Swifts and rocket

The swift nest boxes have arrived! The contractor who was doing roof repairs for us (and who finished much earlier than expected!) is coming back on Monday to put the nest boxes up on the chimney as this is the only appropriate place that can be reached without scaffolding. (We live in a three storey tenement). I expect its too late for this year but next year I look forward to having our own swifts joining in with the local group that enjoy flying round here. If you're in the UK and you want to buy swift nest boxes, there is a good list of suppliers on the London Swift website.

I was in the garden today and noticed that the rocket I planted a little while ago was ready to pick, so that will go in the salad when my parents visit tonight! We'll have to wait a little longer for the lettuce and basil and something tells me we'll never see the chives.....

Water of Leith

Comma butterfly (above and below)
common spotted orchids (below)

all seen along the Water of Leith. Click on any of the photos for a larger view.

Ladybirds

As I mentioned in a recent post, there seem to be a lot of ladybirds around this year. They're such a lovely bright design, I thought i would use them to practice glass painting (on reused plastic!). So above is the real life inspiration (click on it to make it bigger!), below is the finished piece, I may make it into a mobile, if I can make enough of them!

Some Forthcoming Events

If you're in Edinburgh, you may be interested in a couple of things happening locally.

THE RIVER RAMBLE 2009 is a sponsored walk along the Water of Leith Walkway on Sunday 19th July. It will start in Balerno at 10.30 am near the High School and finish on one of the boats at The Shore in Leith, the distance is a little over 12 miles, or if you prefer a shorter challenge walk from Balerno to Slateford (5 miles) or from Balerno to Stockbridge (9 miles) There is free entry for sponsored walkers or if you prefer you can register for £10 per walker or £20 for a family and not collect sponsorship. (entry includes lunch, water and a map) All proceeds are to help the Water of Leith Conservation Trust Charity No SC000015 Follow the ‘silver thread in a ribbon of green’ through the heart of Edinburgh and help to raise money to protect it.For more information call 0131 455 7367 or click here. http://www.waterofleith.org.uk/ramble/.

The Friday before that there will be a River Clean Up, meet outside the Visitor Centre at 10am. You can find out more on their website. I'll be there!

Meanwhile, on the same day as the River Ramble, Gorgie Farm holds its Open Day from 11-4. You can find out more on the Farm website. If you want to snuggle one of the rabbits, this is your chance, as Cuddle Corner will be open all day!

Open air poetry

It's summer, a perfect time for outdoor poetry readings. Here are some of my favourite places to listen to or perform poetry, along with some potentially great venues for poetry, where previously I've only ever heard music:

Meadows Festival - this is probably the best known of Edinburgh's several community festivals, happening in June. I performed on the main music stage at this festival several years ago. The year after that I co-ordinated the book tent, where various storytellers and poets read and performed, but that only happened the once, due to a lack of funding. This years Meadows Festival had plenty of music but no poetry....

Traquair House, just outside Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders has a wonderfully beautiful ancient orchard, full of apple trees dripping with lichens. It is a venue for music during Traquair Fair, every August (but not this year!). They have a stage in one corner and a tent selling Traquair House ales in the other, and if its sunny, its the most wonderful place for a concert, potentially also for a poetry reading.

Edinburgh Botanic Gardens - is used as a venue for various poetry and storytelling events,

Glasgow Botanic Gardens has a dedicated poetry garden and hosts Bard in the Botanics

Edinburgh Tree Festival - another community festival, happening next weekend, this takes place in Inverleith Park, just near the Botanics. They have a stage for music and poetry.

as seen on Shamrock

heat haze -
dragonflies silhouette
against the sky




previously published on Shamrock

The World and other Places by Jeanette Winterson

This is a book of short stories by Jeanette Winterson, best known for her novels such as Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Written on the Body etc. The first story here, 24 Hour Dog is wonderful, a perfect, heartbreaking story, in which the narrator takes home a new puppy:


He was a new beginning and every new beginning returns the world. In him, the rainforests were pristine and the sea had not been blunted. He was a map of clear outlines and unnamed hope. he was time before or time after. Time now had not spoilt him. In the space between chaos and shape there was another chance.


All the other stories, though not quite reaching the same high standard are well worth reading and contain Winterson's trademark thought provoking content.



The World and Other Places by Jeanette Winterson, published by Vintage.

Bird update

grey gravel

city centre carpark -

a sudden goldfinch.

(Yes! The songs I had heard were goldfinches and now I've seen them there too!
And the latest on the swifts is that, after some uncertainty over whether there was a good site for a nestbox on our roof, the news is that there is, so I'm off to buy a nestbox! It's been exciting to watch the 15 or so local swifts flying round rapidly and raucously all evening!)

Swift update

We are due to have roof repairs and I wrote to the council about the protocols for swifts and roof repairs. As many readers of this blog know, swifts are my favourite birds. They nest in roofs in this area, though there is no evidence of them living in our roof so far. Edited highlights of the council's reply follow:

'The decline in Swift populations is alarming and they have recently been added to the Amber list of "Birds of Conservation Concern" (see: http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-219495 )
The main issue for Swifts seems to be the loss of urban breeding sites, particularly where tenement blocks are being refurbished, and my understanding is that refurbishment works must ensure that a building's roof is watertight and airtight before a Building Warrant can be issued. This results in a very strong incentive for builders to block up any existing crevices and gaps, resulting in nest sites being lost.

All roofing and building contractors should be aware that it is an offence under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 to intentionally or recklessly take, damage or destroy the eggs, young or nest of a swift whilst it is being built or in use. So if there are birds nesting in your building then the builders are required to wait until the breeding season has passed.

One of the ways we are trying to help Swifts in Edinburgh is to encourage developers of appropriate new builds to incorporate artificial nest sites (Swift bricks) into their designs.

The Scottish Ornithologist's Club carry out a survey for Swifts in Edinburgh every few years (the last report is available at: www.the-soc.org.uk/docs/edinburgh-swift-survey.pdf ).'

You can read more about Swifts at: www.swift-conservation.org/

We are very pleased to have a roofing contractor who is happy to fit swift nest boxes when he works on the roof.

Poetry pocket

This is an experiment in double sided collage. I collected all the natural materials (bark, feathers and elm fruits) from the Water of Leith over the last couple of weeks. The plastic is reused from packaging that came in a gift - pretty tough to sew the two pieces together.... The paper is all reused office waste. The words are descriptive of the woodland along the Water of Leith. They suggest rather than form a poem. The whole thing shifts about a bit, so it changes as you handle it.....