Win: Fancy a European adventure with a KEEN ambassador?

A seaside jolly, a city stroll or a hike up a German mountain range: you could win a European adventure with one of KEEN’s intrepid ambassadors, plus a swish new pair of KEEN’s European Made hiking boots

To celebrate their brand new European Made collection, our friends at KEEN have launched an awesome competition to win a trip for you and a friend to embark on a European adventure with one of the brand’s global ambassadors – plus a pair of KEEN’s European Made hiking boots.

So, how can you enter?

It’s simple. Just visit www.keenfootwear.com/en-gb/europeanmade and vote for the ambassador and European adventure you’d like to go on. 

What are the choices?:

• A jaunt to the charming seaside resort of Leigh-on-Sea on England’s east coast with adventurer Dave Cornthwaite
• An urban adventure in and around historic Greenwich, London with mountaineer Heather Geluk
• A hike up the Mathislehof in Germany – one of Europe’s most stunning mountain ranges – with environmentalist Andreas Schäfer. 

Sound tempting? Go ahead and vote – you could be in with a chance of winning!

To enter and for full terms and conditions, visit www.keenfootwear.com/en-gb/europeanmade.

Closing date: 23 October. The competition is open to UK, Germany, France and Holland residents.

This is a sponsored blog post, created in collaboration with KEEN. For more information on partnerships and joining our directory, please email advertise@ernestjournal.co.uk

Meet the maker: Drws y Coed

Hannah of Drws y Coed tells us about the dappled light through tree canopies that inspires her beautiful wooden lamps, all designed and made in Wales

Tell us a bit about Drws y Coed. 

I grew up next to beautiful woodlands, which inspired me to make products that replicated that woodland light effect. So I went on an adventure in making; seeing how I could source small-scale local production right here in Wales. The joy of digital production is that there are no minimum quantities and work can be made to order.

What's so special about your lamps?

My lamps create a bit of that dappled woodland in in people’s living spaces, bringing the outside in.  I love the cosy glow created when combining wood and light – it reminds me of firelight and makes for relaxing and warm evening lighting. I’m going for what feels good!

The lamps are designed to fit onto one sheet of ply with minimum wastage. The cut-out of the lamp top section is a coaster; the cable entry point becomes a cabin magnet. I’m making a product that can be made locally to order as part of a virtuous loop of production.

What's important to you?       

Creating beautiful things, in positive production loops. Making things in Wales feels good – I think we have a lot of potential to get things right in this beautiful place.

Describe your perfect cabin in the woods.

My perfect cabin would be just peeping out of the canopy with a full view of the sky and stars. It would have a platform out front for sitting in the mornings and evenings. Some walls would be perforated just like my lamps to allow in dappled light and have well-positioned apertures to frame the best views. Inside there'd be a good collection of books and cushions. There would also be a large circular skylight for stargazing and a small wood burner.

Anything else you want to tell us?

Drws y Coed means 'door to the woods' in Welsh.  I chose it because it relates to the light qualities I create with my lamps, and also because I have a dream of re-cloaking Wales in woodland.

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Drws y Coed will be one of 45 crafts people at Tent London at the Old Truman Brewery in collaboration with Etsy, 24-27 September

This is a sponsored blog post, created in collaboration with Drws y Coed. For more information on partnerships and joining our directory, please email advertise@ernestjournal.co.uk

George Pocock's "Charvolant"

Watching kite buggies hurtling round flat beaches on the British coast, it is incredible to think that these extreme machines were the invention of a 19th-century school master and father-of-11 from Bristol, George Pocock

George Poock's kite-drawn carriage

Born in 1774, George Pocock was interested in kites from a young age, as he explains in his memorably titled publication The Aeropleustic Art or Navigation in the Air by the use of Kites, or Buoyant Sails: ‘When I was a little tiny boy I learnt that my paper-kite would draw along a stone on the ground, tied at the end of its string… I wondered and I grew ambitious’.

This curiosity, coupled with a willingness to experiment, eventually led to the invention of the “Charvolant”, a horseless carriage harnessed to a pair of kites and could be pulled along at speeds up to 20mph. The contraption was first trialled by one of his sons, who was seated on a makeshift sledge and attached to two kites before being dragged across the Bristol Downs until he came to a natural halt, somehow unscathed, at the bottom of a stone quarry. A man with confidence in his convictions, this wasn’t the only time Pocock was willing to risk one of his offspring in the name of advancing science, having also used kites to fly his daughter, sat in a wicker chair, over the Avon Gorge. 

The “Charvolant” was patented in 1826 and two years later it was demonstrated to King George VI at Ascot racecourse. Even though the buggy had the added advantage of being exempt from road tolls, which were charged per horse, the proliferation of railway bridges and the harnessing of internal combustion and steam meant that more reliable methods of transport rendered the vehicle something of a relic by the turn of the century, and sadly none of these machines survive today. Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, though, do have one of Pocock’s patented kites, a reminder of the spark which ignited a young man’s inventive spirit.

Words by contributing editor Duncan Haskell

You can read more curious tales in the third print issue of Ernest Journal, on sale now.

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Your Tuesday playlist: curated by Gearbox Records

Brew a pot of coffee and tune in to a blend of jazz, blues and hard bop in this playlist curated specially for Ernest, by Gearbox Records

Man Like GP, by Binker and Moses
From the album Dem Ones GB1530

Saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd are two young Londoners currently playing in Zara McFarlane’s band and creating a storm with their debut recording as a duo. Gilles Peterson calls them “the new generation of UK impro jazz musicians”.

Heart is a Lotus, by Michael Garrick Sextet with Don Rendell and Ian Carr
From the album Prelude to Heart is a Lotus GB1517

Heart is a Lotus is the celebrated pianist and composer’s previously unreleased 1968 BBC Maida Vale Studio recording, featuring some of the finest British jazz musicians of the era including trumpeter Carr and saxophonist Rendell. 

In The Old Days, by Kate Tempest (Brand New Ancients edit)
From the album Brand New Ancients GB1527

Listen to poet Kate Tempest’s acclaimed stage show, which toured to sold out venues in the UK and New York. Brand New Ancients captures her unique blend of street poetry, rap and storytelling and won her the prestigious Ted Hughes Prize for innovation in poetry.

The Gentle Rain, by the Tubby Hayes Quartet
From the album The Syndicate: Live at the Hopbine 1968 Vol. 1 GB1532

This previously unavailable live performance was recorded at the legendary Hopbine in North Wembley. It reveals Hayes’ new quartet, which featured the spectacular Dublin-born guitarist Louis Stewart and 22-year-old drummer Spike Wells.

A Beautiful Friendship, by Mark Murphy
From the album A Beautiful Friendship: Remembering Shirley Horn GB1515

Mark Murphy is one of the great voices of jazz and an icon for all modern jazz vocalists. This 2012 recording celebrates his close friend Shirley Horn with four of her trademark songs reinterpreted in his inimitable style.

Soft Soap Flakes Kill, by Michael Horovitz accompanied by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Paul Weller
From the album Bankbusted Nuclear Detergent Blues GB1520

Michael Horovitz’s Bankbusted Nuclear Detergent Blues is an effervescent improvisatory poem-sequence written for Paul Weller. On this 2013 studio recording Horovitz is accompanied by Weller, Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn. 

This is a sponsored blog post, created in collaboration with Gearbox Records. For more information on partnerships and joining our directory, please email advertise@ernestjournal.co.uk

British bird beaks

Whether used for impressing a mate, cracking open nuts or proclaiming territory, bird beaks are a prime example of how anatomy has evolved to be completely fit for purpose. Here we look at the beaks of British and migratory birds, and their unique specialisations for survival

Puffin, Fratercula arctica
Its bill has earned it the nickname 'clown of the sea', but once breeding season is over, the puffin sheds its characteristic bill, leaving a duller, smaller one behind.

Avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta
Emblem of the RSPB, this black and white wader employs a sweeping action with its long, thin upturned bill to stir up small invertebrates to the water’s surface, then it uses its beak like tweezers to pluck out its prey.

Crossbill, Loxia curvirostra 
To break into larch or pine cones, crossbills have evolved powerful bills with crossed tips, which prise off the woody scales of each cone to extract a seed.

Hawfinch, Coccothraustes coccothraustes  
Its bill exerts 68kg of force per square inch – enough to sever a human finger and crack open a cherry stone with one swipe.

Great spotted woodpecker, Dendrocopos major 
To sound its territory, a woodpecker uses its beak to strike wood 15 times a second with force equal to a human hitting a wall face-first at 20 miles an hour.

Spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia
These elegant water waders use their long, spatulate, partly-open bills to swing from side to side in the water, stirring up mud and debris. When insects and small fish touch the side of its bill, it snaps shut, trapping the prey inside.

Illustrations by Ruth Allen. As well as an illustrator, Ruth is a writer and mountaineer. Her work is available to buy through her website where she also blogs about her outdoor adventures. She is currently writing a book about mountains.

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