We live in a street close to the centre of Edinburgh, the front gardens are very small and there are only a few trees. So although nature is around, we don't generally expect to see anything too uncommon. However, when I took out the recycling this morning, I saw this unusual looking insect on the recycling bin
Yesterday we visited Easter Craiglockart Hill and then walked home via Craiglockart Pond and the Union Canal.
The hill is currently yellow with the blooming gorse
The pond is home to a number of waterbirds
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.
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
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
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
and through to the Hermitage of Braid
and Horse Chestnut trees are about to burst into leaf, their branches full of sticky buds
Away back in September last year, I shared that I wanted to customise this black denim jacket:
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.
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:
Fencing Paradise 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.
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.
We had a lovely walk today along part of the Water of Leith, noticing particularly the yellow flowers. There are Lesser Celandines
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.
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
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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.
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Disclaimer: I was sent a free pdf of this book in return for an honest review.
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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.
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.
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.
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
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
I've been bored with this t-shirt for a while now
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.
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.
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.
