Kelston Roundhill

Tim Graham took this photo at dawn on 27 December 2017 from the top of Lansdown Lane, just below the Blathwayte Arms pub.

This photo in from Tim Graham. Tim started the excellent Kelston Roundhill Flickr group which he and Matt Prosser seem to be vying to contribute the most and best pics to.

Couple more below taken by me the next day on my phone but a) I dont get up as early as Tim b) I haven’t found his vantage point at top of Lansodwn Lane and c) maybe I need a photography course.

Roundhill at dusk 28 Dec from barn still adorned with Solstice-fest artefacts.

Roundhill through trees from top of Lansdown Lane pm of 28 Dec 2017.

Nice to see a couple of greetings cards with different interpretations of a familiar icon. Both are by local artists, with prints are available on sale.

Nick Cudworth has this print on sale in his gallery in Walcot Street, Bath.

Kelston Round Hill 2 (thanks Su!) is by Nick Cudworth, who has a gallery in Walcot Street, Bath. His web site says:

Nick was commissioned by The Royal Mail to design a set of stamps for the Commonwealth Games which were on show at The Post Office Museum in Bath. In 1999 The National Portrait Gallery in London purchased a painting of film director Ken Loach for their permanent exhibition.

Nick opened his own gallery in London Street, (top end of Walcot Street) Bath in 1999 as an exhibition space and as a studio. He works in oil and pastel and is equally known for his landscape, still life and portraiture.

This print by Lynette Bower is available from her web site in a range of sizes.

Kelston Roundhill is a painting by Lynette Bower (thanks Aliya!). Lynette was born in Keynsham and has lived and worked in and around Bristol all her life. The Room 212 web site says:

A Science teacher by profession for over 20 years she has always had an interest in art and whenever possible experimented with different techniques. Her interest in botany (including at the microscopic level) and love of plants, beautiful gardens and landscapes has inspired her paintings. They are mostly created in acrylic on canvas in a style based loosely on pointillism.

Terrific video by Costwold AONB “Magnificent Meadows” project, starring our very own local conservation officer Eleanor Reast. She’s a bit diffident about the film career, which is just as well: saving our meadows is way more important.

first  voice 

Ice broke this land to life,
this humpbacked hill,
water split it open
and drank the light,
wind blew these trees
out of kilter, their lanky limbs
boxing like love-struck hares.

second voice

The land stretched out
like a dog at the hearth and said,
Here you may build your barn,
enclose this piece of world
to be a haven on this broken hill,
nourished by the view, the skies, the stars,
the ever-changing light a sanctuary,
a safe place for travelling souls.

third voice

Though rain may lean its grief against your walls,
though storm may crash against your sacred space,
and folded clouds smear darkness through the gloom,
you will be graced by sunshine here,
cold sun on the silver days
in this nest of stone.

fourth voice

Here will be windows open to the sky,
here will be space to watch the drifting clouds,
here there will be time
to listen,
to stand in the rain and look towards the sea,
to share your hopes,
to grow your fellowship,
to kindle spirit brighter than a fire,
to share your memories.
Here you will be free
to travel beyond yourselves.

fifth voice

We do not work the land.
Earth called us here
as it called our ancestors,
men with the will to work,
masons, labourers,
the six-fingered carpenter
between them finding out
the alchemy of stone,
the bones of timber.
Something pulls us,
something draws us in.
Wind-scoured and weathered,
lifting by stages to the rising sun
in this tree-gifted place,
evolving against the backcloth of the sky,
a beauty grows itself.

sixth voice

I was drawn a pilgrim to this place.
Lost voices spoke.
Lost wisdom came to me.
I was alone, but I was not alone.
I felt no fear.
I was held.  I was sustained.

seventh voice

Apart and yet a part,
mortar and mortal,
wood, wit, unstained stone.
As the barley loves the blade,
as the wheat longs for the scythe,
to turn promise into purpose
I want to walk the path into the fire,
to be so consumed,
to be so changed.

eighth voice

All who come with shadows as well as stones,
whose lives are locked in anger and in grief,
all who bear heavy weight,
all who fear the failing of the light,
all who seek to breathe a clearer air,
who ask time to pardon them,
all who long to speak and to be heard,
all who have fallen, all who carry dreams
are welcome.

A Poem for Performance created by Sue Boyle, Claire Coleman, Darren Evans, Jill Field, Louise Green, Tanya Guildford, Charlie Hancock, Meretta Hart, Margaret Heath, William Heath, Caroline Heaton, Radha Housden, Rosie Jackson, Andrew Lawrence, Michael Loveday, Helen Mumford, Ras Nyah, Ann Preston, Tekla Selassie, Phillip Shepherd, Tessa Strickland, Liban Suleiman, Eliot Warwick, and Conor Whelan on Sunday 17th September 2017. Photo by Matt Prosser, selected by Sue Boyle. Part of the Bathscape Walking Festival funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (with thanks to B&NES and 12 other Bathscape partners).

Three Kelston Records events coming up at the Old Barn on Kelston Roundhill:

Sat 7 Oct: Eyebrow; Kolophon: a duo of duets with video art by Kathy Hinde. Eyebrow is the duet of Pete Judge (trumpet) and Paul Wigens (drums). Kolophon is the duet of Agathe Max (violin) and Drew Morgan (cello). Doors 1900; tickets here.

One thing we don’t know well is the bird life on the Roundhill. So we’re grateful to environmentalist David Goode for sending us this list of birds he observed during the Quaker day of quiet.

Kestrel
Raven
Crow
Magpie
Robin
Swallow
House Martin
Green Woodpecker
Skylark
Goldfinch
Wren
and possibly Tree Sparrow

We could hear the deep croaks of ravens , the twittering of swallows and song of robins as we sat in the barn.

Very glad to hear anytime from any bird-watchers with other species spotted, or any bird photos.

Today Tessa Strickland and Sue Boyle organised a “Walking into Words” writing workshop up at the Old Barn. It was part of B&NES’ trial Heritage Lottery funded “Bathscape” programme to celebrate the landscape around the World Heritage City. The writing workshop was designed to bring a cultural dimension to the Bathscape Walking Festival.

A very diverse group of 20 people came, supplemented by three passing walkers who were invited in to join us. We first developed our own words based on the landscape and where we were, and heard a series of inspiring poems. We walked in the landscape, then worked in groups of four to develop a shared piece about the landscape. This seemed to work extraordinarily well.

In our group some had alrady fluently expressed a range of metaphors and images; others expressed deep and powerful feelings the landscape had evoked, concerned with being detached from sacred land, suffering bereavement or the slave trade legacy.

It was a moving and beautiful occasion, wonderfully organised and executed. Thanks to Sue, Tessa and all who made its happen. Sue is just accumulating and working over the words from the day; some of that will be published here in due course.