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A July day after rain. Tide ebbing along the Blyth Estuary. We are here at Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Hen Reedbeds reserve in search of otters. It is seventeen years since this reserve was created as a haven for bitterns. We start at the Wolsey Bridge viewpoint looking out across the reedbeds,; four marsh harriers circling low; a hobby flashing behind across the heathy soil. Les Tarver, volunteer warden, explains just how special the site is, tells his own story about encountering a family of otters in broad daylight at the place where we are standing, (and shows us where the hairy legged mining bees are nesting in the car-park).

This is otter country. Secretly, stealthily, hunting across mudflats and through eel rich waters, the otter has adopted the Blyth Estuary. How do we know they are here? We will spend the morning in the company of Meg Amsden, who is recording signs of otter through footprints, slides, tunnels and spraints, and learn to read the landscape and find signs of otter.

First though, with Waveney & Blyth Arts focus on arts and landscape, we share readings about otters – Roger Deakin, writing in Waterlog about meeting an otter in the Waveney and Miriam Darlington, in Otter Country, recounting her countrywide search for the otter.

Meg explains the background to the otter surveys.

“I got up early one October morning two years ago to film the mist over the estuary, as the tide was going out.  Seagulls and crows were making a din. I ignored them at first as I struggled in vain to capture the mist, then gave up and turned the camera, still running, towards the birds. Into frame, running from pool to pool, submerging, fishing, swimming, loping across the mud, came an otter. I watched it till it disappeared into the river. It felt like a moment outside time, like a gift, a message that had to be listened to. I sent the two and a half minute film to a friend who passed it on to Richard Woolnough, a local naturalist, who was waiting for the incentive to start a Blyth Valley otter survey group. Within 10 days we met up for the first time, and have continued to meet; to learn how to identify, collect, clean and analyse otter spraint, to look for other evidence of their presence, and to try to extrapolate from our research how they live.”

Walking through the reedbed towards the Wolsey Bridge we share otter stories. Around half the group have seen otters in the wild and later in the morning Meg records people’s memories and observations. But first, we straggle across the road and up onto the estuary wall.

Beneath us the mud glowers under a dull sky; redshank and curlew, pacing out on the receding water, whistle and call into the wind. We look at the doodlings of the early morning’s visitors – waders picking their way in search of food, a fox crossing from a tufted island towards the safety of land, and then the unmistakeable five toed trail of the otter, with an incised line where its tail has caught the mud. Here Meg points out a regular crossing point, up from the estuary, over the wall and down into the reedbeds and shallow pools behind us.

We walk immersed, in the sights and smells of the estuary, to a known otter crossing and here we find fresh spraint. Meg explains the intricacies of the otter’s diet and digestive system leading to these characteristic otter droppings, once smelled, never forgotten. It has been likened to jasmine tea. We read Roger Deakin’s account of his morning on an animal tracking session where he delighted in the ritual of handing round the otter ‘poo’ and wondered what an otter would think of forty humans “queuing to lie full-length on the bank and sniff small dollops of poo, making appreciative sounds.”

Meg passes round otter spraint in a magnifying jar so we can appreciate the exquisite small bones which are key to an understanding of otter diet. Walking onto the far curve of the estuary wall we look for further otter signs before back tracking to the road and a clear tunnel from the reeds which reveals the best otter spraint of the day.

We end the morning with a cup of tea and a stack of field guides, sharing thoughts about otters.

Written by Melinda Appleby & Meg Amsden

 

Suffolk Otter Group https://suffolkotters.wordpress.com/

Meg Amsden’s otter film: http://www.nutmegpuppet.co.uk/news/october-otter-2/

 

Otter books we read from:

The Otters’ Tale Simon Cooper Harper Collins 2017

Otter Country Miriam Darlington Granta 2012

Waterlog Roger Deakin Chatto & Windus 1999

 

The first walk of the Waveney & Blyth Arts 2017 summer season took place on 9 July around Redisham, near Beccles. Inspired by a found pamphlet of poems by girls in the Land Army, walk organiser Netta Swallow devised an afternoon to celebrate the role of the Land Army and to hear some of these poems. Coinciding with the open gardens at Redisham Hall, the walk followed field paths from the Hall to the tiny church of St Peters, Suffolk’s smallest.

The walk was led by Ivan Crane and, on the way, we heard from historian Chris Reeve, who explored themes about the land, including tales of farming during the war, based on the writings of Adrian Bell, and information about the conscientious objectors who were employed to work the land in this part of Suffolk.

Once at the Church of St Peters, the audience heard tales of Land Girls and their poetry, the Bloomsbury Set and Adrian Bell and how there were links between them.  Oonagh Segrave-Daly read a very moving poem, “Let there be light” by Francis Heneage Burkitt, who was inspired to write the poem after reading an article about the plight of children in occupied Europe during WW2.  Oonagh also read “Hedge Cutting” by Land Girl Alice Coates, a thoughtful poem about her concern for the environment.

The highlight of the afternoon was a reading from Angela Ottaway (pitctured) who is now 92 years old but was first based in the Land Army at a farm on Romney Marsh.  It was not a good experience as she was employed by a woman who ran the farm and was a bully. Abusive towards Angela, she one night locked her out, leaving Angela to sleep in the barn.  Angela became ill working there and eventually managed to secure a transfer to horticulture which she enjoyed very much.  She is still a keen gardener today and involves herself in a handbell ringing group, the local museum team of volunteers and the local church.  Her mother was in the Timber Corps in WW1.

Angela read the poem “War, which has brought to others fear” by Hebe Jerrold, Women’s Timber Corps.

Then back for tea at the beautiful grounds of Redisham Hall.

Many thanks to Netta, Ivan and Chris for organising and informing us, to Oonagh for reading and, of course, to Angela for joining us to share the poetry reading and her memories of the Land Army.

More memories of the Land Army can be found on a website being developed by Cherish Watton. She intends it to become the national online hub for information on the Land Girls and Lumber Jills – sharing original documents, magazines, photos and videos:

www.womenslandarmy.co.uk,

 

Participants on July’s Labyrinth writing workshop, led by Beth Soule of Suffolk Poetry Society, have kindly agreed to share their poems written on the day. Thank you to everyone who came on the workshop and Beth for her creative leadership.

We feature three of the poems below. Look out for more later in the summer.

Walking the Labyrinth

 Walking the labyrinth with my fingers, sightless,

is difficult

Years of use have battered the nerves,

worn down the skin, made fingertips clumsy.

 

I think of Africans who feel the path in the dark

with their feet

They do not need a torch

Their feet, bare and sensitive,

notice small differences in terrain.

 

Long years of wearing shoes

and walking hard pavements

have worn away this sensitivity

Long years of exposure to urban noise

deadens the ears to quiet sounds

of the night

 

Long years of street illumination

make people fearful of the dark

unable or unwilling to see their way

unlit after nightfall.

 

Not able to see, not able to feel the path,

Are we the losers?

© Rosemary Jones 2017

 

Field Walk

Mind hurries with scurrying insects

bends with wind-blown grass

weaves between leaf, stem, petal

stretches with reaching boughs

 

feet tread uneven ground

feel the shifting balance

sense the change from sun-crisped grass

to the soft crumbling of mole-earth

 

skin feels the brittle scratch of dried stems

the tickle and twitch of flying beasts

the easing heat of afternoon

the breeze breath

 

heart beats with the pace of walking

lifts with the wind

slows to the gentle hum of bees

opens to the bright of buttercup gold.

© Beth Soule 2017

 

The Labyrinth’s Question

What shall I do tomorrow?

The Resolution

Go home, little girl, at dawn,

with your shell and your flaxen hair.

Go home to your grandmother,

ask her.  She knows, understands what it is you seek.

She knows your heart but does not bend with age.

You can.

This is the Wisdom of Hare.

Go home, do not stay away.

Do not stay away, with a shell in your hand,

a song in your heart – but no hearth.

Go home.

Sit with her, hold her hand,

buy her milk and fill her days

with cake and laughter.

When it gets hard and your grandmother

shivers and moans, feel the shell

in your hand, remember

the days on the sea and

the hours on the beach, and do not call me

Hare.

The hedgerow is not for you little girl

Go home and hug your grandmother.

© Sue Benbow – 2017

 

WRITING THE LABYRINTH             Wed.19^th July, 2017

Poetry Workshop with Beth Soule

 One of Waveney & Blyth Arts first workshops of the season was the writing workshop led by Beth Soule on the Thornham estate near Eye. Back in June, with the help of the Thornham Walks volunteers, we had created a labyrinth in a grass meadow.

The day is best summed up by one of the participants – Sue Benbow – and a selection of writings will be shared in the next post.

“We all met at Thornham Walks, near Diss, to be greeted with cups of tea and a warm welcome from Beth.  The classroom was light and airy, with plenty of table-top writing space for everyone.

Beth introduced what the day would be about, and we began to go through a marvelous handout-booklet, which she had prepared for us.  We discussed the history and purpose of labyrinths; the story behind the rediscovery of labyrinths by Lauren Artress; and guidelines for walking labyrinths.  We then visited the Legends of the Labyrinth through Greek myth.  Beth bought to life the story of King Minos and Daedalus, the Minotaur, Pasiphae and Theseus, and Ariadne and the golden thread with a clear and easy-to-follow ‘grid of characters’ and story-telling skills!  Participants were given the choice to write a piece of prose, or poetry, about one of the characters from the story which we read aloud later.

Examples of prayers, blessings and spells – collected and compiled in the handout booklet were read read aloud to inspire us followed by some of Beth’s poetry about The Labyrinth and Jorge Luis Borges poem of the same name. Participants were invited to write their own prayer, blessing or spell.

After a short break, and more tea, we went outside and walked the labyrinth. Followed by writing ‘what came out of the labyrinth?’ poems.

Beth presented some ‘finger labyrinths’ which participants chose to work with, according to personal preference.  We were introduced to the concept of chakras and corresponding colours and journeys, on the labyrinth.

In order to ‘Write into the Labyrinth’ participants were asked to choose from a selection of visual aids and interesting artefacts, one each of the following:

a guide companion; a tool or talisman; a purpose for walking the labyrinth.  We were given a ‘Labyrinth Map’ to write on and asked to write a poem or short story describing the journey into the labyrinth, with the chosen companion and tool chosen. This was challenging, but also very stimulating.  The use of visual and artefact stimuli was enthusiastically welcomed, and used, by participants – a brilliant activity.

The ‘read aloud’ session, thirty minutes later, was testament to the quality of Beth’s leadership and teaching, as a high calibre of words and work was produced.

The whole day was interesting, interactive, creatively stimulating, well planned and organized and expertly led, and I thoroughly enjoyed discovering the inner and outer journeys of the Thornham Labyrinth, the writing which emerged, and the sharing.  Brilliant.

It was a wonderful day and a marvellous workshop.  Thank you”.

Sue Benbow   25^th July, 2017