Beaded lanyards

Crafty Green Boyfriend discovered some old lanyards in his office, which weren't going to be used again so I reused the lanyard attachments and made several more beaded lanyards, which I'm slowly adding to the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop.

These beaded lanyards are a stylish way to wear your ID badge if you need one for work (and if your office isn't strict about needing to wear the corporate branded lanyard!)

I really enjoy making these lanyards, I like the design element and it's very relaxing threading beads. The lanyards also tend to sell reasonably well which is a good incentive for making more of them!

Here are the most recent ones:

 which you can find in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop here

which you can find in the shop here 

Help the Woodland Trust to protect Ancient Woodland

As many readers of this blog will know, I regularly volunteer with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust to help look after Colinton Dell, a beautiful area of ancient woodland along the river. (The photo above shows the orchid meadow surrounded by trees.)

Ancient woodland is defined as woodland that has been continuously wooded since 1600 (1750 in Scotland). Before those dates, planting of new woodland was uncommon, so a wood present in those years was likely to have developed naturally. The ancient woodlands of the UK are our oldest native woods and contain our oldest and most impressive trees. They are our richest land-based wildlife habitats but have, in their own right, no legal protection against inappropriate development or poor management.

The Woodland Trust works to protect the UK's forests and woodlands and has launched a new campaign to ensure that our ancient woodlands are given more protection so that they can flourish into the future and continue to offer homes for wildlife and enjoyment for people.

You can find out about this new campaign here.

One specific area of ancient woodland that is threatened with inappropriate development is Smithy Wood, near Sheffield. Local developers want to destroy this wildlife rich area of ancient woodland to build a motorway service station. You can find out more here.

Ancient woodlands are too valuable to let them be destroyed. These special places need proper protection - now.

Full Body Burden by Kristen Iversen

Subtitled Growing up in the Shadow of a Secret Nuclear Facility, this book is part a memoir and part investigative journalism. Kristen Iversen grew up near Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear facility in Colorado. At the time she and most people in the area who didn't work at the facility thought it produced cleaning products. Anyone who actually worked in the facility was sworn to secrecy.

Her childhood wasn't easy, her father was a very difficult man, but she wandered the countryside on horseback and loved the land, never realising the dangers that lurked around her. Gradually people became more aware, and a very large proportion of the local people developed cancers and other illnesses as a direct result of living near the facility.

As Iversen herself became more aware of the truth about the plant (due in part to a stint at working in the plant temporarily while studying) she began to research. The plant made components for nuclear weapons and security and health and safety were woefully poor (put it this way, Homer Simpson seems a paragon of an efficient, competent safety inspector in comparison).

This is grim, but necessary reading. The catalogue of mistakes (from small fires to two full scale disasters) made by the plant combined with official lack of concern (awareness of plutonium levels would kill the housing market in the area and cause bad publicity so all the authorities, including health authorities, stayed quiet about the truth) are very sobering indeed. And given that it takes plutonium thousands of years to decay, the land will effectively be contaminated forever.

Nuclear weapons don't just kill the people they're dropped on, they can slowly kill the people who make them and those who live in the vicinity of the plant.

"Many inescapable decisions have been forced upon us - decisions about nuclear weapons and nuclear energy that will have far reaching consequences with sometimes dangerous and unintended results. To speak out or to remain silent is the first and most crucial decision we can make."

Renew Trident anyone?

Full Body Burden by Kristen Iversen published by Vintage (2013). and printed on Forestry Stewardship Council certified paper

Honesty

Amazing morning on Arthurs Seat

We had a lovely walk on Arthurs Seat today. It was beautifully warm and sunny so we thought it would be a good place to try and see some butterflies for the Big Butterfly Count (which ends tomorrow). We were lucky to see several butterflies, including a red admiral and a couple of meadow browns, though only this small copper allowed us to take photos

Many of the ragwort plants were covered in cinnabar moth caterpillars

Crafty Green Boyfriend took the photo below to give an idea of just how many of these caterpillars there were

Yet oddly, neither of us have ever seen adult cinnabar moths on Arthurs Seat!

Another insect that was present in good numbers was this species of solitary bee, I'm hoping that I'll be able to identify it eventually, but it is a very handsome little creature, as Crafty Green Boyfriend's photo shows

 Neither of us remembers ever having seen this type of solitary bee before and it's the same for this type of wood wasp too

We also saw several ladybirds, which was nice as we've not seen many so far this year. This one seemed to be quite comfortable in the thistle

Meanwhile up in the sky, this pair of ravens was dancing and calling, a wonderful sight (and thanks to Crafty Green Boyfriend for this photo too!). It's been a while since either of us have seen the ravens, for such large birds they're surprisingly elusive!

Plenty of other birds around too, including lots of house martins, a flock of about 30 goldfinches (a veritable charm of them in fact!) and this magpie, who was more than happy for Crafty Green Boyfriend to take its photo.

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

Bright Summer Colours!

I love the vibrant clashing colours of the rosebay willow herb and ragwort on Corstorphine Hill

We snacked on foraged wild raspberries as we walked the hill today.

Meanwhile the bunnies in front of the hotel were snacking on grass

I Heart Crafting!

I'm crafting a lot at the moment as you may have noticed from some of my recent posts!

I find that the second hand shops in Edinburgh are often good sources of crafting materials (and with them being 2nd hand they immediately qualify as environmentally friendly on one count at least!). I recently bought a (brand new and never opened!) kit to make three hanging pink felt hearts and over the past few days I've used this kit to make the hearts. I didn't use all the embellishments provided in the kit and will use those in future projects. I also added some beads and embellishments from my existing supplies. This is what the three hearts look like:

They are now in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop here , here and here!