Woodland Walks

On Saturday we had a lovely walk around Blackford Pond (where we saw a Kingfisher, a first for the pond, at least in our experience) and into the Hermitage of Braid. Here are some photos:

The photo above shows Blackford Pond, the photo below shows the Braid Burn, which flows through the Hermitage. 
 

Yesterday, I carried out my weekly patrol, picking litter and recording wildlife along the Water of Leith, where I saw another Kingfisher (not uncommon along the river, but always lovely to see)! Kingfishers rarely pose for my camera, so here's a photo of the area where I saw the Kingfisher. If you look carefully you may be able to see a Grey Heron...

If you click on the image, you should get a larger version. Clue: the heron is in a tree. 
 

The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley

Twelve year old Gussie needs a heart and lung transplant, but doesn't know how long she'll need to wait before she gets the surgery. So she focuses on living and enjoying life as much as she can. She's well-read with an insatiable curiosity in the world around her. She loves spending time with her cats and watching the wildlife around her new home she shared with her Mum in Cornwall. She also wants to find out about her relatives. 

I really enjoyed this book, though I did feel it lost energy and direction about half way through.  

Gussie is a great character, to inspire anyone who is living with uncertainty around health issues. I wasn't sure though what age group this book is written for. Given a main character of age 12, you'd think perhaps the book is written for youngsters of around 10, but it feels too grown up and too slow moving for that age group. However, the style of writing means it doesn't feel like its written for adults, rather as a children's book that adults can also enjoy. 

It's the sequel to The Burying Beetle (which I haven't read) but does stand alone.  

The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley, published (2007) by Luath Press.  

 

Birds and Butterflies on Arthur's Seat

 Yesterday we had a lovely walk around Arthur's Seat. 

Flowers were in bloom everywhere,  this view over the wall down the cliff gives an impression of how rich the blooms are in some places 

 There was Bloody Cranesbill

Rest Harrow  

and lots of Vipers Bugloss

We were impressed by the variety of butterflies we saw. We didn't see many individual butterflies but we did see at least one of each of: Painted Lady 

Read Admiral

Small Tortoiseshell; Small Heath; Ringlet; Meadow Brown and a couple of Whites (too far away to tell whether they were Large or Small Whites). We also saw a Six Spot Burnet Moth

We spent a few minutes watching a very exciting chase between a Kestrel and two Ravens, but weren't able to catch it on camera. 

A Rum Affair by Karl Sabbagh

Subtitled A True Story of Botanical Fraud, this book shines a light on a tale of botanical skulduggery on the Scottish Island of Rum that was never discussed when I was studying Botany in the late 1980s. 

In the 1940s, eminent British botanist John Heslop Harrison proposed that plants on Rum had survived the last Ice Age. But had he in fact cultivated those plants at home and planted them on the island so that he could lead groups of botanising students to find them as if they were native to the island? An amateur botanist, John Raven, believed that he had and set out to investigate.

This book examines this controversy in great detail, including the details of the fraudulent behaviour of Heslop Harrison, the personalities of both Heslop Harrison and Raven and the research carried out by the author. 

As a trained Botanist and fan of the Scottish islands I found the whole story fascinating. I do wonder though whether in fact it is too long and detailed for the more general reader, though the fact that it's written by a non-botanist probably does make it more accessible than it might of been had it been written by a botanist. 

A Rum Affair by Karl Sabbagh, this updated edition published by Birlinn ( 2016)

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Today's Crafty Green Poet Substack post is all about Appreciating Insects, you can read it here.  

Edinburgh Canal Festival

Yesterday we went along to the first of the three events that form this year's Edinburgh Canal Festival, celebrating Edinburgh's Union Canal. The festival is organised by the Fountainbridge Canalside Community Trust, which organises events and activities alongside the canal and surrounding areas. 

I found the festival a little underwhelming this year, but it's always nice to walk along the canal. For some reason I only took one photo that features the canal itself! The photo below is taken from Harrison Park looking over to Polwarth Parish Church

I love this Black Poplar tree on the edge of Harrison Park. The photo below is looking up into the canopy of the Black Poplar

 and this photo shows the fluffy white fruits of the tree, which have fallen into the grass by the side of the canal tow-path

After we had walked along the canal from Harrison Park to the Lochrin Basin, we spent some time sitting in the sunshine listening to excellent local band TrippyTakka, who deserved a much bigger audience than they got yesterday. I posted a couple of photos over on my Shapeshifting Green blog, here.  

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 I'm delighted to have three haiku in A Picnic Sky, the first anthology of haiku from Haiku Girl Summer, edited by Allyson Whipple. You can buy a hardcopy at IngramSpark. An E-Pub version will be available soon.

The Secret World of Twilight by Sally Coulthard

  

You might not think that there's enough to say about twilight to fill a hardback book, but this book is a real gem that will keep you enthralled all the way through. 

As we fill the world with more and more artificial light, twilight becomes more and more precious.Sally Coulthard shows us why, exploring the scientific, ecological and cultural importance of twilight in language that manages to be both straightforward and lyrical. She shares with us wonderful gems of information such as:

"The hawkbit, a dandelion-like wildflower, closes up shop, more often than not with a pollen beetle snugly tucked inside. Come the morning, the petals reopen and the rested beetle can be on its way."

The main narrative of the book is interspersed with the author's twilight diaries.  

I felt I learned a lot while reading this book, but it never feels overburdened by facts and is consistently readable and beautifully written. 

The Secret World of Twilight by Sally Coulthard, published (March 2026) by Head of Zeus (an imprint of Bloomsbury). 

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One of the aspects of twilight explored in the book is the twilight of the deep sea, which is the topic of a fascinating recent article on the Guardian website, which you can read here.  

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My latest post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack is all about the development of larch cones, you can read it here.  

Bank Holiday Butterfly Survey

 Today in Scotland we were given a bank holiday for some reason. I hadn't managed to do a butterfly survey yet this survey week (the survey year starts on 1 April, so this year the survey week starts on Wednesdays) as the weather hadn't been good enough. It was just about good enough this morning, so Crafty Green Boyfriend accompanied me on a survey at Lauriston Farm (Edinburgh's agro-ecology project). We didn't see a huge number of butterflies (two Speckled Woods, one Small Tortoiseshell and four Ringlets) but we enjoyed the walk anyway. The Buttercups are beautiful at the moment

and we enjoyed listening to this Song Thrush singing  

We found this interesting looking (but sadly dead) moth on a pavement, and I've looked it up and it's a Heart and Dart, which I'd never heard of before. 

 It has a very distinctive marking on its head