National Moth Week

 Over the past 12 years, National Moth Week has happened across the world in the last week of July. This year's national moth week finished yesterday, so I missed it! 

However, when we were walking along the Water of Leith on Saturday (see yesterday's blogpost for photos from the walk) we saw this lovely moth (click on the photo for a closer look)

I looked in my moth book and online, but couldn't identify it myself, so I put the photo into the Edinburgh Natural History Facebook Group and was told it's a Dunbar Moth. 

Moths are often underappreciated, many people think they're all dull, night-flying insects or annoying pests that eat your clothes. There are many beautiful species of moths, and several species can even be seen during the daytime.

Have you seen any interesting moths recently?

Water of Leith - Roseburn to Stockbridge

Yesterday we went on a lovely walk along the Water of Leith from Roseburn to Stockbridge. 

This is a pretty stretch of the river, though it gets very crowded around Dean Village and Stockbridge, two areas of Edinburgh (and the river) that are very popular with tourists. 

Otters are quite often seen in the Water of Leith, but just up from Dean Village, there is the one spot in the city where you can actually guarantee seeing an otter:

This otterly adorable statue has been there for years, but not many people know about it! 

There's quite a lot of River Water Crowfoot in the river at the moment. This is a beautiful plant when in flower, though very easy to overlook otherwise. 

We were surprised to find patches of River Water Crowfoot growing in the weir at Dean Village. You'd expect the water here to be flowing too fast for the plant to establish itself 

but there are several patches here, and they seem to be well rooted in the rocks above the weir

Plenty of other plants are currently in bloom along the river, including Hairy Willowherb

We were lucky to get our walk in when we did, because it started raining as we were eating lunch and rained on and off for the rest of the day.

Homemade Bookmark

 I made this bookmark yesterday from leftover pink wool - there was almost exactly the right amount of wool to weave through the plastic mesh that is the base of the bookmark. The piece of mesh had been sitting around for ages, with me wondering what to do with it, then I realised it's exactly the right size for a bookmark and this is the result. 

Raspberry Trifle

Every year, we forage raspberries from various sites in Edinburgh. In previous years, we've given most of the raspberries to Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother to make jam. This year, however, she isn't making jam, so I had the idea of making a trifle with the raspberries. And it was so nice, I'll do it again in the future! I don't generally write recipes, but hopefully the attempt below will give you some idea, if you want to make a fresh raspberry trifle yourself. You can of course use as much of the ingredients as suits your needs. Apart from the jelly, I don't use exact measurements. If you want the trifle to be entirely vegan, you could use a vegan cake, but I've not yet found a vegan cake that works in a trifle (if you have any recommendations let me know).

Ingredients

half a Madeira cake or raspberry Swiss roll (sliced)

Southern Comfort or similar to taste (optional)

vegan raspberry jelly 

fresh raspberries 

Method

Place the sliced cake in the bottom of a dish

Carefully measure out as much Southern Comfort as you want and pour it over the cake slices

Place the raspberries over the cake. There should be at least enough raspberries to cover the cake entirely. 

Make the jelly up to one pint with boiling water. 

Pour the jelly over the cake and raspberries. 

Leave to cool and then place in the fridge to set. 

Serve with a dairy alternative cream (my favourite is Oat cream.)

Lavender Bag made from Reclaimed Fabric and Ribbons

 I made this lavender bag recently. It's made using reclaimed fabric and ribbons. The ribbon that's tied around the bag is secured with press-studs so that the bag can be refilled with fresh lavender if the scent is lost.