Another felt bookmark - this time with added lace and beads

After the success of my first felt bookmarks (see this post) I had the idea of using some scraps of lace and some beads to decorate the next bookmark and this is how it turned out

This bookmark is made from the final piece of felt from the same square I used to make the two original pink bookmarks. Again it's just one piece of felt, as this felt is relatively thick and robust. So this is an ideal bookmark if you don't like too much thickness between the pages of your book!

This bookmark is now in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop, you can see it here.

Goblin by Ever Dundas

Goblin is an outcast girl growing up in London during World War Two. She witnesses a brutal and shocking event that pushes her into creating and living in her own imaginary world. She gathers a menagerie around her, made up of real animals (including Groo the cat who grooms all the other animals, and the very characterful Corporal Pig) and invented creatures (including Monsta, created from bits and pieces and brought to life with Goblin's blood).


Goblin wanders London, using the fact that she looks like a boy (and allowing people to think she is a boy!) to get away with things that girls back then couldn't get away with.

She runs away to the circus where she finds adoptive parents and a community of misfits who she (most of the time) fits in with. She travels Europe with the circus, having relationships with men and women (she's refreshingly matter of fact about her bisexuality) and settles in Venice, where she hopes eventually to be reunited with her brother who she hasn't seen since childhood.

In a parallel story running through the novel, Goblin now old, is working in a library in Edinburgh and trying to avoid confronting the upsetting trauma from her childhood.

Will Goblin find her brother? Will she be able to give up her imaginary world and learn to live fully in the real world? Will she be able to confront and come to terms with her trauma?

This is a wonderfully imaginative and beautifully written debut novel.

Goblin by Ever Dundas published by Saraband.

Signs of Spring

There really are a lot of snowdrops in Craiglockart Dell (by the Water of Leith) at the moment, morethan in previous years it seems to me

The hazel catkins are also putting on a wonderful display and the tiny red female flowers are also out, can you see one in this photo?

I smelt this patch of wild garlicc before I saw it!

and  this tree trunk looks very autumnal covered with fungi - not sure on the species here, I thought hairy stereum at first but I'm not sure. If you can identify this fungus, let me know in the comments!

The birds were singing too, it was particularly nice to hear the loud repetitive song of the song thrush and the slow melancholy song of the mistle thrush.

For Nature Notes.

Weekend Birds

Very mixed weather  today and most of the rain seemed to fall while we were out walking! The shelduck at Cramond didn't seem to mind too much though

There were plenty of other birds at Cramond too including good numbers of  lapwings and curlew, with a small flock of geese (probably pink footed geese) flying over. 

By the time we'd got to the fields at Silverknowes the sun was out again and we were delighted to see so many curlews and oystercatchers

Plenty of sheep in the fields too, they're only there some of the time, I think they're taken to other fields sometimes.

The light was lovely at this point in the walk and this curlew posed beautifully for us

Thanks Crafty Green Boyfriend for these photos!

Plastic Free Friday

 

 image from Free Images. 

The crisis of plastic pollution that is affecting our waterways and oceans is big news at the minute. Many supermarkets are pledging to reduce their plastic use while others are digging their heels in. The Queen has pledged to make Buckingham Palace and the Royal Estates plastic free and BBC are going to ban single use plastics by 2020.

This article here is excellent in teasing out some of the complications round the issue - for example, some foods, such as cucumbers, keep much better when wrapped in plastic, so the use of plastic here reduces food waste. (On the other hand, in my own experience most foods keep just as well without plastic and mushrooms really shouldn't be kept in plastic - I really can't understand the stores that insist on packaging mushrooms in plastic punnets.) Part of the secret though is to buy the food you need when you need it, rather than buying fruit and vegetables in bulk (though this depends on you living or working close to good grocery stores). Also take your own reuseable carrier bags and produce bags or refuse produce bags at all where possible.

What is undeniable however is that plastic waste is compromising the health of our riverine and marine environments.

As part of a response to this Friends of the Earth Scotland have started Plastic Free Fridays! They are asking people to sign this pledge to reduce their use of plastics and to completely avoid single use plastics on Fridays.

And to help you, they have compiled a list of ten top tips to reduce plastic use.

My additional top tips

Have a few reusable carrier bags which you carry round in your handbag so you always have one with you to avoid picking up any plastic carriers (but avoid the temptation to acquire loads of reusable bags, they use more energy in their production than plastic bags)

Get refills on products where possible (New Leaf in Edinburgh offers a brilliant  refill service for a number of products including washing up liquid and shampoo. Just take along a bottle and fill it up with the product you need! You save money that way and your bottle doesn't need to be the same brand as the product in store!)

Do you have any top tips for reducing plastic use? Share them in the comments section!

Trees in Shadow

It's a lovely winters day today with beautiful blue skies and low sun creating wonderful shadows of the trees in the Meadows area of Edinburgh. A flock of 30 redwings was flying around in the trees, lovely to see so many, they're not as reliable a winter sight in this part of town as they used to be.

The trees in the Meadows aren't going anywhere as far as I know but then these days you turn your back for a minute and suddenly a whole load of trees are felled.

Sheffield in England has been notorious for this recently, as the council there entered into a road maintenance contract that involved removed huge numbers of mature trees from the city's streets. There's been a huge outcry on social media and in the city itself with many people decorating the trees and holding demonstrations. You'd think that the message would reach Sheffield Council and councils across the country. But no, Sheffield council continues to fell its trees, currently people are trying to prevent the felling of a rare elm tree (rare because it is resistant to Dutch elm disease and valuable also as it is a home to the rare white letter hairstreak butterfly.) To find out more or join in the campaign to save Sheffield's remaining street trees visit the Sheffield Tree Action website.

Meanwhile Edinburgh has jumped on the bandwagon of chopping down healthy trees - the trees outside the Cathedral on Picardy Place have all been felled, almost before the completion of the consultation on traffic management in the area. So trees are lost  to improve the area for cars, making the place look like a concrete wasteland and ruining the environment for pedestrians and cyclists, not to mention the birds that lived in the trees.

Plus the controversial redevelopment of Edinburgh's Meadowbank Stadium includes plans to remove the beautiful healthy trees at the front of the current stadium. You can find out more about the protest group here and sign the petition to save the trees here. There will be two public meetings about the plans, you can find out more here.

One of the problems can be that trees sometimes seem to be felled almost secretly, or the felling plans are under the radar or the maps showing the proposed development can be difficult to interpret in terms of how they affect the trees in the area. You almost need to be able to keep one step ahead of the council's planning department, which is tricky to say the least.

Urban trees are valuable for many reasons. Trees in our towns and cities help to cool the air, reduce wind speeds and provide shade, which makes the environment more pleasant. Trees help to protect soils and support urban wildlife. Urban trees can also reduce air pollution and relieve stress.You can find out more about the benefits of urban trees here.

So wherever you are, stay vigilant and stand up when you can for your local trees.

tanka

dark clouds
from one horizon
to the other -
strange how quickly
we forget our joy

**

previously published on Lyrical Passion Poetry. 

meanwhile for those of a more romantic disposition, I've posted my poem Admired over on my Shapeshifting Green blog, you can read it here.