Autumn Haiku

autumn sunshine –
the robin’s song
changes key

*

previously published (with a commentary from the editor) on Haiku Seeds in this post. 

Weatherland by Alexandra Harris

 

 Weatherland is a historical exploration of how English culture has responded to the weather from the Romans to the present. It offers fascinating insights into how people in England have seen and thought about the weather and how that has affected visual art, literature, buildings and clothing. Harris shares a wealth of quotes from writers including Chaucer, Milton and Virginia Woolf, analysing their attitudes, with for example an interesting compare and contrast in attitudes to the weather from the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. The book is lavishly illustrated, including photos of baptismal fonts, pages from medieval illuminated manuscripts and paintings by artists including Constable, Turner and L S Lowry. The last chapter brings things totally up to date by assessing why writing about the weather is important:

"..accounts of direct, sensual, even overwhelming weather experience are prized by readers increasingly regretful of their separation from natural places and natural processes. Many readers are grateful, too, for reminders of all those little landmarks in the cycle of the year, which are too easily missed if the office looks the same each day, and you travel home in the dark. At just this moment, when the average diary looks less like a medieval almanac than ever, English culture has turned passionately seasonal. And in this critical period when climate change threatens to throw the seasons out of kilter, artists and writers have reaffirmed the wonders of the years repeating stages." 

This final chapter also considers the role of the arts in terms of representing and reflecting on climate change, one of the great challenges of our times.  

This is a scholarly (though not actually academic) book of cultural criticism that focuses on the topic of the weather, bringing together ideas in a way that I found fascinating. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in our relationship with the weather. 

Weatherland by Alexandra Harris, published by Thames and Hudson (2015) 

A short article on a similar topic can be found on the Conversation blog : Three Things historic literature can teach us about the climate crisis.

Tree Following Update October

For Tree Following this year, I've chosen a magnificent old cherry tree in North Merchiston Cemetery in Edinburgh. Crafty Green Boyfriend and I started walking round this cemetery every day for our #DailyExercise during the first UK lockdown last year. And we're still doing the same walk regularly, though not quite as often. 

I popped into the cemetery today, after leading a guided walk in another part of town. The leaves on the cherry tree are changing colour now! 

Easter Craiglockart Hill and Pond

 Yesterday's weather was fairly changeable, as it has been here for several days. We had a lovely walk round Easter Craiglockart Hill and Pond. The woodland on the hill is just starting to take on autumnal colours, though some parts still look very green.

But there are plenty of fungi around to remind us that it is in fact Autumn - I think the fungi below are Sulphur Tuft, but if you know different, please feel free to leave a comment!

After walking round the hill, we wandered down to Craiglockart Pond

Parts of the pond are edged with Bulrushes 

There are some lovely ornamental rowan trees in the nearby streets, this one was particularly pretty 

For Nature Notes.

haiku

ivy 

covers your gravestone - 

waning moon 

Passenger Pigeon

There are wild pigeons in winter beyond number or imagination,
myself have seen three or four hours together flocks in the air
so thick that even have they shadowed the sky from us¹
Mile after mile of forest dense with the birds,
each tree creaking with hundreds of nests,
white from the droppings.
Whole trees falling and dying.

And the birds such fools, we could pluck them from the sky,
lift them from their nests. Such billions a sign
from God that this was our promised land
and they our larder.

The war that broke our land blinded us to bird-loss.
We thought only of survival as we carried on hunting
provisions for conflict starved troops,
abandoned families.

And still with the loss there were millions,
riches beyond the thought
of our younger European selves.

And we did not think.

We carried on shooting
and we did not think.

When an individual is seen gliding through the woods
and close to the observer,
it passes like a thought,
and on trying to see it again,
the eye searches in vain;

the bird is gone.²

 
¹ early settler in Virginia 
² naturalist, J J Audobon

**
I'm reposting this poem for National Poetry Day 2022, which has a theme of Environment.

When is Plastic Recyling not a Good Idea?

Recycling is a good thing (though not as good as reducing usage or re-using items). 

But sometimes plastic recycling means rich countries sending plastics to poorer countries that can't cope with the load. So some of the plastics we think we're recycling, end up polluting rivers and oceans on the other side of the world. Read this article and then consider asking your local council what actually happens to the plastic you put into the recycling bins. 

In addition, can you reduce the amount of plastic you use? But think carefully, some foods (cucumbers for example) keep much better when wrapped in plastic, so plastic can genuinely reduce food waste. Though if you can do small, regular shops then you are more likely to be able to refuse plastic wrapping without finding that your vegetables go off. (Every week, I buy the vegetables I think I'll need for that week and avoid plastic packaging as much as possible and I find very little food waste.) More and more shops these days allow you (or encourage you) to take in your own containers to refill, thus avoiding the need for new plastic containers.

An 'eco-friendly' canvas carrier bag uses much more energy in its production than does a single use plastic carrier bag. You need to reuse a cotton / canvas carrier bag 150 times before it has less of a carbon footprint than a single use plastic carrier. So, avoid the temptation to buy a new eco-carrier bag every time you see one advertised as supporting your favourite environmental charity / trendy arts venue / ethical shop and use the same one over and over. I have some canvas carrier bags that I've had for years. I wash them regularly and they are great!

I asked City of Edinburgh Council what happens to the plastics that I put in our local recycling bins and they directed me to this link, which explains how the council ensures that plastics are actually recycled and don't end up polluting rivers on the other side of the world.  

I also asked the Co-op what happens to the soft plastics that we put into their new collecting bins and this is the reply I received: 

"Soft plastics are collected by our recycling partner, Jayplas. The material is sorted into different polymer types and is sent on to extrusion sites in the UK where they are recycled into usable plastic pellets. Polyethylene typically is used to make bags and sacks. Polypropylene is used to make rigid items such as stacking crates, and buckets. Mixed plastics are recycled into plastic ‘wood’ which is used to make boards for the construction industry. Any contamination and non-target materials are incinerated for energy recovery".

So, if you live in Edinburgh or shop in the Co-op, you can be sure that plastic you put in the recycling bins does get recycled. If you live elsewhere, then please contact your council to find out what actually happens to the local plastic recycling.