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Yesterday I found a Peacocks bright green and blue iridescent feather by my front path. It surprised me at first and then I smiled as I realised that it must have blown out of my parked car sometime over the previous week. I have picked up many Peacocks feathers on my weekly writing trips to Monkshill Farm. Recently the Peacocks that normally loudly announce their beauty have been silent, skulking away from visitors as they moult and shed their wonderful coat.

Found peacocks feather on my new book.

The happiness I felt when I saw the incongruous feather in my street was linked directly to the wonderful memory of the place that Monkshill Farm is located. Before its recent reincarnation as 'Farm Work Play', the farm was the headquarters of the agricultural education section of 'Margate School for the Deaf'.

View from the window at Farm Work Play, co-working space.

My family, friends and I had regularly visited it when it was open to the public for official seasonal events, such as 'Lambing days', it had a wonderful café which was open most days, a farm shop and a play area. But to be honest what I mostly missed and what I am able to enjoy once again are the extensive beautiful views that are almost 360 degrees and the great sense of place that this location allows.

View from the summit of Monkshill, looking out towards the Thames estuary.

Today I read an article in 'The Guardian', that explores exactly this type of happiness. It suggests that contentment evoked by familiar and special places seem to have an even higher value than treasured objects such as photographs or wedding rings.

Dr Andy Myers is quoted in the article saying 'for the first time we have been able to prove the physical and emotional benefits of place, far beyond any research that has been done before. With meaningful places generating a significant response in areas of the brain known to process emotion, it's exciting to understand how deep-rooted this connection truly is.'

Being a Kentish lass, I love the Hop fields.

One of the lovely gifts that I was given this week for my birthday was a small book of 10 poems about home. It has a small but poignant collection of poems that captures 'the many ways in which we experience that unique sense of being at home.'

I do understand that home isn't always for everyone the place that creates happiness, but for me mostly it is and this poetry collection is evocative of just how special they are as 'vessels' to hold our own memories in.

North Sea mud, a love of mine on Tankerton seafront.

So, along with these poems, the indulgence of owning and loving my own home, having the knowledge of many special places which I understand inspire and make me happy, it really does pain me to know that this isn't common for everyone.

Migration.

There are many humans for whom this is an impossibility, many who are just surviving, 'on the road', without a base or a home, exiled away from the familiar places that once brought them joy. Many refugees are known to have picked up and carried a handful of earth from their home. Keeping it close to them for as long as possible. These are people whose lives have been torn apart by conflict, from family and loved ones. It is with this in mind that I remember how grateful I am for what I have and remember that I want others to share this feeling of contentment and well-being in discovering their locality. Creatively connecting people to place is my mission. This blog is part of it.

Gelli-print of Bluebells and William Blake poetry.

This weekend I will be opening the doors of my beautiful straw bale studio to exhibit my own and Alison Lees work as part of the Canterbury Festival, the theme is still 'The Spirit of Place' as it is an ongoing art project based in Kent.

You can keep up to date with our explorations and discoveries by looking at www.facebook.com/EastKentSpiritOfPlace

Open times are 11-5 daily on the weekends from 14-29^th of October. We can be found at house number 25 on the Whitstable trail. Please see the webpage www.ekoh.org.uk for more information.

My own personal art page can be found at www.facebook.com/RoseClarityArtist, do take a look!

 I can be contacted on 07432679164 or clare@people-to-place.co.uk

Celebrating the nature of place

A few months ago I visited the WealdenLiterary Festival at Woodchurch in Kent. The theme of the event was 'celebrating the nature of place', as this seemed very connected to my ongoing project exploring the spirit of place I felt it was well worth a visit. It was held at Boldshaves, which is 'both a family home and a working garden surrounded by ancient woodland in an area of outstanding natural beauty on the eastern edge of the Kent Weald'
.

webpage from the festival site

The gardens were used extensively for the festival with organised walks exploring the outer reaches of their woodland and the inner confines hosting many designer and maker stalls, workshop spaces and both a yurt and a marquee in which a multitude of authors introduced their new books to enthusiastic audiences.

I had booked tickets to see and hear Peter Owen Jones talk about the 'Sense of Place', this seemed too great an opportunity to miss. He was promoting his newest book, 'Pathlands' which is a collection of 21 of his favourite circular walks in the UK. In the book he promised to 'share his thoughts on the experience and the transformative experience of walking.'

'Pathlands', by Peter Owen Jones

At the talk at the event he was promoted to be exploring what is meant by 'sense of place' with the director of the festival, Andrew Willan. I entered the marquee and waited patiently near the stage at the front.

He started off gently explaining about how as a baby we all sense the world. We don't decide we are hungry and call for milk, we feel hunger. He explained 'we are all born fluent in feeling', it is our first language, not the language of words and he asked just how automated do we want to become? Distractions such as mobile phones can distance ourselves from our feelings which can then become anarchistic and uncomfortable. He went on to say that our feelings are what it is to be human, they are great teachers.

Peter Owen Jones talked of a sense of belonging, of having the capacity to engage with intimacy within our natural surroundings. From looking at church records between the 13^th and 19^th century he said it is clear that we didn't travel far away from home, and so we would have had a deep relationship with the land. For example we would have known where certain birds nested, we would have got to know the light and how the seasons change that particular place. He explained these are intricate observations that come from intrinsically sensing and ultimately connecting to a place. It was wonderful to listen to him speak, he was articulate and explained many concepts clearly that I had understood from my experiences, so far in life, discovered by walking and being in nature.

Detail of a feather from a recent drypoint etching print I made.

He asked us just how much time do we spend just practising the art of observation? If we were to devote ourselves to this, to hold a flower, a Rose or a Bluebell for half an hour at least, what could that teach us? He said we seem to have disallowed our capacity for observation. We have become 'blunted' by our unthinking connection to technology and therefore cannot feel the resonance of each place we visit. He explained it is an art that can be regained if practiced and this I plan to do, more regularly in my life.

But perhaps by reading and reminding myself of my last blog 'Observation and sensing the world around us', this is what I do already. Yes I do own and use a mobile phone, and so I am mostly connected to the wider world (if I remember to turn it on/have volume up). But I do find joy in the simple pleasures of experiencing natural beauty in the world and the mobile phone is actually a really good tool to carry and capture that on camera, to share with others and hopefully inspire them to get out there and see it for themselves.

I am still working on getting the content written within these blogs into a book form. You never know, one day I could be talking about it in either the yurt or the marquee at a future Wealden Literary Festival!

Full print of the Autumn inspired piece of work.

I will be opening the doors of my beautiful straw bale studio once again this year to exhibit my own and Alison Lees work as part of the Canterbury Festival, the theme is still 'The Spirit of Place' as it is an ongoing art project based in Kent.

You can keep up to date with our explorations and discoveries by looking at www.facebook.com/EastKentSpiritOfPlace

New delivery of 'Moo' postcards, ready for the exhibition.

Open times are 11-5 daily on the weekends from 14-29^th of October. We can be found at house number 25 on the Whitstable trail. Please see the webpage www.ekoh.org.uk for more information.

My own personal art page can be found at www.facebook.com/RoseClarityArtist, do take a look!

...and stickers too!

 I can be contacted on 07432679164 or clare@people-to-place.co.uk