Poet Laureate of the Forest Cafe Free Shop

The Forest Cafe is a long standing part of Edinburgh's alternative community. In it's first incarnation it was housed in a tenement in Forest Road and had a wonderful back room cafe which hosted the Golden Hour (a monthly evening of poetry, stories, music and cartoons were I once gave a poetry reading).

The Forest Cafe now is at Tollcross (you can see photos of this cafe in this blog post about the Quiet Forest Visual Poetry exhibition I was part of). The cafe serves a selection of vegetarian and vegan foods and hosts events and a free shop.

I'm delighted that I've been chosen as the first 'Poet Laureate of the Forest Cafe Free Shop' a week long role which will see me holding a writing workshop and a reading where I will talk about the free shop, read short stories and poetry and people who've been along to the workshop will also read poetry. I will also be in the cafe for large parts of the week, writing poetry, helping out in the cafe and organising the free shop (and possibly sneaking poetry into some of the items in the free shop!).

My poet laureateship will last from Tuesday 6 November to Monday 12 November. The writing workshop will be at 3pm Sunday 11 November (the Facebook event is here) and the poetry reading will be at 4pm Monday 12 November (the Facebook event is here). Feel free to come along to either of those events if you can and if you're around Tollcross any time that week feel free to pop in and see if I'm around!

Bats in the Dells

This morning I joined Charlotte of Water of Leith Conservation Trust and Caroline of City of Edinburgh Council to walk along part of the river and survey the bat boxes which are positioned on several of the trees along the walkway. Caroline is licensed to handle bats, they're protected species so should not be disturbed at all without a licence.

First we had to find the bat boxes, some of which were more hidden away than others. Caroline then climbed into the trees to examine the boxes and clean them out

Several bat boxes contained lots of bat poo indicating that the box has been used recently, two contained birds nests and one contained a dead adult blue tit. It was only when we got to the final box though that we found bats, six pipistrelle bats to be exact. Caroline brought one of them down to show us - isn't it adorable!

She then gave it a quick health check, checking that it didn't have mites and then put it back into the box.

Although bats are slowing down at this time of year and will soon be hibernating, October is their mating season, the males will soon abandon the females who won't give birth until June (you can read more about the life cycle of bats here on the Bat Conservation Trust website).

I've been on several bat walks in Edinburgh, including a couple along the Water of Leith before but this is the first time in a very long time that I've actually been this close to one of these lovely animals.

For Nature Notes. 

haiku

first frost -

trees rain 

leaves

Autumnal Sunshine at Cammo

It's very cold today but otherwise beautiful weather, blue skies and sunshine, and no wind. We had a lovely walk through the fields at Cammo (some of which are sadly soon to disappear under houses)

There were plenty of birds in the fields and hedges including yellowhammer and tree sparrow and these stock doves

We then walked round Cammo Country Park which was remarkably free of mud, it's usually the muddiest place in Edinburgh but this year has been worryingly free of rain. The autumn colours are wonderful

 Plenty of birds here too including good numbers of redwings and fieldfares, I was slightly worried beforehand that we would be too early to see many of these two species of winter visiting thrushes, but I was delighted to be proven wrong. It was difficult to get photos as they were all flying around so much but here's one of the redwings

Lovely also to see this goldcrest 

 Lots of lovely Shadows for Shadow Shot Sunday

(see more shadows on my Shapeshifting Green Blog here).

The Cultural Inheritance of my Hypothetical Granddaughter

Yellow butterflies drink salt from your tears,
drain your colours to monochrome.

Silence white margins your words
to endless winter.

Stillness so deep you can hear clouds
transmute to diamonds.

Check your shoes for black scorpions –
belief in Armageddon is self-fulfilling.

An end to all colour.



Previously published in The Journal and first posted on this blog in 2008. 

I just posted a poem and accompanying collage over on my Shapeshifting Green blog - you can see it here.

Hoppy Rabbit and Hare Thursday!

It's National Mammal Week! This event is organised by the Mammal Society to celebrate mammals and raise awareness of the issues they face in Great Britain. You can find out more here.

As many people reading this blog will know, we used to have a pet rabbit (Anya) so I am particularly happy to see that today has been chosen by the Mammal Society as Rabbit and Hare Thursday.

Although rabbits are a very common sight in Scotland they are not native, they were introduced here by the Romans (though stories vary about exactly when and how they were introduced). They have become naturalised and are an important prey species for many mammals and birds of prey. They seem to be less common at the moment than they were a few years ago, we certainly don't see as many rabbits in and around Edinburgh as we used to.

The brown hare was introduced to the country at about the same time as the rabbit. This means that only the mountain hare is native to the British Isles. This is a beautiful animal but is culled regularly because it conflicts with grouse moor management, this is totally unacceptable and unneccessary. Read more about the appalling mountain hare cull here.

And here's a photo of Anya, resting on her favourite rug - she was a very beautiful rabbit!

 

Autumn in the Dells

 autumn wind -

a river of leaves 

through the woods

For Nature Notes.