Bears on a tightrope, four forgotten frogs, and a pond poem

Story Street #31

Welcome to Story Street – a monthly newsletter from children’s author and illustrator Jane Porter. Read on for ramblings about my life as a picture book maker, community artist, comic diarist and under-confident fiddle player.

This picture is an attempt to sum up my April… it’s been a busy but magical month, and in between many workshops I’ve made myself sit down and work on a brand new idea. I hope you can tell I am excited about it.

North London has been where I’ve been spending time lately, running a series of workshops. The first set were in a school in Kilburn, exploring air pollution. It’s been great to work with the same group of children for several weeks, and having temporary colleagues - Jonathan from Clean Air for Camden and Steve and Madeleine from Schools on Screen who have been filming the whole project - has been a lovely change from the usual solitary illustrator existence.

Jonathan has been teaching the children all about particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, while I have been showing them how to make mono-printed textures, giving them tips on colour mixing, and letting them loose with collage. Isn’t this a charming row of houses, all belting out carbon like there’s no tomorrow! Mono-print has the perfect grainy, grimy feel for that…

I’m currently putting it all together in a giant digital file which will be printed onto a wrapper for an air pollution monitor on Kilburn High Road. It’s going to include a panel encouraging people to walk, scoot or cycle rather than drive short distances. I’ll show you once it’s installed.

Bears in star costumes (tightrope walking)

At the beginning of April I spent some at Jacksons Lane Arts Centre in Highgate running two creative sessions at this wonderful community hub celebrating its 50th birthday this year. The first was with older adults, reminiscing about what the centre has meant to them over the years. The second was with children: I created a little zine template for them to draw and write their ‘wild ideas’ for the next 50 years - and those ideas blew my mind.

It’s always fun in Photoshop when you’re juggling layers with names like ‘unicycle’ and ‘small axolotl’. It’s also been a hoot making little posters for plays that don’t exist yet - these are some of the children’s suggestions:

Which show would you like to book tickets for? I’m torn between Turkey Circus and the moonstruck spider…. If you find yourself in Highgate, do drop in to Jacksons Lane, you’ll find a warm welcome and a lovely cafe.

Making a mural

Over a year ago I started painting a mural. Our neighbours built a giant wall, and I wanted to cheer up our side of it. I was inspired by a Victor Pasmore painting (Square Motif, Blue and Gold: The Eclipse) that I’d spotted in Tate Britain a few years ago - the big blocks of colour and geometric shapes lent themselves well to being scaled up, flipped and generally rejiggled. I stalled over winter, but a couple of weeks ago I finally finished it - here it is:

I did a bit of research before I started and was very surprised to find that acrylic paints are recommended for outdoor murals. I was doubtful, but went ahead anyway - and sure enough, the panels I painted first have held up well to a year’s worth of weathering.

Four muddy frogs and a pond poem

I’ve been tinkering in the garden too. Underneath an overhanging ash tree is a very small, dank pond. It used to be teeming with frogs, but had shown no signs of life for several years. I decided to dig it out: here’s what happened next…

The whole experience inspired me to write a poem. I’ve been in a poetry club since the beginning of last year, and we choose prompts from the brilliant book 52: Write a Poem a Week, Start Now, Keep Going by Jo Bell. Our latest topic was ‘Nearly’, and even while I was refilling the pond I realised I had the perfect material and started writing straight away. Here’s the poem, I hope you enjoy it:

If you’d like to know more about frogs, I’ve written a non-fiction picture book all about them, with wonderful illustrations by Neil Clark. Click the button below to learn more about this funny fact book, just right for ages 4-9:

Bucketface and other serious games

Mucking around, messing about and generally being silly have also been on my agenda lately. The nursery I visit most weeks kindly let me stay for the morning just to play - it was fun, but also very serious research for the Big Project I’m developing in that notebook pictured at the top of the newsletter.

Attempting to become a lark

Getting up early is something I am not very good at… but sometimes it really is worth it. Early in April, a friend in my rowing club suggested an outing to enjoy the dawn chorus from the water - meeting at 5.15am, a time of day I am not at all familiar with. Could I? Should I? I dithered, then took the plunge…

Instructions were to bring warm clothes and marmalade sandwiches, so I set my alarm for 04.30 and forced myself out of bed the moment it beeped. I’m so glad I did - the river was still and mirror-smooth in the dark, and every tiny sound was amplified in a magical way.

As the light crept in, the birdsong grew louder. As our eyes slowly adjusted, we spotted a mysterious bulky creature out there on the water, looming steadily closer like something in a 1950s horror movie. It turned out to be a full floating bin bag, which we rescued and put in the proper place. What a beautiful morning it was - you can enjoy a snippet of it too if you click on the video below - make sure you have your sound on not just for the birds but also the gentle splosh of the oars. Thankyou so much Claire!

A few fritillaries, and other botanical wonders

Spring is when I start to get an overwhelming urge to be outside. I was very happy to be invited by Bonnie Radcliffe to ‘Wander with Me’ - a regular feature in her newsletter about walks, nature, creativity and more. You can find out more in Bonnie’s Wild Quiet Folk newsletter:

April is the month for my annual fritillary foray. Iffley Meadows Nature Reserve in Oxford is renowned for thousands of tiny purple chequerboards blooming in this Thames-side water meadow. But my carefully timed trip yielded just a handful - the endless dry days seemed to have taken their toll - and the meadow had been flood-less all winter. Here’s hoping for more snake’s head fritillaries next spring.

Here’s a plant-based treat from indoors: this Brazilian Eidelweiss looks like a prehistoric tennis ball for most of the year, then suddenly these furry leaves emerge…

And finally here’s some lilacs scrumped from a top-secret roadside spot that I visit with my snippers every spring…

See you next month - enjoy the cow parsley, bird song and other May delights! If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, do share and make sure you’re subscribed - it’s free, and only once a month, so I solemnly promise not to overwhelm your inbox.