Fungi and Shield Bugs

Crafty Green Boyfriend accompanied me on my Monday walk along the Water of Leith today and took these photos. The honey fungus in the first photo is magnificent, but probably very bad news for the tree. The black spots on the fungi are fungi gnats.

The shield bug in the second photo is a lovely specimen, I saw one just like this last week too but couldn't manage to take a photo of it.

The third photo gives some idea of how thick the air is above the river with mayflies, stoneflies and other small insects - wonderful food for the birds and bats along the Water of Leith.

Corstorphine Hill

Corstorphine Hill is one of Edinburgh's wonderful green spaces. Yesterday we walked up the gorse covered hillside hoping to see some of the rabbits that live there. There were none but plenty of birds were singing. In the woodland even more birds were singing, I even heard a willow warbler behind the louder songs of blackcap and song thrush, and we saw a family of long tailed tits. The bluebells are still wonderful and here they are found in multicoloured patches, blue, lilac and white, all together. And what was that strange grey shape bimbling through the bluebells? Too grey to be a fox or a deer, too small anyway to be a deer, moving too labourously to be a squirrel or a rabbit and too big to be either of those. My goodness it must have been a badger! Then later we came across what must be the badger sett, complete with paths in all directions.

Another highlight of Corstorphine Hill is African Savannah home to zebras and antelopes (part of Edinburgh Zoo!). Yesterday we got good views of both these animals.

We finished our walk with a sunny rest in the walled garden, which is a lovely place to catch a bit of sun. Lots of blackcaps singing. Just outside the walled garden on the field at the edge of Corstorphine Hill we saw a cheeky squirrel posing with its white tummy on show. Silly squirrel too because the next thing we saw was a buzzard flying down from its nest and sweeping across the field. That time it didn't see the squirrel, but next time it probably will!

Looking after the beach

The continuing oil spill is focussing minds on the importance of the seas and coasts as vital environments for wildlife. And if the oil finds its way into the Gulf Stream then the UK and western Europe could find thelselves affected too. There are obviously huge issues around how oil companies operate and how spills are dealt with on the industrial and political level. However, we can all do our bit to help look after these environments and this can make a small difference and hopefully can help us to feel less helpless and hopeless. Here are just a selection of the ways you can get involved:

In the UK, the Marine Conservation Trust runs the Adopt a Beach scheme and the annual Beachwatch survey, involving tidying the beaches and surveying the types of litter picked up. You can find out what's happening in your area on their website here. The website also highlights the importance of cutting down on plastic use and reducing waste as ways of helping to protect the seas.

The Shore Thing is a project that works with schools and volunteers to record the wildlife on the beaches around the UK. Having accurate records of the wildlife that is found there, means we have a better chance of protecting it.

Save the beach, sponsored by Corona, aims to make people aware of pollution and waste on beaches, the preservation of the environment and to rehabilitate European beaches. From 5th June users of http://www.coronasavethebeach.org/ can choose a beach they want to save and take a picture or make a video to show the dangerous state of the place and upload it on the page. On the 23rd of August everyone will be invited to vote for the beach Corona Beer will save in 2010.

8th June is World Ocean Day. This is a day to celebrate the oceans and to highlight the need to protect them, a message which is particularly poignant and urgent this year.

You can donate your hair to help mop up the oil spill. This article from the BBC talks about how that works. Matter of Trust is a charity that is collecting hair to be used in this way.

Lambs

I've blogged before about the horses near the Soil Association offices. Well now its the turn of the sheep.

I've just started a blog on the Soil Association website about our organic allotment. You can read it here. Also, you can now follow Soil Association Scotland on Twitter.

early summer haiku

cherry blossom -
swallows fly through
falling petals.

Cloth sandwich bag

In my last job I worked in the centre of Edinburgh, in an office loud with buskers playing bad music over and over outside the window. I don't miss that at all, but I do miss being 5 minutes away from Henderson's one of the best vegetarian shops in Edinburgh. I used to buy all my lunches from there, they have an excellent selection of vegetarian and vegan rolls and cakes. Now I work in much nicer offices surrounded by birdsong but there are no shops that sell decent food. So I have to make my own lunch and take it into work, which is something I've never done! To avoid plastic packaging I'm making myself some reusable cloth sandwich bags. You can find several patterns for these around the internet, mine make no pretences to elegance or beauty, they're just practical. The fabric comes from an old kimono.

Payback by Margaret Atwood

This is a brilliant book from Margaret Atwood (who as many readers of this blog will know is my favourite poet, despite her being better known as a novelist). This book however is neither poetry nor fiction but a considered, thought provoking and enlightening look at debt. It looks at the idea of debt and how it has informed politics, the justice system and literature through history. Atwood looks at word origins and the origins of debt awareness, showing that other primates are aware of debt. She also looks at how potent a theme debt has been in literature. She makes an interesting point about George Eliot's Mill on the Floss representing a moment of social change, a moment where the miller (historically mistrusted for reasons discussed by Atwood) becomes ursurped in this position by the lawyer.


The last chapter in the book looks at the issue of Ecological Debt and sees Dicken's character of Scrooge facing the Spirits of Earth Day Past, Present and Future. This is a particularly powerful chapter and forces the reader to think about the debt we all owe to the earth and our environment.


For all the weighty issues discussed in this book, it is totally engrossing and includes very useful appendices of reading resources so that you can not only find out more about the issues but that you can sign up for environmental campaigns and find ethical alternatives. Essential reading I would say.


Payback by Margaret Atwood. Bloomsbury 2008