The Lookout Aldeburgh

It's always a highlight seeing the art and installation at The Lookout on the beach in Aldeburgh.

 You can see the spiral stairs leading up to the tower room at the top on the post 2nd November... where each year Caroline Wiseman puts on another work combining artist and poet.

This year the art is by Issam Kourbaj. The poetry by Ruth Padel.

The combined work is called ...

Dark Water, Burning World, 80 Moons and Counting.

To mark the sixth anniversary of the uprising in Syria, poet, classicist and Hellenophile Ruth Padel, joins artist Issam Kourbaj, to present an intervention that explores the millennia-long relations between the Near East and ancient Greece. At this event, Kourbaj will launch Dark Water, Burning World - a new artwork inspired by 5th century BC Syrian vessels on display in Gallery 21; and Padel will read a new poem Lesbos 2015 - influenced by her meetings on the island of Lesbos, both with the inhabitants and with some of the thousands of Syrians who have fled there.

So you reach the top and look in and are confronted by the boats full of burnt out matches and the clear Irish voice of Ruth Padel reading her poems influenced by her visits to Lesbos and the influx of so many broken lives.

The boats cover the floor of the upper room and fill the old wooden window frames. 

While we were there we noticed a family on the beach playing as families do...with dogs and children running and laughing...

...and in the icy cold waters of the North Sea a lone swimmer can just be made out fighting the waves.

Two worlds.

The Work can be viewed at The Fitzwilliam Gallery and The V and A as well.

We made our now annual expedition to The Aldeburgh Poetry Festival this weekend just gone. It's held mainly in the village of Snape at The Snape Maltings...very apt for the potter and wife!
Our association with this part of Suffolk goes back to the years of the teenage children. But the festival..only the last three years. The potter has some ceramics in the Gallery there and also in The Buckenham Gallery in Southwold ...so there's a double reason to take the six hour trip from here in the north west to East Anglia. And a further reason as the oldest grandgirl is now at UEA  in her second year and getting more political by the moment!!
But the festival was just great this year. I love the different approaches. The "academic"...the "comedic"...the "ex-punk"...the "rock-star"...the "rap poet"....and the madness of the open-mike late night session!!
Each year I've made the effort to get to as many sessions as I have energy....and these poets are a sample of those I heard speak this time.
Attila The Stockbroker, Gerry Loose, Kei Miller, Helen Mort, Jeremy Reed, Valerie Rouzeau, Pedro Serrano, Susan Wicks, Jane Duran, Peter Sansom and Jeni Smith.
From the workshops to the Q&A sessions the talks and the readings, it's a feast of words and emotions.
  Now I will have to have a go at putting it all into practice....
I plucked up enough courage to have a go at the open mike session in The Plough and Sail at Snape on the Saturday evening.....this was my contribution!

...hands shaking by the time I had finished!!...

Time at the Bay.

We had a few days up at the house on the Bay this week.

The sky was a piercing blue and the water... still and quiet.

Lots of folk were out taking pics of the boats

... in the little harbour.

 

The hills in the distance matched the blue of the sky

and the primary colours of the fishing boats...with the reflections in the water...well...

...it couldn't have been more perfect.

Along the coast by the Red Bank farm...

...sea birds were gathering to fly off for the winter.

Then within 24 hours...

...all  changed...

 

The sky was grey and overcast and the sea competing with it for greyness.

A little egret searches for food on the rich sandy mud of the edge while it's partner has just flown off into the middle of the sands.

 

The autumn tide came right up to the edge of the  promenade 

...while the sky was threatening. 

But we snuggled up in the Palatine Pub with hot steak sandwiches and listened to the rain beating down ...outside the  windows!

Then ...back to the house ...running through the gusts of rain...

and feet up in the warmth of the old leather armchairs.

Hurray....!

The First of Many...

"Boats on the Bay"

...well at least I hope so...

managed to work out the photoshop routine for this...

...it only took me all afternoon !

Under my Nose!

Sometimes the best things are right there under our noses.

This is the view of the river Mersey when drinking "ones" rose' wine at the Ferry Tavern  not far from the Potters House.
Well actuallly the potter has a Guinness!

It's a favourite spot for walkers and bikers and dogs.
Lots of history has gone into the making of the Ferry...obviously once upon a time there was a ferryman.... .....but I've heard that the owner of the distant shore will not allow any landings.

Shame I say!

When the river floods the tavern gets wet! Sometimes the water reaches quite high up the walls.

I have heard that this was the spot where the Romans crossed over after leaving Chester to travel north.
Some early pottery is exhibited in the local museum.

At the back of the inn, parallel to the river, is one of the earliest canals built for the industrial revolution in England.

When we first arrived in the area we often biked down to the Sankey canal with the kids on the back of the bikes.

But in those days it was dirty and smelly.Clogged up with rubbish and discarded metal whatevers.

Now shoals of fish swim in the clear water, while swans and ducks inhabit the reeds along the edges.

 Boats are moored ......

.....and a boatyard rings with the sound of energetic boaty people!

We will be back more regularly...sure......and not only for the Guinness!