Motorways, nature and art
Tuesdays are my day in the office. My journey takes me from South-East London to Folkestone along the M20. It is about as direct a route as you can get and a good journey - unless the motorway is closed, which it was on this particular morning. Operation Brock was being put into place to help park lorries on their way to France.
It was 5:30am and I faced a decision. Return home, take an alternative route, or, as I was already planning to run before work, go for a run. Guess which option I went for...?
Parking up in Chislehurst I set off into Scadbury Woods. I've run there before and know the route well. It is a 2 mile circular route along trails with woodland, a moated house, horses and bears. Carved bears. A series of them are scattered throughout the wood and across Chislehurst.
Once I had completed a lap I headed down the main road past the nose to tail traffic heading into London, across the bridge over the A20 and into Sidcup. I was heading for Bexley where there was a Winter Sculpture Park exhibiting work by 42 different artists. I made my way through beautiful Foots Cray Meadows and along the river spotting herons, coots, swans, jays, great tits, blue tits, robins, geese, long tailed tits, blackbirds, magpies, dunnocks, sparrows, and a green woodpecker.
The sculptures were located on a piece of waste ground just outside Bexley next to the railway line. They spilled over into a small orchard on the edge of the town. Most of the works didn't have anything to explain them, but they all had QR codes to access more information. Here are a selection of photos of the exhibits, although I would recommend if you are in the area that you go and see them in situ.
I loved the fact that they were out in the open, accessible to all and vulnerable. It is what art should be, open to everyone. I ran back the way I had come which is part of the London Loop known as the M25 for walkers. Over the 18th Century Five Arches Bridge and Penny Farthing Bridge, passing another heron, fallen trees and eventually returning via the traffic - still backed up over the motorway - to Scadbury Woods.
By now the motorway had reopened and I was able to restart my journey to the coast. A big thank you to Paul Tonks for telling me about the Sculpture Trail.
