shops. 

Yellow Flowers of Spring

 We had a lovely walk today along part of the Water of Leith, noticing particularly the yellow flowers. There are Lesser Celandines

 Coltsfoot

and male catkins of Pussy Willow 

It's lovely to see these signs of Spring all around! 

How I Killed Pluto by Mike Brown

A few months ago, we watched Solar System, Professor Brian Cox's excellent BBC series, which offers a fascinating look into some of the most recent scientific discoveries about our nearest neighbours in space. It's well worth watching if you can, it's available on the BBC I-player, for anyone who can access that.  

Soon after finishing watching the programme, I picked up a second hand copy of 'How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had it Coming' by Mike Brown.

 

This is an excellent and informative book about the author's search for possible new planets at the outer edge of the solar system. It's a chatty, engrossing peek into the life of an astronomer, the tedium of scanning loads of photos looking for likely new planets, the excitement of finding a likely candidate and the controversies that take place when different teams of astronomers clash. It also offers insights into how new bodies in the solar system are categorised and named, and looks into the debate over whether Pluto should remain a planet or be demoted (spoiler for those who don't know, Pluto is no longer considered a planet!) Alongside the author's research, we're given insights into his family life, including the early years of his daughter's life (who showed early signs of being fascinated by astronomy!) 

This is a very readable book and definitely recommended for anyone interested in how astronomy actually works.

How I Killed Pluto and Why it Had it Coming (2012) by Mike Brown, published by Spiegel and Grau. 

You can read about Mike Brown's involvement in the search for a ninth planet in the solar system in Shannon Stirone's article The Hunt for Planet Nine on the Long Reads site.

Chiffchaffs and more on Corstorphine Hill

 We had a lovely walk round Corstorphine Hill yesterday. The gorse was looking beautiful in the lovely Spring weather. 

As were the Scots Pine trees

We were delighted to hear our first Chiffchaffs of the year, helpfully calling out their name: "chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff". These birds are among the first Spring migrants to arrive back from their wintering grounds and it's always a real sign of the new season when they can be heard singing again.
 

The Mystery of Mushroom Valley by J David Holt

 

An adventure story for children between the ages of 7-11. 

Taylor discovers gardening with Aunt Nell. Then Uncle Hat says that he doesn't need to do any gardening to get a great harvest. Taylor is intrigued and goes on a mushroom hunt with Uncle Hat, who says:

 “This is the perfect time of year to go mushroom hunting. The ferns are popping out of the ground,
the mayapples’ little umbrellas just opened, and we’ve had three warm days in a row.”

Uncle Hat teaches Taylor to find the well-camouflaged morel mushrooms, which turn out to be very tasty when they are 'cut in half, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried in egg batter'.

When Uncle Hat gets ill, Taylor shows other family members how to forage for morels. Unfortunately they get too enthusiastic and take too many of the mushrooms. It's many years before Taylor sees a good crop of morels in the forest again.

This is a lovely story about a child discovering the beauty of nature and learning the lesson, vital for any foraging, to not take more than your fair share of nature's bounty. 

The story is followed by a series of questions to get the reader thinking about the content. 

The book is beautifully illustrated by Ukrainian artist,  Deylik Larisa.

The Mystery of Mushroom Valley by J. David Holt.  

**

Disclaimer: I was sent a free pdf of this book in return for an honest review.  

**

Meanwhile, thanks to the editors of Femku magazine for including two of my haiku in the latest issue. You can read the whole issue here. 

 

Spring on Arthur's Seat

 We've seen signs of Spring over the past few weeks, but this week it has really felt like Spring at last. We had a lovely walk round Arthur's Seat today. Early on, the air was slightly misty, which made for atmospheric views.

Later the sun came full out 

The gorse is beautiful at the moment. We looked down onto Duddingston Loch with our binoculars,looking for nesting Grey Herons, but we could only see three nests, compared to the twenty or so there used to be years ago. It's still a lovely view down to the Loch though. 

The Jackdaws are still around in good numbers though. 

We looked for frogspawn in Dunsapie Loch, but didn't find any, perhaps we're too early

Fire Ready by Jane Rogers

Jane Rogers' Fire Ready is another excellent short story collection recently published by Comma Press (read my recent review of Gaia Holmes' 'He Used to Do Dangerous Things' here). 

The stories in Fire Ready share some preoccupations with those in He Used to Do Dangerous Things, including climate change, social action and family relationships. Beyond that I'm not intending to compare the two books, they're both equally well worth your time. 

Set in Australia, the title story Fire Ready is a moving and increasingly relevant tale of trying to prepare for the coming wildfires, in which Kayla finds adversity bringing her closer to her neoghbours. 

Orbiting a future, lifeless earth, Hope shows Hope and her partner discussing whether to let their fellow crew members know that they've noticed signs of life returning to the planet. 

The Quick Child is a little contrived but somehow works beautifully. Three characters are separately each surprised by seeing a young boy climbing through a hedge. This shared experience helps the three come closer and rethink their relationship to each other. 

In Weeping Beech, Angus (82), who used to work for the council's parks and cemeteries department chains himself to a weeping Beech tree to protest its proposed removal. 'He thinks of all the trees he's planted and looked after. This is the first he's had to bodily defend'. But can he save it?

Primrose follows Rose on her birthday. She starts out annoyed by her husband buying flowers that she's told him she doesn't want and her cat bringing her a dead mouse. However, by the end of the day, an encounter with an enthusiastic young couple has helped her to reassess things and to even see the dead mouse as her cat's attempt to give her a birthday gift.

In The Night Before, Szandra, a reluctant eco-activist lies in bed thinking about the ethical pros and cons of a high profile action against private jets that she's to be involved with the next day. The story raises the question of how far should be go to protest the ecological damage that we see all around us and presents us with an interesting version of the Trolley Problem. 

Wilf had cared for his wife Ruth in her final months. Now, in Letting Things Go, he's coping with life after her death and finding himself rediscovering a childlife sense of wonder and sensitivity to the world. 'The image of his grandson, sitting on the blue plastic gym mat, not yelling, but beaming at the world which is all part of himself and has not harmed him, pleases Wilf mightily. One baby is as big as the world:  this seems to contain many truths'.

The real stand out story for me is Murmuration. Two spaceships have returned from their explorations, one having been significantly delayed. Their findings, when put together form a portrayal of human hubris and a powerful argument for the need for proper ecological understanding. Anyone who cares about the future of nature can't fail to be moved by this story.

This is an excellent collection of socially engaged fiction, that is readable, moving and entertaining.

Fire Ready by Jane Rogers, published (2024) by Comma Press. 

Disclaimer: I was sent a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Linlithgow Loch

 We had a lovely weekend visit to Linlithgow, just a short train ride away from Edinburgh. Linlithgow is famous for the Palace, which was the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots. It's also famous for the Loch, which is a great place for birdlife and offers a lovely circular walk, which is what we did on Saturday. 

One of the first birds we saw on the Loch was this male Tufted Duck, looking very smart in full breeding plumage. There were lots of Tufted Ducks on the Loch in fact.

Several Cormorants were hanging around the edges of the Loch, here are just two of them

 They were much closer to shore than is often the case. Usually when we visit the Cormorants are all found on one of the islands in the loch.

The birds we were really hoping to see were the Great Crested Grebes, which breed on the loch. This is the time of year when they start their impressive courtship dances, and in fact someone stopped us on our walk to say that the grebes were in fact dancing. Sadly, we missed their dance, though we were lucky enough to see about six of them. No decent photos of these wonderful birds, unfortunately. 

The Palace seems to have been half covered in scaffolding for several years now, but it's still an impressive sight

The Blackthorn is out in bloom, which is lovely to see

 

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.  

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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. 

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

 

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. 

Haiku for Peace

waiting for peace -
a storm of petals
in the garden

**

originally published on Shadow Pond Journal here.

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. 

He Used to Do Dangerous Things by Gaia Holmes

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.

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