Super Nature - a film review

Super Nature offers a patchwork of personal meditations on the natural world. Director Ed Sayer collaborated with forty people, all of whom who used antique Super 8 film cameras to record stories of the nature they see around them, with as little travel involved as possible. 

The collaborators include professional filmmakers, conservation rangers and local enthusiasts, which brings an interesting and varied level of skills, expertise and motivations into the end product. Some contributors share how being close to nature is beneficial for their health, others are involved in looking after nature including one of the rangers responsible for the 24/7 care of the last remaining Northern White Rhinos in the world. The film takes us to coral reefs, the Alps, the Pacific Garbage Patch and beaches in Cornwall. 

 

It's a beautifully made film, with a meditative flow to it as it moves from one scene to another (though there are several scenes which you want to last for longer). Shooting it all on Super 8 gives the film a nostalgic feel, that fits with the sense of loss that emerges from several of the scenes. Some contributions, particularly the director's own contributions, do veer towards preaching in parts, but overall it is a love letter to both nature and to Super 8 film. 

 

Super Nature is screening in selected cinemas., including at Edinburgh's Filmhouse (which is where I saw it today). 

Contemplation of Roses by Annest Gwilym

Contemplation of Roses is the latest collection from Welsh poet Annest Gwilym. The opening poem Spring ends:  'birds are loud / in trees shouting begin begin begin' which is very apt as a description of early Spring birdsong and as an opening to a poetry collection. 

The first half of the collection moves through the seasons of the year, from Spring to the 'grey spaces of winter' in Hinterland. These are well observed poems, written with a great eye for detail, I particularly love the 'yellow cartoon feet' of the Little Egret in Season of Roses. All the poems are threaded with beautiful phrases to capture the individual feel of each season, including: 

 The syncopation of air-blue days (Sumer Is Icumen In)

sunwet smell of new roses (The Contemplation of Roses)

Soon the deer will come and shyly stamp out / the last blazing embers of summer. (Early Autumn)

Most poems in the second part focus on lonely people, including the remembered shared loneliness of the height of the COVID pandemic (Remembering Pestilence) and a lonely human sharing an encounter with a deer in The Quiet Night. Home briefly looks at the status of the Welsh language, weaving in images of the natural world:

'brittle on your tongue, slow as lichen, tactile as clay.
The language you dream in, yet cannot write.'

Dear London is an anti-love poem to the city the poet once lived in: 

your wrinkled river, as tired as the moon (Dear London)

Most poems here are free verse, though Dinorwig is a haibun, offering an interesting potted history into the site of a Celtic hill fort and later a quarry. 

The collection is brought to a close with Twilight.  

'On the shore of night,
my pebbled heart is made of air,'

This is an enjoyable collection, offering insights into the natural world, memory, place and loneliness. 

Contemplation of Roses by Annest Gwilym, published (2026) by Lapwing Publications. (Buy it here).  

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Disclaimer: I was sent a free e-book of this title in exchange for an honest review.  

You can read my reviews of earlier books by Annest, by following the links below:

Seasons in the Sun.  

What the Owl Taught Me.  

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Meanwhile, I'm delighted to have a poem in the latest, Music themed, issue of Allegro magazine.  

The Nightingale by Sam Lee

 

In many ways this is a wonderful book. It shares the science about Nightingales and their decline in the UK, along with information about conservation successes (he mentions Isabella Tree's excellent book Wilding, which outlines the work she has done with her husband at the Knepp estate, you can read my review of that book here). Lee is also interested in our cultural connections with Nightingales and shares legends, songs, poems and folk tales from across the world. The book ends with a call to the reader to join in nature conservation activities, which, these days particularly, is a vital addition to any natural history book.

Author Sam Lee is a folk singer and has collected songs from communities such as Gypsies and Travellers. he makes the connection between the loss of these traditional songs as the singers die with the loss of the Nightingales' songs in the UK as the species becomes rarer and rarer. 

The book is copiously illustrated with beautiful paintings and line drawings of Nightingales. 

Two things spoiled it for me. I found the author's writing style to be often odd and ungainly (though I know many critics have praised his writing). I also felt there could have been better editing. One painting appears twice in the book and one literary extract that we are promised just never appears. 

Still, it is a book that will probably inspire almost any reader to want to find out more about these wonderful, nocturnal songsters or even to join one of the author's own Nightingale events, where he takes audiences and musicians into the woods to sing and improvise music with Nightingales. (Find out more about these events here).

The Nightingale by Sam Lee, published (2020) by Penguin.

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My latest post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack is all about wildfires and you can read it here.  

Patient Property by Kirsten Cliff Elliot

Patient Property is a collection of haiku and tanka about Kirsten Cliff Elliot’s journey through leukaemia. These poems cover all aspects of her cancer journey, from diagnosis to remission. I particularly noticed how often how she ties her experiences, thoughts and feelings with the natural world. Spiders' webs appear in more than one of these poems:

storm clouds

can hope be caught 

in a spider's web? 

 

The spider's web suggesting the confusion and uncertainties surrounding chronic illness.

 

The compression of language in these short form poems means that so much can be said in so few words, while also encouraging re-reading, which deepens the meaning. 

 

between breaths

following the white

of this butterfly  

 

These poems read in sequence offer a moving insight into Kristen's journey.  

 

The book comes with an introduction from the poet along with a Foreword by Owen Bullock and an Afterword by Patricia Prime.  

 

Patient Property by Kirsten Cliff Elliot, published (2019) by  Velvet Dusk Publishing. 

 

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book direct from Kirsten in exchange for the last copy of my own poetry book. 

 

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The latest post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack is all about animal migrations, you can read it here.  

 

 

 

On Time and Water by Andri Snaer Magnason

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the film Time and Water (directed by Sara Dosa), which looks at the life and work of Icelandic writer and environmental activist Andri Snaer Magnason. The film uses family videos and archive photos to make his arguments about the climate crisis much more personal. His family have a close personal connection with ice, his grandparents Hulda and Arni spent their honeymoon on a glacier expedition! 

Having seen the film, I was very keen to read Magnason's book, which, by coincidence or not, was sitting on my bookshelves.  

The book is a much more wide ranging thing than the film. While the film physically remains in Iceland, the book includes Magnason's travels and his meetings with the Dalai Lama. The book also goes into more detail about environmental issues than does the film, while taking in a wider range of subjects including spirituality, that are only touched on in the film. The film is well worth seeing, and if you get the chance, do see it (it seems to have finished its current run in Edinburgh cinemas, but I'm sure it will come back at some point). Whether or not you've seen the film, the book is a must-read.  

The review became longer than my standard book reviews on this blog, so I decided to post it on my Substack, and you can read it here.  

On Time and Water, by Andri Snaer Magnason, translated by Lytton Smith, published (2020) by Serpent's Tail  

The Secret World of Twilight by Sally Coulthard

  

You might not think that there's enough to say about twilight to fill a hardback book, but this book is a real gem that will keep you enthralled all the way through. 

As we fill the world with more and more artificial light, twilight becomes more and more precious.Sally Coulthard shows us why, exploring the scientific, ecological and cultural importance of twilight in language that manages to be both straightforward and lyrical. She shares with us wonderful gems of information such as:

"The hawkbit, a dandelion-like wildflower, closes up shop, more often than not with a pollen beetle snugly tucked inside. Come the morning, the petals reopen and the rested beetle can be on its way."

The main narrative of the book is interspersed with the author's twilight diaries.  

I felt I learned a lot while reading this book, but it never feels overburdened by facts and is consistently readable and beautifully written. 

The Secret World of Twilight by Sally Coulthard, published (March 2026) by Head of Zeus (an imprint of Bloomsbury). 

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One of the aspects of twilight explored in the book is the twilight of the deep sea, which is the topic of a fascinating recent article on the Guardian website, which you can read here.  

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My latest post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack is all about the development of larch cones, you can read it here.  

A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha Weinberg

 

 This is the story of the scientists who rediscovered the coelacanth. This fish had only been known from the fossil record until 1938 when Marjorie Courtney-Latimer, a young curator at East London Museum, South Africa found what she suspected to be a coelacanth in amongst a catch of fish that she'd been invited to look at in case there was anything there of interest to the museum. 

The book then follows the search to rediscover this unique fish for science. Outwith the scientific world, fishermen had been familiar with the fish, though it wasn't considered a good fish to catch, as it didn't taste good. Once the fish was rediscovered by science, it became much more worthwhile for the fishermen to catch it, as scientists and wealthy collectors suddenly started paying large sums of money for it. 

Although I totally understand the need for scientists to study the fish, throughout reading this book, I felt the risk of overfishing to the current populations of coelacanths. It seems though, that the species' elusive habits, that hid it from science for so long, will continue to protect it.  

This is a fascinating book, giving insights into both the coelacanth itself and the scientific research and rivalries around it. 

A Fish Caught in Time, by Samantha Weinberg, published (1999) by Fourth Estate.  

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The latest post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack is all about my favourite birds, swifts, you can read it here.  

 

 

 

An Armsfull of Birds by Cara Benson

 

Subtitled 'A Personal Field Guide to Love, Loss and Commitment', this is the story of poet Cara Benson's recovery from addiction, her love of the outdoors, her environmental activism, and her long term love affair with Jon, a fellow recovering addict. 

At the outset I thought this would be very much a misery memoir, which isn't a genre I read. However, I was drawn to this book because of the birds and, though there is a lot of misery (the author has not had an easy life at all), the book is overall hopeful and inspiring, as well as being beautifully written, moving and emotionally honest.

Each chapter opens with a brief quote about an aspect of the lifestyle of a particular species of bird, which somehow reflects the aspect of the author's life covered in the chapter. This brings together human life and the natural world in a distinctive, thought provoking way. 

I was very impressed with the author's strength of character. She turned her back on an abusive relationship, committed to sobriety and took up hiking and then mountaineering, braving some incredibly challenging climbs. Later she, with her sister, nursed her mother through terminal ovarian cancer and had to come to terms not only with her mother's death but with Jon's death by suicide. 

After Jon's death, she moved into an old church surrounded by woodland. She was already an environmental activist, but was pushed into thinking more about what she could personally do about the state of the natural world when one of her neighbours started clearfelling the trees on his land. 

This is a moving meditation on love, grief, recovery and our relationship with the natural world - how we need to look after nature but also how the natural world can help us heal:

"We hit the trail early the next morning. The sky was a crisp blue against the white cover of winter. The evergreens were loaded with perfect clumps of snow and rime ice, and we were out there among
them, not another hiker in sight. We trudged in our snowshoes, the path crunching rhythmically under our feet, two souls fully alive for the adventure that our lives had become. Wasn’t this what we’d both
suffered the indignities of withdrawal and the labor of recovery for— to say a hearty “yes!” to it all, as Joseph Campbell, one of the thinkers I’d begun reading in sobriety, had advised?"

 An Armsfull of Birds by Cara Benson, published (19 May 2026) by Simon and Schuster. 

Disclaimer: I received a free pdf of this book in exchange for an honest review.  

RSPB Spotlight - Puffins by Euan Dunn

 

 This is a beautiful book taking a close look at the Atlantic Puffin, familiar to many people who have visited the coastal cliffs of the UK among other countries. Illustrated with a wealth of photos, the book looks at vasrious aspects of the puffin's lifestyle from courtship to raising the chicks, foraging for food and colonail living. There are chapters too on the many threats to the puffin, from ocean pollution to overfishing. 

This is a great book for anyone interested in this very charismatic bird species!  An ideal book to review on 14th April - World Puffin Day. According to 2023’s Seabirds Count, the latest seabird census, 23% of Puffins have been lost from the UK in the past 20 years. They now feature on the Birds of Conservation Concern Red List and are at risk of global extinction.  

RSPB Spotlight Puffins by Euan Dunn, published (2014) by Bloomsbury.  

The Wildlife Trusts recently posted an article about folkloric beliefs about puffins, you can read it here.  

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I'm delighted to have a haiku in the latest issue of Sense and Sensibility. You can read the whole issue here.  

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A collage of mine has been included in the University of the West of England, Bristol book art exhibition 'The Mountains are Calling'. You can read about the exhibition here and see the artworks on Instagram here. (I'm not on Instagram so can only see a few of the pictures and mine might not be included yet, but will be there by the end of July). If you're in Bristol you can also see all the artworks on display until the end of July at Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol.

How to Read a Tree by Tristan Gooley

 This is an excellent book from Tristan Gooley, the self styled Natural Navigator. The idea isn't to learn to recognise different species of trees, but to look at how trees grow the environment affects individual trees from the roots to the leaves. We learn how to look at trees in a whole new way and how to recognise, for example, signs that the trees are growing in poor soil or that they've been affected by high winds. 

It's a fascinating book and more elegantly written than earlier books I've read by the same author. I can definitely recommend it if you're interested in finding out more about how trees interact with the world around them. 

How to Read a Tree by Tristan Gooley, published by Hodder (2023).  

Read my tiny reviews of other books by Tristan Gooley:

How to Read Water. 

The Natural Navigator.  

 

The Shepherd and the Bear (film review)

 

This documentary explores the conflict provoked by the reintroduction of brown bears in the midst of a traditional shepherding community in the heights of the French Pyrenees. The film follows Yves, an ageing shepherd who struggles to find a successor, and Cyril, a teenage boy who spends his free time tracking and photographing the bears.

The shepherds are losing sheep to bears, which have been reintroduced into the area, with apparently little support given to the shepherds (they are given no compensation for lost sheep and the bear-scarers and electric fences they are given don't really seem adequate to the job). I love the idea of bears being reintroduced into areas where they used to live, but if I were a shepherd in that area I would expect at the very least compensation for lost sheep and sturdy electric fencing to corral the animals at nightime. The arguments of both the shepherds, the photographer and the conservationists are all sensitively presented and the audience is left with a sense that this is a conflict full of nuance and with no easy answers (well except maybe good compensation and sturdy electric fences). 

The documentary doesn't shy away from showing the bloody side of farming, including dying livestock. On the other hand, it is prevented from becoming too heavy with interludes including a wedding celebration and an extended chase scene involving a feisty rooster. 

The stunning cinematography and immersive storytelling show us a world of tradition, community and humanity’s increasingly fraught relationship with a vanishing natural world. 

Currently screening at The Filmhouse in Edinburgh and probably elsewhere, check your local independent cinema.  

Polar Corona by Caroline Gill

 

Polar Corona by Caroline Gill, a winner of the Hedgehong Poetry Prize, is a crown (corona) of seven interlinked sonnets about Antarctic exploration and penguins. The last line of each sonnet becomes the first line of the next sonnet and the last line of the final sonnet is also the first line of the first sonnet, connecting the whole sequence together and underlining the interconnectedness of life at the Antarctic. 

The sonnets display not only well crafted rhthm and rhymes (often half-rhyme) but also occasional effective alliteration:

a wilderness of wind upon a chart,
a sea of storms to keep the watch alert,
a yard of graves to mark the men who died.  

from Crown.  

The sonnets about the penguins are particularly appealing. Often I can imagine them being spoken by David Attenborough over documentary footage: 

The youngsters need to eat to fill out fast;
they peck and jostle for each scrap of food.
Survival instincts may resemble greed,
but soon the time will come to quit the nest.  

from Birth 

The sonnets here were inspired by a poetry course / residency at the Scott Polar Research Institute and Polar Museum in Cambridge, England. The result is a beautifully produced book containing well crafted poetry that shines a light on the southern-most part of our world. 

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Polar Corona by Caroline Gill, published (2025) by Hedgehog Poetry Press  

 To order a signed or unsigned print copy please contact Caroline.

 Further details and purchase of eBook only: Hedgehog Press. 

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Meanwhile my latest post has just gone live on my Substack! You can read it here.  

 

Wolf Moon by Arifa Akbar

 Subtitled A Woman's Journey into the Night, this is a fascinating and beautifully written book, looking at various aspects of the night, from late night theatre and nightclubs to women's safety, from prostitution to insomnia. There isn't as much about nature as I had hoped there would be, but just enough to justify me reviewing the book on this blog (where my policy is that I only review books that have some connection with nature or environmental issues). 

The author rediscovered her local park during nocturnal walks during the COVID lockdown and discovers how meeting up after dark in parks became a preferred method of socialising for some people she knew. The nature writer Melissa Harrison is quoted as saying that she feels no danger in walking across fields in darkness and that the "satisfaction of an unmediated relationship with the natural world outweighs any potential risks." Towards the end of the book, the author describes her experience on a nightingale walk, visiting a nature reserve specifically in the hope of hearing this iconic noctural songster, and eventually she does: 

"Two nightingales are serenading. The sound is full-throated, effortlessly exquisite, with melodies that are long and lustrous, but then followed by eccentrically jagged harmonies." 

This is a fascinating book about all aspects of night-time, just don't expect to read much about noctural wildlife!

Wolf Moon by Arifa Akbar, published (2025) by Sceptre.  

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My latest Substack post, all about Scottish Gaelic, Nature and Poetry is now up! You can read it here.  

 

The Art of Activism by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert

 

Subtitled "Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible", this is a very practical guide to using creative approaches to activism, to achieve concrete outcomes. Creative approaches to activism inspire, energise and engage people who might remain unengaged even after signing petitions or joining a march. The text is accessibly written and accompanied by lots of illustrations, including a surprising number of rabbits!

The book includes a historical overview of artistic activism, including the storytelling of Jesus, the spectacle of the Boston Tea Party and a 1968 action by native Americans to claim Alcatraz Island. The authors also examine some of their own projects, drawing out for example, what a group of American Muslim activists learned from watching the Fast and Furious films. These and other examples are analysed to show why they worked, giving the reader insight into how best to use creative approaches to activism and what pitfalls to avoid.

Case studies include: Undocubus, a bus decorated with pictures of the migratory Monarch butterfly, that tours the USA with riders who have been threatened with deportation, raising awareness of the issues around migration. Project by No Papers, No Fears.  

Journal Rappé, a rap news broadcast in Senegal.  

War on Smog, a performance action in China.  

You can find a whole range of case studies on the Actipedia website. 

The physical book is supported by an online workbook, which is full of practical exercises designed to make you more creative, whether or not you want to apply that to activism. You can access the workbook here. 

The Art of Activism by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert, illustrated by Steve Lambert, published (2021) by OR Books. Order the free pdf of the interactive workbook here. 

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If you're based in the UK, you may be interested in the Wildlife Trusts' Community Hub, which shares inspiration and ideas on how to get involved in community conservation action.

 

The Seed Detective by Adam Alexander

"By the end of the nineteenth century, the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) had recorded a total of 408 varieties of pea being grown commercially. By 1983 the number recorded was just 25, a loss of over 90 percent. This loss of genetic diversity is not unique to the pea. It is happening with all edible crops and poses an existential threat to human survival"

This scenario is the backdrop to Adam Alexander's travels, searching the world for rare varieties of well known vegetables (from asparagus to zucchini), taking seeds home to grow and share, both to enjoy and to preserve them for the future. 

The Seed Detective takes us on a journey starting from when humanity lived as hunter-gatherers up to the present day. Each chapter focuses on a different vegetable and shares the stories of how they became popular, widespread and, on the commercial level, so uniform. Luckily across the world, the author has managed to find wonderful heritage varieties of all these crops and outlines how these varieties are being preserved as well as doing his own bit towards their preservation by collecting and saving their seeds. 

The book looks at various issues around each vegetable. Just taking one example, in Roman times, the Emperor Augustus had a special fleet of ships that carried asparagus around the Mediterranean Sea. Asparagus has been grown in the sourth east of England since the eighteenth century where the soils and weather are ideal for it, however, in Peru where farmers were encouraged to grow asparagus to divert them away from coca (grown to make cocaine) the vegetable is causing drought due to its high demand for water. 

There are many fascinating snippets here: did you know that there is archaeological evidence for pop-corn dating bac 3,500 years?

Throughout the book, Alexander underlines the importance of seed saving - he's an avid collector himself, with 70 varieties of tomatoes in his collection. You can view his seed collection on his website here. 

Seed saving allows rare varieties to be preserved, ensures stocks of seeds in case of poor harvests and allows crops to adapt to local conditions. Heritage crops are often more resistant to disease and almost always have more taste than commercially grown varieties. 

This is a fascinating book is a plea to preserve all the wonderful heritage varieties of vegetables and is essential reading for anyone interested in botany or the history of our food. 

The Seed Detective by Adam Alexander, published (2022) by Chelsea Green Publishing.  

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My latest Substack post is all about winter wildlife. You can read it here.

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And some excellent news for Swifts in Scotland, "all new buildings over a certain size must include ‘swift bricks’ as part of their design", a change secured by the Scottish Green Party. read more here. 

 

The Sloth Lemur's Song by Alison Richard

 

Subtitled 'Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Future' this is a fascinating overview of the natural history of Madagascar and the relationship that humans have had with nature since first arriving on the island (the first evidence of human habitation dates to around 10,000 years ago). 

Alison Richard has been involved in research and conservation in Madagascar for fifty years and brings a vast amount of knowledge and experience to the book. 

We are guided through the history of Madagascar from the fascinating early animals that have left their fossils here to the current day, where the island is one of the poorest countries in the world and is losing large amounts of its precious rainforests, which are home to a vast array of wildlife found nowhere else, including the around 100 species of the iconic lemurs. Much of the forest loss in Madagascar is due to very poor people having little choice but to clear trees for their farmland. 

Richards makes the important point that a large part of Madagascar has always been grassland and large areas of open space in the country don't all represent areas of destroyed forest. Yet her insistence on this almost undermines her presentation of the actual devastation of the forests. 

A very short chapter, which I felt should have been longer, is dedicated to the fact that some communities are protecting their local forests and wetlands. The chapter gives three brief case studies, including the work being done to protect the areas around the lakes in the west of the island, where Madagascar Fish Eagles are now increasing due to conservation measures that also offer local villagers a sustainable future fishing the lake. 

This is a fascinating book, though at times I did find the writing style awkward. I also expected more lemurs. 

The Sloth Lemur's Song by Alison Richard, published (2022) by Harper Collins.  

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Just published today, is this post from the Nature Briefs Substack, about the trade in lemur meat.  

You may also be interested in this recent article about Madagascar's lemurs.  

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My latest Substack post went live yesterday, you can read it here.  

 

Spineless by Juli Berwald

Subtitled "The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone", this is a fascinating look at jellyfish. 

Many people have negative images of jellyfish, as they are well known to cause problems, if their numbers get out of balance, for example, clogging up waterways so that boats can't get through, to causing power outages when they clog up cooling systems. They can also have a negative impact on the catch for many fishing operations, though some species of jellyfish are now becoming desirable catches themselves.  

However, jellyfish are central to many marine ecosystems, and can be entire ecosystems in themselves, offering surfaces for other creatures, such as shrimps to live on and shelter for small fish, who may struggle to find shelter. 

This book takes us on a tour through jellyfish, from ancient times (I was astonished to read that there are jellyfish in the fossil record!) to the current day. Here are details of jellyfish locomotion, bioluminescence and their roles in ecosystems. 

The book later broadens out to look at more general topics around ocean conservation and offers ideas of how individuals can help conserve marine life. 

Blending memoir and science, this is an excellent read for anyone interested in our oceans. 

Spineless by Juli Berwald, published (2018) by Penguin Random House. 

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I've just had a tiny poem published on the Smols website, you can read it here.  

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

 

The Importance of Not by Dorothy Baird

 

Dorothy Baird is an Edinburgh based writer, who comes along to one of the writing groups I facilitate. She has published two collections of poetry and this newly published pamphlet was a winner in the 2024 Poetry Space Pamphlet competition. 

It's a beautiful wee selection of poetry about things that are missing, fading memories, lost loved ones, the empty nest and the Sycamore Gap, the last of which is reflected in the cover design by Hanni Shinton. Nature is essential in this collection, from the "squirrel that could clearly run the country / with its problem solving" (You Can't Stand in the Same River Twice) to the "blackbird in his widower's weeds" (Therapy of Vowels), the "otter, the seals and the sleek wheel of a porpoise turning in the blue" (A Small Life Against the Timeline of Everything) and skylarks singing in many poems. 

I was taken right back to my own childhood by "Memories are Lonely things to carry alone" with it's description of a child's den under a rhododendron bush, my childhood den was under a sycamore tree, that has since been removed from the garden I grew up in, just as the poet's rhododendron bush is no longer there. 

 There are moving poems here about her father's dementia and his difficulties coping with the social distancing imposed by COVID-19 lockdowns 

"On the way out, she opens the door
with her sleeve covered hand and smiles
across the distance he wants to close
and she has to maintain, pushing back
against thousands of years of evolution
and the magnetism of family"

Social Distancing 

But in all the grief and sadness, there is always solace and the comfort of nature, and "snowdrops / spread among the stones like small bulbs of hope" in the cemetery (Carpe Diem). 

This is a closely observed, acutely felt and beautifully written pamphlet.   

The Importance of Not by Dorothy Baird published (2025) by Poetry Space. 

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My latest Substack post 'Art and Activism', went up yesterday, you can read it here. 

Autumn Colours over the weekend

 On Saturday we walked round Saughton Park and in between the showers I captured some of the lovely autumn colours on camera

 The cherry trees look particularly beautiful at this time of year, especially when viewed in full sunshine against a clear blue sky  

Yesterday, I met a friend to go to the Resistance exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland Modern 2 Gallery. Described as  "How protest shaped Britain and photography shaped protest", it covers all types of British protests including environmental protests from early protests against birds being killed so their feathers could be used in hats (a protest which lead to the formation of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds)); the 1932 mass trespass on Kinder Scout, highlighting the lack of public access to open spaces; and the 1971 Friends of the Earth Bottle Dump which protested the withdrawal of returnable bottles by a major drinks brand (you can read an excellent article here, about the legacy of that campaign). So it's well worth catching if you're in Edinburgh (it runs until early January.)

While I was waiting for my friend, I took some photos of the autumn colours in Dean Cemetery, which can be seen over the wall from the grounds of the art gallery

 

Stinkhorn by Sion Parkinson

 I attended an event at this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival at which Sion Parkinson was speaking and I bought the book after the event. 

This beautifully illustrated book offers a fascinating and often eccentric look at the famously smelly group of fungi known as stinkhorns, a wider look at the relationships between smell and sound and the relationship between bad smells and epilepsy (which the author was diagnosed with a few years ago). The book takes in everything from natural history to the music of John Cage (who himself was fascinated by fungi).

The stinkhorn fungus itself is not only smelly but noisy. The reader's first reaction to that comment might be an impatient 'oh for goodness sake, fungi don't make noises' but "The audible hum in the space surrounding the stinkhorn does not, of course, resonate from the mushroom itself, but is the sound produced by a swarm of several species of fly that are almost always found about it. ... Houseflies hum not with their mouths but with the beating of their wings... in the key of F major. The noisier blowfly Collophora vicina one of the most frequent flies to visit the stinkhorn, flaps its wings at a more bassy .... pitch somewhere between D and D sharp".

This is one of the things I liked most about this book, the way it forces the reader to think about our senses differently. The occasional reaction of 'oh for goodness sake' quickly becomes 'wow, that's fascinating'. 

Stinkhorn by Sion Parkinson, published by Sternberg Press.  

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My latest Substack post 'Why Did I study Botany?' is now up! You can read it here.