Daisies on The Meadow

“The Meadow” runs alongside the River Avon in Bath and has a life of its own, being where all the local dog owners walk their dogs, dogs and owners forming firm friendships as they meet, chatter and pass on. I always feel there is material for a “telly play” there, in the interactions of dogs and people. As in the Playgroup days when one was “Molly’s Mum”, often one just knows the dogs name and yet one gradually learns a section of their owners’ lives.

I don’t own a dog myself- life being too complicated as I move backwards and forwards between the UK and the US, but when I’m in Bath I regularly take my brothers’ Jack Russell, Rosie, for walks- hence my involvement with The Meadow life.

Over the Easter weekend I met one of my Meadow friends’ Granddaughter, a little girl called Daisy. Like all small children she liked picking flowers- so when Daisy picked a Daisy, and then a second one, I felt I had to take a photograph of Daisy holding Daisies….

In this post I am also including some images of my friends’ Whippet- the delightful, elegant and miraculously patterned Inigo Jones, posing among the Daisies on the Meadow. And I could not leave Rosie out, so the final image is of her and Inigo Jones on the river path- even though there are no Daisies!

SHANNON, Bath:

One of the shops in Bath that gives me most pleasure is Shannon in Walcot Street, which I pass whenever I walk into the City centre. Anyone who loves colour will be seduced by this Scandinavian Aladdin’s Cave. It is filled with Marrimekko mouth-watering fabrics and many imaginative Scandinavian modern design classics- furniture, lighting, china, glass, bags and a fund of other home accessories and gifts.

It is a delight to talk to the owner, Sue Shannon, as she gives you a warm welcome, has a great sense of design and clearly loves and appreciates what she sells. Having established the shop in 1999, she says she specializes in Scandinavian design because the quality is so exceptional. Her website is well worth a visit: www.shannon-uk.com

I have singled out the Marrimekko fabrics as I have loved them since I first saw them many years ago in a shop called Finnish Designs in the London Haymarket, as described in a previous blog in January 2008. As you might well guess, I am drawn to them because, apart from the absolutely wonderful colours and patterns, so many of them are based on trees and flowers- and always seem to get their characters totally right. So here are some images of the shop and my favourite contents:

Sycamore Buds

More discoveries beside the River Avon- wonderful bright green, pink-encased Sycamore buds.....

The Dance of the Pelican's Gullet

I have previously written and showed images of my obsession with Pelican's and their gullets. I am now adding a little animation, from shots taken at Malibu Lagoon, showing their elegant gullet-dance, climaxing in something almost obscene: The Dance of the Pelican's Gullet. Thanks to Zac, my "Roving Reporter", for adding music to this.

Down by the River Avon

Walking alongside the River Avon, it is not only reflections that you see- there are always details nearby that catch your eye and enrich your day....

Reflections

Here in Bath the River Avon and the Canal run parallel with each other so that on all your walks you are constantly seeing reflections- depending upon the flow of water and the light. The images you see are often even clearer than the reality. Here are some of them (if, like me, you are puzzled by the fluffy orange hoop in the foreground of the first one, I can tell you that I finally realized it was the tail of a Red Setter who had come on that walk!):

Shakespeare in Bath + Tree!

When wallowing in Shakespeare in Stratford-Upon-Avon, I learned that there was an exceptional Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest coming to Bath, where I am staying at present.
It was sold out at The Theatre Royal, but a total of 3 hours queuing secured me a standby ticket- and was well worth it.

What was wonderful about this production was that the RSC had combined with the South African Baxter Theatre Centre, including both black and white South Africans in cast and production. The result was an incredibly rich and exciting play with some great African actors, including Anthony Sher as Prospero and John Kani as Caliban,

This was a long awaited idea of Director Janice Honeyman, who wanted to emphasize the colonial aspects in order to relate to contemporary audiences. As she said “It is about greed, exploitation, dispossession of land, cultural plundering, racism, revenge, forgiveness, reconciliation and freedom. It sounds familiar?” Colonization had begun in the 16th Century and the story connects with the then current tales of colonization and adventures of English sailors. In the play Gonzalo discusses with Sebastian an idyllic Commonwealth without riches, poverty, metal, sovereignty etcetera – producing idle men and women but “innocent and pure”. The African imagery worked brilliantly.

And the set was- to my delight- dominated by a TREE! an African-handcrafted-tree that blended into the rocks. Janice Honeyman explains this: “Why do I see a a tree? A damaged, off-kilter tree…is it a revelation of the unravelling morass of Prospero’s mind as his power diminishes? Is it the ethereal environment of Ariel and the other-worldly spirits? Or is it the derelict domain of the disempowered Caliban? I think it is all of these, and more.”

The Designer- Illka Louw, together with the Puppetry master- Janni Younge- produced some fantastic images- amazing costumes and puppets. I only have the program photos to illustrate this, the first one showing part of the tree. To my mind they do not do justice to the wonderful splashes of colour which made this Tempest so memorable..

Images,1st3: Eric Miller, 4th RCA website.

Stratford-Upon-Avon: 2

Having already written at length about the Shakespeare Stratford, I now want to show a few images of trees both in Stratford and the surrounding countryside. I was particularly delighted on one of our walks to see some red Larch flowers, a particular favourite of mine:

Stratford-Upon-Avon: 1

Stratford-Upon-Avon= William Shakespeare

Last week I spent a couple of nights with friends in Stratford and somehow found that:

Stratford-Upon-Avon= William Shakespeare= Trees!

Wherever I went Shakespeare was prominent but the symbols I seemed to end up with were images of trees…

Appropriately, I stayed with a Shakespeare expert- ex. Head of Drama at Wolverhampton University and author of “The North Face of Shakespeare: Activities for Teaching the Plays”, James Stredder and his wife Kathy. Surprisingly, it was warm enough to have tea in their garden, a delightful garden full of Spring flowers and trees- Apple trees, a Pear tree and Greengage tree among others. James went to school at Malvern College where my father was Art Master and it was rewarding to hear him speak so warmly of his memories of both my parents.

On the first evening we went to a Royal Shakespeare Company preview production of “A Winter’s Tale”, which I found both visually exciting and emotional- Director: David Farr, Designer: Jon Bausor. Books were used as a dramatic theme: as the casts’ lives fell apart, the first half of the play climaxed in hundreds of books falling from collapsing bookshelves; the Bear who pursued Antigonous in Bohemia was a magnificent puppet clothed in book pages as were the dancing Satyrs. But of course what stayed in my mind was a tree with leaves of paper which descended from the flys for Perdita to make her entrance and for her and Florizel to climb.

The next morning, Kathy Stredder showed me round Stratford, pointing out the many buildings supported by The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Again, it seemed to be the trees that caught my eye and became my Shakespeare symbols- so here they are:

The Birthplace- where Shakespeare was born in 1564: tourists queue to enter, obscured by a gnarled tree.

New Place- the site of the house where he lived from 1597-1616: Yew hedges.

The Tomb- Holy Trinity Church where he was both baptized and buried (1616), in the chancel: a prehistoric monster-like cedar tree and a cut yew tree fronted by someonelse’s tombstone.

Blackthorn Blossom

Another of my favourite early Spring flowers in the hedgerows is Blackthorn blossom, with its fragile white flowers on stark, angular branches. In the Autumn these blossoms metamorphose into the exotic blue Sloe berries with their incredible bloom.