Thursday, April 10

Another glorious day, and we gather up at MERA to cut withies from the willow labyrinthe. At first, the rows of upright, lyellowy -brown woody shoots, waving gently in the wind, seem endless -- how will we ever finish the task we are starting?

Eight women working - bending, chopping, sorting, chatting, bundling, tying-- the afternoon soon goes by productively and soon we are ready for next week's basket making.

Every day when I was a teenager in England, I puffed along in a steam train to Bishop Fox's Girl's School across the Somerset Levels. Withy production on the green, wet, soggy and often flooded levels was in decline as plastic and nylon were starting to intrude on tradtional fibres and fabrics. Arts such as thatching, weaving and spinning were in decline --and thought to be on the way to extinction. But no, here we are in 2008 with young and old learning, or returning, to what are now referred to as "heritage arts". And feeling a sense of accomplishment light years from coming home with a plastic bag of "stuff" from Walmart.