Lots of autumn colour!

The trees are just wonderful this year and though we're not having much wind and more leaves are staying on the trees than normal they are starting to fall and create beautiful carpets in the woods. So a selection of photos from our trip today around Cammo Country Park:

It's amazing how the colours of one tree can change in the light, look at this oak tree when the sun was behind a cloud

and how different it looked when the sun came out again!

The sunshine made for some lovely shadows, so here are two photos for Shadow Shot Sunday:

and from yesterday, here is a shot of a rowan tree near the centre of Edinburgh for Weekend Reflections:

You've been Trumped Too

You’ve Been Trumped Too was largely filmed over the last 12 months, during the most contentious American presidential election campaign in history. The film explores the growing confrontation between a feisty 92 year-old Scottish widow and her family and a billionaire seeking to become the most powerful man in the world.

When Michael Forbes, his mother Molly and their neighbours refused to leave their homes to make way for development of a controversial, environmentally destructive golf course (the Trump International Golf Links), the Trump Organization began a campaign of intimidation and bullying, even bringing in the police to help them. The Trump Organisation cut off the water supply to the Forbes homes and refused to re-connect the water supply, ignoring the law that states that they are responsible for ensuring that the houses are provided with water.

You've Been Trumped Too catches up with the Forbes family five years on from the building of the golf course. The houses are still without water supply and eventually Michael Forbes has to fix the pipes himself, after which task the Trump Organisation send him yet another threatening letter. 

The film is excellent at drawing comparisons between how Trump has treated the Forbes and their neighbours and how he deals with related issues in the USA:

* Trump cut off the Forbes water supply and refused to reconnect it while in the USA he treated the residents of Flint with contempt during their water crisis.  

* Trump built a wall round his golf course in Aberdeenshire and prevented locals from accessing the land (which was previously public land) while in the USA he plans to build a wall on the USA Mexico border to keep Mexican immigrants out. The Forbes and many of their neighbours now display Mexican flags in their gardens. 

* The Forbes family have a history of caring for animals while the Trump family has a history of hunting big game for sport. Donald Trump junior, who shoots elephants and other endangered species, apparently wants to be in charge of the USA Wildlife Department if his father becomes president. 

It was interesting to see the reactions in the USA to the story of the Forbes family. Some Trump supporters in the film remained unmoved by what had been happening in Aberdeenshire while three were on camera stating they would no longer vote for Trump once they heard what had happened. One group of young people hailed Michael Forbes as a hero when they met him when he visited the Republican Party Convention.

Donald J Trump comes across as a man who doesn't care at all for poor people, or for human rights or for the rule of law. He seems only to be concerned about himself and how he can make more money. As Molly Forbes says in the film "You can't trust Donald Trump".
 
You've been Trumped Too can be watched from the You've Been Trumped Facebook page until after the US Elections. 

You've been Trumped Too follows on from You've been Trumped which I reviewed here. 

On Starlit Seas by Sara Sheridan

On Starlit Seas is Sara Sheridan's fictionalised account of the journey from Brazil to London made by celebrated writer and historian Maria Graham. The novel opens with Maria working on an equation to measure earthquakes - an equation that male scientists of the day would ignore entirely (purely because she was a woman).

But this story is not the main part of the novel. Maria is on the way to deliver her manuscripts to her publisher John Murray in London and finds passage on the Bittersweet, captained by Captain Henderson, who is involved in smuggling chocolate. Chocolate is a very important part of this novel and plays a role in Maria and the Captain's developing friendship

'[Henderson] talked about cacao, describing its outlandish appearance, the cracking of the pods when they were ripe, and how the beans might be roasted and winnowed, the nibs removed. Maria fetched her sketches from the Brazilian Highlands and..... they pored over them as he identified the wild and cultivated cacao and she showed him the most unusual flowers she had come across during her stay.'


Will Maria be able to help Henderson become more of a gentleman and a more honest trader? Will she let their growing love win out over the obvious unsuitability of their match? Will Maria's work ever become accepted by the male scientists and writers of the day?

Maria Graham is a woman of significant achievements who we should know more about and one of the great things about this book is the (fictionalised) light it shines onto her life. The novel is an excellent evocation of a time when it was difficult for women to break into the men's worlds of adventure, literature and science. It's also an adventure story and a beautifully told tale of impossible love held back by the complicated etiquette of the day. 


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Last week I went along to hear Sara talk about this book with Gail Brydon from Just Be Botanicals at the National Library of Scotland. It was fascinating to hear Sara talk about some of the background to the book and how she used the John Murray archives at the library in her research.  The book features chocolate so there was a chance after the reading to sample some of the Just Be Botanical chocolate range!

On Starlit Seas by Sara Sheridan published by Black and White Publishing.

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You may also be interested in my review of Sara's earlier novel  The Secret Mandarin which I posted here.

Time to hibernate already?

I was leading a guided walk along the Water of Leith in Colinton Dell today and we were delighted to see the orange ladybirds gathering for hibernation in the fence posts. They're gathering in a few places already but this was the most notable spot

It was another beautiful sunny day and the autumn colours are wonderful  and even better many of the leaves are still on the trees as we haven't had much wind recently!

Trees shining in the Autumn sun

It's a lovely bright autumnal day today and the trees in Musselburgh look wonderful

Plenty of birds too, though mostly out of range of my little camera! The lapwings and teals looked particularly spectacular in the bright sunshine! It was also lovely to see a grey plover and a group of over 20 ringed plovers. (Please click on the birds' names to go to the RSPB webpage for that species, where you can find out more).

Happy Hallowe'en!

This suitably eerie looking place is an abandoned mill building along the Water of Leith in Bonnington.

Real Foods seeks baby photos to help celebrate its 40th Anniversary

Real Foods, Edinburgh's well-known ethical, vegetarian and specialist food store celebrates 40 years this weekend! There are various celebrations in-store to mark the occasion.

Real Foods are asking people to share their baby photos to help the celebrations! It doesn't matter how old you are (though you may need to be based in Edinburgh, I'm not sure), you can share your baby photo on the store's Facebook page for the chance to win a goodie bag. This competition closes at 9pm tonight, which doesn't leave long to search out that cute photo!

I shared this photo to their Facebook page

then Crafty Green Boyfriend and I thought it might be fun to recreate the photo, as I still have Peter the Rabbit (yes I know it's not really a rabbit!), so here is the present day version

Some blog readers may remember Peter from his role as host when Sylvain the rabbit from Cottontails Baby visited. You can read about that here.