Cards in support of our beautiful lake…
It’s a week when I imagine more people than usual will have been badly missing our much-loved tide-filled Clevedon Marine Lake lake, and some will have helped with the maintenance and cleaning: The water has been let out of it! Do not panic, it will re-fill on the spring tide on Sunday and be lovely as ever.
So it seemed an appropriate time to tell you about a new set of cards I’ve had printed, because I’m selling them in aid of the ongoing maintenance of this amazing facility. Profits will go to MARLENS – the marine lake charity.
You can buy a set (or many sets) of the cards from my shop on Etsy. Go directly to the cards by clicking this link – or follow the usual links to my shop (above) and they will be found in the cards section.
The story of these pictures
Back in (about) 2016, when Clevedon Marine Lake was being restored to its former glory – thanks to years of tireless efforts by enthusiastic individuals and a heritage lottery fund – I drew these images as part of the undertaking to improve the surrounding area.
They were printed onto tiles which form three large murals. Two are on the sea wall which looks out over the lake, and the third is on the disused pump house (photo above). This is my favourite because it features all of us swimmers and it’s right where we change, however the other two also depict popular lake activities: boating (sailing boats, canoes, paddle boards and model boats) and crabbing.
[Photo thanks to Gav Pri]
Clevedon Marine Lake
The sea (in fact the Bristol Channel) comes over the lake wall only on a high spring tide – so the wall is only under water at high tide for a few high tides, before the tides are no longer high enough to overtop the wall, and the lake then has to wait for another spring tide (at the next full or new moon) for a refresh of water. Every so often the ‘plug’ is pulled on a low tide, the lake drains and some of the astonishing amount of mud which collects can be cleared out, and other maintenance work can be done.
And so this week is how it comes to be empty, to be filled in time for spring visitors. The photo above is the lake this week, some of the mud having been cleared. The blue-topped box is the island in the lake (you can see it in the lake in the photo below, which gives you a sense of the scale). If you’d like to know more about the lake, It has a lovely new, recently re-vamped website at clevedonmarinelake.co.uk
WaterDrawn 