Autumnal Hints

I walked along the Water of Leith today as I do most Mondays. It's definitely feeling autumnal, some trees having quite a lot of leaves turning colour and lots of berries, the yew berries still looking magnificent (see banner photo). The air was alive with robin autumnsong. It was lovely to see this season's first mixed flock of tits - long tailed tits, great tits and blue tits. There were probably some coal tits in there too, as the flock was just at the area where earlier in the year I saw coal tits breeding. There were four grey wagtails fluttering along the river, although I usually see these birds here, this is the first time since spring that I've seen so many - so it looks like all the young survived and thrived. I also had a very good view of a heron, it looked very hunched and grumpy, sitting on a grassy island in the river, but I was able to get quite close, though not an angle that would have been useful for photography unfortunately!

Honest Shadows

honesty plant seedheads collected from the Water of Leith

you can see another of my Shadow Shots on my Over Forty Shades blog here.

Art for Trees

Last weekend fires tore across mainland Greece. Thousands of homes were evacuated. Agriculture and pasture land was scorched, trees were burned, wildlife and nature were harmed. The worst tragedy is that the fire was probably man made. Manya and others within her community are working together to organise an exhibition of arts and crafts to raise funds to reforest the area. Reforestation is vital for ecological, environmental and economical reasons and to prevent desertificaton which is becoming a very real threat in parts of Greece.

You can help the 'Art for Trees' project by:
Donating arts or crafts
Following the 'Attika SOS' blog
Forwarding the blog link to people you feel may be interested in this project
Write a blog post about this project
Write suggestions or messages of support on 'Attica SOS'
Post the link to your myspace, facebook, twitter, bebo or other networking site homepage

A Moment

Sunlight bright on the folly on the hill
vivid rainbow against a slate grey sky
people gather on the street below
taking photos on their mobile phones.

Black Satin Gift Bag

Another craft project from the archives. I made this gift bag from scraps of black satin left over when I had altered a skirt. It's lined with the old lining of another old skirt and I decorated it with beads from the second skirt. I can't remember where the ribbon came from! The design could be altered, by using a strong piece of black cord instead of the ribbon, to make a neck purse.

Newton - the Making of Genius

This is a fabulous book, from Patricial Fara. It isn't a biography as I had originally thought, it is something much more than that. It looks at Newton's achievements as a scientist and thinker and then explores how his achievements affected science. It also looks at how Newton's ideas shaped the general public's perceptions of the natural world and how Newton was made into a hero, with statues being erected to him and his portrait being a popular addition to educated people's living rooms. I was very impressed by Fara's commitment to highlighting female scientists and the role of women throughout the book.

There is also a generous section devoted to heroic poetry written about Newton. This really got me thinking - back then poetry had a real function in terms of informing people about news events and achievements, nowadays we've lost this and I'm not sure that poetry has a real function any more, perhaps that's why in general poetry seems to need to struggle to find an audience. What does anyone else think?


Newton, The Making of Genius Patricia Fara, Picador

the river runs high -
two dippers chase each other
under the bridge.


Water of Leith, today. This is for Rabbit's Guy, I know how much he likes the dippers!

Yesterday, I was at a poetry reading as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Robin Robertson and Michael Symmons Roberts were the poets, they're both very well worth checking out (just follow the links under their names).