So – the students are back!  BMC started for a new term on Monday, and so once again Dock Cafe is abuzz with student chat, the hot chocolate is being consumed at a reckless rate, and lunchtimes are a blizzard of activity and life.  And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Part of the mix at lunchtimes these days is the crew from the ‘Wish’ art project – or The Big Face (as Tegan calls it) – or ‘The Face From Space’ (my suggested name, to fit in with the Balls at the Falls and Nuala with the Hula).  ‘Wish’ is, as you’ll remember, the project to build a massive ground-level picture of a girl’s face that can only be seen from above – from the top of Titanic Belfast or, even better, from planes flying into Belfast City airport.  The team have spent the last 2 weeks mapping out the area with GPS – and now they’re ready for volunteers to help fill in the sand and earth to form the artwork.  No pre-booking necessary – just turn up at 10am or 2pm on site with good (but old) shoes and the willingness to get your hands dirty!

(pics show: Jorge (artist), Jorge’s most recent project in Amsterdam, the ‘before’ picture of the TQ site before work began, the team getting ready for action in The Dock)

Here’s the invite from Ben, the project leader:

We are currently recruiting volunteers to assist in the construction stage of this project.
Onsite activities will include – 
Wheelbarrowing topsoil and stone
Raking sand and topsoil
Marking out areas in which the material will be spread
“Cleaning up” contrast lines between the sand and soil

This will all make more sense when you see the site and meet with me and Jorge, who will tell you more about the project.
There isn’t a huge amount of heavy lifting, but the raking can be tiring.  And it’s a little windy onsite, so be sure to bring something warm just in case the sun disappears! Wellington boots or old shoes are also recommended.
We’re looking to start welcoming volunteers to the site tomorrow after 1pm, so if you have some free time we’d love to see you onsite.  From Thursday to Saturday, volunteers are welcome from 10am.  We finish at 6pm each evening, and you are welcome to commit to as much or as little time as you wish.

When you get a chance to take a breather from all that, remember that SSK (Knitters at The Dock) is now back in action every Friday morning at 11:30, and Dock Book Group starts again on Saturday with the author of the book in attendance!  (so I hope you liked it…)

And whether you’re calling in to the Dock to volunteer at Wish, to knit, to read, or just to kick back with one of the best and most chilled-out cuppas in Belfast, you’ll see (as always!) lots of new little features to keep the place fresh.

We have another new artist-in-residence – Makiko Takeoka – seen here getting to work on filling one of our lovely blank walls (catnip to artists apparently!) with some of her fabulous, unique watercolour renditions of local scenes.

And you might be leaning your cuppa on another new addition to the Dock’s unique Edwardian-Victorian-Vintage-Industrial-Pop-up-Chic decor…  (aka a cool retro table, delivered by Ronnie and Lyn.

It just keeps getting busier and better in this precious little corner of the world – great days!

If you called in to the Prayer Garden in the corner of Dock Cafe over the Summer, you’ll have noticed (you couldn’t miss it!) an explosion of creativity and energy in every corner of the garden – prayers in different languages, different styles for different reasons and places.  All the result of Abby’s hard work: she set up some new prayer stations at the beginning of the summer and then watched the garden grow… These are her reflections on the process:

Gardening takes time and patience. I know, I tried my hand at gardening last summer! It wasn’t a complete loss but neither was it a glorious success. What I learned through that experience was that gardening can also involve a bit of trial and error. If you’re going to go in for it, then you need to be willing to go through the errors and still put the effort in to try again next time.

Why, dear people of Dockland, am I spouting these somewhat clichéd thoughts on gardening? Because this summer, the experimentation was a bit different. This summer the gardening was a prayer garden.

I was well impressed when I saw freshly opened prayer garden at the Dock Café earlier this year! Since I live in Dublin now I’m not such a frequent visitor to the Dock as I might like to be. But every time I do make it back I notice all sorts of exciting new developments and improvements!

I could see how nicely the space had been prepared: just sectioned off enough from the rest of the café to give it a secluded feel without being intimidating, cushions, artwork, fabulous faux grass, plus some real live and growing plants, and oh so much delicious blank wall space! Those blank walls…they were just begging to be put to some creative use…

And that folks, is how ideas are born: blank walls and a little bit of free time on one’s hands! I asked Chris about using the space during July, since I’d be up in Belfast for an extended visit, and putting up resources for prayer that people could take advantage of any time they visited the garden.

Chris was open to the idea, in fact completely encouraging of it, and basically said ‘go for it!’

I gave it a bit of thought and prayer and felt that a two-fold theme might suit this first, ‘prayer theme’ venture for the Dock: ‘Praying for Belfast, Praying for the World’. July can be a difficult month for Belfast; it’s a time when the city can’t have enough prayer, really. But I also wanted to remind people of other issues in the world, other areas where people are facing danger and deprivation beyond what we are accustomed to in our ‘everydays’, and to encourage people to remember these places in prayer as well. For this I used resources from two organisations: Open Doors, a group that serves persecuted Christians and raises awareness, and International Justice Mission, a human rights organisation focusing on human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Both of these organisations provide both the facts and figures and real human stories, in short compelling resources to prompt people to pray.

A bit (but not much) furniture rearranging and the prayer garden was then ready for to make the most of those blank walls! There was Belfast wall, with a map of the city around which people were invited to add the names of groups and organisations doing good community work so that visitors could keep these in prayer during the summer months. Then there was the international wall, with a huge world map and a selection of new stories from conflict areas around the world. People were also invited to add their prayers to this map as well. Another section highlighted International Justice Mission’s work and a final section gave people the opportunity to write notes of encouragement to people in areas of persecution through Open Doors.

Remember how I said trial and error is an integral part of gardening? There are some things I would probably do differently. Mostly I was just amazed to see how the garden did ‘grow’ over the six weeks that the displays were up. People added some remarkably touching prayers to the walls and to the tree in the centre of the garden. The Belfast wall metamorphosed to take in the World Police and Fire Games as the prayer garden was used to hold a prayer meeting for volunteers each morning. A sampling of the prayers that grew in the garden can be seen in the photos.

So, over to you people of Dockland. What might you envision sowing and nurturing in this precious prayer garden? It is a lovely space. It is visited by people from all sorts of backgrounds. How might you invite them to take time, listen to what the Spirit of God is saying and pray those things that are on God’s heart? Any ideas? Suggest them to Chris, I bet he’ll tell you to ‘go for it!’

Ready to start curling up by a warm fire with some good books again as Autumn approaches?  Dock Book Group is starting up for a new season with a new selection of great reads lying in store…

And we’re starting off with a Book Group first: a meeting with the author in attendance.  At our first gathering on Saturday 14th September to discuss My Father’s House, you’ll get to meet the author, Bethany Dawson – as well as enjoying all the usual chat, free-flowing coffee & tea and sticky buns.

14-9-13 at 3pm in Dock Cafe – see you there!

And if you want to start stocking-up the bookshelves (or filling-up the Kindle) with the forthcoming titles for the next few months, here they are:

Oct 12th: Rose Petal Beach by Dorothy Koomson

Nov 9th: All The Beggars Riding by Lucy Caldwell

Dec 7th: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

A busy day in The Dock yesterday, as we welcomed Belfast’s First Citizen in for a cuppa – as well as the leadership team from CFC, the planning team for the Big Face, and loads of other visitors as well – talk about everyone arriving at the same time!

(As always thanks to Jeremy for the great pics – you can find more here)

That now makes a Trilogy of Mayors of Belfast to have passed through Dock Cafe since we first opened – how exciting and encouraging to look back at the pictures and realise how much has changed, how much Life in the Titanic Quarter is flourishing, in such a short time:

And it was also great to meet the Mayor of North Down on Saturday – who was on 2 wheels as part of the Pedalling Picnic event that brought hundreds of new customers to The Dock – one of our busiest days ever!

Nothing is small-scale in Dock World these days… we’re getting big crowds of customers (making big donations to the Honesty Box!), big smiles and thank-you’s from people finding The Dock for the first time, big plans and big hopes for lots of exciting things happening over the next few weeks:

The Big Face
Yes I know that’s not the proper name… but in Dock Cafe that’s how we’ve started referring to the massive open-air artwork project which is being created on our doorstep for the Festival at Queens.  It is, after all, a big giant face – being mapped out and created on a huge stretch of ground beside SS Nomadic by teams of volunteers who will be starting work this Monday.

This is the official description, and a photo of Jorge’s previous project in Amsterdam:

A first for the UK and Ireland, a large scale portrait with a gaze towards the future will be created by internationally acclaimed artist Jorge Rodríguez–Gerada. Making history with local volunteers and community groups, the biggest spectacle of land art to be seen in Belfast to date will evolve at the Titanic Quarter, questioning who we want to be, rather than who we currently are.

Wish can be viewed once Festival opens by members of the public from high up one of the adjacent buildings on specially escorted tours as well by walking through the art itself.

Visitors flying in and out of George Best Belfast City Airport will get a bird’s eye view of this transformative contemporary art installation.

The Big Cycle
‘Pedal On Belfast’ is gearing up for Saturday morning – guided cycle routes from 4 corners of Belfast, all converging on the Titanic Quarter and the public square right outside The DOCK!

Big Cranes
I was up the road at T13 this week, planning a very exciting event for Belfast Restaurant Week which will be a co-production between the Dock, the Mace, SS Nomadic, Titanic Belfast and the T13 Crane View Kitchens… watch this space for more details!  While I was there, I got to see the amazing sight of Samson and Goliath moving closer together than I’ve ever seen – and conclusive proof that Samson is bigger!

Big Skies
And locking up The Dock last night, check out this beautiful view over our beloved Titanic Quarter and precious wee city: