Monday Bunday - Driftwood

Yesterday I posted about a few of the Simple Things I enjoy in life. The Bunns from Houseful of Rabbits wondered why the Gorgie Farm rabbits didn't get a mention! Well, to make up for that here is a whole post dedicated to a Gorgie Farm rabbit.

As many readers of this blog will know, Crafty Green Boyfriend and I sponsor Driftwood one of the rabbits at Gorgie City Farm. We donate an annual amount to help feed him and keep him up to date with his health care. Recently we renewed our sponsorship and Driftwood kindly wrote a letter to us (we think that he may have had some help from the Gorgie Farm staff!) and here are the highlights:

Your sponsorship money will help me and my rabbit friends. We'll be well fed and watered and kept up to date with our myxamatosis jags. It's been an eventful year in all our lives. Over the autumn we were integrated. This meant that we went from living separately to living together. I didn't like it to begin with. And had a few fights, with Louie in particular. But over time I've come to realise its nicer having lots of friends. This winter I've also learned to love the snow. It scared me a bit at first. And made my feet cold. But by the end of the chill I was dancing around in it. And nibbling it here and there. Now I'm looking forward to the summer and doing Cuddle Corners at Community Events and Galas. This is such an important job, in that it promotes responsible pet ownership and also raises a few funds for the Farm.

You can sponsor any of the animals at Gorgie City Farm, you can find out the sponsorship form here.

Simple Things

This weekend, Chris at Enchanted Oak is celebrating the simple pleasures of life. For each person who participates with a list, a poem, or a prose piece about the joy of simple things, her family will donate $2.00 to a charity in Haiti, for their medical clinic and other programs. So here is a short list of some of my simple pleasures in life:

Feeding the birds (Crafty Green Boyfriend took this photo of a great tit in my hand, yesterday in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh)

Reading a good book

Walking - especially along a river, in the woods or on a beach

Listening to music

Dancing

If you want to join in, please pop over to Enchanted Oak!

More Photos from North Berwick

I took these photos last Saturday at North Berwick, near Edinburgh. You can read more about our trip here.

Capercaillie Tree

This ancient wood is haunted
by a mythic forest spirit.
We walk in awe, alert for
champagne cork popping calls.

Behind each lichened tree
invisible birds lek* in silence
but flee as we approach.

In the heart of the forest
we find a strange Scot's pine
with flattened topmost branches.

"That's the capercaillie's perch"
we're told "and this is as close
as we'll ever get to the bird itself."

We strain our eyes
but shadows remain

just shadows.


a lek is the display area for capercaillie or other species of grouse; also the name for the display itself.

Repurposing Clothes

I've been mending a nightshirt recently and as I was sewing I remembered that I had bought this nightshirt (second hand of course!) originally to wear as a day time shirt. I never wore it much and decided it was better as a nightshirt. It has been a very succesful nightshirt to the extent that it was starting to fall apart. The mending project reminded me of the wisdom of the adage 'a stich in time saves nine'!

I've done this a few times, bought an item and then used it in a different way than I had originally intended. I've got a long sleeved V-necked t-shirt that I now more often wear as a thin jumper over a lacy blouse; a scarf that I use as a belt; a lacy sleeveless vest top that I never wear now by itself but always with a blouse underneath and a cheongsam that I wear over a long sleeved t-shirt and trousers.

Mixing and matching is fun and it makes me feel I have more clothes as well as helping to prevent waste (though as i always donate unwanted clothes to second hand shops then they wouldn't really be wasted!).

Have you given any items of clothing a new lease of life by redefining what they are?

Thinking Green

The Magic Apple Tree - A Country year by Susan Hill

This is a lovely stroll through a country year, written by novelist Susan Hill. She has (this is back in the early 80s) just moved to a village in Oxfordshire and this is her journal of a year there. She follows the seasons with a very keen eye for observation, noticing changes in the wildlife, describing village customs and rituals, drawing affectionate portraits of her fellow villagers, outlining the year in the garden and kitchen, including sharing recipes. It's a very vivid book, though in some parts it starts to feel a bit bogged down with garden details that seem however not quite useful enough to put to practical use. However this is a small complaint and anyone who loves the English countryside (and it is a very English book!) will enjoy reading this account. It is also worth pondering how much of the seasonal life will last in the form that Hill has described, as our climate changes (for a poem on this theme, why not pop over to Bolts of Silk here) and rural life changes too.

A Confusion of Seasons

This photo looks quite autumnal to me even though I took it today along the Water of Leith. There was quite a frost on the ground and lots of fungi. However against this backdrop the birds definitely think its spring. The blue tits and great tits were calling energetically, the dippers were hyperactive (though dippers tend to always be hyperactive!). I saw a magpie carrying sticks in its beak....

I was delighted to see a pair of bullfinches chasing each other and pecking each other gently. Bullfinches are beautiful birds, though pests to orchard owners and its so nice to see them recovering somewhat from the huge decline that hit them a few years ago. No photos of the birds - I'd rather enjoy watching them then faff around with the camera only to end up with a series of bad photos. The photo I took of the heron was too poor to share here and the heron is a big bird that stays still for ages so should be a good subject!