haiku

morning light -

last night's seal
becomes a buoy

Guided Walks and Teaching

Over the past few weeks I've been teaching a course on environmental writing for the University of Edinburgh Office of Lifelong Learning and leading guided walks for Edinburgh Council Adult and Community Education. I lead a series of guided walks along the Water of Leith and birdwatching walks for the Beginners Birdwatching Class (which I was asked to teach at short notice as the previous tutor had to retire for medical reasons).

Today I attended an excellent course at Edinburgh Council designed to help adult education tutors to improve their teaching skills and generally share ideas. I was pleased to meet other tutors who teach creative writing and other subjects where we could discuss common themes and issues.

Teaching in a classroom is very different to leading a guided walk. In a classroom, one has much more control over the learning experience, which can be much more structured. It's also easier to evaluate how well the teaching is going. The walks are much more freely structured. The Water of Leith walks are easier because there are lots of points of historic interest to talk about and there's a nature observation element to the walk so there's plenty of interaction. The birdwatching walks are more challenging, because to have a good chance of seeing a lot of birds, one should be quiet. A group of 12 people walking together cannot fail to make a certain amount of noise. Too little interaction with the group makes me a poor tutor but too much risks disturbing the birds and not being so observant of those that are around! Also it's largely due to luck how many birds we see! Sometimes we've been very lucky and had wonderful sightings (for example a very close view of a hunting kestrel that then posed for us in a tree) but other times we've not been so lucky. We have mostly had good weather and everyone has enjoyed the walks but even so, sometimes there can be a sense of not having had enough birdwatching!

The council courses are a very good example of how volunteering can lead to paid employment, as the Water of Leith Conservation Trust (who I volunteer for, looking after a stretch of the river) had recommended me to the council when they were looking for new tutors. My volunteering work was also the reason the University had asked me to put together and run a course about the Water of Leith, which I taught in August and will run again next summer.

By the way, if you had expressed interest in doing my Environmental Writing Course via email, I haven't forgotten you and I'll be in touch about this in the next couple of weeks.

Autumn Birds

Vivid autumnal leaves bright against a perfect blue sky. Two buzzards glide into view in the clearing.

A heron fishes in front of the weir as golden leaves fall onto the river.

A mixed flock of tits scurry through the trees, eating the berries, calling softly to each other.

Two grey wagtails chase each other round and round the river.

Cr*p at the Environment by Mark Watson

This is the ideal antidote to the gloom and doom environmental books I read recently Six Degrees and Field Notes from a Catrastrophe. Those were important books and should be read by anyone who cares about the current climate crisis. However this book is entertaining and practical and enthuses the reader to take action. Mark Watson is a comedian who was won over to the environmental cause by a variety of things including Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. Mark then set up an organisation he called Crap at the Environment for people like him who didn't know much about the environment but recognised it as an important issue and wanted to learn more and moer importantly take action in their own lives. The book follows his efforts to reduce his carbon footprint including trying to learn to ride a bike, grow his own food and cut down on air travel ( a particular challenge for a comedian with a successful international career). He shares his successes and his failures and is entertaining and inspiring. The book also includes a lot of practical information and resources to help everyone to become Better at the Environment. 

Crap at the Environment by Mark Watson published by Hodder and Stoughton, 2008.

Apples

It's apple season and Crafty Green Boyfriend's parents have two apple trees in their garden, so we're inundated with apples at the moment. One of their trees is a cooking apple tree and these apples make wonderful apple crumbles. I've almost perfected my apple crumble recipe, though I've found that the ones I am less careful with turn out better, which I find is often the way with my cooking!

The other tree is an eating apple tree, we're not sure what variety, though we think it's the Laxton's Superb. It's a wonderful apple, slightly crisp, not too sweet and quite juicy but not too much. It has a lovely taste too, totally different from the packaged apples available in most shops. Actually I rarely eat apples, unless they come from Crafty Green Boyfriend's parents' garden.

Find out all about apples, orchard and apple varieties on Orange Pippin.
Abundance Edinburgh is an organisation devoted to orchard and apples in Edinburgh.

(red text in this post links to external websites, where you can find out more)

playground haiku

children's playground -

a crow balances
on a swing

previously published in Blithe Spirit, the journal of the British Haiku Society

Cuts to the Countryside

The UK Government is planning sweeping cuts to public spending. Many of the cuts affect wildlife and the environment. For example there are plans to privatise Natural Nature Reserves and ask wildlife charities to run them. RSPB and other environmental charities have an excellent track record of running wildlife reserves but they need money to do this. It seems unlikely that this government (which likes to present itself as the greenest government ever) would in the current economic climate give charities extra cash. So it looks likely that wildlife will lose out.

One piece of good news though is that money for wildlife friendly farming looks set to stay in place. This means that farmland birds, which have really declined in numbers recently will continue to be given the protection they need so that their numbers have some chance of recovering. One example that shows very clearly how wildlife friendly farming can make a difference is the recent increase in number of corncrakes in Scotland.

Today, Crafty Green Boyfriend and I joined 20 000 other people to march through the centre of Edinburgh to protest at the Government Cuts. It felt like a real flashback to the 1980s when we were students protesting against the Thatcher Government. It was less well organised and there was less chanting, but I guess we'll have plenty of chances to improve our protesting skills over the next few months.