Mapping and Territory

Mapping

I have successfully taught one of my workshops now a couple of times and past participants are eagerly asking for the next ‘chapter’. I had decided to break down the full day workshop into three parts as each part is really quite a substantial subject in itself.

Surface Rubbings from an earlier workshop.

So literally moving on from ‘Way-finding and the art of Psycho-geography’, there will be another workshop looking at ‘Mapping and Territory’. It is with this in mind that I have been immersing myself in many books on mapping, walking routes using maps and rereading the relevant part of my personal MA research.

Robert Macfarlane has had a lot of press coverage recently as he launches his new book ‘Landmarks’, I love the way he writes, he is a true observer of the beauty of place. I feel an affinity with the way he approaches the subject. Yet to be honest, as I am on the cusp of writing my own book about connecting people to place (through the simple act of walking), I feel hesitant about picking his newest book up and starting to read it. I know it will be enjoyable, beautifully written and informative.

But I need to refine my own thoughts, research and practice and concentrate on finding my own voice in this ever increasing popular subject.

Mapping my post-it notes..

I started to literally map my blog two weeks ago, taking subjects, words and themes and mapping them out on post it notes in front of me. I easily used up a few pads of pale yellow notes, arranged about a third of these on a large sheet of paper and stopped. I have so much information and although grouping a third of it together into specific themes, arranging it in an order that I understand does help, it also makes me aware that collating and bridging all these themes into a concise, enjoyable, easy to read book is going to take a while. And that time will not be found in the Easter holidays!

One page of many to do...

So now it is term time again and even a short term such as this will afford me some time to finish arranging the remainder of my post-it notes into order and start developing chapters. Lets hope so anyhow as now I understand why I hear of writers who take themselves away to remote places to construct such a piece of concentrated creative endeavour.

Territory

We spent an enjoyable week in Wales over the Easter break, 3 days of it was spent about 6 metres up in an Oak trees’ canopy. We had travelled up to the southern edge of Snowdonia to stay in a beautiful tree-house in a remote valley that felt truly magical. This could be an ideal place to write a book as there was no WIFI or electricity; the water came from a mountain spring and the heat from a log burning stove.

Fun was had with fire and glow-sticks.

It was wonderful for my family and I to have a break from virtual technological connection and sink back happily into the true nature of things. The glow from the candles and stove was comforting and real but stopped us from reading late into the evening. There wasn’t a TV or radio to distract us either, so time was spent well, living with the natural cycle of the daylight hours and dusk to dark times.

Our tree-house.

Because of this we all went to bed earlier than I can ever remember doing, as a family and naturally awoke relaxed and happy the next day as the daylight got brighter. This gentle transition time felt so natural, as it would be, that I wanted to try it once we had returned home, but there are so many distractions here that I haven’t even managed to try, maybe we need to book a tree-house holiday for next year to make that happen again.

Nestled in the trees.

There were 5 tree-houses in the valley, there are all located on one side of the stream in ancient woodland, a final and sixth one is now being built. Each tree-house had its own bridge that took you from one side of the stream to the other, these bridges could be seen if you knew where to look, the tree-houses were less easy to see.

From the moment of crossing ‘our’ bridge to climbing ‘our’ tree we felt more familiar to the area and started to know our place. As we timidly explored our surroundings I felt an emerging sense of belonging to the home that we as a family were about to stay in for a few days.

 

At home.

The next day we felt we knew the territory a bit better and became happier to leave it and discover the larger context of the place that we were staying in. In blazing sunshine we walked a large circular route around the surrounding hills and were able to pinpoint our magical valley.

Looking down on the magical valley from the surrounding hills.

As we returned back to the tree-house it felt like home and we had a few daylight hours to ‘hang out’ back at camp, outside, before stove heated water washed us in the open shower cubicle under the tree-house and in the dusk we climbed back up the spiral staircase to spend another early night in the trees, gently feeling the movement of the branches, cradling us as we dreamt.

The tree-houses blend in, even in the Spring.