Luminous

Sun, water, reflections, warmth. We leave Smethwick, slide into Birmingham, moor and walk. It is a charmed day, so the library, which I've wanted to see since it was built, is open, even though, as I discover, it is Sunday. We visit the stacks, the garden on the 7th floor and the Shakespeare library on the roof. It's a wonderful library, muted but not silent, studious but not serious.

The first time I went on this boat, 25 years ago, we joined it in central Birmingham at Gas Street Basin. My small children and I picked our way over uneven ground, past derelict buildings, through dog shit and broken glass to reach the boat. Back then, Birmingham, like most British cities, turned its back on the canals. Today, as we leave Birmingham, we go through Gas Street Basin, now reclaimed and lined with red brick pubs, geraniums and expensive flats.

And on. I climb onto the warm roof, lie on my back and read. And on, rippling the upturned tunnels of trees, the shining leaves and fragments of blue sky. And on as the sun sinks and bounces off the water, off the boats, off everything.



This is the first naturally sepia image I've ever taken, reflecting the soil-colour of the canal water, but it IS colour and without filters.


Black and white in colour 97