Wood Foraging in Pictures

I’ve recently installed a woodburning stove in my lounge and I totally love it. So when Daniel said:

Doddsy, wood foraging next week?

I said YES! Daniel is a wood foraging pro:

Back in the day when we worked at Changeworks, I dreamed of getting a stove but most people told me it was a bad idea. Most people, but not Daniel. He had a stove and pointed out how easy (and fun) it was to forage for wood in Edinburgh. Four years later and there we were.

My bow saw was a bit smaller than Daniel’s so it took me a bit longer to cut through the logs:

This was the pile we cut between us in less than an hour:

Daniel suggested bringing a wheelie bin but I only had a wheelie suitcase. I filled it just as it started to rain:

I felt proud of the wood we’d chopped as I walked back through the trees:

But when I got to the streets I suddenly felt a little self conscious. Did people assume I lived in the wild and had decided to return home and all of my worldly belongings were logs?

When I got home I started my first log pile, hurrah!:

My arm ached a little but I loved the experience of cutting my own fuel and being outdoors. Thanks to Daniel, I’ll be foraging again soon and next winter I’ll have the pleasure of burning those logs!

Just in case you were wondering, the wood was already dead and lying on the ground, we just cut it into bits. 

 

Firefly Magazine

There was a big white envelope waiting on the doormat. Inside was my copy of the exciting new children’s magazine Firefly:

It’s a seasonal magazine which includes outdoor activities, puzzles, comics, wildlife, books, craft and cooking. The magazine is aimed at children 5 to 10 years or as the cover says “it’s for families who are wild at heart”.

Flicking through the pages you’ll notice Firefly is visually stunning. I think what makes it special is the contributions from many different illustrators and writers. I was commissioned to write a 2 page nature feature for the magazine and I chose to write about otters:

Why Otters? 

Otters are an animal most children won’t have seen but would like to spot. They’ve got character, they do funny things like pooping on the tops of rocks or tufts of grass so everyone can see where they’ve been. Urban otters are getting much more common so even if you live in a city you won’t be too far from an otter. They’re inclusive but not too common to be ordinary. I’ve tried to spot otters myself a few times so otter spotting is something close to my heart.

The Writing Process

First I found out as much as I could about otters online, in books and by asking people. I interviewed an otter expert (Chris Cathrine from Caledonian Conservation) and I spent time choosing the best bits from everything I learned. The hardest thing I think is condensing all of that research. Which bits stay and which bits go?

I wrote sections in bite sized chunks and gradually and ruthlessly chopped out sections until I was only left with the best. I want to make children laugh or tell them something so weird and wonderful that they would want to tell their friends or family about it. That way they’re much more likely to remember it.

If I used a complicated word I made sure I explained what it meant. I used to write the Dino’s Dynamos Kids Club magazine for Dynamic Earth so that really helped with knowing how to write and plan to communicate science to children. I had a good editor back then so I got told which bits worked and which didn’t. Later I edited the magazine when new writers started writing it so I think that whole process helped me to be objective and to really weed out every word that isn’t necessary.

I included Chris Cathrine’s answer to “What is the funniest thing you’ve ever seen an otter do?” because I knew children would love finding out something like that from an otter expert. I thought about the illustrations we would need to go with the text and made notes and found examples in books so I could send these to the illustrator who was working on my section (Cat O’ Neil).

I spent lots more time rewriting and cutting to get down to the word limit I’d been set.

Help, I can’t think of an otter joke!

I was desperately trying to come up with a good otter joke but hadn’t managed it. I went along to the Edinburgh Literary Salon for a much needed break from writing. It’s a monthly get together for writers and anyone involved in books and publishing. My friend Alan McIntosh was there (I interviewed him on this blog here) and knowing how quick-witted he is I explained I was trying to come up with a good otter joke. Here’s how the rest of the conversation went:

Alan: Tell me about them, where do they live, what are the names for things?

Me: Their homes are holts, their poos are spraints, they eat fish…

Alan: What do you get if you tread on an otter poo?

Me (smile)

Alan: A spraint ankle!

It was perfect, exactly what I was looking for. Any joke about poo is a big hit with children but they also love to learn a new word that they can show off with by using it in a joke. Funny and educational. When you laugh you learn more so massive thanks to Alan for that one!

Finishing

When I finally submitted my feature it included a page of extra ideas, things like a dot to d’otter (otter dot to dot) or having a hidden spraint (otter poo) somewhere in the magazine for children to find. Firefly Editor Hannah Foley liked my ideas. She decided to add an extra page called ‘Otter Fun’ to include the puzzles and extra ideas so now I’ve ended up writing a three page spread on otters. My text went to copy editor Genevieve Herr and she was happy with it, she made some minor changes and that was me done.

It really is amazing to see the magazine in print. I just need to order a copy for my nephews and nieces!

Order your copy of Firefly Magazine on the Firefly website here. Find Firefly Magazine on Twitter and Facebook. 

 

Social Reporting from the Capercaillie Lek

If you live tweet from a bird hide does anyone care? How can you capture nature as and when it’s happening? Can you create a story around something that may or may not even be there?

This Easter I challenged myself to try social reporting from the caperwatch 2013 at RSPB Loch Garten.

Social reporting is about capturing an event from the inside using audio, video and photos.

Caperwatch is about waking up at 4am to see if you can spot a big black turkey like bird dancing, while peering through the window of a little wooden hut on the side of a loch.

The bird I’m talking about is the capercaillie and here’s how I got on: Watch to the video on youtube here

I interviewed Richard Thaxton from the RSPB to ask why we have to get up so early to see the capercaillie dancing, here’s what he said: Watch the video on youtube here

On the way and during the caperwatch I live tweeted some photos, here’s a couple from the car 

We watched the sunrise from the hide, wow!:

This is the osprey EJ, taken through a telescope with my phone on the eyepeice:

Can you spot the red squirrel in this shot?:

But the bird didn’t dance. Does that matter? We also went to see golden eagles but they didn’t fly in:

And we visited the national dolphin centre but we missed the dolphins by an hour:

I didn’t mind and the things we did see were beautiful. Getting up at 4am was worth it just to see the sunrise. Eagles would have been a bonus but mountains were enough.

Life can be a bit like that sometimes, you don’t always find what we’re looking for, things don’t always turn out how you planned but if you didn’t look for things in the first place you’d never see the wonderful things there are to see along the way.

Just wanted to point out the kindest way to watch a capercaillie is in the loch garten hide. The capercaillie are critically endangered and when they dance every day they sometimes just drop dead. Bob till they drop. If you go looking for them in the wild and one sees you it will dance to defend itself. The purpose of dancing (or leking) is to attract a mate and you are not that. You will be wasting the poor birds energy and it could be enough to push that bird over the edge. Please let him save the last dance. 

 

Litter and Dog Poo Films

I’ve been commissioned to make a series of films about litter and dog poo for Greener Leith.

UPDATE: Click on the headlines below to read about this project in the news.

• The Edinburgh Evening News: Leith Pet Owners to Win Prizes for Picking up Dog Mess. 
• The Scottish Sun: Owners’ Treats For Binning Dog Mess
• Deadline News: Dog walkers awarded with treats and trips for cleaning up poo

Leith has a litter and dog poo problem but these films don’t focus on the problem. Behaviour change research shows rewarding people for good behaviour is more effective than fining people for bad so we’re celebrating the positive here in Leith and focusing on the solution.

Watch the local Environmental Wardens present prizes to people who pick up after their dogs and put litter in the bin below. Find out more about the making of after that.

Love Leith 1: Dog owners rewarded for picking up poo on Leith Links (watch it on youtube here):

Love Leith 2: Janet wins a cream tea in the Kirkgate for binning her litter (watch it on youtube here)

Love Leith 3 (Mary picks up after aero the dog and gets a rewardwatch it on youtube here)

Love Leith 4: Shore smoker gets a reward from Mimis for binning litter (watch it on youtube here)

Love Leith Extra: Megan from Little Remis cafe sings praises of pocket ashtrays (watch it on youtube here)

Planning

The idea for the project came from Greener Leith’s Ally Tibbitt, his idea was to reward good behaviour with prizes from local businesses. The idea was so good it won funding from L£ith Decides.

After we secured the funding I approached local businesses to ask them to donate prizes. Mimi’s Bakehouse, A1 Pets and the Haven Cafe were all delighted to take part. We already had tickets coming from the Royal Yatch Britania thanks to Ally so I just needed to pick those up.

I filmed quick thank you clips with each of the local businesses while I was collecting prizes. I also bought some sparkly envelopes to put the prizes in too, to make it like the oscars.

Filming

I spent an afternoon filming with local Environmental Wardens Paul and Kevin. We met up and headed to the litter and dog poo hot spots of Leith. We needed to catch the action when it happened.

We had a problem, what if the dogs we saw just didn’t poo on camera? We kept seeing guide dogs and unfortunately for us guide dog owners don’t have to pick up.

Suddenly I saw a dog squatting in the distance. When the owner went towards it to pick it up I sprinted across Leith links with my camera shouting triumphantly “he’s picking it up!”. That’s him in the first video above. After that they just kept on pooing.

I had some disguises for the wardens to wear and some christmas gear for the Christmas special (see love leith 4 above).

Editing

I loved editing the films – especially timing it so a dog’s mouth opened in time with the woofs in the music composed by Sam Gallagher. The Warden’s had a good senses of humour, it really was a pleasure to work with them.

Afterwards

Since that first afternoon the Wardens have given out a prize every day and they’ve been sending me highly entertaining emails documenting people’s reactions when they’re given a prize.

I’m delighted to be part of this innovative project. You can read more about it on the Greener Leith website here.

 

Mountain Therapy

A couple of weeks ago my sister got married on the banks of Loch Leven in Glencoe. My Mum made the wedding cake, it’s got playmobil on the top! I was a bridesmaid and it was a lovely day.

  

After the wedding I spent time with my family in Fort William and I went to visit a friend on The Isle of Skye. I’ve got a new phone, the Samsung Galaxy Note. It’s a cross between a phone and a tablet. “Is that your phone?, It’s a beast” Is a common response but I love it and it takes great pictures.

So here’s my highland holiday from the Galaxy note (and me).

Ben Nevis

I took these at the bottom of the mountain, can you spot snow on the hills and a yellow dog?:

We took a cable car up Ben Nevis, here’s the view from the top:

Neptune’s Staircase

We visited Neptune’s staircase – eight locks in a row on the Caledonian Canal:

Fort William to Skye

I took the train from Fort William to Mallaig – it’s a famous rail journey and it’s very beautiful but I think the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh journey is even better! I’ve been to Skye a few times but this is the first time I’ve traveled by ferry (speed bonny boat!):

Kinloch Forest Trail

I went a wee walk in a place I discovered when I last visited Skye, the Kinloch Forest Trail.

 

The trail takes you to one of my favourite views on Skye:

After that I hitched to Broadford and caught up with my friend Reuben. We cooked a feast for his friends Laurence and Bridget. We all stayed in a caravan with a wood burning stove and later we enjoyed oatcakes, a cheese selection and a wee dram. It was brilliant.

Knoydart

The next day we went for a drive to see the view over to Knoydart, the closest point to the mainland,:

Sligachan

Then we drove to Sligachan for some magical mountain views.

 

After that we went to the Fairy pools, my friend Tom recently wrote about them here.

The Fairy Pools

This is Bridget and Laurence at the fairy pools:

Bridget makes Firebread Pizza in London and Laurence is an artist in Edinburgh, they were both great.

There was snow on the mountains above. That didn’t stop this group climbing down to get to the pools to do something extraordinary:

I’ve blogged about the joys of wild swimming but there was no way I was taking off multiple layers of thermals and fleeces to enter the icy cold water. I love the carved curves and shapes in the pools. Here’s the icy water pummeling the rocks and splashing up into the air, you can see how it starts to shape the rocks:

Saved By Cheese

After that I went for a walk by myself over the hills. It was a three-mile track from the Fairy Pools car park to Sligachan but it took hours and I had a very strange experience. I’d been steadily climbing uphill for a while and the wind was blowing hard, it was freezing. Suddenly the wind dropped and I felt totally calm. It seemed like a really good idea to lie down so I did.

I didn’t feel cold at all and I decided to have a little sleep. At the same time there seemed to be a voice in my head saying “Don’t sleep, whatever you do don’t sleep!” but I felt so comfy and tired I just ignored it. As I closed my eyes the voice said “Don’t sleep, get up and eat cheese instead!”. At that point I opened my eyes, it seemed like a good alternative. So I got up and ate two slices of cheese I’d saved from my packed lunch as I walked on. Five minutes later I was quite appalled to think I was about to have a sleep on the freezing cold hillside! It started raining and I started singing into the wind just to make sure I stayed wide awake.

Finally the path came near to its end and I recognised the Sligachan mountains. It was very beautiful but I was mighty glad to getting off the freezing hillside and onto the road at last.

Hitching

I hitched back to Broadford with an interesting lady, Dunia. She was a Cullin Fools circus performer, an artist and many other things (as is customary on Skye). She used to live in the city and was a social butterfly – she explained how she would often double book herself. Then she moved to Skye and everything changed. She now enjoys time alone and has been living around Skye for 13 years. She’s just brought a croft with her husband and they’re learning to do everything on the croft from scratch. I chatted to her and by the time we got to Broadford she had decided to start a blog to share her experiences. I’m looking forward to reading it!

Leaving

The next day I got the ferry home, as I walked up the ramp I felt a sinking weight of sadness. Thankfully the ferry ticket man was so cheery he stopped me crying with his smile. I was going to miss Skye. I had a few hours in Mallaig before I got my train to Fort William so I asked a couple of guys where the best place to get a bacon roll and a cup of tea was. They sent me to the Fisherman’s Mission.

The Fisherman’s Mission

The mission was brilliant and really cheap, I spent a few hours there and was surprised to be asked to sign a leaving card. They explained I was one of the last customers at the Mission. It was closing that day due to declining fishing industry. It seemed such a shame. Just near closing time skipper Ewen Nicholson (above) came in for his last supper. He had worn his best suit for the occasion and he asked staff to take a photo. He’d been coming to the mission for 30 years. No one had a camera so in the end I offered. I ended up taking lots of photos of Ewen and having a good chat about his life, fishing and his pet seal. I wrote about him on the Leith Library blog here.

Mallaig to Fort William

I got my train and took more photos from the window, I was quite pleased with this one of the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct (from the Harry Potter Films):

The Slug Allotments

Back in Fort William I walked up the hill in Fort William with my Mum and found some lovely allotments:

 

The Train Home

The next day I got a very early train home to Edinburgh across a misty Rannoch Moor. Deer kept running along beside the train. It was very beautiful. I experimented taking photos of the vegetation passing the lochs and mountains to make streaks.

 

Back in Edinburgh

I’ve found it hard to readjust to a busy life back in the city. I’ve been back just one week but it’s been full on. I had the Reader in Residence induction day and a poetry gig. I filmed and blogged interviews at the launch of book week Scotland and had to rearrange a speaker for this Thursday’s NENgage social media training. I’ve also had three meetings to set up three new freelance projects and I’ve been working at the library.

Don’t get me wrong, all the things I’ve been doing this week have been great but I loved being anonymous in the mountains. I wanted to stay a little longer there.

But life goes on. I’ve vowed to get out on my mountain bike a little more and go walking in the hills at weekends. That way I can maybe get a little mountain therapy all year round.

 

Destination Local: Local Edge

The last day of August marks the end of my two years volunteering for local community website Greener Leith. One of the last things I did as a volunteer was to make a two-minute film pitch for an application to Nesta’s Destination Local. Here’s the film:

Here’s a bit more about the project:

Local Edge will allow users to receive and post geographically relevant news and information on their mobile phones.  It will develop a loyalty card system working with local shops and service providers.  Users who participate in civic activities will also be rewarded with vouchers to spend at local stores.

The good news is the application received a whopping £45,000 of funding from Nesta. There were 10 winners out of 165 organisations who applied so we did really well. You can read about the winners on the Nesta website here.

The brilliant idea for the project came from Greener Leith’s Ally Tibbitt. He submitted the application in partnership with the Broughton Spurtle and ap makers Tigatag. I can’t take any credit for the project idea. I just helped by filming and editing the pitch.

Planning the FIlm

The application was for mobile technology so I wanted to use mobile technology to film and edit the pitch. I wanted to show the genuine nature of the people behind the project and share a sense of place too. Editing 10 minutes of footage down to 2 minutes of story was a real challenge. I also nearly missed the application deadline because it took ages to find the perfect sound track to capture the essence Alan McIntosh. Thankfully I think I found the right intro music eventually (if you’re curious about his essence there’s an interview with him here).

I know the film is a bit rough and ready but it was supposed to be. I’ve enjoyed producing films, podcasts and blogs for Greener Leith over the last two years and I’m glad to be leaving on a positive. You can see all the blog posts I’ve written for Greener Leith here. There are 70 so I don’t expect you to read them all (:

 

Find Your Element on the Isle of Eigg

I’m off to the Isle of Eigg this summer with educators, artists, scientists and writers. It’s for a Speygrian Creative Connections course, you’re welcome to join us. The course runs from Friday 10th to Monday 13th August and costs £99. The fee covers accommodation, food and workshops facilitated by the brilliant poet, musician and photographer Gerry Cambridge and the wonderful writer, broadcaster and lecturer Kenny Taylor. Art workshops are provided by the lovely artist Susan Smith and our top teacher Tania Noble is on hand to make sure everything runs smoothly. Find out more about the facilitators here and read about the Eigg course here.

Last year I took part in a Speygrian Creative Connections Weekend at Duiletter Lodge, Argyle. Here’s how I got on….

This blog post originally featured on the Speygrian website.

The Element

“It’s a bit scary to come to something like this on your own?” I thought as I read the programme. ‘Place based learning, storytelling and poetry with Sam Harrison’, it intrigued me.

I was persuaded to put fear behind me when I read Ken Robinson’s ‘The Element’. Ken states we all have an ‘element’. It’s the place where the thing we enjoy meets the thing we’re really good at. Sadly for many people, friends, family, the education system and modern society squash their element away before it’s even been realised. We learn to fit in with the world’s agenda for our lives and we lose the unique person we were made to be. Ken recommends we seek out those who are acting in their element. These people will help us to discover our element and give us permission to express who we are. I decided the weekend would be a good place to put Ken’s theory into practice. I signed up quick, before I could change my mind.

Glen Strae

I first saw Glen Strae in the moonlight, the snow-capped mountains shimmered on all sides. I couldn’t wait to see it in the morning.

Saturday Solo

I woke up stupidly early (6am) with the cold hard ground bearing into my bones. After unsuccessful attempts to get back to sleep I decided to get up and see those mountains. They were breathtaking.

I left the building and bumped into local farmer Donald. He proudly showed me the sparrows nesting in the barn and all the rosettes the cows and sheep had won that year. I went for a wee wander in the glen and took some photos. My grumpiness lifted as I explored, you can’t beat a little mountain therapy, I remembered who I was and felt at home.

Exploring ‘Sense of Place’

I exhausted my camera battery and headed back to join the group for a much needed cup of tea. After breakfast we started our first optional activity: Exploring ‘Sense of Place’ with Sam Harrison. We met outside and there was Donald the farmer, this time with two highland coo! Sam explained we would be taking them up the Glen to the Sheiling (settlement) for the first time in hundreds of years.

I carefully picked my way along the narrow paths and over streams, far in the distance I saw Donald with two cows on a lead, he was in his element! Suddenly I saw it, the tepee, my old friend. It brought back happy memories of the wilderness adventure last year.

Back in time

Two ragged girls welcome us with a penny whistle duet. A woman left her washing and came over to greet us in Gaelic as we crossed the river. She beckoned us into the tepee.

They explained what it was like to live in the sheiling over the summer, 200 years ago. We learnt about their way of life over a hot cuppa. Later we found out she was Julie, the local primary school teacher. Sam had been working with her pupils to make films re-enacting historical battles in the area.

Story challenge

We split into groups and created our own stories. Our group created the ‘story of the baby and the bog butter’. A tale of how the locals came to bury their butter (something they did do to keep it cool). We shared our stories, hilarity ensued, elements were ignited.

In the afternoon we took a difference course exploring ‘creative ways of getting into place’. We embarked on a journey through the glacial valley, we climbed a drumlin, a mound of earth left by a passing glacier.

Drawing challenge

We headed through some trees to the ‘Faultline Falls’, a hidden gem of a waterfall. Sam encouraged us to choose a section and draw it. Art teacher Alistair Thompson, a longstanding member of the Speygrian network, reminded us there are at least five reasons to draw and only one of them is to produce an attractive picture. I kept this in mind as drew the rushing water with difficulty. I enjoyed the process, it helped me to stop and really look at what the water was doing, it helped me to escape the business of everyday life and listen to nature.

Poetry challenge

After drawing we were challenged to silently write down words we felt described our surroundings. We shared our words as a group and we were challenged to use the words to write a poem. There was no pressure for a masterpiece in ten minutes, whatever you come up with has to be commended for effort.

Here are the groups words:

• Ancient earth
• White skeleton fingers (silver birch)
• Wind swept trees
• Stop
• Wait
• Thunder
• Rushing chasm
• Roar
• Time well spent
• Still reflections

Here is my 10-minute poem:

As I sit beneath the white bone fingers
I think
It’s time well spent

As I look upon the wind-swept trees
I see
It’s ancient earth

As I think beside the rushing chasm
I hear
The thunder roar

As I stop beside the still reflections
I know
My time is now

As we shared I was stuck by the individuality of each person, from the same starting point we produced such different expressions of place. We journeyed back and the group seemed closer, we’d made new and creative connections.

Saturday Evening

After a wonderful meal we retired to the lounge.

The logs crackled on the fire and the accordion came out to play, accompanied by a cardboard box boran. Jean and Douglas gently strummed guitars and Sam rocked the recorder. An impossible task but he really did, his sight reading of Scottish traditional music at triple speed was a wonder to behold, he was in his element.

Brian Cox Challenged

After the music finished a hardcore contingent remained to finish the singleton malt. Here’s a snapshot of the conversation:

Sam: I don’t understand why everyone loves him

Me: But he’s not a minger?

(Everyone laughed and I felt embarrassed! The conversation had previously been intellectual – the scientific accuracy of the wonders of the universe)

Sam: Well put it this way, as a heterosexual male, I wouldn’t want to look like Professor Brian Cox

Me: I think passion and intelligence are attractive

Sam: Right so if you had a choice of Paolo Nutini or Brian Cox to come round for tea, well who would it be?

Me: Brian Cox every time, I’d want a good conversation. I can put on a CD if I want to hear Paulo.

Jean was with me too; Julie was on Paolo (and Sam’s) side. Alistair was sitting on the fence as the five of us continued. I’m all for showing everyday people how fascinatingly beautiful the world is through physics.

David Attenborough Challenged

Another debate forced me to stay awake to defend David Attenborough. The argument – he portrays nature in an unrealistic way, apart from people. In the real world people and nature are not separate. Two intelligent and strongly opinionated men with loader voices then me didn’t give much space for my opinion. They were in their elements. I was trying to argue that if people were there, they’d scare the animals off! To me what David is capturing is that moment of privilege you get when you spot an animal, say an otter, that’s not seen you. You watch it, it’s totally unaware and unaffected, its natural in its element. I wasn’t having much luck. Julie kept piping up that spiders were nature too and Alistair finally came to the rescue with an example of ‘if the Tay beavers lived in Glen strae’. I threw in the towel at 4am.

The morning after

It was sad to say goodbye, I’d miss my fellow debaters and it had been a thought-provoking weekend.

If you like outdoor learning, mountains, creative sharing and optional debates, why not come along to the next Speygrian event on the Isle of Eigg? I’d recommend you search for you element too, you’ll never know where it might take you.

See more photos of the weekend here.

If you enjoyed this post you might like to read about about my wilderness journey on Greener Leith, the SpeyGrian Creative Connections course on Colonsay and the Wild Connections course on Tanera Mor.

 

The Joys of Spontaneous Idea Surfing

When an idea pops into my head there’s an excitement that comes with it. A sort of energy that pushes the idea forward. Poets refer to a muse, composers say “the music just comes”. Whatever it is, if you go with it it’s like surfing, you’re riding a wave of idea energy and it’s brilliant.

If I leave the idea I can guarantee the next day that energy will have dissipated. A wave of energy? It’s more like a muddy puddle.

That’s why it’s so important to write an idea down when it comes, develop it when you get it, talk about it while the wave is moving.

Tell the right people. They’ll take your rough dirty diamond of an idea and help you clean, cut and polish it. The wrong people will crush your idea along with your enthusiasm.

If you’re in a workplace you might have to convince several people you’ve got a good idea before you can proceed. You may even have to convince someone it’s his or her idea. If you can proceed it’s likely there are a million and one other things you should be doing.

But I say go with it, make time and make it happen. If it really is a good idea the resources will come along the way. There’s something truly wonderful about seeing an idea become a reality.

A week ago I had the idea to take a little camera, attach it to my bike basket and cycle down and over every bump on Leith Walk.  I’d already started reporting the potholes on ‘Fix My Street’ but this new idea had energy. I wanted to do something for Greener Leith and I had an afternoon off. I told a couple of people my plan and set off.

I got to the top of Elm Row, got out my camera and felt like an idiot. What was I doing? There were people everywhere. I had a choice, I could go home or I could get over myself. I decided it really didn’t matter what people thought of me, the idea was more important. That’s when the fun began.

I recorded an intro to camera and then started to fix it to my basket. A man came over and asked what I was doing and offered some wire to help secure the camera. He’d just brought it for some stop frame animation; he was following his new idea too. And so it went on like that, the sun shone and it seemed other people were excited and interested in what I was doing when I just got on and did it.

At 11.30pm that evening I accidently started editing (I was meant to be going to bed) and I surfed the excitement of the idea wave until 3am. I wanted to raise awareness of the need to make cycling safer but knew if I made a serious film about potholes then only people interested in cycling or potholes would watch it.

Instead I made the film into an Indiana Jones style adventure movie. I tweeted the film at 3.15am and went off to bed. By lunchtime the next day I had loads of positive comments on twitter, many from non cyclist, a comments about the film’s grammar, a wine chosen in honour of the film (and a song about holes in the road) and a request from the Edinburgh Evening News to put it into the paper. I wasn’t expecting anyone to have even seen it. It just goes to show ideas have an energy of their own.

You can read the blog that goes with the film on Greener Leith here. Here’s the film:

 

Film Crew in My Kitchen

If you want to know what goes in the red and blue curbside recycling boxes in Edinburgh or if you want a sneak peek into my kitchen, then the latest Edinburgh Council Video is for you.

I’d just like to point a few things out first:

1) I have a very serious face. This is not because recycling is very serious. I was concentrating on my instructions (wash the jar again) and didn’t realise my head was in shot!

2) That is David Tennant. I did offer to take it down but they said it was authentic. No I don’t have children.

3) It is very windy outside. We filmed the morning of the great hurricane. You weren’t allowed to travel after 3pm. So there were a few takes with bags blowing off down the street!

4) I use rechargeable batteries (not that you care)

5) Lastly, I don’t normally crush bottles with my bare hands, I stamp on them

Watch video on Youtube

Ryan from the Council and the guys from Hee Haw Digital were brilliant fun to work with. Despite my serious face at the start, I laughed lots.

 

Goodbye Changeworks

Friday was my last day at environmental organisation Changeworks.

I’ve been working in the Waste Prevention department for two years. It’s been a total pleasure to work in a passionate and creative team with people I now consider as friends as well as colleagues.

Kathleen my manager made this leaving card, our magic words are ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ so she came up with a new 3 R’s for me (brilliant!). We take worms to nurseries so she’s drawn our wormery (worm house) and me on a banana (we feed banana skins to the worms and sing about in the composting song). My new book is called ‘Banana me beautiful’ and includes artwork of bananas that are people so this card is totally genius!

Thanks to Changeworks for such a great send off, I absolutely love the heather, scarf and butterfly necklace (and love that I was told it’s like I’m flying off as a butterfly, awww!) and it was a lovely night of drinks, food and demonstrating how bad we are at guessing whisky (all I can say is it’s not Laphroaig, and it was…laphroaig!).

My job at Changeworks

I worked visiting Edinburgh schools delivering assemblies, workshops and storytelling. I encouraged schools to finish their food with Mr Silly Sausage, trained eco teams to be Zero Waste Heroes and made paper and compost in bottles. I also spent time developing new resources, organising events, managing projects, writing press releases and writing for the Changeworks website. I delivered training to teachers and local authorities too.

I started full-time at Changeworks in September 2009. In February 2010 I reduced my hours to 4 days a week to have a day to focus on writing. A year later in March 2011 I reduced my hours further to 2.5 days a week and finally decided to make the difficult decision to be a full-time freelancer (yikes!). Changeworks have been incredibly supportive, when my CBeebies programme was taken into development Evelyn brought out the champagne and colleagues later came along to my CBeebies premiere and to my book launch. I am so grateful to them for all their encouragement.

Highlights

There are so many to choose from, here’s my top 10:

• Spending my second to last week working with schools on the Isle of Barra
• Training Dorset Waste Partnership to Finish their Food with my Silly Sausage and being blown away by their results (they reduced food waste in the winning school by a whopping 95%, well done Dorset!)
• Organising the What Rot compositing competition and seeing the children really excited as they brought their compost samples to be judged
• Being part of the exciting new Changeworks blog team, having blogger lunches and receiving and sharing feedback on our blog posts
• Presenting Finish Your Food winners Craigroysten Primary School with a sausage on a fork trophy
• Designing and delivering the Heroes at Home competition for the Waste Free Edinburgh project. Especially presenting pupils with their winning bikes at The Bike Station. Meet the winners and here me explain a bit more about the project in this fab film made by Michael MacLeod for the Guardian Edinburgh
• The Christmas Parties (was great to be part of the team planning and running the party the last two years)
• Planning and running the Make Waste History Summit 2009
• Working with so many great schools, pupils and teachers in Edinburgh
• Having my views challenged on a daily basis and changing my thinking as a result..

On that note, does change work?

Working for Changeworks has totally revolutionised my thinking. I wrote a poem about Energy Saving Light bulbs in response to this change and even jumped in the sea on the 1st January to try to persuade people to consider green new years resolutions. If you knew me before I worked at Changworks, you’ll know this is a big change!

What’s next?

Thankfully this is not really ‘Goodbye Changeworks’. I’ve been working for Changeworks on a freelance basis making films and audio. I’m glad to say this looks set to continue. I’m currently producing a fuel-efficient driving audio feature for the Energy Saving Scotland Advice Centre and making Greenerleith Zero Waste Podcasts that involve Changeworks projects too.

What’s next for me aside from that? Well that’s another blog post…