More Frost

more photos from yesterday's walk along the Water of Leith, as is the new header.

for Nature Notes.

First Frost

The trees, mostly bare branched now, reach up to perfect blue skies. Melting frost falls like rain with a flurry of last leaves. Coal tits chatter.

A dog walker stops me. 'You've not got a dog!' he says surprised. I nod and smile. 'But everyone who walks here has a dog!'. He walks on shaking his head, his dog trotting along after him.

Frost white grass -

a thin mist rises

from the river.

A dipper calls loudly and flies quickly upstream.

along the Water of Leith

Re-Used Gift Wrapping

For those who celebrate Christmas, its time to start Christmas shopping! So over the next month I will be posting ideas for Christmas cards and gift wrap that not only use recycled materials, but also look great! My family has always reused Christmas wrapping paper when giving gifts within the close family. However people outside the close family, unless they're keen recyclists themselves, may be less than impressed by obviously reused paper. So how about some more imaginative ways to reuse paper in eye-catching ways? For this first one, I had reused green and white tissue paper, covered the join with green ribbon and then added a gift tag (recycled from a greetings card!) in matching colours.

Tree Reflections

above - trees from Princes St Gardens reflected in the Royal Scottish Academy building of the National Galleries of Scotland on the Mound, Edinburgh

below - rowan and its reflection in an office on Fountainbridge, Edinburgh

for Weekend Reflections

haiku

sparks rise
from the bonfire -
star filled sky


previously published in Blithe Spirit, the journal of the British Haiku Society

haiku

blackbird alarm calls -
grey squirrels chase each other
round the oak tree


for Nature Notes

Artlink Orchard

After yesterday's endless rain I was very glad to see today dawn bright and sunny! Not only did I walk along the Water of Leith (very high water! Two female goosanders!) but I then went over to the Artlink Orchard in the grounds of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. I had heard of this project through Abundance Edinburgh and had casually said how it would be nice to have a poetry element to the orchard. So as a result I was invited to visit the Orchard. It's a lovely area, with approximately 70 trees of five or six varieties of cooking apples and lots of nettles which are harvested for soups. I wandered round the orchard with a member of Artlink staff and we picked apples and discussed how to incorporate poetry into Artlink's work at the hospital. Next to the orchard they have set up a new growing area which from next year will allow staff and patients to grow vegetables and fruit. The orchard had been pretty much abandoned for several years before Artlink starting working on it but there are exciting plans for the future, including community gardens, oh and poetry too of course....