Last week’s blog was mostly about the White Cross wind farm onshore cable route planning decision – reported in the North Devon Journal on 15 May HERE>
Thanks to Alison Stephenson for her reporting.
This is the wildlife tower built by Cllr Simon Maddocks above Croyde, which he formally opened last Saturday (10 May). It has crevices for all manner of insects but also beautifully designed and made boxes inside for owls and bats. Very well done, Simon.
On Thursday morning Swifts were seen and heard in Swimbridge churchyard. We hope they will find the 24 nest boxes installed last autumn by Jerry Horn for Devon Birds. The Swift Caller should help.
On Sunday I took part in a poetry workshop at Barkham Farm in a lovely valley on Exmoor. It was capably led by the US writer Casey Charles.
I wanted to see if I could improve two new poems I plan to read at the Parracombe Festival of Arts and Literature on Sunday 25th (7.30 pm at the Fox & Goose). I think both pieces work better now.
Another festival I am keen on is the one at Simonsbath. I attended an excellent talk there last Wednesday by Charles Saumarez Smith on Vanburgh, the architect of Castle Howard and Blenheim. The drive back was enchanting, with the Barle glinting in its deep valley.
I took various trains to Wakefield for the opening of a fabulous exhibition of the work of Helen Chadwick at the Hepworth last Friday.
I had the privilege of working closely with Helen. Her sudden death in 1996 at the age of 42 was shattering for many of us. Her work, though, is as lively, mischievous and exhilarating as ever. The piece above was the first work I saw on entering the gallery.
I contributed a short text to Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures edited by Laura Smith and published by Thames & Hudson. Helen’s quicksilver talent still offers a brilliant model for artists in any medium.
I was in London on Saturday 17 May to take part in a march to mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba – the mass expulsion of Palestinians by Israeli forces in 1948.
Many people prefer not to know that Israeli was created by terrorists and that it has always chosen land instead of peace. Now it is committing genocide in plain sight.
Our government should be imposing sanctions but instead provides arms and aerial surveillance as well as diplomatic cover. The huge march has been variously estimated at numbers up to 600,000 but it’s hard to know the real number because our national broadcaster did not cover this massive rainbow coalition of modern Britons. Is the BBC biased on Gaza or incompetent – or both? One placard read ‘Jewish and heartbroken’.
Thinking of another horrible conflict, last week I mentioned the book launch by the Ukrainian soldier-poet Artur Dron’ – the Zoom recording of this event has now been uploaded to YouTube by the University of Exeter and is easy to find.
Finally, back in North Devon, early on Sunday morning I did my monthly count of wading birds on the Taw at Bishop’s Tawton.
I observed a juvenile Sparrowhawk preening in a tree beside the Codden Hill Road, above the Taw valley. I also saw a Buzzard roosting in a lime tree a metre or two from five Cormorants. I was delighted to see a Red Kite above Tawstock Woods – a pair nested here last year. I heard a Reed Warbler and a Reed Bunting among other song birds. I saw Mallard mothers with a total of 13 ducklings.
Thank you for reading.
Mark