A Saturday afternoon walk around Bath starts with a stroll through Sydney Gardens and a look over the gates of the park-keeper’s compost corner – which has since been commandeered by Network Rail as a storage depot.
This of course is while they work on lowering the track that passes through Sydney Gardens as part of the electrification of the London to Bristol railway line.
They seem to have built some sort of mock wall. Is this how the new boundary between park and railway line is going to look? They’ve a consultation meeting at the Guildhall on Tuesday afternoon (June 9th 4-7pm) so l will ask.
At the front of the Holburne Museum the shaped pieces of willow that have been put together by volunteers are piling up on the balcony.
They will form part of a temporary installation across the front columns which will mimic the murmuration of birds like starlings.
The way they mass and dance in the air. A sight l remember seeing once above Temple Meads Railway Station in Bristol.
The installation is the work of Laura Ellen Bacon who is mentioned elsewhere in the Virtual Museum.
Further along Great Pulteney Street, the Laura Place fountain is still dry. I am sure they had turned on the water by this time next year. It also looks as if the young sapling – which was vandalised soon after its installation – has now died. I am hoping the Parks Department will not let the vandals win and will plant another one. Come on residents protect your heritage!
At the Victoria Art Gallery the 110th annual exhibition of Bath Society of Artists continues through to June 27th. Great talent and amazing variety on display.
Always good to see the image of a crane as a reminder that all of Bath’s history did not revolve around Romans and Georgians. Unfortunately there isn’t much to show for the skills of the many who worked for world-famous engineers Stothert and Pitt.
Once again in Abbey Green they have wasted money in re-turfing the area around the large and noble central Plane tree. The grass is always dead by the time the chalets of the annual Christmas Market appear. Surely they could consider another way of covering the central space.
Finally – on our return – things looked busy around the ‘Field of Dreams’ – a little market some of the boat travellers had organised on the grass by the Kennet and Avon Canal tow path.
Also good to see artist/illustrator Dru Marland parked up and selling work.
Makes a stroll along the canal more interesting when you can interact with the boat dwellers.
June is Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month, and Bath-based charity Julian House is organising some events in the Bath and North East Somerset area.
One will be an exhibition of art, craft and photography by members of the gypsy, Roma, traveller and boater communities, at Walcot Chapel Gallery in Bath from the 22nd to the 28th of June.
Dru has been working on a series of paintings showing people and life on the ‘cut’ – as they call the canal – and they will be included in the chapel gallery display.
