Season's Greetings!

Christmas in Edinburgh

A fat orange cat on a window ledge, watches
geese on the shore of Duddingston Loch.
Snow on the summit of Arthur's Seat
glistens in the light of the yellow moon.
A Christmas tree gifted by Norway
sparkles on the top of the Mound
where trees draped in white fairy lights
line the path to the ice-rink in Princes Street Gardens.
Children ride the big Ferris wheel,
adults drinking mulled wine
wander round the German market.



Silence of Snow

Blizzard uniqueness falling to earth
suspended in silence.

Myriad marvels melting in flight,
merging in crisp carpet whiteness.

Falling snow magical joy inspires dreams
of finding twin snowflakes like four leaf clovers.

After storm sky-blue highlights the landscape
as each unique snowflake loses itself
in pristine perfection of snow.


For Poetry Thursday. Both these poems have been posted on this blog before, though I have significantly rewritten Christmas in Edinburgh.

I'd like to wish Season's Greetings to all readers of this blog!

haiku - storms

On One Deep Breath this week, the timely prompt is storms. We're currently very lucky in Edinburgh at the moment as large areas of Scotland have been flooded in recent storms. I've seen several storms in my life, the most spectacular recently being on the Mediterranean coast during an otherwise beautifully sunny November holiday last year. But the two haiku below are about storms in Malawi (where I lived for two years). We used to have a papaya tree in our garden until a particularly wild storm:

torrential rain floods
through the drainage ditches -
papaya tree falls


One of the most amazing things about many storms in Malawi was the lack of thunder:

lightening forks
over the hills by the lake -
a dry, silent night


another haiku on storms on my Alter Ego blog here.

Crafty Green Christmas 2 - Gifts

Really this should have been Crafty Green Christmas 1 if I had been planning properly! Ethical options for Christmas presents include:

virtual gifts such as offered through Oxfam Unwrapped
organic food hampers
fair-trade items
items made by locally based craftspeople
second hand items (best check whether people mind their gifts being second hand!)
hand made goods - especially when the gifts are made from reclaimed materials. Here are some hand made gifts I have posted on this blog:

Notebooks
Notelets and wallet
Mirrors - bought second hand and frames painted
pot pourri bags

Save the Children's Festival of Trees

This year, Save the Children's Festival of Trees is being held in Glasgow for the very first time, in the newly refurbished Main Hall of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The event centres on uniquely designed Christmas trees, created by some of the best contemporary designers and decorated with sought-after gifts. In contrast to the trees created by famous names and brands, one special tree was created, with support from the Glasgow office of Ernst & Young, by children and young people who are involved in Save the Children's projects in Glasgow. It is 'The Glasgow Tree' and every penny raised from the auction of this Tree will be spent by Save the Children on children's projects in the city.


Event details here: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/scuk/jsp/resources/details.jsp?id=4321&group=getinvolved§ion=event&subsection=details

News item in Herald: http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/75790.html

Haiku - containers

bottles now empty
once full of milk, wine, beer, oil –
recycle please!



secret dumping ground
for containers marked danger –
unexplained deaths.


containers - for One Deep Breath.

Crafty Green Christmas 1 - Wrapping Gifts

I like to wrap gifts in reclaimed materials, but that doesn't need to mean tatty looking scraps of paper. In this example I covered some thinness on the first layer of paper with a piece of a contrasting paper. The two gifts are tied together with reused raffia and the gift tag is made from reclaimed card with a photo from a wildlife magazine. I posted other ideas for gift wrap last year, you can see them here and here.

Now included in this week's Carnival of the Green.

Haiku - Close, Closer, Closer Still

In One Deep Breath this week we are asked to get close, closer and still closer in the observations in our haiku. This weekend I was visiting my parents in Worsley, near Manchester. We had a walk by the red Bridgewater Canal. These are my three haiku, which really call out for photos too, but we had forgotten our camera and my parents don't have a digital!


the red canal
flows through the village -
four swans.


two young swans
with plumage speckled grey -
historic bridge.


water droplets
sparkle on the swans' backs -
rainbows.