Walk 7 - just a little walk

a little walk

from home along the riverbank

chocolate brown water

fast flowing and higher than normal (for the time year)

muddy underfoot

collecting yellow flowers;

buttercup

oil seed rape

yellow flag iris

and others

bundled into silk

along the river

collected reflections

an underwater world

light and shade

down to the waters edge

foaming water

evening light and soothing, lapping water

falling away

lightness

air

on my skin

collecting yellowed ivy leaves on my way home

Fading / shimmering

a tissue of vague shapes

playing shadows

fleetingly illuminated

A Secret Garden

softly sleeping

undisturbed

gently wrapped in silvery cobweb

a garden without a house

forgotten

but still breathing

I have passed by this forgotten garden for two years, peaking over the wall at the apple trees, but this afternoon I had a feeling that if I didn't investigate today I never would.

Poking about some more

A brief moment of sunshine.

Making cyanotypes on the beach.

Thanks to the lovely people at the chip van for your help and interest.

Beach sticks - How many sticks can you pick up and hold with two hands?

Walking the line...

Wandering, exploring, stumbling along

A productive day today; walking and thinking, testing out ideas.

I made the most of the autumn sun, first exploring a very short way along the river, but exploring a little way off the path. It was notable that a more substantial path is being put in place to help walkers navigate the slippery patch of riverbank that is riddled with springs. It made me wonder whether making wild places safe and risk free this takes away from our experience; removing the sensation of mud sucking my boots deep down into the sodden ground.

I experimented with stitching some text outside, but I was not satisfied with the results. By the time I had embroidered the words my mind had moved onto other things. I want to make work of and in the moment. I decided to make some bundles, with the newly fallen beech and oak leaves. Finding a small fragment of broken pottery amongst the smoothed stones of the busy stream I picked it up to include with the bundle I was making. I feel this is starting to get interesting as the bundle is taking on a significance as a piece of work in it's own right.

Submerged bundle

Later this afternoon I went out exploring, visiting Shipley Glen (for the first time I am ashamed to say) and having a good wander about. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the late summer sun, scrambling and strolling through the glorious landscape of giant tumbling boulders and crooked oak trees.

A fairy house?

Kingfisher walk

A short walk on my own after dinner; sun just setting.

Walked along the riverbank.

Saw a kingfisher in flight above the water.

A joyful flash of brilliance.

A moment later I stumbled and was stung by nettles.

Searching around for dock leaves and wondering about this old remedy.

Clutching dock leaves to my arm I wandered the other direction, through the boggy area and under the by-pass.

Making a bundle of the spent dock leaf and wrapping a long piece of grass around it.

I wondered if this was a good memento of the kingfisher sighting, or perhaps the lumps on my arm from the nettle sting?

Then spotted my first ripe blackberries of the year - ate one and brought one home as a souvenir.

Several things to mark this short walk, some fleeting, others more lasting.

Memories, marking moments with mementos?

Passed herons, also returning home.

Sand Between My Toes

I have been away in North Devon building up my energy, while still finding time for a little work. Thank you John & Phil for putting up with my experiments and providing the best company for beach excursions and evening walks across the fields.

Sights and smells of the sea, cool water licking my toes, the smell of elderflowers, watching a mole... and a snake eyed skink...

Planning for placemaking

Some plans... or thoughts in progress:

I want my public engagement activities to be flexible so that it isn't all dictated by me - How can I do this?

• start with a simple activity that allows for different responses and dialogue
• listen to what people say
• review what I am doing and invite new ideas
• re-consider and be open to a change in purpose
• share what I/we do

What should the activities be?

• creative, imaginative, fun
• accessible, for everyone
• encourage dialogue and discussion
• contribute and respond to local ecology & culture
• conscious of global environmental impact

How can I make this happen?

• I need to tell people about what is happening - started blog, need to create signs and put up posters
• Make the hub of activity attractive and inviting
• Be enthusiastic and talk to people about what I am doing
• No woman is an island - I need to recruit helpers; any volunteers?

Placemaking

Placemaking is a term I have been researching because I somehow ended up using it in my Learning Agreement (proposal) without really understanding what it meant. Placemaking helps to describe what I want to do with the public engagement aspect of my practice (in Hirst Wood) and the research has helped me to understand how I might do this.

Here are a few points I have found useful:

• Placemaking is a term mainly used within the context of architecture, planning and environmental planning. 
• It is roughly used to describe strategies to create good spaces that people feel a connection to. This is usually referring to urban areas or public spaces.
• It is sometimes used as a trendy word to make a project appear to be community minded when it is not.
• Placemaking should involve the following:

reveal and respond to the true character of the place

re-examination of everyday settings and experiences in our lives

community driven and inclusive

dialogue and open discussion

flexibility, adaptable

multi-disciplinary

promote health, happiness and wellbeing

engage with people's practical needs...

... and emotional needs

create possibilities for encounters

evoke curiosity

inspiring and transformative

consideration for the long term development of place

creating pleasure through sensory experience

"Place making is not design, if anything it is about relationships. Relationships between people, and between people and their environment." Place Partners

"Placemaking is a dynamic human function: it is an act of liberation, of staking claim, and of beautification; it is true human empowerment" Project For Public Spaces

Some food for thought in terms of how I progress with this aspect of my work.

Looking Up

A visit to York and York Minster. Thinking about the gothic architecture of churches and cathedrals and the relationship to woodland 'architecture'. Up lifting, inspiring, hushed; it feels rather like a grove of trees.

I had a lot more to say, but I'm feeling a little tired. Thanks for the photo John x

HOME

A difficult weekend, spent adjusting to the idea of loosing my childhood home. Mum will be moving out on Thursday and I have been feeling pretty upset at the thought of 'home' not being there anymore. Although I moved away to university 11 years ago and have moved around the country ever since, I have never really felt 'at home' anywhere else. 'Going home' always meant the same thing.

At least thinking about all these ideas has made me realise the root of my current creative practice. A sense of place for me is also about a sense of belonging or situatedness. Feeling right in an environment is about familiarity - the right smells, light and space. I suppose being 'home' is also about hearing the garden gate creak and bang in a certain way, the smell of real tomatoes...

I came across a copy of Grandma's tea loaf recipe in her cupboard while I was staying at the weekend. She wrote me a recipe book when I was younger but I haven't been able to find it for a while so this was a great discovery. A little taste from my childhood when Mum used to make this for Sunday tea.

I also collected some plant material from Mum's garden; hydrangea petals, hawthorn leaves, tomato stalks and a few hornbeam leaves, all plants I associate with the garden. I wrapped them in some worsted wool fabric to bring back to Yorkshire as a souvenir.

I would be interested to hear what home means to other people - Where is home to you? What reminds you of home when you are away? What makes you feel 'at home'?

Avoiding difficult work

I have realised I have been very distracted lately. Going on holiday and starting back into lecturing has given me a lot of opportunity to think about other things but I need to clear some space and tackle the difficult task of my practice. Crucially I have yet to come up with the 'well defined question' I decided I needed in order to help define my practice. What is it I am trying to work out? What is the problem or hypothesis?

a stream of consciousness...

belonging, place, understanding, self, realisation, purpose, genius loci, embraced, home, destiny, the world, looking, searching, position, relationship, interconnectedness, location, lost, loss, mortality, touch, haptic, being.

"The lure of the local is the pull of place that operates on each of us, exposing our politics and our spiritual legacies. It is the geographical component of the psychological need to belong somewhere, one antidote to a prevailing alienation."

Lucy Lippard, 1997 in The Lure of the Local: senses of place in a multicentered society

Sax Impey

While in Cornwall I visited Millennium gallery in St Ives and saw Sax Impey's wonderful exhibition of painting and mixed media works titled 'Voyage'. I didn't know his work previously but was struck by the eerie quality of the works and their luminosity.

This body of work explores a voyage made from Australia to Singapore and is a personal voyage of discovery investigating man's primal connection to the sea and the wider universe.

I found his use of painting and photography combined especially well to create a really evocative effect. The works are atmospheric and almost seem to be illuminated. I think the works also reference a very personal take on experiencing a place, which is an idea I have been trying to explore in my own work.

Chiltern woodlands

As a part of understanding the places I feel attachment to I have decided to research a bit about the history and culture of woodlands near Bingley in West Yorkshire and Prestwood in Buckinghamshire.

When I visited Angling Spring Wood (having not been for a period of several months) I noticed that by comparison to Hirst Wood near Bingley the beech trees were actually not all that big or old. It made me realise that the woods of the Chilterns were (and still are to a lesser extent) harvested for timber. The woods of the Chilterns were a vital resource for the furniture industry of High Wycombe and so with the exception of a few trees in parkland there are no really ancient trees around Prestwood as they are regularly felled.

Chair bodger, Chilterns c.1930

Reading some of the brilliant online resources about the local woods I found out that some of the 'chalk' pits in the woods were actually the remains of sawyers pits. This fascinated me, to think of the direct connection with history, industry, the shape of the land and my movement within the landscape. Maybe running down the pit was not just a childish action, but a way of connecting with the culture of the place.

The section of map above is a facsimile of a map of 1822 in which the wood is clearly marked, with very similar boundary to the present day wood. I noticed it is marked just as 'Angling Spring', so I don't know if this is just naming the spring (which is found as a slightly squelchy patch at the east end of the wood) or if this was also the name given to the wood.

Making marks in Angling Spring Woods

Last week I went to Buckinghamshire to spend the week with my Mum. While I was there it was a good opportunity to visit my 'local' woods to explore the environment as a source for my work. Early on Wednesday morning I went for a walk to Angling Spring Wood. I feel a special connection to these woods as I have known them all my life. I found I was racing towards the woods, and had to make a conscious effort to slow myself down as I walked through the field.

      

While walking in the woods I took several photos with the pinhole camera and tried to find an inner stillness in order to make a creative connection to the place. Mature beech woods have such a distinctive quality of space and light; so open, yet covered and protected.

I also came across some of the big chalk pits that are common throughout the woods around Prestwood, which I remembered running through as a child. They seemed massive when I was little, but they still seem pretty big now and it took quite a bit of courage to decide to run down one again. Perhaps it was even more exhilarating as an adult, it certainly gave me a rush. I wanted to make a mark in response to this, so I collected some charcoal from a fire someone had previously lit in the bottom of the pit and started trying draw on some paper. The rough ground meant that the paper just tore, so I decided to make a mark directly on the ground. Starting nervously but building up to using the sweep of my whole body to create an arc shaped mark on the ground. It felt good to do something so physical in response to the place; letting go of my inhibitions. As a more permanent record I made a few quick drawings in my sketchbook using the charred stick and took these photos. I also noticed the forces of nature creating their own more dramatic marks on the woodland floor (bottom image).

      

Ailsa Well

While doing some research into 'a sense of place' I found out about some of the ancient sites around Bingley. I was amazed to discover that there are ancient carved stones in the woods above Bingley and lots of woodland springs that probably had spiritual significance for our ancestors. The is one spring in the centre of Bingley that I already knew about called Ailsa Well. It can be reached from the Riverside Walk.

          

It was beautifully cool on a sunny afternoon and the sound of the gently running water was incredibly calming. I was really pleased that it had been well cared for; it would be so easy for something like this to be lost in the chaos of modern town development.

Also along the path I came across this stunningly beautiful corridor of dappled shadows.