Corstorphine Hill today

 We had a lovely walk around Corstorphine Hill today. It's a beautiful hill with a good area of woodland and lots of paths. There are a good number of Scots Pines on the hill, including these two near the top 

We were also very pleased to find a good number of Scarlet Elf Cups, brilliant red fungi that are a feature of winter woodlands, if you know where to find them 

There were plenty of birds around too, including Nuthatch, Jay, Mistle Thrush, Treecreeper and Buzzard. 

Litany of Coal by Jean Taylor

These days discussions of coal centre, rightly, on its negative effects, the pollution and its contribution to climate change. However, coal mining was once a vital part of many communities in Scotland (as it remains in many parts of the world). 

Jean Taylor is the daughter of a mining surveyor and draws on family history and a childhood spent in Nigeria and Scotland to explore the legacy of the coal mining industry. 

The beautifully written poems in this pamphlet feature blacksmiths, colliers and their families, scullery maids, the lord of the manor and coal mine canaries. All the poems relate to various aspects of the coal mining industry and mining communities. 

The constant fear of mining accidents meant that miners' families were very superstitious:

'Shoes laid on tables, propped up ladders,

spilt salt - all carried risks that needed warding.' 

 

from Married In

 

As well as the constant threat of accidents, abandoned mines were a constant danger to the unwary. Visitors from other places might not be aware, but the children living in the mining communities, such as Mossmorran.'knew the whole town was rotten. Abandoned /pit shafts lay in wait like cats for spiders.'

 

The families were, by necessity, careful with resources too:

 

...........................................................'now new quilts 

are needed. Rachel prepares her squares -

the herring-bone that made Tom look so dapper,

her own blue felt, Nan's jacket,' 

 

from Back-stitched 

 

The writer several times ponders the colonial legacy of her ancestors' involvement in managing coal mines in Nigeria. referring to a bureau that was given to her grandfather, by the colliers of Lassodie Colleries, where he was the manager: 

 

'and did my grandpa feel bad

about taking the food

out of the mouths of bairns

and should i think his bureau a safe place

for storing my poems.' 

 

from The Plaque

 

This small book offers a lot of insight into the legacies of coal mining, and ends, beautifully on the beach, looking at: 

 

a sparkled trail of anthracite

scopped from rich seams 

that lie untroubled now 

beneath the Firth.  

 

from Spring Tide.

 

Litany of Coal by Jean Taylor, published (2024) by Red Squirrel Press. 

Jean Taylor attends one of my creative writing groups. You can read my review of her earlier poetry pamphlet 'Deliberate Sunshine' here.

Blackford Pond and the Hermitage of Braid

We had a lovely, frosty walk yesterday around Blackford Pond and into the Hermitage of Braid. I have never seen so many Mallards on Blackford Pond, many of them skating on the ice! 

In amongst all the Mallards we were surprised and delighted to find a female Teal! She's the small duck further away than the female Mallards in the photo below, you can recognise her as a Teal, not just by her small size but by the lovely teal green flash in her wing. 

We also saw a couple of Little Grebes (also known as Dabchicks). This one seemed to be asleep!

Though the ice is making life obviously more difficult for the birds, the frozen pond did look lovely

The light in the Hermitage of Braid was beautiful

and we were happy to see a good number of snowdrops in full bloom

In the Dells Today

 Today for the first time since Storm Eowyn hit, I made a patrol of the Dells alongside the Water of Leith. 

It was sad to see so many trees had been damaged, two bridges had also been damaged by falling trees, including Bog's Bridge: 

 Not only is passage across this bridge completely blocked by fallen tree trunks, but it looks like the stone walls and the railings have been damaged too. There's lots of fallen branches in the river under the bridge too. 

(Storm Eowyn has caused a lot of damage across Edinburgh, lots of trees have been damaged or killed, including our tallest tree, a Himalayan Cedar that had grown in the Royal Botanic Gardens. Roofs have been ripped off buildings across the city too. Most people stayed inside during the storm and I've not heard of anyone being injured around here.)

Storm damage does mean that branches and twigs from high up in the trees can now be found on the ground, sometimes with beautiful arrangements of lichens and mosses on them. There's a lovely selection on the branch below, including the bright yellow of the lichen Xanthoria parietina.

One of the things I always look out for at this time of year is the Scarlet Elf Cup fungus. I was very happy to find it again this year, in the same place where I've seen it for the past few years. The photos below show the one fungus I could get a good photo of

 

but when I had a good look round, I could see that there were many more Scarlet Elf Cups hidden away among the fallen leaves and mosses. I think they might become larger and more obvious in the next week or so. 

I was also very happy to see that my favourite patch of snowdrops is in full bloom again

I was very happy to see a good variety of birds, including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper, Bullfinch, Long Tailed Tit, Dipper and Song Thrush.

My Year of Meat by Ruth Ozeki

 

My Year of Meats is the debut novel from Ruth Ozeki (who also wrote the wonderful A Tale for the Time Being). It's labelled as being Suitable for Vegetarians and may well turn some meat eaters off from eating meat in the future (or at the very least into becoming more conscious about where their meat comes from). 

The story revolves around Jane, a Japanese American documentary maker, funded by the US Beef industry to make a documentary series 'My American Wife' which features various families and their favourite beef recipes, a programme designed for the Japanese market (with the ultimate intention of increasing sales of US beef in Japan). The other main character is Akiko, the submissive wife of Jane's overbearing Japanese boss. The novel follows Jane's journey into realising the dangers that large scale beef production pose to animal and human health and Akiko's journey into finding her own independence. 

I found this a really enjoyable read, with the politics around beef production integrated well into the narrative, though I can understand why some readers feel that the politics is treated in a heavy handed manner. 

My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki, published by Viking (1998)

Cramond Island

 We had a lovely walk from Silverknowes to Cramond today, taking in the farm fields at the Lauriston Farm Agro-ecology project. The photo below shows Cramond Island. 

 

Comely Bank cemetery and National Galleries

 I took a short time out to wander round Edinburgh's Comely bank cemetery yesterday. The light was beautiful

and I was delighted to see my first snowdrops of the year - not yet in full bloom!

Today I went to the Women in Revolt exhibition at The Scottish National Galleries Modern 2 and took some photos to take advantage of the light

It's good to see that the gallery now has an allotment area in its grounds, though it's not clear who does the gardening here (are they growing vegetables for use in their cafes or are community groups doing the gardening?)

The is well worth seeing before it closes on 26 January (and in fact I'm going to see it again tomorrow!).  

I posted more photos of the Gallery building over on my Shapeshifting Green blog, you can see them here.

Frosty Weekend Walk

 The temperature has been down as low as minus six in Edinburgh in recent days. It wasn't quite that cold yesterday and we wrapped up warm for our walk round Arthur's Seat. We had excellent views across to the snow covered Pentland Hills (click on the photo below to enlarge the image)

Crafty Green Boyfriend zoomed in with his camera for the photo below

 The frosty grass was beautiful 

and Dunsapie Loch was frozen over 

We didn't see any Ravens on Saturday but this Jackdaw was happy to pose for a photo, with Duddingston Loch in the background

Eavesdropping on Animals by George Bumann

 

 George Bumann has studied animals around the world for over forty years and now leads courses on animals language and intelligence in Yellowstone National Park in the USA. This book is a distillation of what he has learned in his own studies and also from other wildlife researchers. 

The book outlines how the author first learned about nature and then shares incidents from his life, where he has had close contact with animals. He explores the different ways that birds and other animals communicate with each other and gives the reader plenty of advice on how to best spend time in nature, without disturbing the wildlife. More than anything, pay attention to the sounds you hear around you in nature and learn the patterns of sounds you hear in your local area. The book cleverly weaves practical exercises in paying attention into the narrative. 

This is a fascinating book, which gets you thinking about nature and inspires you to get out and pay more attention. My only complaint (and it's not at all a criticism of the book) is that being in the UK, I'm not going to encounter most of the species mentioned here. But the overall encouragement to get out and listen works just as well wherever you are. Plus, sometimes there are direct comparisons to be made, for example I found myself wondering whether ravens in Scotland would use the same call on seeing a Golden Eagle as American eagles do. 

So, this is a must-read if you want to know more about animal communication and how to go about making your own investigations in your local area.

Eavesdropping on Animals by George Bumann, published (2024) by Greystone Books.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you've had a lovely, relaxing holiday break. We've had some lovely walks in our local area. here are photos of some of the highlights.  

We walked into the centre of town on Christmas Day, hoping to be able to walk round Princes Street Gardens, which used to be a Christmas tradition for many people. However, in recent years the gardens have been shut on Christmas Day so that they can be prepared for the Hogmany Party, which this time round had to be cancelled because of high winds.

We had a lovely walk at Musselburgh, starting out walking along the River Esk 

then continuing along the coastal John Muir Walkway to the Boating Pond 

 

and Levenhall Links where we sat in the bird hides for a while. 

We also enjoyed a walk around Corstorphine Hill, where we saw a good selection of fungi including this Scarlet Elf Cap

We also had a good view of the Grevy's Zebras that live in Edinburgh Zoo and can often be seen from the main path around the hill

On Saturday, we visited Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens, with fingers crossed that we might see a Kingfisher at the pond. We did indeed see a Kingfisher, if you look very carefully, you might be able to see it in the bushes on the left hand side of the photo below

The pond was fairly icy and it was amusing to watch the Mallards skating

As ever, there were a lot of Grey Squirrels in the gardens, though only this one allowed photos.

**

I've had a haiku published in the latest issue of Shadow Pond Journal, you can read it here (scroll down to read my haiku, but take the time to read all the others too!). 

Thanks to Allyson Whipple, editor of Haiku Girl Summer for nominating one of my haiku for a Touchstone Award. You can read all the nominated haiku here. 

**

If you're in the UK, you may want to take part in this year's Big Garden Birdwatch, which takes place between 24-26 January. You can do the birdwatch in your own garden or in any greenspace.