Berry picking

We had a lovely time today picking blackberries and raspberries on Wester Craiglockart Hill. On our visit there last week we had notice the cast number of bramble bushes and today we decided to go back with our bags and tubs and do some collecting! We collected a lot of blackberries and quite a few raspberries, most of which Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum will make into jam.

Here are some of my thoughts about foraging berries:

a) leave enough for other foragers and the wildlife too
b) be careful of the brambles and the other plants, often raspberries and blackberries grow near stinging nettles and gorse (which can scratch quiet badly just as brambles themselves can). Good idea to wear long sleeves and hardwearing fabrics
c) don't pick by the side of roads because of the fumes and particulates from car exhausts
d) don't pick from plants right next to the pathway if they're under the height of a dog
e) while foraging take time to enjoy the nature all around you.

Today it was quite breezy and at times the air was full of thistledown and the seeds of willowherbs. The gorse pods were audibly popping as they split to release their seeds. Robins were singing their wistful autumnal song all around us.

Plus, I saw my first small copper butterfly of the year! This is such a lovely butterfly, tiny and beautifully patterned with a gorgeous rich orange colour. They're quite common on the hills of Edinburgh, so I'm surprised this was my first of the year. This photo is a close up that I then severly cropped so you can see the detail, which may make the butterfly seem much bigger than it is.

Late Summer

Even though there are fungi growing all through the year, they somehow always feel autumnal. Here's some fungi that we saw on Corstorphine Hill this lunchtime.

And below, this rowan tree is already fully berried red.

**

Yesterday I went to Musselburgh, birdwatching. It's the time of year when lots of passage migrant birds turn up on our coasts so the bird hides by the Lagoons were full of very keen birdwatchers. There were huge numbers of birds on all the lagoons, including lots of ringed plovers and dunlin and several lapwings and oystercatchers. There was a group of black tailed godwits also three ruffs, which arrived a couple of weeks ago and seem to want to stay a while - all in winter plumage but still very pretty. There were a few little stints, just passing through, I got a close view of one of them, such a pretty little bird. Also a curlew sandpiper, a lifer for me, another very pretty bird, though if it and the dunlin had been in winter plumage they would have been very difficult to tell apart.

I still find wader identification challenging! Every time I go to Musselburgh, I check beforehand on the Lothian Birds website what unusual birds have been seen recently at Musselburgh. If then there are any I'm not familiar with then I look in my bird books and stare at the pictures until the bird's image is burned into my memory. This is a surprisingly good tactic.  

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Shark fin soup

I was very happy to see a new Chinese restaurant open in our neighbourhood.

However I was less than happy when I looked at their menu and saw that they are selling shark fin soup.

Shark finning is a cruel practice. Sharks have their fins removed and are then tossed back into the ocean where they die a slow and painful death.

A shocking ten million sharks a year are killed to satisfy global demand for shark fins. Twenty species of sharks are listed as endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). In a few years many species of shark could become extinct if shark finning is not stopped.

India recently banned the practice of shark finning and China last year announced it would no longer serve shark fin dishes at official banquets. I've respectfully written to our new local Chinese restaurant and asked them to take shark fin soup off the menu. Crafty Green Boyfriend and I will not eat at this restaurant until they take shark fin soup off the menu.

You can find out more about the issues on these pages:

 Shark Trust.

Stop Shark Finning

In the Kettle, the Shriek by Hannah Stephenson

I was delighted to win a copy of In the Kettle, the Shriek from Hannah in a competition she ran on her Storialist blog. (You can see my winning photo on my Shapeshifting Green blog).

This is a lovely book, the front cover is hauntingly beautiful. Hannah's poems are conversational in tone and thought-provoking, many of them drawing the reader in by asking questions or making suggestions.

Hannah finds inspiration all around, often from visual art (when she posts poems onto The Storialist, she links through to the artwork that inspired the poem). 5 Second Rule was inspired by a trip to the laundromat and the very entertaining Suddenly, Pasta Salad was inspired by the brand name of a pasta salad, making the reader ponder about the odd names that brands are often given:

Voila! Spontaneous
occurence of noodles
and diced vegetables. 

Great Migrations was inspired by the design on a porcelain bowl

in the stock still water, feeling no wind,
cranes panic and launch, beat their wings 
with such force that nearby villagers
mistake them for dragons.

Several other of the poems in this book include references to nature. I love this from In Silos:

...we are also stocked with the ability

to feel astonished at how
blossoms and leaves are tucked 
into the sleeves of dark branches.... 

Other poems explore themes such as being neighbours, making assumptions about people based on their wedding ceremony, selling mattresses, spirituality and consumerism. My favourite poem though is Saying Grace, which starts:

Dear dinosaurs, we thank you

and ends:

We thank you for dying and 
for letting your 
bodies fall, for blessing our travel
and machinery
by letting the earth digest you
and allowing us 
to witness your canonisation,
bones into gasoline.


Despite its inaccuracy (fossil fuels aren't made of dinosaurs, but of organisms (mostly plants) that lived millions of years before the dinosaurs) this is a powerful comment on the modern day life.

This is a book full of beautifully written and thoughtful poems that you'll want to re-read as soon as you've finished them.

In the Kettle the Shriek, by Hannah Stephenson published by Gold Wake Press.

Water of Leith

Two photos of Colinton weir on the Water of Leith taken from underneath the footbridge, an area which isn't normally accessible, but the water is low at the moment.

I've noticed more cuckoo pint than ever along the river walkway this year.

Strangely though, I've never yet noticed this plant in spring, when it looks like this.

Today along the river walkway, a tiny baby rabbit came hopping towards me, stopped then bounced into the undergrowth! Also I spent a lovely few minutes watching a family of wrens, the young ones at the stage of hopping around in the shrubbery but still all yellow beak and fluff.

For Nature Notes 

***
The nature photographers reading this may be interested to know about the Nature Conservancy photo competition! Send in your best photos of the natural world (closing date 9 September)!

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more

Storing plastic bags

How ever careful you are in refusing plastic carrier bags (carrying a canvas tote bag in your handbag is a great way to make sure you don't pick up plastic bags) and trying to avoid plastic produce bags you are likely to end up with a pile of plastic bags (how many of us are prepared to stand in the supermarket and take a loaf out of its plastic packaging and repack it in our own paper or fabric bags. Not many of us! And even the independent health food shops in Edinburgh wrap at least some of their items in plastic).

Plastic bags can be easily reused, perhaps as bin liners for example. I always take a plastic carrier bag or two with me when I'm doing my voluntary work along the Water of Leith so that I have something to put the litter in.

So how do you store your plastic bags? One solution is to use a fabric bag like this:

I made this one from a sleeve of the satin robe that I've used to make several other craft projects (for example this chopstick bag and this wrist cuff). I threaded some elastic through the bottom and an old boot lace through the top. I put plastic bags in the top and take them our of the bottom when I need to use them. (Notice that the bag is hanging next to the House Rabbit Connection calendar that Jade and Mickey of Zen of Bun so kindly sent me for Christmas).

The dimensions of this bag aren't perfect (and were constrained by the dimensions of the sleeve I used). The bag is slightly too wide and too short. So I made one of better dimensions out of a remnant of tie dye fabric from Malawi which I've also made a tablecloth out of.

This one is now in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop. I hope to make some more of these in different fabrics.

***
Meanwhile I'm delighted that one of my beaded bookmarks has been included in this treasury on Etsy.

And I've put together a Tiger themed Treasury. 

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more. 

Poetry in the branches of revolutionary trees

Normally I go to at least a few events during the Edinburgh Festival season, but this year I hadn't gone to anything. Today though I won a ticket to an evening of Egyptian poetry and music at Edinburgh International Book festival.

The poetry came from Amin Haddad and the music from Eskenderella (you can see some of their music videos on YouTube here). Eskenderella are one of the foremost revolutionary bands in Egypt and they perform musical settings of many Egyptian poets, historic and contemporary but for tonight they performed solely their settings of Haddad's poetry.

The poetry was in Arabic with English translations (by Professor Marilyn Booth) showing on the screen behind the musicians. The opening poem was about Bread and this was a theme that wound through the rest of the poems, along with the blood of the martyrs and themes of solidarity and freedom. I was fascinated by the walking, talking trees, a seemingly silly piece of whimsy on one level but a powerful metaphor for political freedom on another level. Likewise the flying horses that gathered children to safety. All through the poetry, trees, moon and sun seemed to be participating in the creation of poetry and there were many beautiful phrases.Thanks to Edinburgh International Book Festival's Twitter feed I can rememeber at least this one:

Poetry is the startled heartbeat when the danger siren goes

Powerful rousing music to accompany the words. Played on ouds (a pear shaped instrument related to the guitar), a wonderful variety of drums, with bass guitar and keyboard.

There was a standing ovation and, possibly for the first time in the history of Edinburgh International Book Festival, an encore.

Eskenderella have an album coming out soon, it will be worth checking out, but if you ever get the chance to see them live, take it.

Thanks to Edinburgh International Book Festival for my ticket for this event, which I won via a competition on Twitter.