Fabric Owls

 A few months ago, I bought a kit for making stuffed fabric owls from a second hand shop. I wasn't happy with the first one I made as the wings didn't work, and so it hasn't got any wings! This one I've kept for myself!

I then adapted the design of the wings, substituting plain felt for the stuffed fabric wing that's suggested in the pattern. 

The fabric I've used in the owls includes some from my own existing stash, as well as the fabric that was included in the kit. I'm giving this owl to a friend for her birthday.

This owl is also a birthday gift, for another friend.

And this owl is a gift for someone else! 

As is this one! 

And this one 

This owl bears a bit of a resemblance to the owl mascot of a certain language learning website

and has made it across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada to a fellow learner of Scottish Gaelic! 

Do you have a favourite? Let me know in the comments!

May - Walk but Don't Mow!

May is National Walking Month! If you already walk a lot, this is the ideal time to get out and about and enjoy the great outdoors in, hopefully, the lovely Spring weather. If you don't walk much, then this is the ideal time to start! You can find out more about the benefits of walking and tips for how to include more walking in your daily routine, then the Living Streets website has lots of ideas! Their main campaign is to try to inspire people to walk for 20 minutes every day during May! 

Today I walked through the Dells alongside the Water of Leith, doing my weekly river patrol.  There are lots of wildflowers in bloom at the moment, including these lovely Red Dead Nettles, Forget-me-nots and Dandelions. 

The Wild Garlic (Ramsons) are starting to bloom

as are the buttercups

bluebells (some native bluebells and some that are hybrids between native and Spanish bluebells)

and a small patch of Greater Stitchwort 

If you have a garden, you might want to consider allowing a small patch to grow wild, you might get flowers like those above appearing amongst the grass! If so, you may be interested in No Mow May! This is a call to leave your lawn to grow throughout the month, allowing flowering plants to flourish in amongst the grasses. A richer variety of flowering plants will support a greater range of insects and other invertebrates, which in turn will support a range of birds and mammals. Trevor Dines (Trevor the Botanist) has an excellent thread on Twitter, about how having areas of both short grass (cut regularly) and long grass (cut once a year in Autumn) in your garden is ideal for wildlife. He also gives tips on how best to manage this.

Handmade Needle Case

 I made this wee needle case as a Christmas gift for a friend. All the materials were in my stash of scrap fabrics and supplies bought from second hand shops.

Early Harvest - a poem for Apple Day

In the Blushing Golden sunlight of autumn

they gather in the Parkland of the Garden Royale for the Gala.

Captain Kidd, master of ceremonies, conducts

Edith Smith, the Duchess's Favourite

as she plays Jazz interpretations of Greensleeves

and Lady in Red, enjoying her time in the Limelight

while a Jester juggles in the Grove.

Cardinal von Galen appears in his Flamboyant robes

to pray to the Saints Edmund and Everard

shadowed by Reverend Morgan his long standing Rival.

Doctor Harvey is close by in case of accidents

(the Flamenco and Polka can lead to collisions!)

and keeps a wary eye on his daughter

Annie Elizabeth, Sweet Sixteen, in a Silken gown

who's enjoying a Waltz with Johnny Voun.

After the dance, the young man gives Annie

a Red Bouquet as a Keepsake (oh what a Surprise!)

and is thanked by her sweet Maiden's Blush.

Karmyn de Sonnaville wanders round, nose in the air

and Pink Pearls in her hair, followed

by the Beauties of Albany, Sutton and Hampshire

all wearing sweet scented Garlands.

“This Porter's Perfection!” says James Grieve,

the Bedfordshire Foundling, who's Tickled Pink

as he lies by the Wayside and feasts

(as he so rarely can) on Scotch Dumpling with Cinnamon Spice.

They dance until the Rosy Glow of Sunset,

then watch the Splendour of the Northern Lights come out

and Saturn and Jupiter fall into alignment.

It could have been a State Fair! A Holiday! The Diamond Jubilee or even Christmas!

They agree as they go home. Everyone speaks in dulcet tones

and dares to hope for a Bright Future, Good Fortune and ultimate Victory!

Can we then think beyond Golden Delicious

and organise a Revival?

a poem for Apple Day.

and here's the website where I found all the names of the heritage apple varieties I used in the poem.  

 

You may also be interested in Apples and People, a website devoted to the global story of apples. 

Greenmatch announces it's Environmental Awards for 2016!

 

Greenmatch, the green energy company has announced it's Environmental Awards for 2016. The awards go to individuals and organisations that Greenmatch believe are making a positive contribution to the environmental discussion.

The awards have been made in three categories:

Environmental Bloggers
Environmental Initiatives and
Environmental Sites.

I'm delighted to have been included in the list of Environmental Bloggers!

You can view the complete lists here.

Birdbrain by Virginia Arthur

Ellie falls into birdwatching by accident when she gets the date of a church picnic wrong and finds herself surrounded by birdwatchers. Seeing the care and attention that a pair of bluebirds pay to each other, she finally relaises she needs to work up the courage to finally leave her no-good husband. So she packs her belongings into her truck and takes her dog off to her best friend Patty's place.

The two of them become more and more interested in birds and sign up as volunteers at a local nature reserve, Ellie with considerably more enthusiasm than Patty. As Ellie returns to college to study biology and realises that life doesn't need to be the consumerist normality sold us by the media while Patty follows her new carrer in the business world, the two friends grow apart.

This is an entertaining story about friendship, very perceptive about human relationships and our relationship with nature both on the personal level:

"Her new habit of self interrupting whatever she was doing 'just to look at a bird' was in the eyes of her friends and family..... an endearing if not odd affectation. This irritated her, the idea that anyone who notices anything outside the selfish human world is immediately considered a bit odd. "

and also in detailing the unscrupulous destruction of biodiverse, ecologically valuable wild land to build strip malls, including a heartbreakingly detailed description of Ellie's involvement in trying to save an area of Californian wild land slated for development.

I really enjoyed the portrayal of Ellie's growing awareness of nature, with all the descriptions of the birds she sees, the knowledge she gains about them and her growing impatience and dislike of the way the human world encroaches on nature. These descriptions feel totally integral to the story, rather than added on as afterthoughts and erven where Ellie's feelings about over-development verge on becoming rants, they're Ellie's rants rather than the author's and so are convincing.

This book reminded me to some extent of Barabara Kingsolver's Flight Behaviour (which I review here), but though not as well written as that (and in places needing a finer editing), it is ultimately a more engaging and more passionately felt story.

It's a moving and thoughtful story of family, friendship and our failed relationship with the natural world that surrounds us.

Birdbrain by Virginia Arthur,  print copies can be ordered here on the author's website. The e-book is available from several outlets, the same page on the website will tell you which. 

If you're on Good Reads you may want to enter the giveaway for a copy of this book. 

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the e-book to review.

Treacle's Carbon Pawprint

Treacle has adorably mismatched paws, one long white sock, two short white socks and one entirely grey leg. He is very quiet on his feet (in contrast to his sometimes incredibly loud meows!) but what is his carbon pawprint?

Cats (and other, specially meat-eating, pets) have a significant carbon pawprint. We already made an environmentally friendly choice by adopting Treacle from a shelter (the Edinburgh Cat Protection League) and he was already neutered, another environmentally friendly step (which avoids overpopulation of cats) We're also reducing Treacle's carbon pawprint by:

Using cat litter made from recycled paper, there are several brands of this type of cat litter, or you can make you own, though that seems very time consuming.

Making cat toys from upcycled materials, so far we've made balls from recycled foil from chocolate bars (there's an endless supply of that material!); toys from cardboard or fabric attached to sticks or string to be dragged along or dangled in front of Treacle and toys from stuffing old socks with scrunched up pieces of newspaper or recycled plastic packaging (no matter how hard we try to reduce the amount of plastic packaging, there's always some of it around). Most recently we gave Treacle a large paper bag, which he then basically spent two days ripping apart, hiding himself in and hiding the foil balls in.

Food is more problematic.


I don't believe cats can become totally vegetarians. They're carnivores by nature, more so than even dogs. So we feed Treacle meat and fish based cat foods. We need really to find a sustainable brand, though even more important is a brand that Treacle will actually eat (and he seems to be a fussy eater). He likes rice cakes and toasted oat cereal so we feed those to him as snacks. So far Treacle hasn't killed any mice, I think his very presence in the flat scared off the mice who came in to feed on our bird food stocks (that had been more accessible than we realised!). Of course, if he were an outdoor cat, then Treacle would be chasing and probably killing the local birds. Although not a carbon pawprint issue as such, this is my biggest environmental problem with cats. The longer we know Treacle though, the longer we think that, although we were told by the cat protection shelter that he would be happy as an indoor cat, he is in fact an outdoor cat, who won't really be happy without being able to get out into a garden. This would be a real problem as we don't want to let him be an outdoor cat as we live three floors up and near a busy road. But he does meow and scratch at the flat door in the middle of the night, wanting to be let out....

(We've taken lots of advice on how to calm him down overnight - we use Feliway, a pheremone which is supplsed to calm cats down and reduce behaviour such as scratching and excessive vocalisations, we make sure he has an energetic playtime just before a late supper then bedtime and we ignore him when he meows in the night. None of this seems to work, though some nights he can be fairly quiet, usually he isn't.)

Heating is also problematic. We are the type of people who will put on an extra jumper or two before we put on the heating, Cats however like to have a warm environment. We think we may have at least a partial answer to this particular issue, Treacle has met Janosch, our tiger hot water bottle and they seem to get on very well.

The Green Chain Interview

I've been asked to take part in the Green Chain interview to raise money for envieonmental charities. This campaign is run by Price Minister who believe that trading second hand items online is a great way to increase opportunities for sustainable consumption and reduce the environmental impact caused by the purchase of new goods. The campaign is raising money for three UK charities: Surfers Against Sewage, Trees for Cities and Young People's Trust for Environment. So here are my answers to the interview questions:

Turning the heating down by just one degree in your house saves 240kg of CO2 a year. It would take eight trees to soak up this amount of CO2! Are you currently doing anything to make your home eco-friendly?

We've got double glazing and recently had the loft insulated (though we don't have solar panels!), we put on extra jumpers before we turn on the heating, we don't have many electrical appliances and only have them switched on when we're using them, most of our furniture is second hand and we only use environmentally friendly toiletries and cleaning materials. We don't have a tumble drier, we let everything dry naturally (though usually indoors because the drying green is three flights down the stairs and doesn't get much sunlight!)

Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface, now they only cover 2%. How are you reducing your use of paper?

I reuse paper (including envelopes and gift wrap), I have a big box full of A4 paper only used on one side that I've rescued from office recycling bins and mail, which I largely use for writing drafts of my poetry and stories on. I buy most of my books second hand. I use loose tea, rather than tea bags.

At PriceMinister we believe that trading second hand items online is a great way to extend the life span of products. Have you ever thought of buying or selling second hand items on or off line?

I give all my unwanted goods to second hand shops so the money goes to charity. I have thought about selling some of my second hand books but on balance decided it was easier to give them to second hand shops or to friends, though I donate foreign language books to a local youth hostel or language school.

One of the biggest environmental challenges we face is Freshwater Shortages. Are you taking measures to reduce your water consumption?

We have quick showers, we don't always flush the toilet if its only pee in there, we only put as much water in the kettle as we need to, we use as little water as possible for washing up. Our washing machine is water efficient and we aren't obsessed with washing things (ie we wear items for more than one day if they don't get dirty).

- How do you choose the produce that goes into your shopping basket? (any favorite products?)

Local, organic, fair trade, with a preference for local and organic where possible. Also we try to avoid products that include palm oil (as palm oil plantations are helping to destroy the forests of Indonesia and thus drive the orang utan to extinction, unfortunately palm oil is in most processed foods, try Paterson's Oat cakes as a palm oil free option) or that include any environmentally damaging, unhealthy chemicals. We also avoid proudcts with excess packaging and we use reusable cloth carrier bags. My very favourite recommendation would be the Cyrenians organic raspberry jam, which is made on an organic farm just outside Edinburgh that is also a training centre for people who have been homeless. On top of all that it is by far the tastiest raspberry jam in existence! (Can be difficult to find though, even in Edinburgh).

What is your favourite green space near home? (a photo would be great!)

Water of Leith, specifically Colinton and Craiglockart Dells, which is currently a mass of hawthorn blossom.

Which charity would you like to support and why?
I would like to support Trees for Cities, because I live in a city with plenty of trees though sadly we are losing some all the time. It is vital to have trees in cities because they are beautiful, they offer shade on a hot day and they improve the air quality, the also offer homes for insects and birds who bring colour and variety into the city too.

Please give us the url of a fellow blogger (or bloggers) you would like us to contact to raise an extra £10. Or tag them on Twitter with this tweet.

I will tag at least one UK blogger via Twitter. If you are reading this and you are a UK blogger on Twitter who would like to take part in the interview and help to raise money for these great UK environmental charities, let me know in the comments section and I'll tag you!