a winter's day in Colinton and Craiglockart Dells along the Water of Leith.
snow caught in umbellifer inflorescences
teasels in the snow
wintry mosses
roe deer on the hill
Wednesday, 27 December 2017
Saturday, 23 December 2017
Winter on Calton Hill
(You can browse my other posts about Calton Hill here).
Friday, 22 December 2017
Jane - a film review
Film director
Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee
research challenged the male-dominated scientific consensus of her time
and changed our ways of thinking about primates. The film draws from over 100 hours of never-before-seen footage from the National Geographic archives, mostly shot by Goodall's then husband Hugo van Lawick.
The film follows Goodall in her early career, when she set out to study chimpanzees in Gombe without any scientific training. She had been taken on byLouis Leakey who specifically wanted someone who didn't have academic preconceptions about primates.
We see how patience and diligence helped Goodall to become accepted by the chimpanzees which allowed her to study aspects of their lives never seen before - such as their ability to make simple tools, their caring relationships with their families and their warfare when provoked. There are some wonderful clips of chimps stealing food, playing together and grooming each other.
It's a fascinating film for anyone interested in Goodall and her ground breaking research with chimpanzees.
Jane is showing at Edinburgh Filmhouse until Sunday 24 December.
Oh Christmas Tree!
We took delivery of our Christmas tree today. You may remember a few weeks ago that we chose this tree from several options in Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden
So now it's in the corner of our living room and has been decorated
The decorations are an eclectic mix of gifts, ornaments I've had since I was a teenager and broken jewellery! Odd or slightly damaged earrings make wonderful baubles and unwanted shiny necklaces make wonderful alternatives to tinsel!
After Christmas we'll give the tree back to Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum and we may well get the same tree back for next year!
Here's an interesting article from the Woodland Trust about choosing an environmentally friendly tree.
After Christmas we'll give the tree back to Crafty Green Boyfriend's Mum and we may well get the same tree back for next year!
Here's an interesting article from the Woodland Trust about choosing an environmentally friendly tree.
Wednesday, 20 December 2017
Trophy Film Review
A sobering, and often difficult to watch, documentary, Trophy examines the interconnectedness of industrial scale big-game hunting,
breeding, and wildlife conservation in the U.S. and Africa to show the
complex consequences of treating animals as commodities. Interviewing animal breeders, hunt organisers, ecologists and wildlife rangers, the film asks such important questions as:
As Africa’s most iconic animals continue to disappear, can the controversial practices of hunting and breeding actually help to increase the populations?
Can assigning economic value to an animal help to conserve it?
What gives humans the right to own animals and to decide whether they live or die?
And is there any real future for a “natural” world in our rapidly developing, capitalist world?
The film is given a 15 certificate for its release in the UK with 'strong language' being given as the reason for this certificate, overlooking the scenes of hunting and animal corpses that would surely make any caring parent want to keep their children away from the film. Scenes that make the film difficult to watch for anyone who cares about animals and the future of biodiversity on this planet.
However it is worth watching precisely because it asks difficult questions and forces the viewer to see things from an angle they may not want to consider.
One focus of the film is on large scale farming of rhinos for their horn, which can be harvested every couple of years giving the rhinos a long life, though whether a truly happy is life is as debateable as whether free range cattle or chickens lead a happy life, or more so as rhinos are still wild creatures whereas cattle and chickens are domesticated. But is it better to have plenty of rhinos living in large fenced off reserves where they are farmed and protected from poaching, or to allow their numbers to decline to zero as it looks like they otherwise will inevitably do?
Hunting is also brought in as away of conserving nature. Allowing wealthy foreigners to pay large sums of money to shoot trophy animals brings in money that can then conserve the wider populations of these animals and the habitats they live in. I can see the logic in this and according to the film there are parts of South Africa that now have larger populations of some wild animals because they are being bred for hunting. However it is horrible to think that this is what we have come to as a society and it is appalling to watch some rich American who thinks that God put animals on the earth so he could shoot them killing a lion. And it's heartbreaking to watch the slow death of a slaughtered elephant or to witness a baby rhino running around crying after it's mother has been killed.
Trophy will screen at Edinburgh Filmhouse on Thursday 21 December.
As Africa’s most iconic animals continue to disappear, can the controversial practices of hunting and breeding actually help to increase the populations?
Can assigning economic value to an animal help to conserve it?
What gives humans the right to own animals and to decide whether they live or die?
And is there any real future for a “natural” world in our rapidly developing, capitalist world?
The film is given a 15 certificate for its release in the UK with 'strong language' being given as the reason for this certificate, overlooking the scenes of hunting and animal corpses that would surely make any caring parent want to keep their children away from the film. Scenes that make the film difficult to watch for anyone who cares about animals and the future of biodiversity on this planet.
However it is worth watching precisely because it asks difficult questions and forces the viewer to see things from an angle they may not want to consider.
One focus of the film is on large scale farming of rhinos for their horn, which can be harvested every couple of years giving the rhinos a long life, though whether a truly happy is life is as debateable as whether free range cattle or chickens lead a happy life, or more so as rhinos are still wild creatures whereas cattle and chickens are domesticated. But is it better to have plenty of rhinos living in large fenced off reserves where they are farmed and protected from poaching, or to allow their numbers to decline to zero as it looks like they otherwise will inevitably do?
Hunting is also brought in as away of conserving nature. Allowing wealthy foreigners to pay large sums of money to shoot trophy animals brings in money that can then conserve the wider populations of these animals and the habitats they live in. I can see the logic in this and according to the film there are parts of South Africa that now have larger populations of some wild animals because they are being bred for hunting. However it is horrible to think that this is what we have come to as a society and it is appalling to watch some rich American who thinks that God put animals on the earth so he could shoot them killing a lion. And it's heartbreaking to watch the slow death of a slaughtered elephant or to witness a baby rhino running around crying after it's mother has been killed.
Trophy will screen at Edinburgh Filmhouse on Thursday 21 December.
Tuesday, 19 December 2017
ValleyMist Lipbalm
About a year ago, I was asked to review a lipbalm from Valley Mist
- this was very good timing as my current lip balm had almost run out,
and though I'm minimalist about toiletries, a good lip balm is
essential! (You can read my original review here).
A year on and Valley Mist now have a shop on Etsy, which is where I recently bought another 8.5g tube of their Restore lipbalm. The packaging is lovely, made from cardboard and decorated with pretty, natural images.
Most impressively the tube itself is made from recycled card, which is a pleasing change from the ubiquitous plastic. It's sobering to read on their website that Valley Mist were unable to find this type of cardboard packaging in the UK and were forced to ship it in from abroad. Surely in this day and age, UK manufacturers should be producing things like this!
The lipbalm itself is made in the UK and the ingredients are all pure and natural
Cocoa Seed Butter
Organic Sunflower Seed Oil
Organic Beeswax
Mango Seed Butter
Rosehip
with the following essential oils:
Frankincense
Lavender
Geranium
I've been using this lip balm for a year now, and it is easy to apply, smells lovely and is the best lipbalm I've used!
In my original review, Iwondered how well the packaging lasts. I had a slight suspicion that the cardboard might wear a bit before I finish the tube, though it is certainly sturdy enough at the moment. A year on though and the tube is still as sturdy as ever. But after use the packaging is biodegradable, you can even watch videos about the progress of a tube biodegrading - see the Valley Mist Facebook page!
For every 8.5g tube of lipbalm, Valley Mist donate 8.5% of the profits to environmental charities. So this product is good for you and is good for the environment both in terms of reducing waste and in supporting charities.
A year on and Valley Mist now have a shop on Etsy, which is where I recently bought another 8.5g tube of their Restore lipbalm. The packaging is lovely, made from cardboard and decorated with pretty, natural images.
Most impressively the tube itself is made from recycled card, which is a pleasing change from the ubiquitous plastic. It's sobering to read on their website that Valley Mist were unable to find this type of cardboard packaging in the UK and were forced to ship it in from abroad. Surely in this day and age, UK manufacturers should be producing things like this!
Cocoa Seed Butter
Organic Sunflower Seed Oil
Organic Beeswax
Mango Seed Butter
Rosehip
with the following essential oils:
Frankincense
Lavender
Geranium
I've been using this lip balm for a year now, and it is easy to apply, smells lovely and is the best lipbalm I've used!
In my original review, Iwondered how well the packaging lasts. I had a slight suspicion that the cardboard might wear a bit before I finish the tube, though it is certainly sturdy enough at the moment. A year on though and the tube is still as sturdy as ever. But after use the packaging is biodegradable, you can even watch videos about the progress of a tube biodegrading - see the Valley Mist Facebook page!
For every 8.5g tube of lipbalm, Valley Mist donate 8.5% of the profits to environmental charities. So this product is good for you and is good for the environment both in terms of reducing waste and in supporting charities.
Saturday, 16 December 2017
Winter Robins
It's very wintry today! Lovely to see the snow speckled Pentland Hills from Arthur's Seat
We met a couple of friendly robins
Well they were friendly to us, but less friendly to each other, as they were shouting at each other and chasing each other, robins (both make and female) defend territories through the winter! One of the robins took time out from defending its territory to pose nicely for its portrait
We met a couple of friendly robins
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