Walk 4

From home to Hirst Wood via cemetery and rope swing.

Huge birdsong.

Curling, flowery notes.

Sparkling and layered, competing to be heard.

Walking along the riverbank, ducklings and blue speckles of speedwell.

Leaf shapes - similarity, variety.

Vibrant green

Textures

Wild garlic; to look at, to smell, to touch and taste!

Bluebells. Endless drifting blue

A found bottle 'POISONOUS NOT TO BE TAKEN'

Ankle deep, then knee deep on nettles.

Names in the cemetery, some broken, forgotten? Tears of my own.

A rope swing with glee.

Slightly lost.

Fly tipping and a waiting cat

Across the railway and into blue carpeted woods.

A low-lying mist, scented with hyacinth

Loosing track

It seems like ages since I have really engaged with my practice, written in my journal or my blog, probably because it is ages. Today I finally took myself off for a walk, along the river and through the woods. The river was extremely swollen and flowing as fast, reeds and grasses bleached and flaxen. The ground of course was sodden and it was cold;  not everyones idea of an ideal walk, but beautiful to me.

It was good to get out and feel the sun on my face and the bitter cold on my fingers; clearing the cobwebs away.

Where wood and water merge

Air is heavy with water, earth is saturated, even the sunlight takes on a pearlescent quality.

In a place of woodland, river and canal these worlds seem to be meeting and overlapping. Perhaps it is the weather - rain and humidity blurring the boundaries, or maybe it is a more of a conceptual overlapping.

Box of tricks

Just sent off the first films taken on my 'new' Ensign Ful-Vue box camera (c.1939). Fingers very much crossed!

Circling a Beech

In Hirst Wood, a circlet of beech, laid as a hedge around a single forking beech sapling. I wonder who made it?

A visit to Hirst Wood with John to make the giant fabric. It was raining but lovely.

I hope I get some good colours and marks. The waiting begins.

If you go down to the woods today...

A lovely day spent doing the 'Mapping Hirst Wood' event, with good weather and lovely people. If you would like to see more of what we did take a look at the photos on the Mapping Hirst Wood blog.

Many thanks to John, CarolAnn, Alice, Joe and Hazel for helping me.

Mapping Hirst Wood

On Saturday 24th July I will be running the first 'Mapping Hirst Wood' event. The event will take place in Hirst Wood, near Shipley, West Yorkshire from 12 noon. I will be running creative activities aimed at all ages to encourage playful creative curiosity in the woodland environment.

Please come along, say hello and see what we are doing. Bring the kids, bring Grandma, bring the dog, wear your wellies!

Parking is available at the Hirst Wood car park. Look for signs from all the main entrances to the woods. The event will take place regardless of the weather, unless rain is torrential.

The activities are being run by me on an entirely voluntary basis and are not affiliated to any groups or official organisations. It is hoped that if this event is successful I will run further activities in the future. If you would like to follow these events in the future you can find more at the Mapping Hirst Wood blog.

See you there!

Taking a risk

As far as blogging goes this is a bit delayed, but necessary for me to document regardless. Last week I was at a loose end (as I still am now) and decided to go walking. I hoped that by walking and taking a few things to do I may rediscover my muse. Despite not rekindling my creative fire I felt refreshed by seeing all the new leaves on the beeches and the flash of blue across the woodland floor.

I decided to take the plunge and add colour to my embroidered wool drawing. I feel a bit precious about it, but was feeling so stuck I thought I would just throw some collected plant material on it and process as a kind of eco bundle. I really hope this proves to be a wise move, but I won't know until I unwrap it, so I must be patient and wait...

Spring greens

It is taking me a while to get going with the work I need to do. Home distractions and getting nowhere with leads and contacts has meant I have been reluctant to get started with anything new, but I hope today will break this.

I decided not to try anything adventurous today but stick to my usual haunt and see what was new. There is always something interesting to see or experience. At the moment the new green leaves spearing through the leaf mold are the main attraction. I am particularly fond of ramsons (wild garlic), which is very tasty and grows prolifically around here. I made a fabric bundle from young green leaves and another from wood shavings from a recently sawn tree stump.

I spent a lot of time next to the river today. In the shelter of the riverbank it was sunny and warm; collecting shards of glass and patterned pottery, making another bundle with lichen that had fallen off overhanging trees.

In the 'tree cathedral' area of Hirst Wood, where the nests are, I noticed some new things - clumps of green synthetic glitter lying on the ground and tulips sprouting next to mature trees, forming a large broken circle. It would seem that the nests were built in an area that was significant for another group of people. I think this might be some kind of sacred grove for pagan worshipers? While this isn't something that I know about, I am interested in the idea that lots of different people could be drawn towards certain sites without realising why. Some landscape theories suggest that we are attracted on an instinctive level towards particular kinds of environments. While there is a lot of debate about this I can't help but think that we give these feelings different names or reasons but that lots of people share an uplifting sensation in open wooded spaces like this. It is interesting that Simon Schama mentions in Landscape & Memory that many early churches in England were deliberately established on the site of sacred groves. The Christian church aimed to become more acceptable through grafting the new faith onto aspects of the existing worshipers spiritual lives.

Anyhow that's a bit deep, but I think it's an interesting area of ideas. Below is an image of all my treasure from today, although I suspect the real treasure is the stuff you can't see - once again people have different words for this kind of thing, I'll leave it to your imagination...

Conversations

The bright sunshine of the 1st of March took me to Hirst Wood for a wander.

  

Green islands are still in abundance, now bursting into fireworks

While I was opening my fabric bundles several passers-by stopped to chat. Each person had something new to teach me; about the history of the wood, a recipe for making ink from oak chippings, local nature reserves and wildlife hot spots, the local textile industry and some useful contacts for my proposed community projects. I also discovered that these woodlands are sometimes used in pagan rituals, which is intriguing and may explain some of the things I have found around the woods.

Pale ghostly prints, like parched plant remains. Detailed and subtle effects on silk and velvet.

I also learnt that lesser spotted woodpeckers are sometimes seen in the woods, so I will be looking even more carefully in future. Today my best birds were a pair of bullfinches.

Green Islands

I have been having a few problems with Blogspot, so the format is a bit of a mess, but never mind.

Yesterday I walked to Hirst Wood to explore and see what the seasons were doing.

Surfaces were matted, grasses and stems formed mouldering bleached webs, here and there signs of new growth.

Sunlight illuminating parched leaf mould with a rich warming glow. Hints of pale copper and verdent mosses like jewels.

I decided to make some eco print bundles, wanted to catch this gentle, sparse time of year. Surfaces subdued by snow and ice, yet holding a grace and fragility.

Yet all this is punctuated by small islands of green - moss on boulders, lichen covered tree trunks and now just emerging the early signs of bluebells. I decided to create my own green islands in the calm quiet sea of the pale woodland floor.

Someone else had been making things... things with coloured yarn... and then more green islands.

The plan!

I have a plan...

... to become the voluntary Artist in Residence for Hirst Wood.

I have already started to think about the practical considerations of this and I think it is within my abilities and generally do-able. I have a lot of practical experience that will help and I am really excited about the prospect of this new adventure.

I would like to get 'official' permission to do it, although I don't think there is any legal reason that I need to, it would probably be in my best interests in the longer run to speak to the council (who own the woods). I think this could be the only stumbling block - dealing with the bureaucracy. Any advice is most welcome...

Hirst Wood - the people's sculpture park?

This morning I decided to walk to Hirst Wood to see what the world looked like in it's snowy cloak. It was lovely to see everything so changed; some things hidden, others highlighted for all to see.

I didn't really know how the woods would look or feel but was surprised that the overall scene did not look more dramatic. However on looking closer there were lots of lovely surprises.

    

I was delighted to find both of the nests were still intact. Picked out in white against the dark branches they became even more visible. As I was wandering about I noticed some sticks that seemed to have fallen into a star shape, then I realised this was too much of a coincidence, someone else must have been making things. As I looked around more I began to notice other shapes buried in the snow.

    

How wonderful to see that other people had been inspired to create their own ideas. Making patterns, building structures and adding to the original structures we had made, there were about 8 - 10 structures, all in the same area of the woods. I particularly love this star inside my nest. I wonder if it was intended as a giant snowflake?

In the short time I spent in this area of the wood I spotted a small boy and his Grandfather inspecting the large nest and adding some more wood to it. They had no idea what it was but just wanted to add to it. It seems that once something is started people enjoy making their own mark. I wonder if it is similar to the sandcastles and marks in the sand we make at the seaside?

I pushed a row of sticks into the ground along the edge of the path to create long shadows to mark the day. Later on my way back through the woods I came across more evidence of creative activity...

    

... fairy doors and miniature shelters. I wonder who has made all these things?

I feel today's discoveries are important to my practice. I am not sure how just yet but I hope this might become clearer soon.

Nests for Beavers

A truly wonderful day today despite nothing at all going to plan. I was due to go to Manchester today for a tutorial but the trains were not running so after waiting 90 minutes at the station I decided I could make better use of the Autumn sunshine. And I am so glad I did...

After trekking to Hirst Wood I had a look at how my 'nest' had survived. I was pleased to see it was fairly unchanged and managed to get some better photos (see below).

I had just started work on rigging up a washing line between two of the tall beech trees when a big group of Beaver Scouts appeared and set up their games nearby. It was lovely to see the children enjoying the woods and after a while one of the leaders came to find out what I was doing. I suggested that if they wanted the children could investigate and play in the nest. So then the leaders managed to get all of the Beavers inside the nest (27 I think). I wish I could have taken a photo, but child protection being what it is, I didn't dare ask. The kids obviously loved interacting with the structure and asked me lots of questions. Then they all wanted to make their own nest, and set about doing it. IT WAS AMAZING!

I had forgotten how fun it is doing activities with children (I used to be a Brownie leader), and I really enjoyed their enthusiasm, inquisitiveness and willingness to have a go. None of the children asked why I had made a nest - I think it wouldn't cross their minds that you needed a reason. I love the fact that children see experimentation and play as natural activities that do not require justification. I think as adults we could learn a lot from that.

Above is the nest the Beavers made, which is by far bigger and better than the one John & I made earlier in the week. Well done to you all, excellent team work!

After the children had gone I did a lot of reflecting on the experience. It made me realise that I can find satisfaction in sharing my practice with other people in different ways. The children were so enthusiastic and non-judgemental, it was a pleasure to discuss my work with them. I think I would like to consider doing arts projects with children as a way of developing a sustainable practice.

Lastly from pinning up my fabric in the woodland I realised that the silk fabrics become transparent in the daylight. Viewing the trees and dappled light through the fabric seems to capture sympathetic qualities of woodland. I think there is more to explore here.

    

Thank you very much to Bingley Beavers for sharing a very special time in Hirst Wood. I hope you all had a lovely day.