sunshine
after the storm
skylark song
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Tuesday, 2 February 2016
Look at the clouds!
I heard yesterday that nacreous clouds had been seen above Edinburgh and was disappointed that I'd missed them.
However, I was delighted to see them back again early this morning! Here are some of the photos I took from our living room window, aren't these beautiful clouds?
Nacreous clouds (or mother of pearl clouds) form in the winter polar stratosphere at altitudes of 10 - 20 miles. They are most likely to be seen at twilight. They are believed to contribute to ozone depletion due to the chemical reactions they support.
You can read more about nacreous clouds on the Weather Channel here.
However, I was delighted to see them back again early this morning! Here are some of the photos I took from our living room window, aren't these beautiful clouds?
You can read more about nacreous clouds on the Weather Channel here.
Monday, 1 February 2016
Crafty Green Magpie
As many readers of this blog will know, I have a Crafty Green Poet shop on Etsy, where I sell items which I've made by hand using refashioned and repurposed materials. I used to also sell a few vintage items and supplies there too (the beer bottle tops proved to be immensely popular!).
I recently decided that I would separate out the vintage and supplies and set up a new shop. This means that Crafty Green Poet on Etsy now purely focuses on hand-made items.
The new shop is called Crafty Green Magpie, so there is a clear connection in the names of the two shops. Also magpies like to collect things and are pretty crafty birds, plus they have flashes of green in their plumage!
So far there are only a few items in the shop ( including buttons, a vintage map of Germany and of course beer bottle tops!).
I aim to add plenty more items in the near future, including bringing over the vintage and supplies that were once listed in the Crafty Green Poet shop.
I recently decided that I would separate out the vintage and supplies and set up a new shop. This means that Crafty Green Poet on Etsy now purely focuses on hand-made items.
The new shop is called Crafty Green Magpie, so there is a clear connection in the names of the two shops. Also magpies like to collect things and are pretty crafty birds, plus they have flashes of green in their plumage!
So far there are only a few items in the shop ( including buttons, a vintage map of Germany and of course beer bottle tops!).
I aim to add plenty more items in the near future, including bringing over the vintage and supplies that were once listed in the Crafty Green Poet shop.
Saturday, 30 January 2016
Dinosaurs and other fossils
A great recent TV programme was David Attenborough's meeting with the recently discovered giant dinosaur Titanosaurus, which saw the ever youthful 90 year old meet the largest land animal that has ever lived.
It was amazing to see the dinosaur bones been excavated from the earth then light-weight copies being made so that whole skeleton could be recreated. Brilliant TV and if you're in the UK you still have a few days left to catch up with it here on the i-player, if you didn't see it at the time!
The programme reminded me of when I worked at the Edinburgh Science Festival one year on a fake dinosaur dig. When each group of children had dug up the bones of the fake dinosaur (which we then had to rebury once they left, so the next group could excavate them!) they then made fake ammonites to keep. All of us who worked on the dig also made some ammonites, these are mine
These are now in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop, you can see them here.
Edited to add: and there's also a dinosaur themed listing in my new Crafty Green Magpie Etsy shop (which sells vintage and supplies) - you can view it here!
The dinosaurs are extinct now, but they live on in their near relatives the birds. And today, if you're in the UK, you can take part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch to spend an hour counting the birds in your garden. If it's too cold to do this outside, make a cup of tea and watch through the window!
It was amazing to see the dinosaur bones been excavated from the earth then light-weight copies being made so that whole skeleton could be recreated. Brilliant TV and if you're in the UK you still have a few days left to catch up with it here on the i-player, if you didn't see it at the time!
The programme reminded me of when I worked at the Edinburgh Science Festival one year on a fake dinosaur dig. When each group of children had dug up the bones of the fake dinosaur (which we then had to rebury once they left, so the next group could excavate them!) they then made fake ammonites to keep. All of us who worked on the dig also made some ammonites, these are mine
These are now in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop, you can see them here.
Edited to add: and there's also a dinosaur themed listing in my new Crafty Green Magpie Etsy shop (which sells vintage and supplies) - you can view it here!
The dinosaurs are extinct now, but they live on in their near relatives the birds. And today, if you're in the UK, you can take part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch to spend an hour counting the birds in your garden. If it's too cold to do this outside, make a cup of tea and watch through the window!
Friday, 29 January 2016
A Grotto in the Dells
I love this little grotto in Craiglockart Dell, by the Water of Leith.
It was built in 1750 by Robert Bowie, the landscape gardener of the Redhall estate who back then owned this area. It was designed for the ladies to sit in while the gentlemen went off hunting in the woods. It sadly gets vandalised every so often these days (you may be able to see that the roof has been damaged).
It offers a great little view of the tributary that rushes down the slope behind the grotto
Sometimes you may be rewarded with a view of a dipper patiently working its way down the rocks looking for invertebrates. The grotto is an ideal place for wall growing ferns, like this hart's tongue fern.
I took these photos yesterday, when the weather was sunny and relatively settled. (Today is very windy indeed).
Further along the walkway though the Dell I found this Yellow Brain fungus, which apparently particularly likes wet weather!
There's always something new to see out in nature, even in a familiar place!
It offers a great little view of the tributary that rushes down the slope behind the grotto
Further along the walkway though the Dell I found this Yellow Brain fungus, which apparently particularly likes wet weather!
Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Coming Soon to a Garden near You!
The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch will bring you closer to nature!
The robin, the UKs national bird, is a common visitor to gardens.
If you have a garden, join the other half a million people from around the UK counting the birds in their gardens over the weekend of 30-31 January. You can also record the other wildlife you see, helping to create a vital snapshot of UK nature.
If you have a window overlooking your garden, then this is an ideal activity whatever the weather! Make yourself a cup of tea and sit and watch what happens in the garden. It's nice to spend that hour just focussed on your garden and you may be surprised by what you see! Perhaps a jay (normally quite shy and elusive) will run up your garden path (this happened when I last visited my parents), maybe a sparrowhawk will dive down and catch a small bird (as happened recently in Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden) or maybe a flock of fieldfares will appear unexpectedly in your street (as happened outside our flat recently).
You can request a pack for the Big Garden Birdwatch here.
If you don't have a garden you can join in one of the many events happening across the UK. Find your nearest event here. Or you can spend an hour in a local park and record what you see there.
If you're not confident about identifying birds then the RSPB has these useful pages to help you
Bird guide - a listing of all the species of British birds with photos and sound files
How to identify birds - tips on how to indentify British birds
Bird identifier - a tool to help you identify unknown species of British birds
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
An environmentalist's view on the EU
The UK is currently debating its future in the European Union and will be holding a referendum later this year. There are things to dislike about the EU, it is too bureaucratic and can seem to be interfering too much in national affairs. On the whole though, as an environmentalist I'm all in favour of the EU.
Why?
Well firstly, it seems clear to me that without the EU, the UK's environment, open spaces and wildlife would be a lot worse. This is where the EU interfering in national affairs is in my mind a very good thing (read this article from The Ecologist magazine on how the UK would be the 'dirty man of Europe' if it wasn't for European laws and regulations that ensure for example raw sewage isn't poured onto our beaches.)
The EU Habitats and Birds Directives and the related Natura 2000 co-ordinated network of protected areas are, to my mind, the most important thing about the EU (and remember I am speaking as an environmentalist here). According to this article on the Birdlife Europe website, Europe isn't doing enough to save its wildlife and wild spaces. On the other hand, the Directives have had positive impact on conserving wildlife across Europe and certainly in my mind the UKs wildlife would be the poorer for not having EU regulations to follow. The current UK Government, despite it's claims to be the 'greenest government ever' seems to have little idea what the environment is or why nature might matter and only the threat of sanctions from Europe really ensure that out special wildlife places are preserved.
There is currently debate in the EU about whether the Directives are fit for purpose (many in the conservation movement see this as an excuse for the EU to water down the protections). (I blogged previously about this issue here. ) The proposed refit of the directives lead to an unprecedented number of people supporting the directives as they stand and several governments of EU member states (including the UK, which actually contradicts to an extent what I said above about our government!) have opposed any change to the directives. The main problems with the directives seem to be that they are not always implemented fully and also they sometimes clash with the aims of other EU legislation (such as the Common Agricultural Policy.)
The Woodland Trust have an excellent blog post about the refit process here.
You can read the view from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) here.
The Guardian newspaper considers how EU membership is good for nature.
So if you care for nature and the environment, then please keep these issues in the forefront of your mind when deciding whether we should remain part of the EU or not.
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more
Why?
Well firstly, it seems clear to me that without the EU, the UK's environment, open spaces and wildlife would be a lot worse. This is where the EU interfering in national affairs is in my mind a very good thing (read this article from The Ecologist magazine on how the UK would be the 'dirty man of Europe' if it wasn't for European laws and regulations that ensure for example raw sewage isn't poured onto our beaches.)
The EU Habitats and Birds Directives and the related Natura 2000 co-ordinated network of protected areas are, to my mind, the most important thing about the EU (and remember I am speaking as an environmentalist here). According to this article on the Birdlife Europe website, Europe isn't doing enough to save its wildlife and wild spaces. On the other hand, the Directives have had positive impact on conserving wildlife across Europe and certainly in my mind the UKs wildlife would be the poorer for not having EU regulations to follow. The current UK Government, despite it's claims to be the 'greenest government ever' seems to have little idea what the environment is or why nature might matter and only the threat of sanctions from Europe really ensure that out special wildlife places are preserved.
There is currently debate in the EU about whether the Directives are fit for purpose (many in the conservation movement see this as an excuse for the EU to water down the protections). (I blogged previously about this issue here. ) The proposed refit of the directives lead to an unprecedented number of people supporting the directives as they stand and several governments of EU member states (including the UK, which actually contradicts to an extent what I said above about our government!) have opposed any change to the directives. The main problems with the directives seem to be that they are not always implemented fully and also they sometimes clash with the aims of other EU legislation (such as the Common Agricultural Policy.)
The Woodland Trust have an excellent blog post about the refit process here.
You can read the view from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) here.
The Guardian newspaper considers how EU membership is good for nature.
So if you care for nature and the environment, then please keep these issues in the forefront of your mind when deciding whether we should remain part of the EU or not.
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more
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