Archive for October, 2008
Voytek the bear might not be there (yet), but volunteers are hard at work preparing the ground for the dedication of a Polish Memorial in Redbraes Community Garden at 3pm on Sunday 9 November.
The ceremony, which will be attended by the Polish Consul General, Aleksander Dietkow, and Mark Lazarowicz, the MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, is the outcome of many months discussion with members of the Polish community. And some serious hard work.
Having secured two huge pieces of sandstone for the memorial, Simon Daley the local community policeman, set off for Growmore, the Fife plant nursery with Becky Govier, the garden designer.
Polish volunteers will then join them to plant up the ground by the entrance to the
garden before the memorial stones arrive. Meanwhile Przemek Dudarewicz (Shremeck) Lukas Dabros and Pawel Gucik have already been to help with some of the really heavy work [seen here on the right]. And Simon is not ruling out the chances of finding a statue of Voytek (or Wojtek, the Polish troops second world war mascot who ended his days in Edinburgh Zoo).
“As usual I am pretty confident things will work out!” emails Simon, who has indeed proved to be a formidable force in securing gifts, sponsorship and voluntary hard labour, so look out for Voytek/Wojtek the bear (listen to this Polish radio story of how he was found by troops in Iran during the second world war).
Simon points out that the sandstone memorial recognises the long connection between Scotland and Poland and celebrates the contribution made by Poles here in Scotland and the many thousands of Scots who have settled in Poland. Servicemen’s organisations and community associations will be there and the public will be very welcome on Sunday 9 November at 3pm.
Pictured below: one of the latest additions to Redbraes, the shed built by Davey, Julian and Simon (seen in the doorway with his daughter Erin). Or as Becky calls it, “our beautiful glow-in the dark shed” – the paint was a special offer but it could catch on!
October 31st, 2008
Whoever wins on Tuesday, Red Eye film club takes a hard look at US politics on Friday 7 November. As organiser Mike Cowley comments: “Robert Redford’s ‘The Candidate’ will screen at a telling moment in US history. Can a black politician espousing liberal values win in the country of the free? And will that victory be a pyrrhic one, as Redford’s character Bill McKay discovers?” The Red Eye film club continues its programme of radical and socialist movies and documentaries with ‘The Candidate’ (made in 1972 and directed by Michael Ritchie). The show in Pilmeney Youth Centre, Buchanan Street, Leith starts at 7pm Friday 7 November. As always, admission is free and everyone is welcome.
“‘The Candidate’ offers a bleak assessment of the US political process, its cheapening of principle and the triumph of consumerist impulses over citizen engagement,” says Mike.
Films run on the first Friday of each month, into 2009 and beyond.
October 31st, 2008
Autumn is going out with a blaze in Redbraes Community Garden. Next on the calendar is the bonfire party on Saturday 8 November from 6pm, and Becky says there’s digging and planting to do if you want to work up an appetite first. See below for details.
Looking at borders full of flowers and vegetables it is hard to believe that only a few months ago this flourishing garden was a patch of unused land covered with weeds. In much less than 12 months the energetic Redbraes Community Garden team has raised a total of £10,000 and (even more impressive) the kind of community involvement you just can’t put a price on.
The result shows in new developments just about every week. Julian and Davie have hardly finished building the new blue shed before Simon arrives with plans for the Polish memorial garden and border at the gateway. (More news about that soon, all we can say right now is that there is a lot of digging, building and planting to do before the opening ceremony in two weeks and two days time!)
Meanwhile, the community garden committee are collecting wood and donations for the bonfire and barbecue on Saturday 8 November from 6pm. “We hope you can come along,” says Becky, “Please bring along your own refreshments and anything you would like to cook on the barbeque.”
“And if you fancy getting muddy please call by a little earlier and help us with a gardening session between 3-6pm when we will be planting eight espalier apple trees amongst other things.”
Here’s an apple tree they planted earlier…
October 24th, 2008
When the cold wind blows in my face
And I see the orange and yellow autumn leaves fall
It is then that I am bewildered here
and I gather all my sighs,
but when the first snow flakes fell on my shoulder
it was like shining stars falling from the sky
This extract is from the poem Edinburgh by Shaista Asad who is one of the poets taking part in Mushaira, a celebration of Scottish Asian poetry, in McDonald Road Library on Saturday 18 October. Mushaira encourages participants to write and perform in their own language but Shaista has sent us this poem in English written while she was sitting in Princes Street Gardens. Click on more to read the full poem.
EDINBURGH!!!!!
A beautiful new city, that I have tied new bonds with
Ties of my heart and my soul,
A deep relation that I have developed
with the colourful flowers
As I talk my emotions out to them
I get affection and love showers
As I look back I have left all loved ones behind
All my people , my streets, my childhood playground behind
As if for the time being I have broken all my ties with them
For the people here on the roads and streets
I often find a friendly greet
For a minute it feels, I am home again
The feeling comes and goes again
When the cold wind blows in my face
And I see the orange and yellow autumn leaves fall
It is then that I am bewildered here
and I gather all my sighs,
but when the first snow flakes fell on my shoulder
it was like shining stars falling from the sky
I can still picture it, like a memory
glued on a photo in my mind
and again my heart and my soul
were filled with happy sighs
Shaista Asad
Poets from all over the UK are invited to take part in Mushaira, a tradition of poetry reading from the Indo-Pak sub-continent which stretches back several hundred years.
The next event is an evening of Urdu literary and music evening during the Edinburgh Festival of Libraries on Saturday 8 November in McDonald Road Library from 7.30pm.
For more information about Mushaira, and to hear poems in other languages, click here
October 16th, 2008
Harvest time in Persevere Community Garden
The sun was shining through the window and there was a pot of tea on the go. To be honest, I could have been tempted to stay at home last Saturday but I am very glad I didn’t. The open day at Persevere Community Garden was a great way to spend a day off. There was hot soup, a blazing bonfire, great company and to our amazement, there was a good crop of potatoes growing beneath the weeds in our plot. Hard to believe that just six months ago this ground was so hard we had to use a pick axe to get into it.
Before and after a lot of digging…
What a difference a growing season can make. Back in April the walled garden surrounded by tall flats was a fairly daunting sight. But last weekend it was full of people enjoying the results of their hard work: raised beds of Upward Mobility have produced a fine crop of flowers and vegetables; Persevere Community Flat grew a great mix of veg including beetroot, carrots, and kohlrabi; and Greener Leith and Leith Open Space dug up a very respectable 8 kilos of potatoes.
Enthusiastic helpers surround Charlotte beside Upward Mobility produce – they were rewarded with bags of tatties and lettuce to take home.
Teamwork: Fay, Linda, Charlotte and Dawn enjoy a well earned cuppa…
We enjoyed that cup of tea but won’t be taking it easy for long. Our plot has been planted with blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and spring bulbs. But the weeds will always be trying to make come back so we will be covering the ground with carpet and woodbark…
Then there are plans to dig a pond and encourage wildlife (other than the two legged 
kind) into the shady area at the end of the garden. And that sunny corner full of rubble by the gate is just waiting to be transformed into a place for sitting and admiring a good day’s work.
Come and join us. It really is a great way to spend a few hours. Ask Flossie.
[This open view posted by Fay]
October 16th, 2008
We are about to dig up the potatoes we planted on one of the coldest and wettest midsummer days on record. Come and join us for the Persevere Tattie Harvest from 12noon on Saturday 11 October. Grab a spade and tuck in to the hot and delicious soup we will be making from local potatoes. (No, no, you don’t need a spade for the soup but there is always digging to be done!)
The Persevere potatoes were planted on the plot shared by Leith Open Space and Greener Leith way back on 21 June. After our long, wet summer we are curious to see what the harvest will be like. But the apple trees, planted in April, are doing well and there are plans to add fruit trees and Charlotte Encombe will be bringing daffodils to plant on Saturday for colour in the spring. Gardeners are always full of hope!
Look forward to seeing you in the community garden at Persevere between 12 and 2pm on Saturday.
October 9th, 2008
Here’s an invitation you can’t refuse. Come to St Andrew Square and find a poem chosen specially for you. “It personal, it’s fast and it’s absolutely free,” says Lilias Fraser of the Scottish Poetry Library who will be one of the ‘poetry army’ celebrating National Poetry Day on Thursday 9 October in Edinburgh’s very own Poetry Garden by handing out poems and poetry postcards. Better still, why don’t you join the army for the day?
It takes a bit of nerve to walk up to complete strangers and ask them what kind of poem they would like. But that’s what Ryan van Winkle was doing during the first lunchtime poetry event in St Andrew Square in September (Ryan is Reader in Residence for the city libraries). And you would be amazed how well people responded. Or maybe it’s not amazing at all. There is something very nice about having someone choose a poem for you.
After meeting Ryan, some adventurous souls made their way to the tent where Lilias had a folder full of poems to suit almost every taste. No-one went away disappointed. In fact, the first Personal Poetry Shopper went so well that the team are expanding the idea to celebrate National Poetry Day in three shifts – 8-10am, 12-2pm, 5-6pm – to meet people on the way to work, at the lunchtime break and when they are on the way home again.
Lilias says you are welcome to join in: “If you or anyone you know would like to pop along and help give out poetry postcards, we’d love your company. It is truly the best fun; weird, but true! You get a great response.”
For more information, call Lilias Fraser, Scottish Poetry Library, 0131 557 2876 or email lfraser@spl.org.uk
Poetry in St Andrew Square began in September with a symbolic floating of lotus blossoms on the pond. Two Leith Open Space members were there: Nick Gardner to take pictures and Fay Young as a member of the steering group now working on plans for future poetry events in the garden.
Poetry in the Garden is supported by Essential Edinburgh, Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust, Coffee Republic, The Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Scottish Book Trust and The Writers’ Museum.
October 3rd, 2008
Make a note. If it’s the first Friday of the month it’s Red Eye Friday. The new radical film club opened in September with Who Shot the Sheriff. This month’s screening in Pilmeny Youth Centre on Friday 3 October offers a UK Cold War thriller Defence of the Realm which teeters on the brink of nuclear disaster in the days of dear old Ronald Reagan.
There’s an eerily topical edge to the political tensions of this film made in 1985 with a cast of British stalwarts (Denholm Elliot, Ian Bannen and Fulton MacKay, support Gabriel Byrne and Greta Scacchi). And with cafe seating in a relaxed atmosphere you might want to hang around and discuss it afterwards. Don’t miss it: Friday October 3rd, 7pm at Pilmeny Youth Centre, Buchanan Street, Leith. Admission is free and all are welcome.
Future screenings
November 7th – The Last Party 2000. As Red Eye club organiser Mike Cowley says: “This is a documentary on George Bush’s fraudulent 2000 Presidential ‘victory’ with Michael Moore, Ralph Nader and more Hollywood stars than you can shake a stick at!”
From then on the dates are: December 5th; January 2nd; February 6th; March 6th. Films have still to be arranged but Mike has an inexhaustible supply – suggestions are welcome.
All screenings begin at 7pm, with a brief introduction and discussion after the film.
October 1st, 2008
