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.  

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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. 

 

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