Life at x10 - Quadrat 2

2m square, acrylic line marking paint on asphalt

Each of the two artworks are paintings enlarged from photos taken on the Southern Rabbit Lawn. This lawn is a fragment of Calcareous Grassland, variety Carline Thistle - Sheep's Fescue Turf, sub-variety with Portland Spurge and Autumn Squill.

You can walk on the artwork and the real thing, they wont last forever so now is a good time to see them while they're fresh.

posted by dave

car park artworks finished

Life at x5 - Qudarat 1. detail

acrylic line marking paint on asphalt

 

There are now 2 paintings on to the asphalt in the car park. They depict the rare class of calcareous grassland .... more to follow...

posted by dave

White Ash Talisman Story

White Ash Talisman is a visualisation by Anna Keleher for  Berry Head National Nature Reserve and English Riviera Global Geopark.

-->"Long long ago after the great ice melt when the sea was a bit smaller than it is today and the shore was further out, the bay was filled with a waving sea of ash trees. Giant cattle roamed the soggy ground kicking up mud with cloven hooves and bears, wolves and lynx sheltered in the caves. A river snaked inland.

"You are in the mouth of the creek, a breeze from the open sea is tickling your back, you sit upright in your log boat. Your sleepy eyes rest on the flat black back of Winding River, it is she who will guide you safely home. So now lift your dear carved, decorated paddle and stir the heart of female river snake. Its easy to propel your craft along her sinuous length. Your log-boat slides easily over the dark waters as you lift your arm and let your paddle drop creating galaxies of bubbles.

The river is overhung by the lower branches of enormous trees. Leaves whisper to each other while white egrets and black cormorants watch you pass. A beaver slips from the bank and pale rocks grow suddenly out of the trees, rearing up now, to form an impressive cliff. Your home cove swings into view and pulls you in close.Dip your paddle one more time, and you power your boat out onto gritty red sand.

Chattering children fill the cove with their delight as they heap drift- wood kindling from the large pile in your log-boat into their woven baskets lined with resin tar. They are laughing as you watch them lift the baskets onto their heads and head off into the forest.

So drag your log-boat to the top of the beach, roll it over just as you always do in that special spot out of reach of the flicking tongue of female river snake. Enjoy the tingle of sand on the arches of your feet and feel for the warm smoothness of the mud trail home. Follow laughter up the narrow path between Red squirrel pines, but don’t get distracted.

You must remember to leave your paddle, just here in the shadow of Great Red Boulder Man Sharpener of Blades. But first use your paddle blade to deepen the grooves on Great Red Boulder Man’s face. Know that he will keep your sight sharp and your hearing keen. His tattoes will show you the patterns of the world in sounds and shapes and your blades will always be sharp. 

Now scramble upwards over the loose stones and big white boulders on this final slope and spring up onto the close turf of the friendly red soil.

Woodsmoke and fish drying on racks is the sweet scent of home.

The flap of the big tent is up, so now duck your head and follow the dark shapes of your cousins into the interior, dance your legs around the red hot fire pit, you must greet the charcoal embers for they are alive and will bite if you forget to do this just one time. Now sit down on a cool fresh woven mat of iris leaves and wait. You have waited a long time for this moment and now it is close. Enjoy this tranquil moment.

You have made your special journey to the island in search of the fingers of the white ash tree washed up on the shore there. You have heaped them in your log-boat and brought them back home as a gift for Wiry Uncle who will give you your first talisman. 

You have remembered to leave your paddle in the shade of Great Red Boulder Man Sharpener of Blades and you have traced the pattern of tattoes on his face. This action has keened your eyes and ears. Now you have entered the tent that breathes, with reverence, you have saluted the threshold fire and now you wait expectantly on that fresh green mat for the ceremony to proceed.

Small Wiry Uncle, with his head of shiny ringlets steps forward, his brow is marked with ochre and he has a sharp canine at his throat. He's really young to be an elder and today he is wearing an armlet of red fox fur on the top part of his arm. Turn your palms skyward ready for White Ash talisman. Your eyes are shut. This talisman is named for your tribe and it will be your guide. When the ceremony is complete you will have the authority to make talismans for yourself and others.

Wiry uncle takes a pinch of ash and sprinkles the light fluffy powder into your palm. and you smell soft fire. He blows hard and ash puffs into the air, leaving your palms streaked with grey.

This is the moment White Ash Talisman chooses to jump into your palm. Let him rest there a while and get used to your smell. Open your eyes and be still for a moment waiting while Talisman looks back at you. Know that White Ash talisman gives you extraordinary vision and keen hearing.  

This talisman is a guide to worlds distinct from your own and helps you live right."

The people's larder

                                                           Seagull egg story by Laurie

"My dad had been wounded in the war and er, he didn't live very much longer after that so my mum brought three boys up, pretty hard times in those days and this is one of the reasons why we were out and about erm, poaching for something to eat, which was the seagulls eggs, the rabbits and erm, sometimes they used to be shot, but we used to snare them normally and there was a place in Brixham where we used to be able to sell the rabbit skins, you'd probably know that.

 On the day that I did fall over the cliffs I was with two other young lads, they were a bit older than me and we were supposed to take it in turns to go down and get the eggs. But as I was the smallest and the youngest I had to do more of it, of course that's when it all happened. Just on this last occasion when it was my turn to go, it was a bit further than we'd normally risk ourselves, but erm, and that's what happened I slipped and er, tumbled down over the cliffs there.

One of the lads got frightened and ran home, ran off, but one of the stayed with me, came down and we managed to climb back over the top and we went into what was then a little holiday camp, in the reception of the holiday camp and we got erm, the ambulance and took me to Brixham hospital. Er, in a bit of a mess obviously 'cause of all the broken eggs all over me, it's lucky that I wasn't seriously hurt."

Story by Laurie Dart,
Audio + edit by Anna Keleher,
Transcription by Alexandra Brown

This story features in "Ballad of Berry Head" a film short showing daily during the summer months  from 21st July in The Visitor Centre, Berry Head National Nature Reserve, Brixham.

Ladies' Fingers

 

kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria)
a characteristic component of the shallow, dry soils of limestone grassland
also occurs in dry, coastal grassland, rock ledges, cliff tops and maritime heath
'The Wildflowers of the British Isles', Streeter & Garrard

an ancient remedy for slow healing wounds

kate

Where do stories live when they are not being told?

Stories are part of the biodiversity of place, but where do they live when they are not being told?
Might stories pool in particular places, collect on flat surfaces or do they hang out in cracks and crevices?

The Singing Gate

with thanks to Chris P

herring gull - rain - cloud - ore stone - hopes nose - 

sea - wave - water droplet - camera - me - you

posted by david

The Inner Quarry

 

Graham Kenyan -" I do a lot of diving, a lot of scuba diving. Erm, well, it can be very, very good, the problem with Berry Head, is because it sticks out so much you get a lot of currents going round Berry Head itself, so it's quite dangerous, it's very deep, because it sticks out so far, er what is it about three hundred feet high, the cliffs, and the water it just drops straight off so you've got about twenty to thirty metres of water straight off the edge of the rocks, erm, what's it like, it looks like, underneath it looks like it does above, it's very rocky, leading down onto like a pebbly, sandy bottom. It's the currents really, so you can do a drift dive, if the boat will drop you at one end and you'll just get pulled all the way round and it'll pick you up at the other side. Er, but lots and lots of fishing line nets, things like that which are obviously quite dangerous for anybody diving off there, I wouldn't dive, well you've got the old quarry down there, have you ever gone down there? It's quite a walk down, it's worth a visit, erm, and they've got, well have a walk around the old quarry, it's lovely as long as you can cope with the walk back.

Incidents? At Berry Head, no not really, there have been some, there was a young lad lost there about two years ago, er when his parents where, they were diving off round the edge of Berry head, the engine cut out on the boat and they couldn't get to him the parents, the son was diving with the father and the father got back to the boat and because the wind and what have you pulls the boat away, the lad was still in the water and they got separated and he went down and they found him two or three days later, not good no, it happens sometimes.

Alexandra Brown -Have you found anything whilst diving?

Graham Kenyan - Off of berry Head? No, no. Fish! Dinner, crabs, lobsters, er, you get monk-fish, bass, Pollock, mackerel, er, loads and loads of different types of fish, er you get scallops, erm, anything you want for dinner really I suppose. There's loads of little, you do sometimes if you come away from Berry Head a little bit, er, in the shallower areas you get what they call sea grass and it's only something that happens during the seasons, during the summer season, the sea grass grows and that's where seahorses live, so they'll connect themselves to the seagrass, if you're really careful you can see them when you're snorkelling as well, you'll find tiny little seahorses connected to the seagrass, but that only lasts till about September that disappears then ad then they go off, I don't know where they go, deeper water I suppose."

Text by Graham Kenyan,
Interview & transcript by Alexandra Brown,
Post by Anna Keleher
Links http://www.englishrivierageopark.org.uk/section_sub.cfm?section=18&sub=134 

The Gullemot that could talk

  

                                 THE GUILLEMOT THAT COULD TALK 

An Artist one day went in search of a guillemot that could talk. She came to a fishing village, and said to the people there: 

"I am looking for a guillemot that can talk" and one of the women there said:
"To-morrow I will go with you, and I will be a guide for you, because I know the way." 

Next morning when they awoke, those two women set off together. They jumped in a kayak and paddled off around the head. They came to the foot of that bird cliff, and when they arrived at the foot and looked up, it was a mightily big bird cliff.

"Now where is that guillemot, I wonder?" said the artist. She had hardly spoken, when the woman who was her guide said:
"Here, here is the nest of that guillemot bird." 

And it came out of the nest that bird, and went to the side of the cliff and stared down at the kayaks, stretching its body to make it very long. And sitting up there, it said quite clearly:

"This, I think must be that artist woman, who has come to hear a guillemot speak" 

Story adapted by Anna from an original folk tale by Knud Rasmussen, 1921 
http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/inu/eft/eft55.htm

National Vegetation Classification

The Rabbit Lawn, Berry Head.
National Vegetation Classification: CG1 Festuca Ovina - Carline Vulgaris (Portland Spurge and Autumn Squill Variant)

Portrait of a White Rock Rose, May 2012

22 hectares/54 acres of limestone grassland at Berry Head and Wall's Hill in Torbay. A particularly rare variant of Carline Thistle Fescue Turf with Portland Spurge and Autumn Squill.

The only 22 hectares on the planet.

(with thanks to Andy Byfield, Plantlife)

Kate

Loess

approaching the North Fort, Berry Head

loess: a shallow layer of ancient silt forming a fertile topsoil for the limestone headland - a deposit of silty sediment blown high into the atmosphere by fierce glacial winds during the time of the Ice Ages

This .....reflects that the times of peak loessic silt production, and its deposition were during the ice ages themselves, not afterwards. Also we know definitely that the loess does not all date from the last ice age (though some of it will, of course). There are enough ancient loessic-derived cave earths around our part of Devon that predate the last (Devensian) glaciation that we can be confident about this.

  (with thanks to Dr Chris Proctor)

posted by Kate

Navigating Berry Head

a cow's horns are carved with her name

a beautiful sister loses her way

a man dreams his way out of prison

a map is torn in two and lovers part

a glass eye rolls under a blackberry bush

a swan crash lands and breaks a leg

an episode of history ends

a bloody nose beetle rests under a stone

a moment is recalled

a baby otter is found wandering aloft

a battle is postponed

a greasy ball of butter is rolled in tiny palms

a excise man sheds his heavy coat

a school boy crumples a note and throws it over the edge

a piano master buries his much loved pet

a very big pasty is shared by 16 friends

a commemorative flag is folded and put in a locked box

a can of milk attracts flies

a decoy is set up to attract newcomers

Text by Anna at the Navigational aid on Berry Head.

...no doubt that right now the calcareous flora of berry head is a wonder of the natural world, rarities and unique plant formations flourish in the warmth after the recent wet period. Communities perched on the edge of the sublime as you look in to emptiness over a bright blue sea...

posted by david