This summer I had some particular obsessions walking around the Floating Harbour.
Harbour fish
Photos in a slideshow, or in a flickr album and some little films
Continue reading “Some of my summer obsessions: fish, water lillies, jetties and rope”
At the end of July Matt, Vik and I were looking for a walk to do away from people, which was a bit complicated, with the Chocolate Path closed, and crowds filling Bedminster and Southville for Upfest. It can be challenging, finding walks that start in the city centre and includes places we haven’t been, but the ferry trip down the New Cut and the Avon that Matt and I had taken had inspired me, and so we went to explore some of the places I’d seen from the boat – the functional spaces.
Here’s where we walked:
And here’s my flickr album from the walk – hopefully if you mouse/swipe over the first photo, it will start a slideshow, but if not, you can also click through.
So what did we see?
Continue reading “A walk around some functional Avon spaces”
Yesterday Vik and I were on a walk, and it wasn’t going so well – the walk leaders didn’t have a map, just instructions, and didn’t know where they were going, and that makes me so stressed. So when we got to the Cumberland Basin, we peeled off, and went to look at the river instead.
After the long, long winter, May has been pretty much perfect, and yesterday was a beautiful day. The sun was low in the sky, and the tide was very high, very still. We stood on the very end of the Cumberland Basin, looking at the bridge, and then down at the water directly below us. The first Entrance Lock gates had been opened recently, and clouds of silt were flowing into the river, at first slowly, and then when the second lock gate was opened too, very fast.
It’s one of my very favourite things, watching the clouds of silt under the water – the way they move, like eruptions, or something blossoming. It’s magical to me, and I always hope I’ll see it. Of course I wish I’d had my DSLR and tripod with me, as filming on my mobile has limitations, but still, I took nearly 50 snippets of film on my phone. I’m not posting all of them here, but check out how gorgeous it was. The light was changing, the water pressures kept changing too, and I was hypnotised. We spent about an hour and a half there, and then walked home, with everything looking beautiful. I also took a whole load of photos on my film camera (and UPDATE! they’re here).
The sounds to imagine are a base rumble of traffic from the Portway ahead to the right, and behind on the Plimsoll swingbridge; the piercing blackbird song coming from across the river ahead of us, other birdsong layered up; and the sound of the water flowing, with gloops as eruptions of silt hit the surface. The smell was of river-water on a hot day, so evocative and refreshing. Spring breeze on my skin and in my hair, the stone of the Harbour edge warm in the sun, and gently-rough on my hands and where I sat. The water was so high, it was only a metre and a half below us, and I was having fantasies of jumping in.
At first, it was relatively slow
Looking out across the river, the surface tensions were picked up by the light, but it was just too bright for my phone
In March I was looking at the springs in Redland that lead to Cranbrook, but I hadn’t realised that the Cranbrook leads down to The Arches, and that, according to the Big Blue Map of Bristol, it’s above ground around there. So two weeks ago, Tracy Homer and I went to have a look for it.
My (mostly phone) photos are in my flickr album (if you mouse over/tap the photo below, you should be able to see a slideshow…) I have a film-ette and some sounds in the post below too.
Ever since I went to Royate Hill Nature Reserve while walking along Coombe Brook with Tracy, I’ve been thinking about that space. I was especially thinking about the photos I took of the brook from the viaduct, and wanting more. So as last Tuesday was a beautiful day, I hopped on the bus to go back. After the nature reserve, I walked back into town down the line of the Frome – my map is here:
and the album of photos is on flickr – or if you mouse over the first picture below, it should bring up the slideshow. I have some film-ettes too, which I’ve added in below.
It was such a contrast to last time. That day was grey and misty, Tuesday was blue skies, and breezes. As soon as I got into the reserve and was walking up the steps, I could see how spring had changed things in the few weeks since I was last here, with cow parsley coming out, and annual plants everywhere. All the leaves were that perfect spring acid green, shining in the sun.
A few weeks ago I went on a podcast-walk in the snow with Dr Shawn Sobers, talking about his work as a film-maker, artist, educator, curator and more. One of the things we discussed was his work with heritage sites, exploring their links to the transatlantic slave trade, and he told me about a film he’d just finished working on at Newstead Abbey in Nottingham.
This film, Blood Sugar, was a collaboration with the Abbey, poet Michelle Mother Hubbard and the Slave Trade Legacies group – and it’s now online if you want to watch it:
Listen to the podcast with Shawn, talking about his work, here.
Mini-film, watching the tide slowly come in, last Friday.
And a couple of photos earlier in the same walk – scum on the surface of the Avon, by the Entrance Lock:
Something meaningful, but I don’t know what it means:
I met Shawn Sobers when I was doing my Photography degree at the University of the West of England, and he was one of my professors. But that’s just one of the many strings to his bow – Shawn is a filmmaker, photographer, writer and curator, and I always found his community-based practice and his range of interests to be completely inspiring.
We went for a walk along the Avon in Lacock, exploring the landscape where Henry Fox Talbot lived and created processes that gave us modern photography. While we walked, we talked about teaching photography, Shawn’s film practice, his work with National Trust sites helping communities research their links to Transatlantic slavery, and his own role in running a heritage site, curating the Tafari Gallery at Fairfield House, where Emperor Haile Selassie lived in exile in Bath.
Please do forgive the patches of audio problems in the recording. We were walking in the March snow, on a day full of weather warnings, and it proved a bit too much for my audio equipment!
Find out more about Shawn on his website, which has a selection of films we talked about, including his 1999 film on Haile Selassie, Footsteps of the Emperor, his recent art film about the sinking of the SS Mendi, a ship carrying Black South African Labour Corps troops to serve in World War I, and Under The Bridge, the 1990s film for HTV exploring Transatlantic slavery in Bristol, including the River Avon:
A film-ette from Ashton Avenue Bridge. The river gets fast here, with the rapids just above it, and the tide was low and rushing out. It’s not my favourite film, but I do like the way the light changes in them, and the shadows on the river.
Today was the highest tide of the month, one of the highest of the year (11.5m!) and I pulled myself of out bed to get to the very end of the Harbour, by the Entrance Lock, for 9:20 and the high point. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but on a grey, dreich Saturday in February, it’s a big deal. Especially with the Chocolate Path closed. Especially in the rain. But wow, I’m glad I did!
When I got to the river, it was still, that moment of balance that I love, and wish I could find in myself. It’s always a rush to get as many shots as possible in that time, and I was cursing because I’d once again forgotten the cameras I wanted to bring, spare film etc. But it was lovely. I lay on the edge of the Harbour, putting an underwater camera in the river (it’s so much better doing that in summer) and watched the way the misty rainclouds moved through the trees.
I think my favourite part was standing on the Entrance Lock gate, and watching the water move. By this time the tide had turned, and the water, which had flooded over the top of the lock gate, was rushing back out to re-join the river, bringing clouds of silt. I only had my phone to take films, but this makes me very happy:
The clouds of silt always look so magical, and I could have watched this for days. I walked on around the Harbour, and had other adventures too – but those will be in my next podcast…
Avon Stories 