Mute Swans on the Cam by Jan Harris

 

Several years ago now, I published four of Jan Harris' poems on Bolts of Silk, the poetry journal I used to edit (you can read her poems here). So I was delighted when she asked me to review her collection Mute Swans on the Cam. 

This is a beautiful book of poetry about birds and landscape and our relationship with nature. 

Starting with the title poem, this book is full of closely observed, evocative descriptions, for example mute swans that

"... skid to a halt, suddenly gawky as ducklings / webbed feet all a-kilter"

while in Multilingual: "a skylark stretches air into cascades of song"

and many poems show birds adapting to a world that has been changed by human activity, such as the Peregrine Falcons that:

"roost above the traffic's growl,

an eyrie that would grace a mountainside

roofed by orange glow,

the baffled stars beyond,

enduring."

 

Other poems illustrate how some changes are happening too quickly for nature to adapt:  

"A European common frog

drawn here by your birth pool's scent 

to find houses, concrete paths"

 

from Frog in my greenhouse

Memories of Swifts starts with rapturous descriptions of those (my favourite) birds and ends with a meditation on their decline, driven by the decline in insects. 

Although I've focussed on the natural history element of the book, people (who arguably are part of nature, though we so often don't seem to behave as though we are) also populate many of the poems: for example farmers, colliers and others.

A number of poems very specifically address the extinction crisis that we humans are driving (including Earth Summit, The Bramble Cay Melonmys and Eva homosapiens ssp brokenheart). I defy anyone to read those three poems without finding a tear in your eye. 

It's not all doom and gloom. For example  Small Song of Renewal celebrates an abandoned coal mine that is now returning to nature. However, the overall focus on what we risk losing is entirely appropriate given the times we live in.

This collection will make the reader meditate on the beauty of nature and how we need to start to protect it before it's too late. 

Mute Swans on the Cam by Jan Harris published by Oversteps Books (2020). You can buy the book at this link. 

Disclaimer: I was sent a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

 

Two more cemeteries in Edinburgh

 This week, I continued my wildlife survey of Edinburgh's cemeteries by visiting two cemeteries outside the centre of the city. On Monday I visited Morningside cemetery. 

This is a wide open cemetery, with some lovely trees, including some beautiful silver birches, which look particularly fine at the moment 

This is a cemetery that is rich in fungi at this time of the year, including this collared earthstar 

and this, which after a bit of research, I found out is a parrot waxcap - I never realised before that they could be so green!

 In fact Morningside Cemetery has so many waxcaps, like the snowy waxcap and yellow waxcap below - that it woulc almost be considered to be a waxcap grassland. Plantlife (the charity for plants and fungi in the UK) is currently running Waxcap Watch, which encourages people to get involved in recording these amazing fungi.

As in many cemeteries in Edinburgh, ladybirds gather here to hibernate, choosing the gravestones under trees. These orange ladybirds look very cosy

and I couldn't count how many pine and two spot ladybirds had hidden themselves away here 

On Thursday I continued my survey by visiting Comely Bank Cemetery, near the city's Western General Hospital. This cemetery has a good number of mature trees 

and a good variety of  of fungi including these puff balls

and these parrot waxcaps 

There were ladybirds and other invertebrates on many of the gravestones, including this rotund harvestman (that's my own translation of its scientific name Leiobunum rotundum, I'm not sure whether it actually has a common name)

Snow Flake Christmas Card

I'm continuing to use up the items from the goodie bag I received, earlier this year, from East Lothian Creative Club! Actually I made this card back in January but am only sharing it now as it's a Christmas card. (Yes, if you make your own Christmas cards, now is a good time to start, if you haven't already!)

The snowflake in the card comes from the goodie bag and the rest of the materials come from my stash of upcycled and second hand items (the green circle in the middle has seasonal greetings written on it, which you may not be able to see in the photo)

 

 You can see all the contents of the goodie bag here.

You can see the other craft projects that I've made using items from the goodie bag by following the links below: 

Spring greetings card. 

Handmade gift bag.

Two Wooded Cemeteries in Edinburgh

 I'm continuing my wildlife survey of all Edinburgh Council's cemeteries. My survey results and reports will feed into the new management plans that need to be put together for the cemeteries by the end of the financial year. 

Yesterday, I blogged about two of Edinburgh's less well known historical cemeteries. Today I'm blogging about two of our city's wooded cemeteries. 

Warriston Cemetery is probably the largest cemetery in Edinburgh and in parts is very overgrown (though the eternally enthusiastic Friends Group seem determined to cut the vegetation back further than it needs to be). It is a fascinating place to explore (and risk getting lost in!). I made my third visit there last week as part of my survey and here are some photos from that trip:

Warriston is well known for its wildlife, including good numbers of ladybirds. The ladybirds are starting to hibernate just now and can sometimes be found congregating on the gravestones, like these orange ladybirds

and these pine ladybirds 

The photo below shows a Harlequin ladybird (an invasive species here in the UK and one that occurs in a variety of patterns) and a pine ladybird, which gives you an idea of the size difference! 

Later in the week, I visited Newington Cemetery, which I had previously only seen from the bus. It's a lovely, wooded graveyard, with one part specifically managed for wildlife.

and a magnificent horse chestnut tree in the centre, which was looking stunning in the autumnal  sunlight (the tree behind the chestnut is a Scots pine)

I enjoyed walking round Newington Cemetery so much that I took Crafty Green Boyfriend there on Saturday. We were fascinated by this garden orb spider who was guarding her egg sac

Two Historic Cemeteries in Edinburgh

 I'm continuing my wildlife surveys of the cemeteries owned by Edinburgh Council (and falling a little behind in blogging about them!). I've recently visited two small historic cemeteries outside the centre of town. The first of these was Corstorphine Parish cemetery, which is most famous for the Corstorphine sycamore that stands at its gate. 

This tree is one of only a very few individuals of a rare subspecies of sycamore known as the Corstorphine sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus corstorphinensis). It does not produce seeds and can only be propagated from cuttings. It's a descendent of the original Corstorphine sycamore that stood near the doocot (dovecot) in Corstorphine village, which was lost in a storm in 1998. My poem Corstorphine Sycamore (which you can read here) tells a tale of the history attached to this tree. 

Corstorphine Parish Kirkyard is a nicely kept historical graveyard with some nice trees.

with a lovely splash of autumn colour from the fallen leaves of a Virginia creeper. 

and a spooky touch from the lace weaver spiders (as a Facebook friend said, it looks like a wee ghost!

Today I visited Dalmeny Kirkyard, which is in the village of Dalmeny to the north west of Edinburgh. Dalmeny Kirk dates back to the 12th Century and is a beautiful building 

there are some wonderful old gravestones in this cemetery, including this one 

Many of the gravestones are covered in mosses and lichens, the more I looked, the more fascinating lichens I found, including this one, which I can't identify

and this beautiful array of Xanthoria parietina on a fallen twig 

The Dragonfly Diaries by Ruary Mackenzie Dodds

 

  This is the inspiring and fascinating story of how the author created Europe's first dragonfly sanctuary. Outlining the challenges of creating suitable habitat and renovating buildings to become a museum and visitor centre, along with the changing fortunes of the whole enterprise this is an engrossing read. 

The focus is often more on the challenges of creating the sanctuary rather than on the dragonflies themselves and the diary format may not be the most useful for everyone. However, it is well worth reading if you are at all interested in nature conservation and there are plenty of detailed observations of nature alongside the detailed outlines of building ponds. 

The author has been a great ambassador for dragonflies and the dragonfly sanctuary in its various incarnations has been a vital part of conservation in the UK.

 The Dragonfly Diaries by Ruary MacKenzie Dodds published by Saraband (2014)

Saughton Cemetery

 I'm continuing my wildlife surveys of Edinburgh's cemeteries. On Friday I visited Saughton Cemetery alongside the Water of Leith.

This is a lovely cemetery, with plenty of mature trees.

 

It was very cold on Friday and the cemetery felt very autumnal

Some of the trees are rich in lichens like this Xanthoria parietina (can you see the red spider mite in the middle of the lichen there?

and there are plenty of fungi in the grass, including this yellow waxcap

As is the case in most cemeteries that have good numbers of mature trees, there were plenty of ladybirds including these orange ladybirds that seem to have found a nice spot for their winter hibernation

Today I was further along the Water of Leith, carrying out my weekly patrol of Craiglockart and Colinton Dells where the hornbeam trees are looking at their autumnal best