Postcard from Westonbirt

I have a fondness for autumn based purely on its colours. A crisp winter day has its merits, but tends to be cold. Spring has flowers, but can also be damp, and summer is never as hot and sunny as I'd like it to be. Autumn makes a feature out of its downside: the year may be getting colder but there's one final blaze of glory before nature's done for the year.

Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire is a great place to see the changing colours. They have collections of acers which look their best as the leaves turn.






I  might have soaked up enough colour to get me through the dark days of winter. I certainly over-indulged on the cake at their cafe. That should keep me warm. 

Postcard from the wood

I can't say I'd noticed this particular tree, until it was gone. It stood on the bank of the River Rea and I've walked past several times recently without noticing there was any kind of problem with it. That might be because I've actually been on 'kingfisher watch' hoping for a repeat of the sighting I had a week or so ago, or it might be a case of not seeing the tree for the woods.

When daffodils are blooming, birds are tweeting and other trees are coming into blossom or bud it was sad to see the exposed interior of this tree. I tried to count the rings but lost my way after a considerable number of years above my own age.

The cut surface will soon weather and the stump will be a great home for fungus and insect life, I'm sure. It was just sad today, with the potential of spring in the air, to see something come to an end.

Postcard from Croome

Splat marks on a frozen lake can only mean some poor duck chose not to believe its eyes and tried to land anyway. I can only imagine what a nasty surprise that must have been. The snow may have been melting but there was a chill emanating from the ice.

I'm not surprised the ducks were tempted though. The lake is a 'Capability' Brown construction - designed for admiration and to entice. Which Croome does, even in such cold conditions. The 1940s tea room is slightly alarming though. It's housed in the sick quarters of the former RAF base on the site. I was just glad they hadn't decided to extend the wartime theme to ration the butter and sugar in the recipes.

Postcard from the pond

Autumn's colours are already fading. A walk through Highbury Park this afternoon proved that the leaves are falling, not just turning. A mob of ducks gathered at the other end of the pond where a toddler had food for them and I was left with this reflection. Bonfires were smoking in back gardens and squirrels were dashing up trees and dislodging more leaf litter. Somehow it's less antisocial when nature behaves in a loutish manner.

Postcard from the festivals

Springtime in Birmingham means a blossoming of arts festivals. The Flatpack film festival brought this vintage mobile cinema (22 seats and fully upgraded to digital, Dolby, etc) to my local park and used it to screen hilarious public information films about Birmingham in the 1960s. For free! How charming is that?

Also unusual and intriguing was the event I chose at the Fierce arts festival. I indulged in a walk with a difference around a museum. They put a blindfold on me. I had a guide to prevent me falling over and a soundtrack delivered via wireless headphones. The whole experience was disorienting, deep and memorable.

Next weekend is the first of the book festivals. Brummies obviously love reading so much that we're treated to multiple events. I'm showing favouritism by picking my highlight event before it's happened, but I'm looking forward to the historical fiction discussion.

We've been spoilt for choice for things to do and see. I only hope the cuts to arts funding don't mean next spring won't be as vibrant.

Christmas Card 2010

I have every reason to feel aggrieved by the weather. I had plans for this weekend. Plans which involved other parts of the country. Plans which were scuppered by the snow which fell for most of yesterday and made setting out in the car seem more dangerous than climbing Everest. Oh well.

Birmingham has had a make over to match scenes from the Christmas cards propped up indoors. Well it would match, if the post office were delivering Christmas cards to prop up, or indeed anything at all at the moment.

Let's focus on the positives. I had a wonderful walk through the park this morning and found these snowflakes iced onto the railings surrounding the frozen lake. There was the vandalistic thrill of ploughing a calf-deep path through pristine snow along an alternative route to that normally marked by asphalt. But for the crunch of my boots imprinting the pattern of their tread into soft powder, all was quiet. Infrequently worn clothes came into their own.

Tomorrow the snow will be compacted, icy, slushy and grey. More people will decide they have to dig their cars out from under the frozen candlewick bedspreads the weather has draped on them. The transport chaos whinging will become seriously boring and the snow will have outstayed its welcome. Today though, just for a short while, this corner of Birmingham was a winter wonderland. Happy Christmas.

Postcard from GMT

Synchronise your watches. Greenwich Mean Time rules again and I for one am relieved. I understand the arguments about children crossing roads and farmers milking cows and how both activities would be best carried out in daylight hours, however; at my office all systems and data remain referenced to GMT year round. British Summer Time does nothing but confuse me.

This clock, at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, is where all time is controlled. It is Greenwich Mean Time. How powerful is that? The big orange ball sitting on the building behind rises to the top of its post just before one o'clock every day, and drops on the dot of one. That's one o'clock local time, not GMT - see how easy it is to get muddled?

What I was sure of was that it was the perfect time to be in Greenwich Park. The trees are dressed in a palette from sunshine yellow to peachy pink. Squirrels are sneaking around to set up their winter food stash. And my watch is definitely reading the correct time.

Postcard from Winterbourne Gardens

Wild mushrooms can evoke unease. A sighting of a strange form blossoming forth when the spring and summer growing season is nearing its end, brings a slight frisson of fear that it may kill you. Unlikely; as I never pick them to eat, preferring to admire them in situ. Especially when they look so charmingly like discarded pencil shavings.

Winterbourne Gardens are lovely, the house delightful and the food in the tea rooms reassuringly edible.  Delicious, in fact. With such huge grounds to wander around, it's easy to justify eating both lunch and afternoon tea there. From a table on the terrace, the views of the walled garden, lawns, pergola and woodland are almost as tempting as the cakes.

My (very brief, internet based) research into the fungus pictured tells me it's a Coriolus Versicolor and is inedible. It is not, however, poisonous. Panic over. Time for tea.

Postcard from the park

Apologies for the break in service.  Several things have been going on, including completing the first draft of Park Life.  Edits are in progress and more postcards will follow.

This photo was taken during a reading, writing and painting workshop based in Cannon Hill Park during July.  The inspiration came from Thomas Hardy's The Woodlanders, as well as the park's own trees.  Some tree related imagery has worked its way into Park Life.  The setting remains in Birmingham rather than Wessex though, and the characters are somewhat less romantic than Hardy's.  As for my paintings, well those are probably best turned into mulch with the now falling leaves.

Postcard from mac

mac (the Midlands Arts Centre) has reopened after being closed for refurbishment for far too long.  It's been worth waiting for.  Smarter, brighter, and bang up to date - the building feels revitalised.  It's largely the same layout (a labyrinth), but the atmosphere of grim has been dispelled.

The opening day crowds were testament to how much mac has been missed; and the welcome was warmer than ever.  Studio doors were thrown open for people to try out art, dance, music and craft workshops.  The galleries were so packed I need to go back another day to actually see the exhibits.  The theatres are refitted and the cinema reupholstered.

mac has never been a place to visit only when a specific event or performance attracts you though.  Now the hoardings are down, it's once again fully integrated with Cannon Hill Park.  Even if none of the varied programme would convince you to visit, the cafe and bar will always offer tempting refuge from the rain.

Postcard from Ferry Meadows

I can only apologise for the 'frozen lake' theme I've adopted in recent weeks.  The weather is entirely to blame. Although, both recent photos feature winter sunshine: a phenomenon which is always worth celebrating.

Ferry Meadows is on the outskirts of Peterborough.  As the city expanded in the 1960s, a smart solution to both the problem of how to use land which formed the floodplain of the Nene, and the desire to leave some areas undeveloped for wildlife and recreation, was found in one place.  The lakes were left over after gravel extraction, and now attract plenty of wildfowl.

Most importantly, the park makes a great venue for a new year's day walk: plenty of crisp, clear air to freshen the mind, good exercise as you make a circuit of the lakes, and great cakes at the rowing club cafe.  OK, so the cake consumption might have negated the healthy bonus of the length of the walk, but on a day that cold it was impossible to resist!

Happy New Year.

Christmas card 2009

The Cannon Hill boating lake has frozen over in the current cold snap.  Birmingham is fortunate to have had just enough snow and just enough sun to make this kind of weather pleasant.  For walking in the park, anyway.  Although, the Canada Geese are angrier than usual.  Blaming passers by for the frozen lake.  And frustrated geese lack Christmas spirit.

If you're somewhere that has had far more snow, and your life has been as disrupted as that of the geese, you have my sympathy.  But I hope you'll forgive me posting a pretty picture.

After all, a significant number of the real Christmas cards I've received so far feature pictures of snow.  It's unusual in Britain to have actual snowfall so close to Christmas Day.  So how could I resist using this icy image to accompany my virtual card? 

Whatever the weather with you, I hope you have a happy Christmas. 

Postcard from autumn

Recent wet and windy weather means the best of autumn is behind us.  But, only a few days ago, this tree in my local park was putting on its autumn colours.  I love the traffic light effect.






Of course, the use of red in nature usually does mean 'watch your step'.  So I didn't pick this fairy tale-style toadstool and bring it home to make mushroom omelette with.  Might have written a few interesting fairy tales of my own if I had though.



Birmingham's been in the news for all the wrong reasons this weekend: concert disasters, hideous car crashes and stabbings. Thought you'd like to see that it's not all bad here. Some of it is beautiful.

Postcard from a sea of blossom

This weekend felt like spring had arrived in full bloom. A walk through Greenwich Park was a treat - sunshine, flowers and warmer than summer often is. 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. Follow the link if you want to know more; for me it's as good a reason as any to use a photo of the Royal Observatory. Sadly, I wasn't there at 1pm to synchronise my watch with the ball's drop. So, if I'm a few minutes late, you'll know why.

Quiet contemplation of blossom is one of the few good things going on in Greenwich just now. Long running roadworks are creating traffic chaos, bringing the bottleneck town centre to gridlock. If one hole in the road can cause that much trouble, just imagine what an Olympic event could do. And without the option for pedestrians and residents to take a break from the traffic by escaping into the Park for a breather. I've mentioned the issue before, you can see the details at NOGOE's website.

Of course, there's plenty of time for Spring to be a wash out yet. But, for now, it's all about pink blossom, yellow daffs and the orange ball of Greenwich Mean Time. Next weekend, the clocks go forward. So I won't be the only one whose watch is wrong.

Postcard from Greenwich Park

When I was at school in Greenwich, we spent an occasional cold, damp, muddy sports lesson cross-country running in Greenwich Park. I was usually the one walking at the back. Hideous though that experience was, it was a chance to admire the Park and I often return now (without the trainers!).

The residents of Greenwich are lucky to have this beautiful, varied, historic open space on their doorstep and the huge numbers of tourists who join them to walk, run, play and picnic there just back up the value of the Park for the local area. Can it really be a sensible location to consider for the 2012 Olympic Equestrian events?

The Park would be closed to the public for months in the lead up to and during the games. There is the potential that the historical and ecological character of the Park could be damaged by the construction of the facilities required. I think Greenwich Park is too important to take the risk. This photo is taken from a point just to the side of the Prime Meridian line that dissects the world through the highest point of Greenwich Park. It's a view tourists cross the world to visit.

As Kerry, the main character in my novel 'Map Reading' (see 'Postcard from the internet' below) puts it: ' It's the start of time, that's all. East and West, it all starts here.'

A couple of weeks of Olympics events and it might never be the same again. For more information see http://www.nogoe2012.com/