Community Fairs in Edinburgh

This is the time of year when Edinburgh has lots of community fairs. Yesterday we went to both the Corstorphine Fair and the Meadows Festival. Corstorphine Fair is very definitely a local community fair for the Corstorphine area, an area that, away from the main road still feels very much like the village it was before it became part of Edinburgh. St Margaret's Park was full of stall for local groups including the Friends of Corstorphine Hill (we're very pleased to see that Edinburgh City Council is 'minded not to build houses' on part of Corstorphine Hill that is currently owned by the Zoo).

The Meadows Festival takes place on the Meadows, a green space near the main part of the University of Edinburgh. It's much more of a city wide event and attracts not only large numbers of students but lots of hippies and alternative types. We had a very pleasant afternoon sitting in the beer garden, drinking Fraoch (traditional heather ale) and listening to local bands. We also enjoyed browsing the stalls selling second hand music and clothes and locally made jewellery.

A Meme

Linda of Nickers and Ink tagged me with the Super Seven Meme:

10 Years Ago
June 1998 - I had left one job and was just about to start another, just as I am at the minute!

5 Things on My To Do List
Take out the recycling
Write my first villanelle
get a copy made of the key to the backgreen that a neighbour has kindly lent us so we finally get to access the gardens whenever we want....
update my bird records on Birdtrack
send some poems off to journals

Things I'd Do if I was a Billionaire
Pay off my mortgage, give me, my partner and family incomes for life then invest the rest in charities working in the environmental field.

3 Bad Habits
drinking too much tea
laziness (eg about sending my poetry to journals, doing the dusting)
sticking to tried and tested recipes in the kitchen instead of trying new dishes

5 Places I've lived
Manchester (with my parents)
Malawi (2 years)
Cornwall (3 months)
Edinburgh (most of my adult life)

5 Jobs I've had
Science Teacher
Advice Worker (volunteer)
Charity Fundraiser
Charity Development Officer
Director of Charity Regional Office

I'm not going to tag anyone with this, but if you want to take part, feel free - remember to let me know by leaving a comment here! Thanks to Na of Shadows and Clouds for joining in!

Chin Up

Hiding in lofts with sandbags at the door
is a coward's game.

We will keep our gazes high,
carry on playing cards

While the waters rise
and forests drown.

Clouds on the horizon
look beautiful at sundown.


storms for Totally Optional Prompts

Leaving my job!

Today was my last day in my current job. The people who I share my office with (who aren't all direct colleagues, we're such a small organisation we share our office with two other organisations) took me out for a nice lunch at a local Italian restaurant. They had collected some money together and chose me a gift from the list I put together from Oxfam Unwrapped. They gave me my number one choice on my wishlist - Busy Bees. This means the money is going towards bee keeping in Sudan and Western Equatoria (so thanks everyone, for that!). The Oxfam Unwrapped site is inntermittently down for maintenance at the minute, but if you can't access the previous links, you can read more about Oxfam's work here.

I've been in my current job for 5 years and I'm really looking forward to starting my new job with the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens in a couple of weeks.

I recently posted a poem about bees over on Bolts of Silk, you can read it by following this link: Dead Bees Sting, Too by Howard Good

Many species of bees are becoming endangered. You can find out more about bees and work done to conserve them at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website and the International Bee Research Association website.

Gorgie City Farm

I'll be starting my new job with the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens in a few weeks. I'll be based at Gorgie City Farm, which is just ten minutes from my flat.

Gorgie City Farm was established in 1982 using land from an old railway yard. It is a lovely space with fields of pigs, sheep, goats and ponies, pens of various breeds of poultry and a pet lodge with resident guinea pigs and rabbits. The pet lodge offers a pet boarding service, that Anya took advantage of a couple of years ago when we went to Italy. Gorgie City Farm also has a herb garden, a vegetable garden and a wildlife garden. Produce from the gardens are on sale and also used in the menus of Jemima's Pantry the farm cafe. Its a lovely place to spend a day and hopefully will be a very nice place to work!

A Meme

Yowlyy of Bunnies Needles and Books tagged me with this meme:

Answer at least three of the questions. Yes, I know a few look time-consuming and there are several of them. That's why I only ask for three. See? I'm nice!
Post them and the rules on your blog, and please link back to me here. Pretty please *^_^* ?
Comment here telling me and the rest of our little party where you're at and link to yourself.
That's all!
Oh yeah, don't forget to tag others!
OK... here we go:

What's the last book you read that you thought was really super, inspiring, you'd recommend it to most anyone?
Dream On by Chrystos - everyone should read her poetry - its beautifully lyrical and passionate andalways engaged in issues. She has a real connection with nature.

What food totally grosses you out, you'd never be able to touch it?
I'm a vegetarian and any kind of meat is unappealing but the mice on sticks sold at bus stops in Malawi looked particularly gross...

Did you ever watch a scary movie that frightened you so much you were afraid of the dark afterward? I mean like you're lying in bed trying to sleep, but you have to pee, but you're scared to get up. It doesn't have to be recently; could be when you were a kid. So what movie was it?
I don't watch that kind of scary film! The image of the edge of the forest coming inexplicably nearer for the forest dwellers in The Emerald Forest, which I saw when I was young, has stayed with me though as a very scary image of what we're doing to the earth...

Is there a song that makes you dance every time you hear it?
I'm sure my partner would say 'is there a song that Crafty Green Poet doesn't dance to every time she hears it?'

Tattoos: yes or no? Do you have any? Tell us! Do you think they're gross? TELL US!
I don't have any but i think they can look really nice. I sometimes think about a dolphin tattoo in my shoulder blade....

When's the last time you laughed so hard your ribs ached and/or you nearly peed yourself? What made you do it?
I have laughed like this recently but really can't remember why...

Draw or doodle a picture of your pet(s) and post it if possible. Nothing fancy, don't be shy!
I drew Anya several times, you can see the results here:
Binkying Bunny Easter Card
Round Rabbit
Anya in the magical woods
carboard rabbit puppet

Go through a stack or box of your old music. Stuff that you may not have heard in years. Pick one and tell us about it. Is it as good (or as bad) as you remember?

Well I picked up Dexy's Midnight Runners Searching for the Young Soul Rebels and was really enjoying it and then it started falling apart in the tape machine. If there's any music i don't like any more I give it away to a local charity shop so there is rarely anything in my music collection that I don't like.

Do you still sleep with a stuffed animal? We won't laugh!

I have a few (especailly rabbits and tigers) but I don't sleep with any of them

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to play along, please do and remember to let me know!

haiku

the fish eagle soars
above the still blue lake -
light fades to dusk.


This is my second poem for this week's Read Write Poem prompt which suggests using any form of poetry to rework another poem in another form. This haiku uses the six repeated words from yesterday's sestina to recreate part of the scene of that sestina.