Robin

This is the robin that so delighted us on Saturday in the Botanic gardens. He sat close to us and sang for us.

Slow Slow internet

Our internet connection is painfully slow at the moment so I've decided to do as little as possible online until its up and running properly again (which should be before this time next week).

Today we were doing the Big Garden Birdwatch at the Edinburgh Botanics. We didn't see an amazing variety of birds, but we did see some long tailed tits (one of my favourites) and met a very friendly robin, who landed right in front of us and sang softly for five minutes. It also took some food from my hand. Crafty Green Boyfriend took some wonderful photos which I hope to share later (not now, it would take far too long to upload the photos with the current slow internet!).

So I won't be posting here or visiting other blogs for about a week, but after that things should be back to normal.

The Cruelty Free Bun Blog pledge

Annette from Dragon House of Yuen recently posted about a petition from the BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection). Along with the petition there is a pretty pink rabbit, whose mission is to travel the world collecting petitions against cruel cosmetics. Annette promised to send Miss Rabbit to the first blogger who signed up to host her on her journey. I was lucky enough to be that first blogger and as Annette and I both live in Edinburgh, we met up for a cup of tea while Miss Rabbit was handed over. It was lovely to meet Annette and Miss Rabbit is now happily making friends with our toy rabbits (here she is pictured with Minigaff, who comes from the village of that name in the west of Scotland and a rabbit themed cushion I bought in a local second hand shop). I have written a rabbit themed haiku on Miss Rabbit's ears and signed her too!

summer storm
the sweet smell between
my rabbit's ears

Miss Rabbit looked through my toiletries bag and noted that I have very few cosmetics at all, but she particularly likes the following cruelty-free items:

Yaoh shampoo and conditioner - these are British made from organic, vegan ingredients with the minimum of artificial ingredients and not tested on animals

organic beeswax lipbalm handmade by Edinburgh-based medical herbalist Karen Ballantyne (who doesn't seem to have a website)

Miss Rabbit is currently having a rest, but is probably then going to visit another blogging friend of Annette's. If you would like to host her in the future, please let me know in the comments below and we'll see what we can do! If you do host her, it would be great if you could take a photo of her with other rabbits (whether pets, soft toys or rabbit themed soft furnishings!), let her pick out a couple of cruelty free items from your toiletries bag and then pass her on to the next person.

As ever, red text in this post contains hyperlinks to other websites where you can find out more.

From the Train

red and white lighthouse on a stone jetty - rain smears the sky above endless sea

for A River of Stones

Crafty Green Radio

I had an interesting and productive day in a recording studio yesterday, being interviewed by radio presenters from local radio stations across the UK as part of winning the Whole Earth competition to find a green spokesperson. Some of the interviews went out live sone were pre-recorded but have probably aired by now. To my slight embarressment I was described by some presenters as the UK's most sustainable and self sufficient resident, this is not something I have ever claimed though I am delighted to have had such an excellent opportunity to act as a spokesperson for all the sustainable and self sufficient people in this country! It was also very interesting to have the experience of talking to so many radio presenters, I found the whole process a lot less daunting than part of me had thought it might be in advance! There should be a podcast available from the sessions, so if that does become available I'll link to it from this blog.

Off to London!

I'm off to London today to do some radio interviews for Whole Earth Foods as part of my prize in their recent Good Life competition.

I took the photo yesterday along the Water of Leith. I was impressed by the beautiful rich autumnal colours in the fungi and the birch bark, which contrast so nicely with the delicate fresh green ferns!

Back soon!

Trees along the Water of Leith

I have started to study one of the hornbeams along the Water of Leith as part of the Tree Year project. I can see there may be a problem with this already. I mentioned in a recent post that this hornbeam had been damaged in the winter storms and now it has been trimmed back and tidied and has no low hanging branches for me to take photos of or even make sketches from. It also seems that the other hornbeam along 'my' part of the Water of Leith was blown down in the storms. So I won't be able to do such a detailed study of this tree as I thought, but I'll see what I can do. At the top of this post is a photo I took of the hornbeam today. Its buds are just starting to swell though you can't see that in the photo.

Below is a photo of a rather handsome holly tree also along the Water of Leith. It has such a magnificent gnarled trunk. I thought I would also include this in my Tree Year. And as there are some lovely hawthorn trees along the river, maybe I'll include them in to my Tree Year too!

I saw a lot of birdlife along the river today and for the River of Stones:

Blue tits were chasing each other through the branches, the dippers were paired up and singing

A great spotted flycatcher flew into a tree, crept around the trunk then flew off again

Long tailed tits everywhere, their most endearing habit is that they come towards me

when I stop.