Blackford Pond and Hermitage of Braid, Edinburgh

This morning we wandered down to Blackford Pond, a relatively small suburban pond in Edinburgh. We were delighted with the birds we saw! As well as lots of mallards and tufted ducks there were 2 pochards, a little grebe (in summer plumage today, unlike those we saw in Perth), a heron (click on my photo above for a closer view), greylag geese, moorhens and a coot. Crafty Green Boyfriend saw a kingfisher but I had been too busy watching a pair of swans dancing and courting to notice, which is a shame as I've not had much luck with kingfishers recently, it's always other people who see them! It was however wonderful to watch the swans, they have such a graceful, balletic courtship dance. After wandering round the pond, we walked by the side of Blackford Hill (see the new banner photo), where we heard a buzzard and then watched it soar across the sky. Then we walked along Braid Burn, through the Hermitage of Braid. Definitely felt like Spring today, we've had signs in the past few days but this was the real thing today.

Quarrymill Woodland Park, Perth

The mallards feeling Spring in the air despite the ice under their feet. One male pecked his beak onto a female's back and when water began to puddle there he lifted himself onto her and seemed to almost drown her, but hopefully there'll be chicks as a result later in the Spring.

We found a new path leading up from the river to the woodland edge and across farmland to the village of Gannochy. The sky big to the distant snowy hills and raining the joyful sound of skylarks.
The next day, under hazy skies the bus took us through snowy hills and past a silvery Loch Leven.

geese skein

across patchwork fields -

new shoots appear

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

Quarrymill Woodland Perth is owned and managed by the Gannochy Trust.

Kinnoull Hill, Perth

Kinnoull Hill is always one of the highlights of a trip to Perth. The hill sits behind the city and currently is still covered in snow (though the paths were mostly clear). We had a wonderful walk over the hill on Friday. We had excellent views of buzzards, including one that flew very close to us before settling in a nearby tree. We also had an excellent view of a peregrine falcon, which though not common is a bird that is often seen around this hill. Plus two very good views of great spotted woodpeckers, though neither of them were drumming. Lots of smaller birds too, including bullfinches that we continued to see in good numbers all around Perth, a reassuring sign as bullfinches had been in decline but are starting to do better, they're such lovely little birds too. Oh and were those skylarks singing over the field at the bottom of the hill? Definitely Spring in the air, the birds are pairing up, most noticeably the jackdaws in the photo below (click to see in more detail!).

Crocuses

These are the crocuses in Edinburgh's Meadows this time last year. When I walked through the Meadows yesterday the crocuses were barely out!

And now we're off to Perth for a few days!

Sushi and Chips by Colin Will

Colin Will is a Board member of the Stanza Poetry Festival and web-master for Poetry Scotland. He also runs Calder Wood Press and will be publishing my chapbook very soon. I thought this would be a good opportunity to repost this review from a couple of years ago, when not many people read this blog. Colin's fourth poetry collection. Sushi and Chips is most notable for its close observations of nature, birds, landscapes, weather and skies. The poem SEVEN MOONS contains this wonderful description:

The fourth moon is a round of butter
in a hot harvest night, stifled by desire.

There is humour too, as in this stanza from the poem UNSEASONAL:

A resigned young gull paddles
through the shallows,
pecks without interest, wishing
it was migratory, having seen
pictures of the Maldives
in a discarded tour brochure.

This stanza not only captures the gull accurately and comically, but also makes a comment about litter, in a lyrical way that doesn’t disturb the flow of the poem, so the reader absorbs the message along with the words.

Not all the poems are specifically environmental in theme, there are poems in memoriam (FLOWERS FOR MICHAEL) and about Carstairs prison (SECURE MENTAL INSTITUTION) but all the poems are aware of their place in nature – the flowers in FLOWERS FOR MICHAEL, the cows in SECURE MENTAL INSTITUTION. Even the entertaining poem about older men’s habit of wearing beige clothes (NONDESCRIPT) is rooted in nature:

Beige would be camouflage
in a dull desert, say the Gobi
in October, where the wind from the steppes
blows beige sand over the endless plains.

Colin Will’s poetry certainly can’t be described as nondescript!

Sushi and Chips is available for £5.20 from Diehard the publishers of Poetry Scotland.

Mic Macs

This afternoon I saw the wonderful French film Mic Macs a Tire-Larigot. Much though I love documentaries, I love even more to see a feature film that engages with issues creatively and humourously and that's what certainly happens here. Bazil's Dad was killed by a landmine and years later Bazil himself is injured when he gets caught up in a drive by shooting. He comes out of hospital to find himself homeless and jobless but is rescued by a community of talented misfits and artists who live in a home made from salvaged metal where they spend their time making crafts from recycled materials and where everyone's unique skills are valued. Bazil encourages them all to join his campaign against the man who was ultimately responsible for his father's death and his own injury. Mic Macs is currently showing at Edinburgh Filmhouse and other selected cinemas in the UK.

Useful Links

Campaign Against Arms Trade.
Landmine Action.

magpie haiku

sunlight
on silver birch trunks ~
a sudden magpie