Knock on Wood – urban tree festival

I’m inviting you to walk with me to Knock on Wood, making a collective sound walk to celebrate the Urban Tree Festival in Granton, Edinburgh on 18th May 1.30 – 3.30 pm. This event is free of charge. Save the date!

Starting and ending at the Pianodrome, Granton. Refreshments will be available at 3.30pm (by donation). Accessibility: For everyone – mostly pavement walking, so wheels will be as welcome as feet – human, dog or other.

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Birch tree

As well as being a song by Amii Stewart, the title for this walk Knock on Wood comes from a description of what people do when they’re looking for suitable trees to make pianos with. They knock on them and listen to the tone to see if they’re suitable. 

We will walk together, to and around trees in Granton, knock on them and record the sounds, making a collective sound walk. 

If you have a sound recorder or a recorder app on your phone, please bring it with you. Remember to charge it first! I will compile the recordings after the walk and hope we will have some material to make something of it. If walkers wish to be involved afterwards, that would be great. You will also be welcome to bring sketch books, draw, paint or respond in other ways to the trees we visit in the urban setting.

Hopefully we can visit some of the types of trees (using the Edinburgh Tree Map – link below) that are sometimes used to make pianos – spruce (Norway and Sitka), beech, rock maple, Douglas fir, walnut, cherry, alder, ash, holly, hornbeam, oak and Pippy (cat’s paw) oak. If you know the location of these trees in the vicinity of the Pianodrome, please let me know and I will divert the walk to include them if I can.

Wood used in piano making

The type of wood used for the acoustic part of Pianos is called Tonewood. This is the Wood that can be tested through knocking. It comes from the ‘European’ spruce tree, but it must be grown under very special circumstances. There must be sufficient altitude and I’m told that there’s nowhere in the UK high enough. Oak is an excellent tonewood, though it is rare to find it in commercially-available instruments. It has a warm, mellow resonance and is particularly suitable for an heirloom quality English piano. 

The density of wood is based on how quickly the tree grows. When a tree grows slowly, the rings within are packed tighter together and when a tree grows quickly, the rings are further apart. Because trees grow at different rates based on the weather, temperature, soil and no end of other external factors that might affect them, the common, everyday tree has a variation in the size of rings within it meaning that it will ‘sound’ inconsistent.

Tree rings

With thanks to Adam Cox of Cavendish Pianos, Jamie of British Hardwoods and Millers Music (Cambridge)

Holly

As some of you know, I have made walks before about Absent Trees of Granton – trees taken down to make way for the extensive new housing, so the Knock on Wood sound lyrics seem appropriate:

“I don’t want to lose you, this good thing
That I got ’cause if I do
I will surely
Surely lose a lot

You better knock, knock on wood, baby
You better knock, knock on wood, baby
You better knock, knock knock, knock, knock”

Amii Stewart, Knock on Wood song lyrics

Would this wood sound inconsistent?

Knocking on wood (also phrased touching wood or touch wood) is an apotropaic (a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye) tradition of literally touching, tapping, or knocking on wood, or merely stating that one is doing or intending to do so, in order to avoid ‘tempting fate’ after making a favourable prediction or boast, or a declaration concerning one’s own death or another unfavourable situation.

Wikipedia

Pianodrome address: Pianodrome Warehouse Granton, The Red Bus Depot, 28 West Harbour Road, Edinburgh EH5 1PN.

Sweet Chestnut Tree

Find the Pianodrome near the crossroads of Chestnut St (Granton Middle Harbour), Waterfront Avenue and West Harbour Road, 10 minutes walk westwards from Granton Square.

Nearest transport links: There is parking at the Pianodrome. Buses: the 9 passes very close to the venue. Granton Square: 16, 19, 22, Airport 200. Good cycle paths in and out of the area though the West Harbour Road can be busy so take care.

W3W/// cried.emerge.gift

Please note that there will be a concert at 4pm that you may like to attend. Here’s the link to book tickets…

Collaborating with:

Urban Tree Festival https://urbantreefestival.org/

Pianodrome (piano experts and custodians of the community orchard) https://www.pianodrome.org/

Edinburgh tree map http://edinburghtreemap.org/

City of Edinburgh Council Forestry Service

Granton Community Orchard

Important documentation you might like to read:

City of Edinburgh Council Forestry Services https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/34091/forestry-service-standards-performance-indicators

Trees in the City

https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/34092/trees-in-the-city-tree-management-policies

Scottish Government on our trees: https://forestryandland.gov.scot/

Title photo: the magnificent oaks of Dalkeith Country Park

Thanks to Ewan Davidson for his help in identification and checking.

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Wasteland Art

There’s a piece of wasteland at 2 West Granton Road, Edinburgh ///dock.entertainer.lazy which used to look like this:

Wasteland at ///dock.entertainer.lazy

Then someone cleared all the naturally wilded plants as well as the rubbish and left it looking like this.

Cleared wasteland in Granton

It’s been bothering me every time I walk past (most days). I wish it was a community garden, a beautiful place where we could grow things together and sit and enjoy each other’s company.

Then, I was at a poetry reading by members of 12, a collective of women writers at the National Library. They were reading from their book: ‘Spaces Open’ written in and about the lovely West Port Garden in the Grassmarket which was originally designed by Norah Geddes. I’d seen an exhibition about it at Central Library earlier in the year.

Spaces Open by 12 a collective of women writers

Poem China Sheep by Tessa Berring

Making socially engaged art

A phrase in Tessa Berring’s poem ‘China Sheep’ caught my eye when I was reading it on the bus on the way home – ‘a wasteland leaning into a possibility’. It seemed so appropriate, that I went home and stitched it into a banner which I have put up on the Granton plot.

I used fabric from the Granton Scrapstore which used to be at Granton:hub.org courtesy of Toni Dickson, project manager of Lauriston Farm (an urban farm growing food for people and wildlife) fame.

Location

The site is next to Empty Kitchens, Full Hearts who are doing amazing work relieving poverty in Edinburgh by providing meals – made using surplus food – and follow-up support for people across the city of Edinburgh, free of charge and without judgement. Please note, they are always needing volunteers.

Empty Kitchens

Full Hearts

Thanks to Tom and Stuart for coming over from volunteering in their vegetable plot when I was sinking the bamboos into the ground and being so encouraging when I was putting in the final stitches. Tom took this photo

The images above show the stitched banner by Tamsin Grainger in place with the quote, ‘a wasteland leaning up against a possibility’ by Tessa Berring

It looks a bit small, doesn’t it, and may not last long given the weather we’ve been having and the history of vandalism in the area, but if it gives a few people some pleasure and something to think about, then I’ll be happy. It’s hand-made work made with care in an area that needs as much TLC as it can get.

Dedicated to my friend and socially engaged artist Natalie Taylor who is my inspiration. See her Scran Fir Bees and other work in the area.

Links

You may like to check out my other work nearby: The Wall on the Western Breakwater of Granton Harbour, No Birds Land in the Trinity Tunnel and Is there a place for REVOlution or Peace and Biscuits in the Ferry Road tunnel of the Chancelot Path of the Edinburgh Cycle Ways.

The Sound Walk Map shows their location.

Did you know that the Roseburn Path is under threat? If you support and use the Edinburgh cycle paths, you might like to check out this website: Save the Roseburn Path

My website

Terminalia ’24

‘Go Slow … Time After Time’

A community walk from the Granton:hub, Madelvic House w3w: wished.visit.silver

Captions for the images above: Left – The group, some from inside, some outside the Granton Boundary; Right – The group, checking out the wrapped-up Granton Gasholder, building site for new housing

At the edges of pavements, the walls of dilapidated buildings, the join between the land and the sea, and between homed and homeless, we wandered to mark the Festival of Terminalia on 23 February 2024.

Maps annotated by group members

We walked a route familiar to some and unfamiliar to others, according to a path previously visited 4 months earlier in order to make comparisons. Mapping as we went, we strayed off that path occasionally, moved across the boundary several times when the sea or a plant drew us, and noted changes wrought in the natural and urban landscape over such a short time.

Captions for above photos: Left – Electric Car Factory. Planning permission has been gained for housing. Middle – Where Granton Harbour meets the Brick (Granton or Royston) Beach at the Western Breakwater. Right – Sheila and Margaret.

Leaving the Granton:hub / Madelvic House, we started off through the wasteland area behind, past the old Electric Car Factory which was, unusually, open. We passed the travellers’ community who were building a big fire of tyres and other rubbish; the caravans housing the community which has found its way here in 1s and 2s over the last 5 years (maybe), surrounded by dismembered trees; a couple of renegade trailers where men were working – one a local barber who was known to one of our party so we stopped for a chat – between fences newly erected and ground scraped clear of its soil.

Nat pointed out the copse of silver birch which have been cordoned off for keeping, the result of our extensive lobbying of the developers. Here, an art repository is planned by the National Galleries of Scotland, way down the line. It was also the site of our community orchard (at the Tor), once upon a time.

Captions for above photos: Wasteland area behind Madelvic House where people and more-than-humans live, soon to be developed into an Arts Centre

We skirted ‘The Rabbit Run’ closely bordered by towering new blocks and also threatened to be raised to the ground, and turned down towards the sea along Waterfront Avenue – created, named and planned to be this wide, so we are told, to accommodate the trams, though there is, thankfully, no sign of them as yet.

Waterfront Avenue

Rabbit Run

Stories were told as we hovered at the corner: of the swift boxes often erected on lamp posts next to the Swift business sign (coincidence); of Jenny’s tenacity – spending an officially homeless year visiting the housing association and getting to know them until she was allocated an apartment in the community ahead of us; and of the day we planted the orchard (from up the road) on the grassy bank by more newbies to the area, The Pianodrome.

“With the dog, we went to the rabbit run, behind that Beech Hedge; I know it will all dramatically change very soon.”

Nat

Captions for above photos: Left – Swift poster, Middle – Where Jenny lives now (before the block was built). Right – The new orchard at The Pianodrome

Now we were on the far northern boundary of both Edinburgh as a whole and Granton, whose territory we were beating the bounds of. Many of us bemoaned the lack of access to the Brick Beach, but then a desire path was spotted which turned out to be a thoroughfare. Jubilation!

“for a while I’ve not been able to get through (the wasteland between West Shore Rd and the sea / brick beach) That’s been irritating, having that little cut through blocked off. That used to be on my route so I could get a seat and watch the sea for a while, undisturbed. Tonight we were able to walk through for the first time in ages.”

Kev

The day was at its evening cusp and it was darkling, so we continued along West Harbour Road which becomes West Shore Road, past the new-to-the-area Edinburgh Palette (what we hope will be new artist studios and home for a weekend Street festival), and turned left onto the Speirs Bruce Way (more stories of Antarctic adventures and explorers are linked to this place). We went hard by what’s left of Granton Castle where the Walled Garden is hidden (a citizen success story as it was saved from developers and now houses countless allotments, natural dye- and community soup-makers), with the Social Bite village opposite.

Captions for photos above: Two A-Z maps of Granton – 2004 on the left showing one gas holder, and 1999 on the right showing three as there used to be

I’m new to the area and walking is a way of feeling the local, recent history

Jenny

Uphill we traipsed, viewing the space for the new Granton Mural (end March 2024) and regaining the Gasholder. We stood in the rain to wonder why Caroline Park Avenue has become Waterfront Broadway, and returned to our starting point just as the fire engine arrived to douse the fire, now emitting acrid black smoke.

We’re from slightly outside the area. I’ve been down here a LOT walking the dogs so it’s very familiar, but it’s interesting to do it in a group because different people see different things. [Did you notice the changes?] Oh definitely.

Sheila

Toasting with a libation (warm apple juice), as is customary at this Festival, we swapped experiences, hopes and fears. Our discussion focused on the place where the inner landscape met the outer.

I used to like going there because of the nature around the gasworks. Because there was such a high fence and nobody could get in, it was undisturbed and there were wild orchids. To see it all demolished and a building site … it’s sad.

Maria

Along the bread line, the coast line, and the invisible lines between here and there, and us and other, we walked. It’s a time of great change in this area: trees taken down, blocks of flats going up, buildings repurposed and roads renamed (no-one knows why, though we suspect so-called ‘gentrification’).

The fire engine arrives just as we return to Madelvic House

You May also like (links)

Festival of Terminalia Community Walk 2024

Walking the Line Terminalia 2023

Granton Boundary Walk 2023 started on the Festival of Terminalia

Absent Trees of Granton

Festival of Terminalia 2021

© All photos my own

Mal Pelo, Bosc Tancat

The Bluebird Call by Mal Pelo at Bòlit, Centre d’Art Contemporani, Girona. In two parts: Bosc Tancat (‘Dense/Enclosed Forest’) in Bòlit_LaRambla, and Taller-Memòria in Bòlit_PouRodó.

“If the main driving force of our dynamic is walking then that of our identity is asking questions.”

Mal Pelo

In this video-art-light installation at the Bólit, Centre d’Art Contemporani in Girona, tall, straight tree trunks are suspended. Hanging off the ground without roots, they exist in an other-worldly, ghostly light in front of a large screen showing a black and white film. On that screen, people swarm slowly, alone and blank-faced, in step with each other. They walk rhythmically, turning at random intervals, sometimes in concert with others in the group. They walk and walk.

Based on a poem, Separation, by art critic, painter and writer, John Berger, the company state that the work is “about the ambivalence of the individual and the community”. Using the medium of contemporary dance in the broadest understanding of that word, and highly respected within the artistic community (they were directorial collaborators in the extraordinary Falaise by company, Baro d’evel, for example), Mal Pelo are the artistic co-directors, dancers and choreographers Maria Muñoz and Pep Ramis based in Girona.

Their film is set in bleak forests and abandoned industrial and rural wastelands where an assembly of overcoated, beanie-hatted people walk together. With arms swinging naturally or hands in pockets, they carry nothing, though we see them sharing sliced bread, offering it to each other when they make a meal stop. In Separation, Berger writes, “… in our hearts we carry everything …”.

Afterwards, they wind between trees, something we must do to get to one of the two chairs which invite us to sit and watch. There’s a sense these humans — for there is a homogeneity about them — are searching, and yet they seem aimless. Are they a tribe? An extended family? They wander individually, collect for a moment like a flock of ground-based birds arcing en masse, still moving, before separating again.

Stylistically, the collaborative choreography is reminiscent of the early pedestrian experiments of the Judson Dance Theater in the New York lofts of the ‘60s, harking back to the very early work of Simone Forti, Steve Paxton and Yvonne Rainer. This work marked an important departure from the dark auditoria, proscenium-arch theatres, in which dance had almost exclusively existe

d before that, to more quotidian spaces, to the studios and pavements of America. The participants often had no training, they were ‘ordinary’ people who were simply interested and willing to experiment. There was an anarchic spirit about the period.

The filming in Bosc Tancat is often from above, inverting our ground-based habit of looking up to see a skein of geese flying in formation, our normal way of seeing. At other times, the walkers move directly at the camera, passing by without acknowledging it. Walking away from us without pausing, they continue to walk as if forever, pacing without stopping. Are they in harmony? Are they moving away from home or life or land, or towards it?

The haunting, instrumental score in Dense Forest by Fanny Thollot, is interspersed with Berger’s poem, gently spoken. There are occasional silences, too, as if the wind has momentarily ceased though the movement is ever onwards.

Sitting amongst the ‘Dense Forest’ close up to the wall which is filled with this film, I am carried along the paths with the chorale, as if lacking a sense of autonomy. I feel as if I am slowly floating and looking down even when the lens is not, my wings outstretched, my seeing and hearing alert, but when the company eventually come to the end, it is at an edge. They collect at the top of a cliff, a vista ahead of them and there they sit with their backs to me, still, at last, and I am left, melancholy.

I am suddenly taken back to two occasions when I have witnessed single men walking along train tracks with no luggage. Once, in 2018 in north eastern Greece not far from the Turkish border, I was in a car witnessing through the window as we passed him walking into the distance. The other time was just last week in Cataluña when I stood on a bridge and looked over and down watching this tiny figure recede.

The actions, the behaviour of the performers in the carefully chosen landscapes of Bosc Tancat have a timelessness and as I leave I feel a deep connection to them.

© All photos are by the author

Festival of Terminalia Community Walk

‘You said go slow … time after time’

A Community Walk was held on Friday February 23rd between 4-5.30pm, with drinks and discussion afterwards to chat about the walk and what we had seen and felt, at 5.30-6.30pm. Eventbrite was used for booking and everyone and their dogs were welcome!

The walk began and ended at the Granton:hub, Madelvic House, Granton Park Avenue, EH5 1HS.

I contributed words and images to a video assemblage, together with a host of other artists and Kel Portman, whose provocation this was. The link is here on the YouTube channel of Kel Arrowsmith. (My part is at 6:30 minutes.)

Introduction

A Granton Boundary walk was made in the Autumn of 2023, in advance of the opening of the Walking Like a Tortoise exhibition at the Granton:hub. It invited people to walk slowly together with a paper map, and annotate that map with places of interest (objects passed, thoughts thought, feelings felt, sites appreciated or not). We meandered, responding to participant’s interest, to their prior knowledge of the area, and to our whim. This might happen again! It was followed by a standing-up discussion and sharing of maps outside the building.

What happened on the walk

I proposed a (repeat) Midwinter walk around the same edgeland, as the evenings lightened, and I invited those who still had their maps to bring them and make comparisons. I brought the ones I was given after the original walk and handed them back for the purpose.

Tamsin

There was a brief introduction, then we walked together and had the opportunity to chat about borders and territories.

The remaining Granton Gasholder which is being built around, providing new housing and arts interventions

The immediate area around Madelvic House has changed considerably, as has the Gasholder (it was partially wrapped up) and the harbour, and therefore the new maps created will be likely to chart those changes, together with that of the seasons, and the alterations in us and the environment during the past quarter year.

Some of the group at the gasholder

This was an inclusive walk, paced for everyone and was therefore on pavements.

Festival of Terminalia

This event was part of the Festival of Terminalia, an annual one-day celebration of walking, space, place and psychogeography.

Terminalia is a one day festival of walking, space, place and psychogeography on 23rd Feburary. Terminalia was the festival of Terminus, Roman god of boundaries and landmarks! Events have been run on this day since 2011.

Tim Waters tim@geothings.net

Tamsin is a wanderer and psychogeographer. She has nomadic habits and is very often found in the marginal areas around her Granton home. She is a qualified walk leader with Paths for All Scotland, and liked to perambulate with the Ageing Well group who belong to Victoria Park in Edinburgh. Her first art exhibition was Walking Like a Tortoise in 2023. She also writes and walks here .

You may also like this on walking the Granton Boundary

Links

Previous Terminalia walks / events

Festival of Terminalia

Walking the Line