Show the Love

 Every year around Valentine’s Day, hundreds of thousands of people join in the Climate Coalition's #ShowTheLove campaign for the places, people and life that we want to protect from climate change. This year’s campaign runs from 5-24 February. The Woodland Trust are challenging people to take one action to show your love for woods and trees.

There are many ways to do this of course but part of this campaign is the symbolism of the Green Heart. People across the UK and no doubt elsewhere craft green hearts to wear, share and display!

Here is the heart I decorated for this year, it's a bit of a cheat as the wooden heart had already been painted and I just added some stickers that had come in a stash of crafting supplies I bought in a second hand shop

and these are the green hearts I made for last year's campaign

The wooden heart in the middle is attached to a clothes peg and came in a birthday gift bag of craft supplies, the two cardboard hearts I bought recently from a second hand shop. The beads and thread are from my stash of upcyclable craft supplies. I painted all the hearts with poster paint, which is water soluble.

World Wildlife Fund sent me a green heart as part of this campaign a couple of years ago. It's now permanently pinned to one of my coats and is a little faded but this is what it looked like originally!

 As well as making, wearing and displaying green hearts, you may like to try some of these suggestions from the Woodland Trust about how you can show your love for nature, particularly for trees

Plant a tree – make your surroundings greener, healthier and happier
Record wildlife with Nature's Calendar – share your seasonal observations of nature to help chart the effects of climate change (This is something I should do more regularly. I send my wildlife records to the local wildlife record centre but somehow forget to send them to Nature's Calendar).
Contact your local political representatives and ask them to help protect the things you love from climate change
Sign the Tree Charter – join thousands of others to celebrate and protect trees, and combat threats like climate change

And remember get out there and enjoy nature, it's good for your health and it's great fun and you may even make some new friends like this grey squirrel we met on Corstorphine Hill this lunchtime (when the sun came out between showers)

Greener Working - a workshop for Gorgie Creative Network Network

Gorgie Creative Network started up about a year ago, offering creatives and freelancers in the local area (the Gorgie, Dalry and Slateford neighbourhoods of Edinburgh) the opportunity to meet up and connect!

Last year the network put together the first Gorgie Freelancers Festival which included some excellent events including a panel discussion on feminism for freelancers and a 'reusable mug decorating workshop' in conjunction with Gorgie Collective, which I blogged about here.

As I type, we're in the middle of the Firestarter Festival (a 'two week long festival of collaborative learning events, illuminating creative, disruptive and innovative ways in which we can all transform ourselves, our organisations and the wider system') which features two events from the Gorgie Creative Network: an excellent workshop on the value of networks which happened last Thursday and a workshop on Creativity which is happening tomorrow at Dalry 183 Creative and Cultural Hub (there are still some free tickets available for this, which you can book on Eventbrite).

Starting from this month, Gorgie Creative Network will be expanding their work offering a monthly co-working Wednesday at Gorgie City Farm, a chance for people to work together in a pleasant environment, particularly useful for freelancers who often are working alone. As regular readers of this blog know, I'm a great fan of Gorgie City Farm and know it's a great place to work, though somewhat distracting with all those cute animals.

Another new regular feature will be a monthly workshop. I'm delighted to be facilitating the first of these workshops on the theme of Greener Working. This will offer a space for creatives and freelancers (and others who are interested) to get together to discuss how we can make our creative and work practices more environmentally friendly. The event will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 20 February at Dalry 183 Creative and Cultural Hub (which is to be the regular venue for these workshops) and costs £20 (with some £5 concession tickets available). You can find out more and book on Eventbrite here.

In the future I'm hoping to also offer a Creative Approach to Copywriting workshop in the same series. Updates to follow here as and when I know more.

A Trick I Learned from Dead Men by Kitty Aldridge

 


Lee Hart and his deaf brother Ned are left alone when their father disappears and their mother dies. Things start to turn around when Lee gets an apprenticeship at the local funeral parlour and falls for a beautiful florist.

Lee has a very close relationship with nature, particularly a carrion crow that he considers a friend:

'Crow sits on the telegraph pole by the old post office. He waits there like a chess piece. Crow thinks he's an eagle, you would at those heights. He steps off, casual, skateboarding, wheels, lands on a No Parking sign.'

It's a  moving story, of lovel, loss and family with engaging characters and a nice sense of humour to balance out the sadness.

A Trick I learned from Dead Men by Kitty Aldridge published by Vintage Books.

Hornbeam Trees in Craiglockart Dell

It was a cold sunny day today but the birds were all singing and calling very energetically and chasing each other through the trees in preparation for spring! Lovely to see and hear, though as I was doing my weekly litter pick in the Dells (alongside the Water of Leith) I didn't get photos of the birds (by the time I've laid down my litter picker and got out my camera, the birds have invariably disappeared!)

Trees are easier to photograph as they're not going to move anywhere. These trees are hornbeams

They have strange trunks with a very distinctive texture. They are at their most beautiful in late summer and autumn when they have lovely chandelier type catkins (the photo below is one I took in October 2011)


Hornbeams aren't native to Scotland, though they are native to the south of England. These specific trees were planted in the Dells when the area was full of watermills. The wood of the hornbeam is very hard and was used in the construction of mill wheels and other parts.

I shared these photos also today in the new Facebook group 'Trees to Celebrate in Edinburgh'. If you live or work in Edinburgh and are interested in celebrating our trees then you can join the group here.

Winter at Cammo

In yesterday's blogpost I said it hadn't snowed so far this year in Edinburgh. Well last night we got caught in the year's first snow fall and today many parts of Edinburgh were covered in a fine dusting of snow. Just enough to make everywhere look beautiful, as Cammo did when we walked round there today

We walked up towards the water tower (seen in the first photo) and watched a kestrel hunt and catch something then land on a fence post and eat. Crafty Green Boyfriend managed to take several photos - as you can see we weren't the only people watching the kestrel!

We then made our way into Cammo Country Park which we always visit at this time of year to see the snowdrops. There weren't actually as many snowdrops as usual, not only were there fewer in bloom but there seemed to be fewer in total. However there were enough for us to be able to get some photos

There were also some beautiful fungi poking out through the snow, these are jelly ear fungi

but I don't know what these are, so if you can identify them, please leave a comment!

There are some lovely views over to the Pentland hills

Frosty Winter's Day

It's cold in Edinburgh just now, but we're definitely better off than most other places. We haven't got snow and the temperature is bearable if you're wearing plenty of layers and you keep moving. Plus the frost is beautiful

I joined Crafty Green Boyfriend for a lunchtime walk round Corstorphine Hill today

I loved seeing how the sun had melted the frost on one side of the grassy tussocks but there was still frost on the shady side

And of course it's always beautiful to see leaves covered in frost

Lovely also to see a flock of redwings foraging in the undergrowth, though only a couple show up in the photo

The robin was more keen to be photographed

 ***

After our walk I jumped on a bus and went to the drop in session where people were invited to give their opinions on the proposals for the development of the Meadowbank site.

There were a good number of people there and some lively conversations not least about the future of the trees, specially the iconic trees at the front of the stadium. If you live or work in Edinburgh, there's still time to give your views on the proposals. There is another drop in session from 12.30 - 3pm, Saturday 9 February at Craignetinney Community Hall, 9 Loaning Road and if you can't make that you can contact your local councillor. Even if you don't live in the Meadowbank area the stadium and wider site are city wide resources and your councillor (if you live in Edinburgh!) should listen to your concerns.

The Woodland Trust is currently asking people to give their views on urban street trees (like those around Meadowbank) you can give your feedback here.

Home Town

It seems smaller
now I am taller
(as are the trees).

But really it is bigger -
fields have grown houses
and the one remaining horse
feeds by a pond
beside a motorway.

Suburbs stretch to the sea.


Previously published on Verse Wrights  

My poem Return, which was first published in Envoi magazine and first appeared on the Shaeshifting Green blog in 2007 is now at the top of that blog again, you can read it here.