Morning River Walk

 






    


                                    




 


                                         












                    



                                




         


      












         


     
                               






Flowers spotted on my walk; Speedwell, daisies, sea kale, teasel and maybe vipers bugloss?













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Laying down roots

Image
David moved to Gravesend from London three years ago with his partner. He used to live in an artist community in North London but couldn’t see a way to buy a place, to support starting a family. The move to Gravesend was prompted by economic necessity, rather than attraction to place. But, as David talks, I sense a deep and growing affection for Gravesend. David and his partner decided quite quickly that this town would not just be somewhere they slept – they wanted to become part of and support the community. Meeting key community connectors has helped them discover the place through a network of people – including Lauren. David remembers being welcomed on his first day by some older residents and neighbours, and feeling really excited by the sense of community and neighbourliness. At the same time a throwaway comment suggested a racist othering of a different neighbour. He wondered for a moment if he had made the wrong choice. David notices there is a gulf in politics between some Gr...
Read more

Final reflection and thank you!

Image
It’s Friday 30 April and I’m returning to Gravesend for a final debrief with Païvi from LV21 and Lucy from Quiet Down There to reflect on the Pull Up A Chair residency. I arrived early and before the meeting sat down to enjoy coffee and coffee cake outside Marie’s café. The first time I had been able to do this in Gravesham. As I sit and watch the town it’s lovely to say Hi to Graham, the town centre manager passing by, and overhear conversations between people bumping into each other for the first time. I had grand hopes of having all the blog posts written up and everything neatly tied up with a bow but well life, and other exciting projects happened, and I hadn’t quite finished everything. So I took this moment to read back through some notes I’d made after a mentoring session.             I was very grateful for the support of Tom, a coach and mentor who I had three sessions with over the course of the project. The last of these was two weeks after...
Read more

Final residency day - The Chantry, a river walk, the Gurdwara and a ferry ride

Image
It’s my last day in Gravesend and I’m meeting Lyndsey Thompson in the New Tavern Fort park. Lydney is the   Arts and Heritage Officer for Gravesend Borough Council. It’s a job she’s had for 13 years and she loves it. In more normal years she supports arts events in the town and is responsible for the care of the historic assets, in particular The Chantry. I used to be a local government arts officer for a county, that also had district level local government. This is often a complex arrangement, with lots of overlap and challenges – but also lots of potential. I worked in local government before the economic crash of 2008, and subsequent austerity. It was a very different world in terms of funding, and support for local authorities.   I’m interested in what is happening now, and how Lyndsey works.   We talk about partnerships with other local authorities, in particular some brilliant projects that happened in the past. Lyndsey recalls a really well received one with artis...
Read more