Lea Valley Drift is a walking-based project aimed at encouraging exploration of unexpected, sometimes undeveloped corners of East London’s Docklands and lower Lea Valley. With map in hand I set out to follow the ten mile route – but ended up only completing half because what I found was so interesting that progress was slow. I thoroughly recommend this inspiring urban adventure – it begins with a trip on the Emirates Air Line cablecar – ten minutes high above the wide and silvery Thames, all its curves laid out below you. The vast Victoria Dock is beside you when you land – it even had a beach and billowing deckchairs this week. Trinity Buoy Wharf is approached through a gallery of street art in Orchard Place, home made soup is available in a container cafe while you watch the tugs at work. East India Dock Basin is a developing salt marsh, with ribbons of bird footprints scrawled all over at low tide. Out on the radio shack jetty 35 cormorants were gathered, sunning their wings and surveying the Dome opposite.

The Lea loops like a small intestine, and in one of the loops is a dragonfly-filled paradise, Bow Creek Ecology Park. Under the DLR track there’s a beautiful mural of reeds and rushes. A stretch of industrial park follows, conveyer belts of recycling and stacked yellow skips – and a rather macabre offering on the pavement, a box containing cows’ ankles complete with cloven hooves. A tiny tucked away memorial was next, with an eternal gas flame commemorating gas workers who died in the war. And beyond them is a forest of majestic ornate gasometer skeletons, like an iron colosseum.

Colourful canal barges offer boat rides a little further on, while a dredger was hard at work scooping mats of duckweed from the water. Three Mills and Abbey Mills Pumping Station are magnificent buildings in their own different way, and the Greenway was a revelation. The walk ended for the day at Stratford, but I am looking forward to doing the next section soon.

If you would like to try the walk, email ofroome-lewis@ucreative.ac.uk for map info!

I am a huge fan of libraries of all sorts, and I am constantly in and out of my local one with sackloads of books. It’s very sad when libraries close, so in theory this photograph should induce a sense of deep melancholy. But for some reason – perhaps the way the light is falling – looking at it makes me feel very tranquil, clears my head and puts me in the mood for new projects. I took the photo a couple of years ago in the marvellous Tower Hamlets archive (reassuringly, the adjacent room is packed with wonderful old books) when doing some research for the built environment project I did in Whitechapel with Canon Barnett Primary School and English Heritage. Iwas reminded of the photo when looking at sculptor Frillip Moolog’s blog post on empty spaces, which is well worth a visit here.

I’ve been enjoying rummaging with my father-in-law through his marvellous collection of Edwardian postcards this week – several boxes and tins-worth of fascinating social history, from seaside promenades to postcards home from soldiers in WW1. There are saucy ones, sad ones, cards with secret pockets out of which a concertina of tiny photos cascades, velvet inserts, embroidery, glitter and even a squeak in one. Philip sometimes used to use them for teaching, and they would certainly be a very inspiring source for writers of any age. I’m showing some of my favourites here…I love the bizarre babies’ banquet, where the little cherubs are feasting on plates of casserole washed down with red wine. The series of seaside clinches appeals as well (there are many more in that vein), and seem particularly amusing juxtaposed with the displays of fresh Yarmouth bloaters (has that fish been re-branded? Not something I’ve ever spotted in a fishmonger). My absolute favourite, however, is ‘Never start anything you can’t finish’ – now there’s a fellow you would want to spend the evening with!

Whenever I go somewhere new I like to visit art galleries, but best of all is when there’s an opportunity to see an artist’s studio, in full working order. Recently I had the chance to go to the Fundacio Pilar i Joan Miro on the outskirts of Palma, Mallorca, where Miro worked for the last years of his life, in a purpose-built studio designed for him by Josep Luis Sert overlooking the Mediterranean. The studio is so light and airy and spacious, filled with colour, paint and brushes and unfinished canvases everywhere, mixed in with pinecones, stones and interesting old toys that Miro collected. There’s also a gallery, and another, older house where Miro also worked and drew out his new ideas for sculptures all over the walls.It’s impossible to visit without wanting to go home and pick up some brushes then paint something very large…or draw all over the walls. Very inspiring.