A really magical lantern parade, after everyones hard work in creating the lanterns over the previous two weekends. A beautiful evening with the full moon out as we paraded around the lake. Special thanks to The Young Folksters, and Spicy and the Spirit Drummers for providing the music.
A wonderful moonlit batwalk in Handsworth Park last night, led by Lucy from the RSPB. Below is a recording of of some of the bats we heard, using bat locators – the bats use echo location to hunt their pray, emiting high pitched sounds which bounce back off the moths and midges, enabling the bats to hear (rather than see) what they are hunting. The bat sounds, too high to be heard by the human ear, are made lower by the bat locator, which is what you can hear below:
The Bat Walk is ON! Weather conditions looking good for this evening’s walk 17/09/20166
Creative interventions in Handsworth Park last Sunday were a success, with a multi speaker sound installation in the bandstand by Bobby Bird , plus an inspired talk about trees by park ranger Jim Harris.
The pastoral / urban soundscapes recorded in & around Handsworth Park included the dawn chorus, a train, rowing on the lake, a cricket match, wind in the reeds, cycling, children in the playground, a pair of parakeets & an excerpt of ranger Jim’s previous talk.
Some of these, like the dawn chorus, emanated from all 8 speakers simultaneously, like being surrounded by birds in a wood, others, as with the recordings of bicycles, moved around in a slow circle from speaker to speaker so that standing in the centre of the bandstand felt like being encircled by an invisible cyclist – while a train (recorded using two microphones placed widely apart) intermittently clattered by in super stereo, to startling effect.
Children were particularly captivated, running from speaker to speaker, ‘chasing’ after a sound, or listening to hear if different sounds came from different speakers, as well as enjoying guessing which parts of the park the recordings were made in.
Sounds on the day combined with those previously recorded – children laughing in the playground weeks ago, mixing in with the sound of children laughing in & around the bandstand , which together with cyclists passing, birds singing, conversations being had, distant traffic etc, all helped to make this a most evocative piece to experience, conjuring a real sense of past & present, time & space.
Then came another facinating walk around the park lead by ranger Jim Harrison, whose knowledge about trees & ecology was delivered in an unbroken flow for over two hours.
From left to right : large cherry tree, a native oak and Jim’s personal favourite, the Indian Bean tree. Here is a short excerpt of one of Jim’s talks:
Come and listen to the sounds of the park, which have been recorded in Handsworth Park over the past few months by local sound artist Bobby Bird, together with some young recording assistants, played back over an Octophonic speaker system in the park bandstand. From 2.00-6.00pm Sunday 7th July 2016
Setting up to capture the sound of a train going past, using two microphones set up approx 60 metres apart – which also provided a neat demonstration of the speed of sound.
Update! – The postponed Mosaic-ing of a sunflower will now take place on Sat 16th June between 12-4.00. Unfortunately Sophie cant be with us, but has lent us all her tools, & we have gathered lots of materials between us, so come along to help create a community sunflower mosaic which will be displayed on the plinth throughout August , Some ideas connected to sunflowers include:
First experiment with making a sun catcher with some of the dried flowers which I ‘ve been picking in Handsworth Park and pressing throughout the spring. A kitchen table collaboration by Scylla Magda & Claudette Holmes, as part of ‘Handsworth Revolutions -Celebrating the Cycle of the Seasons’.
An absolutely fantastic Spring Walk around Handsworth Park yesterday led by tree expert Jim from the BCC Park Ranger Service. His wealth of knowledge about the trees, and their ecological and historical context in the park was hugely informative and inspiring. In fact he was so good that we are hoping to get him back again for our Summer Walk in August, date tbc. Photo of Jim and volunteer Aron taken by Claudette Holmes.
It’s a shame these two boys tried to vandalise the willow egg sculpture yesterday late afternoon – here they are caught on CCTV:
However fresh willow is incredibly resilient and flexible, & although it looked completely flattened when I discovered it today, with a bit of pushing and pulling it soon resumed its former elliptical glory. What an amazing material! Here it is, restored today:
Score: Cosmic Egg: 1 Vandals: 0
April 21st 11am-1.pm
Come and join us for a ranger led spring walk around Handsworth Park with Birmingham Park Ranger Beth Ashley, who will be identifying trees and plants in the park, as well as answering any questions you might have for her. Meet at 11.am by the giant willow egg ,next to the Boathase Cafe
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