This autumn, the trees seem to be particularly beautiful! I always make time to look all around me when I'm near trees at this time of year, because everything changes so quickly and the leaves will all too soon have dropped. I love the way the sunlight makes the leaves shine.
We had a lovely walk round Corstorphine Hill this weekend. The autumn colours were still amazing, largely because, apart from one storm, we've not had much high wind, so a lot of leaves are still on the trees. Unfortunately the colours didn't come out particularly well on most of the photos, due to the lack of sunshine, but this photo gives a good idea of the beauty of the leaves
We were lucky with birds on the hill too (though no photos of the birds!). We had a great view of a Kestrel and also saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker working its way up a tree and five Jays flying across the hill. Jays aren't uncommon and we know they nest on Corstorphine Hill but they are oddly elusive and it's always particularly nice to see them
Last Thursday, I had had a lunchtime walk round Harrison Park, a short walk away from our flat, and the autumn colours were beautiful there too
Shared for Nature Notes.
The book progresses with poems on topics including the poet's childhood, war and its aftermaths, and the changing seasons:
leaves I saw born in Spring,
first green syllables,
burn russet, amber, gold,
from October
Throughout, the poet shares precise observations of the natural world around her, with often surprising descriptions:
as sky remembers blue like a sudden thought
from November
or imbuing nature with spiritual value:
'On the ash tree spire
a blackbird holds his world
with his psalm to summer.'
from The Silence
Clarke generally focuses her eye on nature rather than environmental issues though Was it For This? reflects on war and contains the following:
'Now war is poisoned air, the screaming sky'
and goes on to mention places recently and currently affected by war including Kiev, Aleppo and Gaza.
There's a lot of repetition in the poems, which has been hailed by some as echoes that add to the overall reading, but I have to admit that I found most of the repeated phrases annoying rather than anything else. Overall however, I found it a very impressive collection.
The Silence by Gillian Clarke, published (2024) by Carcanet.
**
Meanwhile, over on my Crafty Green Poet Substack, I'm thinking about Preparing for Winter.
Yesterday we enjoyed a lovely walk round Blackford Pond and through the Hermitage of Braid. The autumnal colours were particularly beautiful, especially the beech trees. Beech has a bit of a bad reputation among ecologists being a non-native species, but it is undeniably lovely in autumn as you can see in the photos below.
We didn't find as many fungi as we had hoped to find, but there were some, including, as seen in the photo below,Common Puffballs with Candlesnuff in the background
A few Grey Squirrels were running around too
Each chapter examines a different group of animals, looking at the ancient myths that people used to tell themselves about these creatures and the scientific experiments that have been done to find out facts about how each animal lives. Some of these experiments would now be considered cruel by modern standards, but that isn't pointed out. (I have no problem with the presentation of cruel experiments that shaped scientific knowledge if the cruelty is addressed, scientific ethics have changed after all).
I found the author's jaunty sense of humour irritating, particularly her seeming need to add 'amusing' comments to almost every paragraph. This book is worth reading, but nowhere near as good as An Immense World by Ed Yong, which deals with similar topics and which I (very briefly) reviewed here.
The Unexpected Truth about Animals by Lucy Cooke, published by Penguin.
Most weeks I do a patrol of Colinton and Craiglockart Dells alongside Edinburgh's Water of Leith. I often pick litter, and always record the wildlife I see. Today, I spent some time looking at fungi, and here are a selection of what I found. The photos aren't all of the best quality, unfortunately, as the light wasn't great for taking pictures. First we have a Collared Earth Star with a coral fungus in the background.
and the weird jelly like fungus below is possibly Tripe Fungus (but I'm really lost with this one!)
The Dells are great for fungi all year round and my favourite fungi I've found there are the Larch Bolete, which I found a month or so ago
and the Scarlet Elf Cups that appear in late winter
Yesterday morning, we had a brief walk at Saughton Park, before the storm came in. The autumn colours are looking beautiful - I always particularly like rowan trees at this time of year.
