Second Hand September

Recently there has been a lot of publicity about the negative environmental impact of the fashion industry (for example, here is just one article).  Many people buy new clothes every season, which causes problems including pollution (from the production processes and from microfibres being shed from synthetic fabrics during the wash) and waste (from clothing thrown away after being worn for only one season or even one event or one selfie). 

One of the best ways to reduce your fashion footprint is to shop second hand where you can. (This is easy in Edinburgh, a city with many excellent second hand shops, but can be trickier in some places and was  more difficult during lockdown with all the second hand shops being closed, though it is possible to buy second hand clothes online). 

I buy all my clothes second hand (apart from underwear and some footwear). I used to always buy shoes new until I found that shoe shops were no longer stocking shoes I liked, so now I buy second hand shoes, except for my hiking boots which I always buy new. 

The great thing about browsing second hand shops is that you never know what you're going to find! I've found smart business jackets, hippy style skirts, casual long sleeved t-shirts and goth glamour in the over 30 years I've been shopping second hand. Here's the outfit I posted recently for my Pollution is Pants post back in April

Second Hand September is all about celebrating second hand clothing! Can you commit, for the whole month, to buying only second hand clothes online or in your local second hand shop? And don't forget to donate your pre-loved items! Find out more about Second Hand September here.

Finally, here are some other ways to reduce the impact of your own clothing. Here are just a few:

• Avoid fabrics with a high environmental footprint, such as non-organic cotton, leather and synthetic fibres

• Choose organic cotton and other natural fabrics that are produced without toxic chemicals

• Choose brands that are taking steps to reduce their environmental impact

• Wash your clothes less often and only at 30 degrees

• Buy less, choose well and make it last

   

   

Early Autumn in Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens

 Yesterday, Crafty Green Boyfriend and I had a lovely visit to Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens. ((You now no longer need to book a ticket to visit the gardens, as the booking system put in place during lockdown has been removed. Though given the high rates of infection across Scotland at the moment, i wouldn't be entirely surprised to see it put back into place in the near future). 

We made friends with this lively grey squirrel

who was feeding on the sunflower seeds that we scattered 

but then suddenly another squirrel arrived, along with two carrion crows 

and our squirrel ran away 

The pictorial meadows (which I first blogged about a month ago, here) are still looking beautiful, with a different selection of flowers in bloom compared to a month ago

and though it's been a poor year for hoverflies overall, there were plenty of hoverflies amongst these flowers, including this batman hoverfly (Myathropa florea)

Plenty of flowers are still in bloom around the gardens too, not just in the pictorial meadows, including autumn crocuses 

and these lovely yellow flowers, some sort of large daisy, but I didn't check what species they were!

 

Rosebay Willow Herb Goes to seed

 I joined Crafty Green Boyfriend for a lunchtime walk round Corstorphine HIll today. The rosebay willow herb is almost all gone to seed now. There's the occasional flower still in bloom

 but mostly there are fields of seed pods

which in some areas are thick with white seeds

and even the spiders webs are full of seeds

I recently blogged (here) about the oak tree on the hill that is covered in galls. We were looking closely at this tree toady and noticed this acorn which is in the process of being turned into a gall by the gall wasp

Finally, it hasn't been a great year for hoverflies this year, so we were particularly pleased to see this Baccha elongata (sorry for the poor photo quality, but it was in the middle of a bramble patch!)

Dancing with Bees by Brigit Strawbridge Howard

 

Subtitled 'a journey back to nature' this is an inspiring account of the author's relationship with nature, specifically bees.  

Howard starts from the point of acknowledging that she had stopped noticing nature. From there she documents how she relearned a love of nature, focussing specifically on bees, and building on that love to develop her knowledge. 

The book discusses issues facing bees, including colony collapse, climate change and invasive species (which can in fact include honey bees, which compete with native bumblebees and other pollinators). Changing land use is another issue that can negatively impact bee populations (writing below of potential changes to agricultural land around Sedgehill in the English county of Wiltshire): 

"If farm buildings are replaced with residential buildings, some of the lingering marshy land in Sedgehill might be drained and paved over, resulting in reduced habitat for the Yellow Loosestrife bee"

Howard is passionate about valuing nature for itself: 

"...it angers me, also, when people talk of 'biodiversity offsetting' as though somehow promising to plant an equal number of trees somewhere else makes it acceptable to destroy old woodlands and the ecosystems that have grown up around and within them."

The book also outlines how to help bees, including recommending some specific plants that bees love, including ivy and comfrey (which is also a great soil enricher, particularly in the form of 'comfrey tea, the making of which is described here.)

The most fascinating and inspiring element of the book though is the author's obvious love of nature and how she uses her curiosity to find out more about what she sees around her. Her close observations of a wool carder bee collecting hairs from the leaves of a lambs' ear plant are beautiful. On another occasion, she shares some of her thoughts when watching a bee: 'why does it stick its legs out like that?' This kind of curiosity is both a great way of engaging with nature, but also a real route into citizen science, which helps map which species are present where and feeds this information into conservation.

Overall, this is an inspiring book, which will make the reader look more closely at bees and consider more deeply the relationship we need to develop with nature if we are all to thrive. 

Dancing with Bees by Brigit Strawbridge Howard published by Chelsea Green Publishing.

Organic September

Organic September is a month-long campaign to raise awareness of the many benefits of organic food and farming, which include: 

Many organic farms are havens for wildlife.

Reduces pollution and is climate friendly.

Higher welfare standards for farmed animals.

Reduced exposure to pesticides (important for our health as well as for insect life)

Find out more on the Soil Association website.  

Do you buy organic products? If so, which are your favourites? If you don't buy organic, why is that?

 

Dr Neil's Garden and Duddingston Common Land

 On Saturday, Crafty Green Boyfriend and I had a lovely day trip. We started in Jock Tamson's Gairden, a new community garden that has grown up on what used to be a relatively open area beside Duddingston Kirk Parish Church. It's now a thriving organic growing area and space for people to explore their spirituality through gardens.  It was very sunny when we visited and several bees and hoverflies were enjoying the flowers, including this buff / white tailed bumblebee

Next to Jock Tamson's Gairden is Dr Neil's Garden, which was first established by Drs Andrew and Nancy Neil in the 1960s and has developed since then into a beautiful garden. Laid out on a hillside the garden is full of lovely little stepped pathways and hidden corners 

 

and has beautiful views over Duddingston Loch 

and Arthur's Seat 

It's also a very shady garden, making it one of our favourite places on a very hot day, though we don't visit very often as it isn't the easiest place to get to from our end of town! 

We then accidentally discovered Duddingston Village Community Land and Duddingston Field, which we had never before known existed. This is a lovely area comprising a community garden (the community land) and an orchard and community woodland (the field).  

On the hill above the Field is a woodland pathway that leads up to join with the main road and path around Arthur's Seat. Given how hot it was though we turned back and walked round the other side of the Field into Dudingston Village for lunch. 

I took loads of photos on Saturday, but accidentally deleted them all. We have a new computer system and I had forgotten that I needed to save my photos in a particular way. Very annoying, but hopefully I will remember in future. And luckily Crafty Green Boyfriend had taken the lovely photos that I've used here.

First Signs of Autumn in North Merchiston Cemetery

Recently, I've started to notice the first signs of autumn! In North Merchiston Cemetery, one of the lime (linden) trees has a few yellowing leaves:

Also in the cemetery, there are some large mushrooms, not for eating, I'm not sure what species they are, and even if they're (edible) large field mushrooms, I'd be wary of eating fungi that's so likely to have been visited by dogs. 

There were several speckled wood butterflies flying around the cemetery, mostly flying far too quickly to be captured on film. This one flew straight towards me but then did its best to hide

and there are some impressive spikes of cuckoo pint, aka lords and ladies