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.

Moving Through

Moving Through

Today is New Years Day 2015. It feels very similar to yesterday, the weather is comparable, the grey dull light is familiar for this time of year but it is different. Today is the first day of this New Year, a day that we will be able to look back on, a day that we will be able to tie our different experiences to and that in itself is important. It is a marker, a man-made artifice needed to help us recognise our place in the world, in the natural cycle of life and with each other.

Time and tide worn groyne.

Life and time carries on regardless, I believe that if we are lucky we are able to appreciate this, we may even enjoy the ride. It is a case of moving through, navigating the terrain and enjoying the company on the way.

Today we went again to Seasalter beach and stood on the shore listening to the wind and the cry of the birds on the tide-line. We watched as geese honked their way overhead and traced the familiar landscape of the Isle of Sheppey and the Swale, the Estuary and the receding coastline with our eyes. I have looked onto this landscape as long as I remember, I am fond of it. To me it is my ‘wild’.

 

Louise and I. Seasalter 1973

I unearthed a couple of old black and white photographs at my parents house which show me and my sister on the same stretch of beach, I am aged about 4, my sister is 6 years old. I am quite shocked to realise that both of my own children are older than this now.

Seasalter 2015

Life and time carries on. Today I was probably walking on the same shells that were there all those years ago, the Brent Geese I heard today would have been descended from the geese that would have visited that shore when I was 4 years old, wearing my new purple coat and excitedly showing the photographer, probably my dad, my stone, pebble or pretty shell that I had found! The wind that day would have sounded and felt just as it did today, loud and sharp on the face and ears.

Walking memories

My memory of walking as a family group throughout the seasons is a good one. We used to go out regularly and explore new and favourite places. These included: The Warren at Folkestone, the Pilgrims Way at Boxley, Bysing Woods and of course Seasalter beach. In the winter the walks were fairly quick, in autumn they were always accompanied by carrying plastic punnets and picking whatever fruit was plentiful. Spring walks through bluebell woods were a joy, the smell and colour was magical. Summer walks always seemed to include picnics and boiled eggs and of course there was squabbling, tired legs and probably many other disappointments, but I am glad to say, I can’t remember them now.

Layers of shells pushed up by each tide.

It may be a new year in our human world, but time is a constant, the seasons revolve around and we carry on our life. Shared human experiences are what can build community, especially positive ones. Today I walked on the same beach that I walked on as a child and I still saw the magic of the place.

Me, Seasalter beach, this time, summer 1973.

Maybe my view has been formed by being lucky enough to have parents who made us get out and walk, who showed us the beauty and magic of the turning seasons, the reward of blackberries in the autumn and the thrill of being outside when cold winter wind blew, tangling hair and making noses run. I thank my parents for this love of the natural world and I thank my lucky stars for the power of gratitude I feel to just be healthy again, after a good week of having a rotten cold, I have been able to get out once more and recognise why this is so important to me.

Timescales

Life and time carries on, so do we. Enjoy 2015 and all is has to offer. Nature is out there to be explored and appreciated. It will connect us back to ourselves, (as a 4 year old perhaps), and to everything else. The cyclic nature of the seasons reminds us of our own time and our own timescales. Our lives may be measured by achievements, possessions and experiences; today especially we tend to ask what our new year’s resolutions are?

Let us just have the grace to appreciate the here and now.

 

Tide table December 2014.

Today I went to throw away my 2014 tide table; it ends on 31^st of December 2014. But it is cyclic too; it is just another pattern of spring and neap tides and the space in-between each tide is as regular as our breath. I can look at the months tide table and work out this month’s pattern; I can see the phases of the moon and see how the tides are affected by it. Life and time carries on, the last day of 2014 is not separate from today, the tides are in their pattern, the seasons are in their flow, it continues.

Years ago I heard a radio interview with Claire Rayner, she was once a Matron and when asked how she coped with it all, she said that when she struggled with a situation, she always reminded herself that ‘This too will pass.’ It is a phrase that I have used through difficult times and it has really helped. Life and time carries on. ’This too will pass.’ It continues. I am grateful to be aware of this moment and try to practice mindfulness with grace.

 

Walking on Tankerton beach before Xmas, 2014.

I believe that walking regularly in the real world allows us to adjust to our natural pace, season and thoughts and gain a humbling recognition of our place in the bigger picture. When we walk we find peace in place.

 (I completed my MA in September 2014 and recorded the last two months of it in another blog called www.thesaltwayfarer.blogspot.co.uk

Please feel free to look at that anytime, as it is from that, that I am where I am now.)