Walking East Stoke's lanes: June 2024

Following on from last month’s update I was right to think that the cow parsley would be more of a thing, and along with the elderflowers the hedgerows around our local lanes have been full of white ‘frothy’ flowers, and so much more besides.

MOOR LANE

MOOR LANE

MOOR LANE

MOOR LANE

The wild roses and oxeye daisies were a particular favourite of mine, and still seems unusual to see these growing so well on the side of the road - but that’s the Londoner in me I guess!

The big news for Moor Lane this month is less pot holes - which is no mean feat. A complete resurfacing would have been preferable, as it is for many country roads around here, but patching the pot holes is a close second - especially when it’s whole sections like this. That’s a much better approach to the literal patching holes approach, as that never seems to last very long, and must be more expensive in the longer term.

That said while it was good to have the pot holes tackled, tarmac-ing the edge of the verge seemed less than ideal.

MOOR LANE

MOOR LANE

For the first time in this series I bumped into a tractor along my walk - and a tall one at that. I was glad to be able to stand on the verge and watch this one pass with a friendly wave from the farmer.

MOOR LANE

While a walk down Moor Lane and back again may not be the most interesting of walks, I do enjoy seeing the walk in reverse. Somehow the same scenes take on a different feel, and the trees and the pylons against the sky are always a favourite.

MOOR LANE

MOOR LANE

There were more elderflower bushes - and large ones at that - along Church Lane. We didn’t pick any this year, but have previously made elderflower ‘champagne’ with mixed success, and thankfully no exploding bottles - though it came close!

CHURCH LANE

CHURCH LANE

CHURCH LANE

When we reached the banks of the river we were able to get much closer than previously, and the grass paths were looking especially verdant. As we looked over to the pub and buildings on the opposite bank for the first time we saw the glimpse of a wooden pier, though this was as close as we got as wading through comfrey and nettles wasn’t going to happen.

And how pretty are those comfrey flowers?

Thanks for joining me this month, I’ll be back to sharing the next instalment around the third week of the month, but in the meantime if you enjoyed this post you may also like some previous series where I revisit the same place - there’s my year in Greenwich Park and remember that time when I followed a tree?

Hamid Zenati at the Nottingham Contemporary

While there are plenty of exhibitions in London - one of which we’ve been to recently, there’s also plenty of exhibitions and ‘culture’ outside of the capital, and that’s something we’re still exploring. Since we’ve lived in Nottinghamshire though, I think we’ve been to more concerts and such, which given we practically lived on the O2’s doorstep in Greenwich is pretty odd! I think here we’re actively looking for things to explore as we build our new lives, but all of that is made so much easier by the institutions here putting on such great programmes.

Anyway, while my car was in for its service and MOT we decided to catch the bus into Nottingham and spend the day there. We weren’t sure which bus exactly, but the garage pointed us in the right direction and on both journeys we had to run for the bus, so that was a bonus too.

I’d spotted the Two Steps at a Time exhibition at the Nottingham Contemporary in a magazine and had added the exhibition dates to my calendar, so that was just the prompt I needed to sort out something a little different. I also signed us up to the ‘Wednesday Walkthrough’ session where we were led through more details about the artist by an art expert, at this session Sheyda Aisha Khaymaz an artist, curator and PhD Candidate in Art History at the University of Texas at Austin.

After completing the more usual tasks of shopping and checking out items for potential future online purchases, and then grabbing a coffee we set off to find the Nottingham Contemporary. It’s a fairly brutalist piece of architecture, and one we hadn’t seen before - however when we arrived we realised we’d probably been less than a few hundred feet away from it on most of our visits to the city. Even better was we’re getting our bearings and knew this just by looking at our surroundings - it’s great when that happens and you start to find your way around a new place naturally isn’t it?

NOTTINGHAM CONTEMPORARY

I knew nothing of the artist before we booked our spaces, but learnt from the website blurb that Hamid Zenati (b 1944 Algeria; d 2022 Germany) was a self-taught and prolific artist working across many surfaces including textiles, fashion and ceramics and more.

This exhibition is the second-ever showing of his nearly sixty year career and the first in the UK - and from the images on the website I knew we were in for a feast of colour.

It was great to hear more about the artist, and the talk was busy with up to thirty people also attending, which the organisers clearly welcomed. I’ll not share much more about the artist or the talk, but we enjoyed both - I’ve realised lately that I’m very much a visual person (it’s not really a surprise tbh), so I’ll leave you (mostly anyway) to enjoy my favourite pictures.

The gallery with the textiles was my favourite of the two spaces. They were hung at varying levels from the super high space and that also provided movement, and being able to get up so close was unexpected, as was being able to walk through (literally) the pieces - though of course people were respecting them and ducking to avoid any contact.

The piece at the centre top of the image above is I think my favourite piece of the exhibition. I’m not sure if that’s because it captured your attention as soon as you walked in through its height or its colours, but it’s the one I kept coming back to - and there were plenty in here that I liked.

The boldness of the pieces was amazing, and perhaps this is attributed to being self taught and not needing to follow the rules, or perhaps it’s just what it is and what needed to come out! He didn’t document much of his work at all, so there’s no sure way of knowing - which again means you can make up your own mind, as can I.

The one below was close to being my favourite, for the colours. I can imagine that making a lovely summer dress! Which isn’t as mad or sacrilegious as it sounds, as the gallery staff were wearing his designs. I’m not sure how they felt about it, but it was a fab touch to bring the art to life.

I’ll share one final textile, this one had me captivated during the first part of the talk. It was in my direct eye line and I found myself wondering if they were whales or just fish. They could be either I guess.

This last picture is the one the MOH was most taken with. It’s in the second gallery where there’s more ceramics and even more textiles, though smaller ones which are laid out on plinths. It too follows the ‘fill the space’ approach which isn’t something I’m against. I too love the bold colours, and would happily have a pair of matching, or at least complementary, vases like this on our half-stair landing - though I’d be worried about them bouncing down the stairs unaided.

It’s great to find exhibitions such as this locally, I’m glad I spotted it and that we were able to go and enjoy it - I’m sure we’ll be back to the Nottingham Contemporary, and I’m pretty sure there’s much more in Nottingham and around for us to discover.

Walking East Stoke's lanes this May

This month’s post once again has pictures from Moor Lane - a time poor month this time round as a good part of it was spent exploring and walking Italy’s Gargano Peninsular.

As I started my walk I was quite quickly reminded of our own little laburnum tree in our previous garden in London - it was never quite as magnificent, nor anywhere near as big, but I’d almost forgotten that they come into their own in May. It’s worth its place in this post though.

Moving further along the lane and approaching the bridge over the A46 it was easy to spot that the verges were full of life, and well, weeds. Though as ever if you live by the definition of a weed that it’s a plant in the wrong place, then that’s probably up for some debate with these. Clearly before the seedheads there would have been flowers, but somehow I think the seedheads are more dramatic - and I’m happy to admire them, just as long as they’re not in my own garden!

I’m not 100% sure what the plant is above - my phone suggests it’s a ribwort, and it’s been pretty accurate so I’m tended to go with that, though if you know then please do let me know.

The star of the month though was most definitely the cow parsley. I started to get an inkling it would be a big feature as soon as I caught sight up the lane.

The fluffy strip of clouds above the hedgerows somehow seemed to add an accent to its frothiness and I’ve probably way too many photos of cow parsley than anyone person needs. Later on in my walk I was joined out of the blue by a chirpy robin who most obligingly posed on the post next to the gas marker, and I’m rather keen on him silhouetted against the pylon in the distance.

Reaching the bridge it wasn’t surprising to see the hedgerow on the right in bloom, and nor was it a surprise to see the yellow flowering rape - thankfully that doesn’t set my hayfever off, I’ve a month or two yet before I start to sneeze (something to look forward too!)

As I turned to head back I was mesmerised by the clouds once again as I looked towards Newark. Living here I really should start to learn about the types of clouds, as with such big skies there’s often different types on display.

And one last photo before I end, this hedgerow seems to be as appreciative of the lichen as I am, and rather than ‘greening up’ in the more traditional spring growth way, it’s keep it’s lichen front and centre. I’m sure it will soon be covered in new growth though, and that’s ok too.

Thanks for joining me this month, I’ll be back to sharing the next instalment around the third week of the month, but in the meantime if you enjoyed this post you may also like some previous series where I revisit the same place - there’s my year in Greenwich Park and remember that time when I followed a tree?