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. 

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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.

Season's Greetings

 

 

Season's Greetings 

to all my blog readers!

Oh Christmas Tree!

A couple of days ago, we collected our Christmas tree from Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden. It's in a pot and will be returned to the garden after 12th Night. Today I decorated the tree with my usual eccentric collection of odd earrings, gifted, thrifted and handmade decorations and necklaces that I would never wear, but that look pretty draped over a tree. 

 

Here's an interesting article about real vs artificial Christmas trees.

Deliberate Sunshine by Jean Taylor

 

Jean Taylor is an Edinburgh based poet, who comes along to one of the writing groups I facilitate. She's very modest about her talents and I hadn't realised she had written this book, until I found a copy in the free poetry library in the Diggers Pub (an Edinburgh pub that has a poet in residence and regular poetry events). So I read a few of the poems and then returned the book to the free poetry library. Once I got home, I ordered my own copy from the publisher, Black Agnes Press, a small poetry press based in Dunbar, East Lothian. 

This is a book of poetry about family, grief and growing up, written with an eye for telling detail and the beauty of nature. The title Deliberate Sunlight comes from a phrase in the short poem Solar.

Sibling relationships are explored in Sibling Rivalry Shadorma and from a genetic point of view in Genetic Variations, which looks at inheritance of characteristics within the narrator's family. Too Short a Date (subtitled Letter to a Sister) is full of a shared enthusiasm for flowers, many of which hold specific family memories: 

Germander Speedwells
like tiny blue stars - for me, their petals
hold our mother, young and slender
through her warm summer days.

Summer Blood details the narrator having her first period on a beach holiday, describing the "summer rowan redness" and ending with her "practising for the possibility of being a woman."

A visit to Newington Graveyard, 14 January, 2019 meditates on some of the gravestones, including "a fallen angel, nose in the air", while "long brushed / foxes appear and eyeing me, disappear". 

Several of the poems in the collection focus on the grief of losing a loved one, with Mayday perfectly capturing the sense of disorientation: 

Living without him is like flying
without instruments
towards an unlit airstrip
in a remote landscape. 

The collection aptly (for a book called Deliberate Sunshine) ends with the image of daffodils, bought for:

the joy
of watching them
becoming sunlight.

Hope and the beauty of nature shining through grief.

 

Deliberate Sunshine by Jean Taylor, published (2019) by Black Agnes Press. 

Otterly Amazing!

It was pouring down yesterday morning, but we donned our waterproofs and went for a walk along the Water of Leith. We hadn't walked far from our starting point at Roseburn, before we saw two Grey Herons on the riverbank, obviously fishing, but standing much closer together than You'd expect Grey Herons to be, outside of their crowded heronries. 

Near where the river passes the Galleries of Modern Art, another heron was perched, steadily looking into the water. We followed the bird's eyes and noticed an Otter! This Otter then rushed around the weir, running up and down, swimming around and eventually running back up the weir with something in its mouth (a fish perhaps, but neither of us got a good enough look to be sure). Crafty Green Boyfriend took this photo, which is admittedly blurred, as the Otter was rushing too fast to be caught clearly. 

Otters live along the Water of Leith and can often be seen along the river's length, but they're always a wonderful animal to see and this was one of my best ever encounters, proving it's always worthwhile going for a walk even if the weather doesn't look promising!