The Rocket - a film review

This dramatic and heartwarming film takes place against the lush and dramatic scenery of Laos. Ahlo, a young boy is believed to be cursed and his family blame them for all their misfortune.

When a second dam is built in the nearby valley, the family's home and community is destroyed and they are forced to travel miles to the new 'resettlement village' where they are promised running water and electricity. However in reality, the village hasn't even yet been built and the villagers are forced to make their own shelter from plastic sheeting and branches.

Ahlo makes friends with a young girl Kia and her alcoholic uncle (who's obsessed with James Brown). Ahlo's family agree to move to the uncle's village, but when they get there they find it is abandoned and full of unexploded bombs. The local bureaucrats in addition tell the family they can't live there and must leave in two days, once the Rocket festival has ended.

Ahlo is determined to win the rocket festival to win back his father's love. He sets about building a magnificent rocket, with the help of Kia's uncle, who used to be a soldier.

The film ends with scenes from the Rocket Festival, where rockets are sent up into the sky in the hopes that one of them will make the rains start. Ahlo is working on his rocket right up to the last moment, will his first attempt manage to beat the huge Millenial Rocket, built by the team that has won the last several rocket festivals?

This is a beautiful, touching film about hope and overcoming your demons, set within the context of a community and environment pushed to the edge by technological development and progress. 

The Rocket is showing at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh until Thursday 20 March. 

Tree Watching: the larch week 2

The European larch (Larix decidua) is a deciduous conifer. It's not native to Scotland but has been planted here in great number because it's wood is very useful. It is also cold tolerant, which is a useful attribute for any species living in Scotland!

Its cones are favourite food for birds including siskin and redpolls.

This morning, I visited my larch in Colinton Dell, alongside the Water of Leith. The long tailed tits were still working on their nest. You can just see the nest in this photo, its part of the dark mass just off centre of the photo:

I couldn't take a photo of the birds, they were moving too quickly! (Also I like to enjoy the moment, rather than to get caught up in taking bad photos!) I noticed that one of them was carrying tiny feathers in its beak, which it was adding to the lining of the nest.

I then turned my attention back to the tree, which has a very distinctive bark

Near the larch, though not in it, I heard the first chiffchaff of the year, repeating its name over and over....

For Tree Following and Nature Notes 

Blogging Award - The Lighthouse Award

I was honoured to receive the Lighthouse Award from Woodland Matters, the campaigning blog of the Woodland Trust.

 

The award was created by Coach Muller at ‘Good Times Stories’ who says this is
“an award to recognize the people who have created beautiful, heartwarming, and inspirational blogs. Their blogs bring us happiness, enlighten our hearts, and bring a little joy to our lives when we visit their pages. The work that these people have done has truly given us rays of light in a gloomy world."

So I have to choose a few blogs to pass this award on to, and to make it slightly easier for myself, I'll restrict the choice to nature related blogs:


Wild and Wonderful - Caroline's knowledgeable blog about British wildlife.

Weaver of Grass - nature and rural life in northern England 

Where Beechmast Falls - nature notes from England's New Forest.

Ben Cruachan - Duncan's nature notes and poetry from Australia

and, three blogs which give me a useful insight into birds in the USA:

Viewing Nature with Eileen for her wonderful views of American birds and skies

Rambling Woods, the Home of Nature Notes and Michelle's campaigning for Monarch butterflies and other species and for her lovely photos of her garden birds

Run A Round Ranch Report - more bird photos from the USA, specially Whistling Ducks. Oh and horses too. 

There are many others too! 

 

Still weaving

My weaving skills are getting better, these are the two latest coasters I've woven using my cardboard loom. I like the contrasting colours and am annoyed that I've run out of the thin dark green yarn so I can't make more coasters in the exact same colour scheme!

Meanwhile I've added another silver and black satin chopstick bag to the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop.

Spring Yellows

The pussy willow trees are amazing at the moment (these are male trees, female trees tend to bloom later than the males and the female catkins are longer and thinner).

I love that some of the catkins are still grey and furry while others are opening out gradually and some are almost entirely yellow with the emerging flowers. The first bee of the year was buzzing round in the top of this tree while I was taking the photos.

More spring yellow with this wonderful heart formed lichen (I think it's Xanthoria parietina, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). It doesn't always grow in a heart shape, that's just a lucky accident....

For Nature Notes

***
Meanwhile I'm delighted to have my plastic bag organiser included in this upcycled 'spring greens' treasury on Etsy.

And I've just added another larger drawstring bag to the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop - this one is suitable for storing a descant recorder, a tin whistle or incense sticks.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more

Tree Following - the Larch

Today I decided I would take part in the Tree Following Project. So when I was in Colinton Dell I was keeping an eye out for an interesting, accessible tree. This area by the Water of Leith is full of beautiful and interesting trees, so I was a bit spoilt for choice! My initial thought had been to study the tree where the tawny owl roosts (and I'm always so taken with watching the owl that I don't even know what species of tree it is!) but the path by that tree has been cordoned off due to another tree needing to be cut down. The tree and the owl are still visible from the barrier but I can't get close to the tree!).

Instead my eye was caught by this European larch tree.

It's an old tree and has ivy climbing on the lower portion of its trunk. 

The larches are the only deciduous conifers and always look strangely bare in the winter.

It always seems to be full of birds, particularly coal tits. What made my mind up for me in choosing this tree to watch for this project was seeing a pair of long tailed tits making their nest in its branches. This is the third time I've watched long tailed tits making a nest, and really it is a wonderful sight, they make such an intricate dainty little nest, a work of art really, from spiders webs and lichens and other things. The nest is in the first photo but it's too small and too well camoflaged to show up. Plus although the long tailed tits were more than happy to have me around, they became agitated when I tried to get closer and take a photo of them and their nest, so I put my camera away and watched them for a little longer.

For Tree Following

A Life of Ospreys by Roy Dennis

Many of you in the UK will be familiar with Roy Dennis from his appearances on Springwatch and Autumnwatch as he follows ospreys on their migrations from the UK to Senegal. Well, here is the book!

A Life of Ospreys is a comprehensive study of the osprey in the UK, it's breeding biology, it's migration habits and the amazing story of its recovery as a breeding bird in this country after been pushed to extinction. The book is full of information about ecology, biology and conservation science, but is written in an accessible style throughout.

Roy Dennis has been intimately involved in many of the projects to help reintroduce the osprey and to help it to breeding success. The book outlines many projects including building artificial nests, monitoring breeding success, combating egg thieves and developing public interest in nesting ospreys.

The book is packed full of fascinating insights into this magificent bird and the work that has been done to preserve it, along with lots of colour photos, diagrams, sketches and graphs. An ideal book for anyone interested in birds and conservation! 

Thanks to Birding 247 for this book, which I won in a competition on Twitter.

A Life of Ospreys by Roy Dennis, published by Whittles Publishing

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.