Marshy Mud Flats and the Call of the Curlew will be an exhibition of my work in St Mary’s Higham,
Swimming for Curlews
I swam 6,600 meters the day was warm and overcast it was a fantastic swim a beautiful end to many months of making art and training I raised £1400 for our Curlews
I’ve always loved being in the water, over the last few years I have been swimming in my local fresh water lake, often I will see, Coots and Grebes there.
This is when I hatched my plan to swim for Curlews !
On Sunday the 6thJuly I will be doing just this,
my aim is a 6km swim.
The money I raise will be going to The conservation of Curlews
Curlew Action and Elmley Nature Reserve (at this very moment they have Curlew chicks hatching)
If you feel you can sponsor me that would be grand
a link is at the bottom
I hope you can come along to my exhibition and see my art inspired by the birds that live on the marsh.
New work new poems and lots of Curlews I will be there everyday
St Mary’s is a beautiful ancient church well worth a visit
See you there 21st 29th June opening times attached
Link to fund me swimming for Curlews – GO FUND ME
Higham Station
We Love Higham Station and I’m very excited that it’s had a face lift . New planters on platform 1 also a new rubbish bin as you leave the station ! Also new art works from me to brighten up and make you smile. Love Where You Live
Marshy Mud Flats and the Call of the Curlew
I climb up the steep bank of the sea wall carefully and slowly with anticipation, hoping not to disturb.
Immediately a redshank a large sandpiper
pipes my presents piercing the air and heads over the mud.
Its a low Thames tide and the birds are out on the edge of an enriched flat glistening expanse of mud.
Here they tuck into a gloopy soup of Invertebrates,
small shellfish, aquatic snails molluscs and crustaceans they are feeding from the rich mud of life.
Far in the distance the cranes of London Gateway port in Essex looms, this impressers itself on the landscape, were ever I travell in this area you can see it and it seems to grow in size.
At night you can’t escape the sharpness of the lights
its never dark.
Shelduck gleam white black and chestnut amongst the grey
Avocet, Redshank, Mallard, Turnstone, Knott
and a raft of small duck are hugging the shoreline.
A heron hunched, nonchalantly flies in the distance.
I’m searching for a large rounded brown mottled wader,
I scan the marsh.
I love to watch the avocets with there pied plumage and synchronised feeding, sweeping for food with there upcurved bills,
I sway with them enjoying the movement.
The winter low sun shimmers on the silky still water
a myriad of colour bursts through the air.
Nothing is moving on the river except a small sailing craft edging her way towards Gravesend the sun catching and enhancing tan coloured sails.
I’m rooted here and lost in this landscape feeling the immensity of the estuary washed by the north sea on the edge of this fragile habitat.
High tides, winter storms rising waters eat away at the land,
great sods of grasses earth are eroded and taken by the river,
until one day the old sea wall is breached, the tide pushing relentlessly ceaselessly pushing.
I love to look at the edge of the land and the beginning of the river imagining what is was like before the sea wall was built.
Nothing to stop the tide it would creep filling the flat land with brackish water bringing with it nutrients giving life to plants herbs, trees, insects and a whole host birds.
I settle on an old cocreate slab pull my hat further down over my ears and extract the little warmth from the wintery sun.
I wait……. and pour tea from my flask.
These preciouses open spaces is essential for our wildlife
also it gives a breathing space for us.
The sun is drawing near to the horizon and the cold is pressing and penetrating its time to head home across the marsh
So at last I turn my back on the river not having seen the large mottled wader with a long curved bill the shape of a crescent moon.
The Eurasian Curlew a bird to celebrate the bird I have been sketching, painting, collaging, listening to, reading, writing and, even swimming for.
I can’t get enough of curlews and will never tire of watching them.
I long to hear the call of the Curlew for it to soak into ever fibre of me, to bath in those long lonely hanuting notes to feel it touching the deepest part of me.
The call of the curlew I can not live without
Let us all hold onto hope for The Curlew
for to loss them would bring such a great sadness and sorrow.
Fiona Spirals
2025
21th – 29th June 2025
I will be in residence during the exhibition, making work and
greeting people daily,
I intimately know this beautiful building and its setting, a medieval church
on the edge of Higham Marshes, North Kent.
For this exhibition, the church becomes an imaginary vessel,
an Ark protecting and cherishing the rich biodiversity of the
North Kent Marshes.
However, many of the birds here are endangered and on
The Red List.
This Ark has witnessed thousands of years of birds and here we are in
2025 confronted with the loss of so much.
I’m particularly gripped by curlews, who are known for their elegant curved beaks
and plaintive cry.
Yet we are likely to lose them in the next ten years if we don’t help them.
In the Ark of St Mary’s I will share my drawings, collages, photographs,
soundscapes and poems, to engage people in this place and its
wonderful species. There will also be information about our marsh, and,
in partnership with the national group Curlew Action, specifically about curlews.
There will be a talk about the birds of the
Thames Estuary marshes focusing on North Kent,
and most importantly what we can do to help.
This project has been evolving for a few years.
Come and see the Marshes through my eyes
The exhibition takes place with the full support of the Churches
Conservation Trust who own St Mary’s, and the Friends of St Mary’s Higham.
