Autumn haiku

 

 

secrets
you never shared -
falling leaves

 

haiku originally published in Shadow Pond.  

**

This week's post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack is all about apples, you can read it here.  

Autumn Colours at Linlithgow Loch

 We had a lovely day trip yesterday to Linlithgow, just a short train journey away from Edinburgh. Whenever we visit the town, we walk round the beautiful loch. Here are some of the photos we took yesterday. 

Linlithgow Palace (the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots sits near the loch and can be seen from anywhere on the perimeter path 

 

The autumn colours were beautiful, especially in yesterday's bright sunshine 

 the water was sparkling 

 

and most of the male Mallards were back in breeding plumage, after their early autumnal moult (during which their so-called eclipse plumage means they can be mistaken for females). Their heads were really shining in the low sun

There were also several pairs of Tufted Ducks on the lock

and a family of Mute Swans 

 As it's fungi season, we kept an eye out for toadstools and were happy to see this arrangement of fungi, lichens and moss on a fence post

Shared for Nature Notes. 

Digger - failure or great climate movie?

Everyone seems to be talking about Digger, the latest Tom Cruise film, about Digger Rockwell, the oil tycoon. Most reviews are bad and it's doing really badly at the box office, but I saw it yesterday and it's well worth seeing. 

It's a very difficult film to review without giving away the surprise twists (of which there are several, slowly revealed through the length of the film). However, without giving too much away, I'll say that it's a film that delivers uncomfortable truths about the world we live in and leaves the viewer questioning whether art can ever really make a difference to important issues. It's a well-made, thought provoking satire. Being satire, many of its fans find it very funny, though I always find satire less funny than it's supposed to be. I think I laughed three times in Digger, the rest of the time the satire was just too close to grim truth to be funny. 

So, don't believe the negative reviews, go and see the film. There are a couple of good reviews on Wired (both of which contain 'spoilers' so read them after seeing the film):

Everyone Hates Digger - It's the Perfect Climate Movie. 

Digger is a Box Office Flop. It might be the most Relevant Film of the Year.  

An Immense World by Ed Yong

An Immense World explores the many ways that animals perceive the world. It looks at how the senses that we share with other animals can differ between species, some species can only see in black and white, while others can perceive colours beyond the spectrum that humans can see. The human sense of smell is notoriously poor compared to that of many other species, such as dogs or elephants.

However, where this book probably becomes most interesting is in looking at the senses that other species have that humans entirely lack. For example, seals can follow the hydrodynamic wake (the swirling water currents created by the movement) of a fish from up to 200 metres away. Spiders' webs are effectively a clever extension of their senses, being sensitive to the movements of trapped prey. Bats and dolphins can navigate using echolocation, enabling them to avoid obstacles in dimly lit environments. The most powerful electric eel can incapacitate a horse.

As humans we experience the world in a uniquely human way and we cannot begin to imagine what it would really be like to experience the world in entirely different ways. Reading this book helps us to understand some aspects of what it would be like to perceive life differently. 

The book also looks at some of the ways in which human activities make life harder for many species - excess lighting at night fatally attracts insects and disorientates bats and migrating birds; noise pollution changes the way that birds communicate with each other and underwater noise affects how creatures such as dolphins can navigate. 

 

An Immense World by Ed Yong, published (2023) by Vintage 

How Deep is Your Love?

How Deep Is Your Love, written, directed and narrated by Eleanor Mortimer, follows a group of marine biologists trying to understand life in the deepest part of the ocean, before an international vote on deep sea mining. 

 

We're shown amazing footage of beautifully weird deep sea creatures and learn about the long process of naming and classifying the many species that are new to science. We meet the marine scientists, who each have their particular areas of expertise in the taxonomy and ecology of deep sea life. We are also allowed to eavesdrop on the international conference, being held in Jamaica to decide whether to lift the moratorium on deep sea mining. The tiny island of Nauru is the loudest voice calling for deep sea mining to be allowed (large parts of Nauru have been entirely destroyed by mining for potash). 

 

The moratorium still holds on deep sea mining (for now) and this film really brings home how much the world stands to lose if it is allowed to go ahead. There is so much we don't know about the deep sea environment, so many amazing creatures with such different ways of living on this planet. 

 

This is a beautifully made, thought provoking and fascinating look at the deep sea world. Scroll down on the How Deep is Your Love homepage to find screenings near you. 

 

 

 

Autumn Colours in the Dells

The weather is beautiful today. Here are some photos from this morning's patrol of Edinburgh's Water of Leith, an activity I do most weeks, recording wildlife and often picking litter (I pick litter every week in Summer, once a fortnight in Spring and Autumn and once a month in Winter). 

The Grey Heron in the photo below was very patient, but still my photo isn't great!

 

Shared for Nature Notes. 

Falling Leaves haiku

all the things
I meant to do -
falling leaves 

 

originally published in Issue 3:4 of Blithe Spirit, the journal of the British Haiku Society.