Peebles

Weekend in Peebles a small town in the Scottish Borders. Tonight we had a wonderful meal at the Prince of India - possibly the best Indian restaurant in Scotland with a wide range of vegetarian dishes. After the meal we went for a walk in the community woodland on Venlaw Hill. It was a wonderful still summer's evening, with blue skies and just a slight chill. Buzzards hovered in the sky, a group of crows were mobbing what we think was a merlin, and robins and blackbirds were singing. There were rabbits everywhere, big fat rabbits that obviously get more to eat than the rabbits that live near Edinburgh Castle!

Crafts from Recycled Flip Flops

Elspeth Murray is a reasonably well known poet in Scotland, but she also has an interest in recycled crafts. Check out her website: http://www.elspethmurray.com/misc.htm to find out about a project that recycles flip flops washed up on Kenyan beaches to make a variety of craft items. It's old news by now in a way but interesting!

haiku - bugs in Malawi

hippos grunt
in the dusk shrouded river -
fireflies flicker.

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sausage flies
squeeze under the door -
one bare light bulb.

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praying mantis
on the back of a chair -
gecko watches.

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hunting spiders
scuttle across the floor -
red flip flops.


bugs for One Deep Breath

Connection

This 'Stay in Touch' card is made from Marimekko designs cut from a catalogue and photos from a review in an old issue of the List magazine.


Connection for Inspire Me Thursday

Wisteria the First Crafty Green Poet Give Away

Wisteria is a small, perfectly formed and beautifully produced booklet, as befits a publication devoted to haiku, senryu and tanka. Read reviews of the publication here and visit the Wisteria blog. I'm offering a copy of the latest issue of Wisteria as a giveaway. If you would like this publication, please leave a comment on this post! Names will be put in a hat in about two weeks and the winner will receive this copy of Wisteria. As a bonus, I'll add in a copy of my own miniscule haiku collection. The package will be quite small and I'm happy to post anywhere!

There's another giveaway on my Alter Ego blog!

Gorgie City Farm

When our rabbit, Anya died, we had some hay, rabbit pellets, emergency foodstuff and alfalfa snacks left over. We dcided to donate all this to the Pet Lodge at Gorgie City Farm, just down the road from us. So today I took everything down and wandered round the farm. They've got horses and goats and chickens in the small fields. In the pet lodge they've got guinea pigs and finches. There is also a lovely little herb garden, organic produce for sale and a nice cafe. It's a lovely rural oasis in the middle of a built up area of town.

Threes

I've been tagged by Na of Shadows and Clouds for the 'three things' meme.


Three jobs I’ve had:
1. Science Teacher
2. Charity fundraiser
3. Charity regional manager (it's a very small charity!)

Three places I’ve lived:
1. Manchester, UK
2. Malindi, Malawi
3. Edinburgh, UK

Three places I’d like to visit which I’ve never been:
1. Norway – got very close having booked a cruise round the fjords for this May but the tour company cancelled the trip!
2. Tuscany, Italy
3. Finland

Three most unforgettable places I’ve been on holiday:
1. Okovango Delta, Botswana
2. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe / Zambia
3. Italy

Three things that bring me comfort:
1. My partner and friends
2. Nature
3. A good armchair

Three of the most memorable books I read last year:
1. The Last Report on the Miracles of Little No Horse - Louise Erdrich
2. Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
3. Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami

Three books that I started because I felt I ought to, but didn’t finish:
1. Demian by Herman Hesse (in German) – I took this to a conference in Italy, as there were Germans there & I wanted to practice German! I’ll try again as Hesse is my favourite writer in German.
2. The Feast of the Goat – Mario Vargas Llosa – don’t like his style.
3. The Redundancy of Courage – Timothy Mo – don’t like his style either

Three songs that give me goosebumps:
1. My Lady’s Story - Anthony and the Johnson’s. (I may have the wrong title here but it’s on the soundtrack of the Italian film The Family Friend)
2. Untitled #4 by Sigur Ros
3. La Voix du Sang - Transglobal Underground

Three loved films from my childhood. I actually very rarely went to the cinema as a child and the only memorable children’s film I saw was:
1. ET
So for number 2 we have the first film that made a huge impression on me which was
2. The Emerald Forest, which was the film that really made me start to take environmentalism seriously.

The last three films I saw are:
1. Water (Deepa Mehta, India)
2. After the Wedding (Susanne Bier Denmark)
3. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Germany)

Three things I didn’t do as a child that I wish I had, though I don’t do regrets as a rule:
1. had a pet
2. played outside more often and more adventurously
3. learned to knit

Three things I’d like to do that I haven’t done yet:
1. have a full poetry collection published
2. teach evening classes
3. review for a national newspaper or major magazine


If you want to join in, please feel free! Leave a comment here so I know where to find your answers!