Wheathampstead & Back Again

The River Lea at Mill Bridge in Wheathampstead one day last September. Another walk from the between lockdown daze. It seemed we were always walking back then, but nowadaze it’s let your fingers do the walking, typing keyboard dreams of freedom, stuck indoors again. Continue reading “Wheathampstead & Back Again”

Frames of reference

Mystery River

The very next morning, right after I finished patching together Out Along Lee, my post about walking the River Lea and the Lee Valley, I found this lovely and fascinating film by Michael Smith thanks to Caught By The River. It felt like synchronicity but this is much better. It was commissioned by The Floating Cinema and UP Projects; it’s a wander along the Lea, all along, down along, out along Lee.

Frames of reference

Out Along Lee

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Sometimes it’s the Lee, other times it’s the Lea, and most times it’s confusing. The River Lea rises at Leagrave, north of London near Luton (Leatown) and flows south via Leyton (Leatown) to join the River Thames at Leamouth. Over the years many of its twists and turns got straightened out to make it more easily navigable and the artificial channels and canals became known as the Lee Navigation. Nowadays the river (Lea) and the canal (Lee) are almost indistinguishable. Continue reading “Out Along Lee”

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Bridges & Towpaths

Three Mills is just off the A12 (aka the East Cross Route or the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach) an unforgiving stretch of urban motorway that flies over east London with little regard for what lies below. We’ve driven past countless times, most often en route to Brighton, but never noticed. The focus was always straight ahead or checking the mirrors or watching for speed cameras or perhaps just occasionally, Look there’s the Fire Station. There was never any reason to stop, in fact it’s quite difficult to do so and it took a few attempts, but eventually we arrived at the Tesco car park. Continue reading “Bridges & Towpaths”

Frames of reference