Thin Places by Kerri ni Dochartaigh

 

This is a mixture of nature writing, memoir and history. Kerri ni Dochartaigh was born in a mixed Protestant-Catholic family in Derry in the middle of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. She lived through traumatic events such as her house being firebombed and lost friends to murder and suicide, and attempted suicide herself. This book shares her personal journey and thoughts on politics from the times of the Troubles to Brexit, which once again pushed Derry into violence. Throughout it all, she turned to nature in wild places and urban green-spaces, to find solace for herself and her brother. When she left Derry to try to make a new life for herself in various places, including Edinburgh, Bristol and rural parts of the Republic of Ireland she found herself always drawn to water.

The book contains some beautiful writing and thoughts about nature, language, culture and belonging.

As someone who is starting to learn Scottish Gaelic, I was particularly interested in her thoughts around nature and the Irish language. As a Protestant she wasn't taught Irish in school and she bemoans 'the loss of the ability to name both the landscape and the creatures we share it with in Irish. Like all Celtic languages, Irish places a great deal of importance on the natural world in its stories and legends.

It's ultimately a book of hope:

Light finds its own places, the spaces for it to take as its own. The black crow of sorrow cannot, will not, keep the light under its sooty wing forever.

I have to admit though, that her habit of circling back on ideas and thoughts, was starting to become tedious for me, much though it probably reflects her own thought processes and much though it has been praised by some reviewers. 

Thin Places by Kerri ni Dochartaigh published by Canongate.

  

Arthur's Seat and Duddingston Loch

For Easter Monday we took a lovely walk along the lower road round Arthur's Seat and down to Duddingston Loch. The weather was beautiful and the gorse was in full bloom

The Norway Maples were also in full bloom, lovely trees when they're in flower 

We went down to the shore of the Loch and met this friendly hybrid Canada-greylag goose 

Of course these days you can't get too friendly with wildfowl given the avian flu pandemic which is still raging. 

We also saw a Pinkfoot Goose which had no feathers around its head, probably because the other geese have attacked it, it's the only Pinkfoot at the Loch (and has been for some time as far as I know). 

We also saw this caddis fly near the loch. When they are larvae, the caddis flies live in the loch and make armour for themselves out of sticks and other materials, but this is what they look like as adults click on it for a closer view!)

We also saw this queen Common Wasp, who sat patiently while Crafty Green Boyfriend took her photo, her markings are quite beautiful.

Happy Easter from Corstorphine HIll

 We had a lovely Easter Saturday walk around Corstorphine Hill yesterday. The weather was beautiful. The trees are starting to come into leaf, but still look quite wintry.

Large parts of the hill are being taken over by Salmonberries, which are very pretty when in flower

but which are very invasive and can easily take over a whole hillside (the bright green leaves in the photo below are all salmonberries). Once the plant gets established, it can prevent other plants from growing.

It does look as though someone (probably the Friends of Corstorphine Hill) are removing a lot of the salmonberries.

Elsewhere on the hill, Lesser Celandines are coming into bloom

They are almost fully in bloom in sunny areas, while it will take a week or so before they'll be fully in bloom in more shaded areas. 

Many of the trees are budding, including this Horse Chestnut tree

So it definitely feels like Spring here!

Happy Easter! 

We Are The Weather Jonathan Safron Foer

 

Subtitled Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast, this claims to be a book about giving up eating animal products, but mostly focuses elsewhere. 

The first section of the book is full of interesting facts and thoughtful insights into the overall planetary crisis.  We are told how in some places, there are so few bees that people are employed to pollinate plants, an appalling situation that shows how out of touch we are with nature. The whole section highlights the need to engage people with the crisis on an emotional level and shows how difficult it is for us to realise the enormity of what we're living through as we're living it. Things are only seen with full clarity with the benefit of hindsight. "We can't read the history we're creating" as Foer has it. 

This section also includes such fascinating topics as:

* how the increased availability of glass mirrors lead to an increase in self portraiture, first person novels and a self centered approach to life,

* how the Mona Lisa only became really renowned outwith art circles after being stolen from the Louvre,

Foer states that the four most impactful things people can do to personally address the climate crisis are to: fly less, drive less, eat less animal produce and have fewer children. He suggests that everyone can start by cutting out animal products at their next meal, and that cutting out all animal products from breakfast and lunch can be a very effective way of reducing your carbon footprint. This is the takeaway message of the book.

After the promising start, the book deteriorates rapidly. It includes several pages of statistics (so much for emotional engagement!) and then a tedious section whee Foer interviews himself at great length about why he hasn't been able to reduce the amount of meat he eats himself, which is where he loses all credibility.  

We Are The Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer, published (2019) by Hamish Hamilton (an imprint of Penguin)

kestrel haiku

high winds -
a kestrel hovers
somehow

**

previously published on Under the Basho.  

**

I have two senryu in Issue 85 of Failed Haiku, you can read the whole issue here. 

Spring in the Dells

 It's been a beautiful morning and I did a patrol along the river for the Water of Leith Trust. Despite the cold, it really does feel like Spring! 

Lesser Celandines are coming into bloom throughout the Dells, this lovely native flower seems to be spreading in these woods, which is great news because, as well as being so beautiful, it offers an early nectar source for insects.

Few flowered leek is also spreading, but, unlike the Lesser Celandine, it is a highly invasive non-native species that often takes over from Wild Garlic (Ramsons). There are parts of the Dells that are still covered in Wild Garlic, but other areas are losing Wild Garlic as the Few Flowered Leek takes hold. In some areas of Scotland, people are foraging Wild Garlic so much that the plant is disappearing. The good news here is that Few Flowered Leek is just as tasty and so can be foraged in the place of Wild Garlic. So, how do you tell the difference? Well, the photo below shows both plants. The Few Flowered Leek is in front, with the narrow leaves and odd looking flowers, the Wild Garlic is in the background with the broader leaves. 

Another flower that you can find at the moment if you know where to look is the larch flower. It's not strictly speaking a flower, but an early stage of the cone. (If you're interested to see how the 'flower' develops into the cone, why not read this post from a few years ago?) The flowers on my favourite larch tree were looking wonderful this morning, all covered in dew. 

There were lots of birds around today, including a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming, the first Chiffchaffs I've heard this year and a Treecreeper in one of the trees in this photo. 

Weekend Walks

We've been walking around some of our local greenspaces this weekend! 

First we walked around North Merchiston Cemetery.The pussy willow is looking beautiful at the moment, here are just a few photos:

The first Lesser Celandines are just coming in to bloom

and the Glory of the Snows is in full bloom

We also visited Saughton Park. The Water of Leith that runs through the park, is currently lined by lush growth of wild leeks (they look superficially similar to Ramsons (Wild Garlic) but have narrower leaves and come into bloom earlier, with flowers that look very different to the ramsons.)

Here's a close up of the wild leeks 

 

This Carrion Crow and Carrion Crow / Hooded Crow Hybrid (on the left) were busily searching the river for food. 

The trees alongside the river are beautifully reflected in the water 

and in the newly established wildlife pond

The daffodils are in full bloom

and we were happy to find a couple of flowers on the larch tree