Sunny moss

Moss on the sea wall at the John Muir Walkway, Musselburgh looking across to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.

and delighted to have a one line haiku in the current issue of A Hundred Gourds.

Small Business Saturday

I always like to support small independent local shops where possible. So I was very interested to find that today is Small Business Saturday UK - a grassroots campaign that highlights small business success and encourages people to support local shops and small businesses in their area. 

Small businesses often offer specialised services and unusual products that are difficult to source from larger chains. Small businesses also invest a greater proportion of their profits back into the local community (rather than larger companies where the profits tend to go to the head office of the company). Shopping locally also cuts down on the carbon footprint of your weekly shop.


In addition to these benefits,small businesses also add to the sense of community in their local areas. 
 

Recent research, commissioned by American Express (founder of Small Business Saturday) shows that small shops across the country provide £537million worth of added-value services, going above and beyond for their customers and communities. These services include checking in on elderly and vulnerable neighbours, giving advice on personal matters and sourcing bespoke items.

The research shows that areas with more small independent shops also have a greater sense of community. Here are some selected findings from the research:

* People in these areas are twice as likely to say "hello" to people on their high street and twice as likely to chat to someone they do not know, compared to people in areas with fewer independent shops. 
* Sixty four per cent of shoppers in areas with a large number of small independent shops describe their local high street as the ‘heart of their community' (vs. 17 per cent in other areas).

* Living in an area that ‘feels friendly' (59 per cent) and ‘where there are familiar faces in the local area' (45 per cent) are considered amongst the most important in terms of generating a sense of wellbeing in a community.

So how about making a point of shopping in local independent shops today? If you want to do more, you can find out here how you can get further involved in Small Business Saturday. 

National Tree Week

As most readers of this blog will have notived, I love trees and woodlands! 

Organised by the Tree Council, National Tree Week (29 November - 7 December 2014) is the UK's annual tree celebration to launch the start of the winter tree planting season.

Every year, organisations across the country support National Tree Week by tunning fun, worthwhile and accessible events, to inspire people to plant trees.

You can find your nearest event here. If you're interested in organising your own event, there are some useful tips here on how to organise successful tree planting activities and you can list your event on the Tree Council website, so that other people can come and join you!

The Tree Council produces a free downloadable poster that event organisers can use to advertise their own National Tree Week events.

Opal Nature meanwhile have a range of inspiring and informative activities to help children learn about trees.

So why not get involved to celebrate the wonder of trees, which bring colour to our landscapes and offer homes for so many of the birds and animals that we love. 

As ever, red text takes you to other pages where you can find out more.

I Don't Know I said by Matthew Savoca

I Don't Know I Said is a road trip of a book, much in the style of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Nothing much happens, the two main characters spend most of the book wandering around wondering what they're going to do with their lives. I Don't Know I said is the most common line in the book, though I didn't count how many times it occurred.

What I loved about this book is that although it is in no way deliberately an environmental book, the two main characters are trying most of the time to live in environmentally friendly ways. They look for ethical restaurants that offer vegetarian options, they're interested in sustainable agriculture, they talk about a museum of recycled art and in other ways think about and live out environmental principles. But they don't make a big deal about it, it's just the way it is. I think it's important that environmental ways of living are mainstreamed in literature in this way (though this isn't in iteself a mainstream book by any way of looking at it!).

Worth reading, particularly if you're a fan of Kerouac.

I Don't Know I Said by Matthew Savoca published by Publishing Genius Press

A road lined with fungi

While we were visiting my parents we were amazed to discover so many fungi! One of the streets near their house had an amazing array of fungi all along its grass verges and even on the town's main street, we found a tree with fungi and ferns growing in abundance.

I've tried to identify all the fungi, but as ever, if you feel I've got my identification wrong, please let me know in the comments section.

 yellow wax cap (above and below)

 this one (above) looks to me like jelly antler fungus, but it's growing on grass under a deciduous tree and it's supposed to grow under conifers in woodland, so it looks like my identification here is wrong - any ideas?

 common funnel fungus

 I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to identify this to species level, but it's a bonnet / bell cap toadstool of some sort. This was growing on a tree on the main road. I've not identified the fern either, but that should be easier.

Fairy parasol

lilac bonnet (or rosy bonnet)

and finally this wonderful specimen

as soon as I saw it I thought 'ballerina' which is another name for the pink waxcap, but i had my doubts about that as it is a) pink and b) not very common. However I then found out there is a white form of the pink waxcap so it could be. Caroline Gill suggested on facebook that it might be a snowy waxcap, so that's another possibility. A lovely waxcap anyway.



Please note I don't know anything about whether any of these fungi are edible. If you want to find out about foraging for fungi, please ask a local expert.

Cats against greenfield developments

We've just returned from a few days visiting my parents near Salford, Manchester. We had a lovely few days, but one of the negatives was seeing how much of the greenspace near my parents' house is threatened with development.

I know people need places to live and new houses need to be built but in the centre of the town where my parent's live is a shopping precinct with numerous empty shop units plus a large supermarket whose owners are thinking of selling half their floorspace they're so unsuccessful and what is happening next to this? They're building a huge new area of retail....... 

So it seems doubly sad that Hill Top Moss (the highest point in Salford and part of Blackleach Country Park) is threatened by plans to build 60 houses here. Local campaigners feel they are being bribed by promises of a local sports development that would be paid for by the sale of the land. (There's also a rumour that it might not actually be housing that's built there but another supermarket, but that is only a rumour) . 

Plus there should be a clue in the name, as a Moss, it's wet ground, prone to flooding and waterlogging, not an ideal place to build anyway..... It's good to see that there's a campaign to prevent this inappropriate development (though there doesn't seem to be a website for it).

Even the local cats have joined the protest. Fluffy told us that she is opposing the development because it would deprive her of a place to play and hunt voles and mice.

Young animals at Gorgie Farm

Crafty Green Boyfriend and I popped over to Gorgie Farm today and were delighted to see the young piglets

they're very active at the minute and have such lovely curly tails

The farm also has some tiny new pedigree Dorset Poll lambs, which are carefully being looked after by the adult sheep

The farm is looking for names for these new arrivals and you can nominate names on their Facebook page.