Yesterday we went on the bus trip organised by Kate.
Myself, Neil and Greg, Jim, Jenny, Nick and Fran were met by Kate and a nice family from Southend. It was a bit of a mystery tour - all we knew was that we were going to Canvey and Southend to see the Art U Need projects there, after that I didn't know much else.
We were greeted by two people with big personalities in Canvey, one was a lady who had lived on the island all her life and she was going to be our tour guide, as it happens she was very informative and also knew the names of every plant there was on Canvey. They certainly found a good woman here - she even let us in her house and told some of her own history. Her late husband was an artist and she had put out all his paintings - which was very interesting to us artists.
The other person was the Manager for Dr. Feelgood, yes another big personality. He told us of his boyhood in Canvey - the time when boys really lived. At the back of his house was the estuary, him and his friends (over looked by his mum on the sea wall) would go out there and build sand banks, then watch the tide knock it down. They would play pirates and even had a little rowing boat which they would row over to Hadleigh Castle. As they got older they got bolder and put an engine on the back of the boat and started jettying round to Southend Pier and probably as far as they could go, real 'Swallow and Amazon' style.
By the time we got to having our picnic we were really hungry and thirsty. Kate put on a wonderful spread - very Mama Italian 'al' fresco.' We had continental meats and other luxuries.
Strawberries, sparkly wine - or was it Champagne Kate? Sorry - wow - if it was.
We sat down and had the most enjoyable time, having some very interesting conversations, all feeling very relaxed. This was definitely a hi-light of the day.
We then made our way to Southed, some of us slept - after a long walk, hot sunshine, a picnic rounded off nicely with some fizzy wine - can you blame us!
So when we reached Southend we were probably not up to doing much, we had a look in the Camera-Obscura provided by Focal Point. This was amazing, we had been to one in Edingburgh before. Then after this we went inside the Quantock flats, from the outside you could see the 'Streams' in fact this refers to the long twisting stream of perspex that was in every drying room in all four blocks of flats - from the very top room to the bottom.
You can see the Quantock flats in all its glory at night time, if you get to Southend, driving down Victoria Avenue with the station on your left hand side, you get to the roundabout and turn a sharp left. This will take you down Queensway.
Just after Chichester Road the first street on your right you will see the Quantocks - You must go there when it gets dark and when the perspex is illuminated by the lights in the drying rooms.
We were brought into the flat and could appreciate the perspex because of the daylight shining through it.
It puts these flats on the map, they were even mentioned in a design magazine.
http://www.canveyguides.com/
http://www.queenswaystreams.org.uk/
Canvey Guides: LAUNCH
http://www.southend.gov.uk/content.asp?content=8096
We were greeted by two people with big personalities in Canvey, one was a lady who had lived on the island all her life and she was going to be our tour guide, as it happens she was very informative and also knew the names of every plant there was on Canvey. They certainly found a good woman here - she even let us in her house and told some of her own history. Her late husband was an artist and she had put out all his paintings - which was very interesting to us artists.
The other person was the Manager for Dr. Feelgood, yes another big personality. He told us of his boyhood in Canvey - the time when boys really lived. At the back of his house was the estuary, him and his friends (over looked by his mum on the sea wall) would go out there and build sand banks, then watch the tide knock it down. They would play pirates and even had a little rowing boat which they would row over to Hadleigh Castle. As they got older they got bolder and put an engine on the back of the boat and started jettying round to Southend Pier and probably as far as they could go, real 'Swallow and Amazon' style.
By the time we got to having our picnic we were really hungry and thirsty. Kate put on a wonderful spread - very Mama Italian 'al' fresco.' We had continental meats and other luxuries.
Strawberries, sparkly wine - or was it Champagne Kate? Sorry - wow - if it was.
We sat down and had the most enjoyable time, having some very interesting conversations, all feeling very relaxed. This was definitely a hi-light of the day.
We then made our way to Southed, some of us slept - after a long walk, hot sunshine, a picnic rounded off nicely with some fizzy wine - can you blame us!
So when we reached Southend we were probably not up to doing much, we had a look in the Camera-Obscura provided by Focal Point. This was amazing, we had been to one in Edingburgh before. Then after this we went inside the Quantock flats, from the outside you could see the 'Streams' in fact this refers to the long twisting stream of perspex that was in every drying room in all four blocks of flats - from the very top room to the bottom.
You can see the Quantock flats in all its glory at night time, if you get to Southend, driving down Victoria Avenue with the station on your left hand side, you get to the roundabout and turn a sharp left. This will take you down Queensway.
Just after Chichester Road the first street on your right you will see the Quantocks - You must go there when it gets dark and when the perspex is illuminated by the lights in the drying rooms.
We were brought into the flat and could appreciate the perspex because of the daylight shining through it.
It puts these flats on the map, they were even mentioned in a design magazine.
http://www.canveyguides.com/
http://www.queenswaystreams.org.uk/
Canvey Guides: LAUNCH
http://www.southend.gov.uk/content.asp?content=8096
Thought:- These projects were all about an Outdoor Revolution - well I must say we felt like we were brought back in time, we were Victorian explorers investigating Canvey and having a glorius picnic - we all thoroughly enjoyed it. To get specific we had exercise, communication and got off our armchairs and looked at a familiar landscape with new eyes.
