Last Monday I took a trip on the River Stour In Kent, to look at wildlife, in particular to look for beavers. The trip was organised by Grove Ferry River Trips (contact details below), who provide the boat and the skipper plus a very well-informed ecologist who gave us lots of information about the wildlife in and around the river. Lest you should think that you have stumbled onto the wrong blog, I should say at this point that there is a textile connection: I am working on a series of four textile pieces – in collaboration with a quilter in Germany, who will also make four pieces – for a SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibition due to take place in 2027. The eight pieces will form the pages of a book
On the river trip, we learnt how important the beavers are for the management of the water. I was interested to learn more about the topic because I knew that Eurasian Beavers were re-introduced to England and Scotland as recently as 2025 and also that Kent was one of the places that they were released. You can see some of the benefits of this scheme on this government website here.
We set off at 7.30, just before dusk. The beavers emerge from their homes at about this time and stay awake until dawn. We were warned that the lodges can look like an untidy pile of logs, although beavers will then create a watertight chamber beneath the level of the water. Lodges can be extended on either side or even extended upwards.
In my textile piece, I created a pile of tree branches, using strips of fabric in tones of brown,
Willow trees on each bank had leafy branches which dipped right down into the water.
I cut shapes in green fabrics and stitched them down with both machine-stitching and hand stitches.
Before long, we saw an adult beaver appear at the entrance to a lodge, take a good look at us and then slip into the riverm swimming upstream, away from us.
This is how she (we were told that it was almost certainly a female) appears in my piece.
Later we saw another adult, already in the river. Only the head, a small portion of back and a glimpse of a tail under water can be seen.
Here is the second beaver in the piece.
Here then, is the finished piece which measures 12 x 18″.
Grove Ferry River Trips: https://groveferryrivertrips.co.uk
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