Spectacles

As the sun-earth relationship begins to approach the autumn equinox, the view from our Bristol flat at sunset becomes ever more spectacular. At a certain moment on some evenings (in this case, around 8:30 pm), the tops of the trees on either side of the Avon Gorge become rimmed with warm light from the setting sun, and the whole spectacle takes on an improbably picturesque aspect. Sometimes, I can even be bothered to photograph it.

From the sublime to the rather less sublime. Down below, next to the busy Portway road that runs along the bottom of the Gorge beside the Avon and out towards the docks at Avonmouth, there are a couple of long, narrow meadows, known as Bennett's Patch and White's Paddock, which are now a nature reserve. This is also the home of an incongruous pair of wickerwork whales, originally made to celebrate Bristol's year as European Green Capital in 2015, but now pretty much rotted away to reveal their rather less "green" steel skeletons. Recently, a strange new apparition has been installed in the meadows near a field-studies hut, a giant head which glowers across the grass at the passing traffic:

Apparently, it's called "Ruth", and was made by the same Bristol creative team that made the wicker whales, called Cod Steaks (no, really). It is meant as a tribute to the work and courage of the women of Bristol during WW2. Well, obviously. It's also intended to be wildlife friendly, being made out of hundreds of wooden dowels about the thickness of a rolling-pin which, it is hoped, will offer shelter of various kinds to insects and other invertebrates, assuming they're not frightened off by that face. Mad as it looks, it's not an entirely barmy setting for such a thing, though, as buried beneath these very meadows are the tons of rubble from the buildings destroyed in the Blitz, 1940-41. Although compared to the many substantial monuments to the Trümmerfrauen ("rubble women") of Germany it's a little ... underwhelming, shall we say?

It's the modern British way, isn't it? Have a halfway decent idea, let a committee do its worst, underfund and outsource the resulting brief to some half-baked "creative" or entrepreneurial setup, and get back precisely what you deserve: a half-baked, underfunded result that pleases no-one but ticks all the right boxes. Which will then be briefly over-praised by those with an interest in its success, perhaps provoke a minor social-media storm, go on to under-perform or fail miserably, and then be quickly and conveniently forgotten about. Covid Track and Trace app, anyone?