What I avoid - Poetry Thursday

I was browsing through some old blog posts and this one made me smile! I originally posted it back in 2006 for Poetry Thursday, a now defunct blog network that was very useful to me in my early blogging days!  

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Poetry Thursday this week asks us to think about what we avoid - both poetically and in more general terms. I have to say that there isn't a type of poetry that I would entirely avoid, without first finding out that I don't like that writer or style. I prefer to read French, German or Italian poetry in the original language and avoid reading it in translation (but that's not avoiding the poetry!) . I also avoid writing in certain forms, for example I have never written a villanelle or a sestina, though I know they can be effective in expressing some types of emotion and would consider writing one in the future if I felt the need. The poem below is a combination of a form of poetry that i dislike (though don't actually avoid) and a few of the things I avoid in life:


Things I Avoid
dogs with snaggly teeth and glowing red coals for eyes
political marches hijacked by extremists
mainstream films and bestseller books
the sleeplessness of real coffee after midday
flying when I could take the train or boat
throwing out what could be recycled
working too hard
pounding techno music and military marches
Talk Radio and banal tv
soulless shopping malls
stilettos and make up
products from multinational conglomerates
statements lazily drawn together in a so called ‘list poem’

Celebrate Street Trees!

rowan trees in berry, Gardner's Crescent, Edinburgh


 

Trees are vital in towns and cities. They offer welcome shade in hot weather and can help reduce the impact of flooding, especially if surrounded by bare soil or grass rather than concrete. Apparently for example, London's trees catch enough water on their leaves to fill 1365 Olympic Swimming Pools, stopping that water from causing flooding on hard roads and pavements. This article from Anthropocene, evaluates the benefits of megacity trees, while this article from  the Nature Conservancy talks about the role trees can play in reducing environmental injustice. 

However, not all towns and cities value their street trees! Sheffield, in Yorkshire, England, is often considered to be a green city (and in many ways is) but has blotted its copybook recently by it's ill advised street maintenance contract, which has seen many of its street trees destroyed or threatened with destruction - including an ancient elm tree that is home to a rare butterfly! You can read the Woodland Trust's latest article about the situation in Sheffield here.

The Trust are aware of the great value of street trees in all our built up areas and they are encouraging people to join their Celebration of Street Trees!

They have developed a Street Trees Celebration Starter Kit to help you build community relations and celebrate your local trees. In November 2017, they want everyone to show how much they care for their local trees and take part in a tree dressing day as part of National Tree Week. They will then hold an awards ceremony to highlight the biggest and best events. The more people you can get together and the more events and celebrations you can run, the greater chance there is that your street will be chosen for an award.


The Woodland Trust have also recently been involved in a consultation on trees and road building, which you can read about here.

woman and child statue with street trees, Festival Square, Edinburgh. You can read more about this statue here.

An English Guide to Birdwatching by Nicholas Royle

 

Anyone expecting a guide of any sort to birdwatching is going to be disappointed or at least discombobulated by this book. It's a novel, though a strange novel, that at one point breaks down into a series of meditations on different types of bird hides.

Nicholas Royle is not only the name of the author but of two of the major characters in the novel, characters who of course get confused with each other throughout the course of events. The story revolves around a short story on the subject of Gulls, purported to be written by one of the Nicholas Royle characters and published in an anthology edited by the other Nicholas Royle character. In real life this is a story written by Nicholas Royle the author of this novel and published in an anthology edited by another Nicholas Royle, though in the novel it is claimed that it's been stolen from Silas Woodlock, who has retired to the seaside and taken up creative writing as a hobby and who is plagued by the local gulls.

Many well known people turn up briefly or are name checked in the story, which makes for an added sense of believability but may well make the book date faster than it otherwise would (who are all these people? we may well be asking ourselves in a few years time).

This is a confusing, hilarious and insightful book. It centres on birdwatching, the human relationship with birds and mistaken identities. It also addresses issues including immigration, extinctions and climate change while indulging in a bewildering array of wordplay, which is sometimes exhilirating and sometimes irritating. It's the kind of book you either can't put down or end up throwing across the room in exasperation!

An English Guide to Birdwatching by Nicholas Royle, published by Myriad (2017).

The two Nicholas Royles are often confused with each other (see this article) and in fact I proved the point myself when I tweeted the wrong Nicholas Royle in my tweeted link to this review!

Too Early to think about Christmas but...

In past years the Christmas tree decorations I've made from upcycled odd earrings have proven popuar in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy store. So I've added two new sets this year.

These gold decorations can be found in the Crafty Green Poet shop here.

 And these red ones can be found here.

First Signs of Autumn

It was dull and misty this morning, though also warm and humid. There are definitely signs of autumn around, whether you believe autumn starts on 1 September or at the autumn equinox or on whatever date that autumn wants to start. There are already some beautiful fallen leaves in Colinton Dell

though most of the leaves are still on the trees and only just starting to turn.

I was delighted to see a couple of groups of earth star fungi, they're very impressive fungi to find. These are in Spylaw Park by the banks of the Water of Leith.

I don't know what this fungus below is, there were several of them but they were very tricky to photograph - if you have any ideas on what it might be, please let me know in the comments!

Late Summer, River Almond

Yesterday was a lovely late summer day and we walked along the River Almond from Cramond Brig up to Edinburgh airport. It's a lovely walk, though you do need to be prepared for sudden loud noises from relatively low flying aircraft. The river is very picturesque

and much of the walk is along a wooded walkway that runs alongside agricultural land

Many flowering plants are seeing now, like this rosebay willowherb

We had a picnic lunch near our traditional picnic tree

and as we often do, we saw a kingfisher not far from here.

On the way back we decided to take the lower path, which has lovely river views

 
but is very overgrown and in parts almost blocked by fallen trees! This made the walk more of an adventure than normal!

Fishing masterclass from a grey heron

More from our staycation! Yesterday in Inverleith Park we stood and watched this grey heron as it gave a masterclass in fishing, just in front of us!

It caught quite a few small fish!