Mythologies of the Moon

New moon she is virgin.
Full moon she is mother.
Waning she is wise,
healer and transformer.

She rides a white chariot to watch
the tides of sea and woman.
Her wheel takes souls to death
and possible rebirth.

She hunts me and she haunts me
while, sprinkled with her dust,
I am a satellite, enslaved
to orbit her.

I let my eyebrows grow and howl,
dress in white as she wanes,
red when she is full
and my tides run blood.

As an owl she reads my soul,
stretches out soft wings of healing,
gives insight into previous lives
and solace for the present.

New moon she is virgin.
Full moon she is mother.
Waning she is wise, 
healer and transformer.

**

(Reposting from back in 2006, also previously published in both Curlew and Moonstone poetry magazines)

beautiful beech trees

The beech trees look particularly beautiful at this time of year

The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Krause

 

 This wide ranging book takes as its starting point the soundscapes of wilderness areas (of which there are a diminishing number as the human population increases, encroaching onto previously pristine habitats.)

From there, Bernie Krause, former musician and sound recordist examines natural sounds and how humans have intereacted with them, from devising our first music inspired by the natural sounds around us to our impact on nature, both through destroying habitats to the huge impact of human generated noise on the world.

It turns out that even an environment that looks to the eye to be healthy can reveal itself, through analysis of recordings of its soundscapes, to be much less complete that it seems. Krause gives many examples of specific habitats that he has studied and found to be diminished. He also examines the impact of human noise - by for example demonstrating how a jet flying over an area can disrupt the natural soundscape.

Soundscape is the sum of all the sounds made by all the animals and other natural features in an area, including bird songs and calls, wind and rain, to mention just a few. Most sound recordists focus on recording individual species and the study of intact soundscapes is under resourced. Similarly where  modern music takes inspiration from nature it tends to be by using the sounds of one bird or other natural sound and the whole of nature's soundscape is generally ignored.

This is a fascinating book, full of intriguing facts though very sobering in its assessment of our impact on the natural world. It ends with a plea to be quiet and respectful of the natural world.

The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Krause published by Profile Books (2013)

Dean Gardens

Dean Gardens is one of the private parks in Edinburgh, set aside for use by people in nearby streets who do not have their own gardens. Today I was able to visit it with one of my birdwatching groups, as a member of the group is also a member of Dean Gardens! It's a lovely place, covering seven acres of the banks of the Water of Leith and offering a number of pretty paths, stunning views and lovely autumn colours.

one of the paths 

a view over the weir at Dean Village 

the back view of Hygeia (the goddess of health and hygiene) in St Bernard's Well

some of the flats overlooking the gardens

Autumn Yellows

I joined Crafty Green Boyfriend for a lunchtime walk round Corstorphine Hill today. Lots of lovely yellows around, from the gorse

to the birches

and the lovely juxtaposition of birch and gorse in this photo

haiku

hanging
above a bank of clouds -
harvest moon

Autumn colour and a kingfisher

I was leading a group round Colinton Dell today, but first I had time to do my weekly patrol of the dells for the Water of Leith Conservation Trust. The autumn colours are at their best now in many places

and the ivy is in flower, waiting for late season hoverflies, but I have to say I've seen very few hoverflies this autumn compared to last year.

I had two wonderful sightings of kingfishers (possibly the same bird in each case) before I met up with the group, but we didn't see one at allduring the walk. We haven't seen a kingfisher at all during this session of walks, while last time I lead these walks there were kingfishers every week!