We are looking for contacts, local community groups, interested individuals, routes into funding, places to exhibit, support, volunteers, publicity and people to network with in order to develop our projects.
Please contact us by emailing milesanddacombe@virginmedia.com.

Thursday 23 June 2011

Transitions - the Movie

If you are curious to know just what delayed Carole during the Transitions - South walk follow this link . The film was made during Walk 3 - South and explores transitions through domestic and industrial spaces, fields and woodlands, established routes and reclaimed pathways.

It features the Windmill Intervention that was created as part of the walking experience and the birdsong from within the ancient woods.

Sunday 19 June 2011

Wellbeing Walk 3 - South - Transitions


Our walk South took us through transitions, passing from one sort of space to another: an industrial estate, over water, through woodland, into open fields.

We aimed to find a place to plant our windmills. The weather had threatened, there had been rain earlier but our group of walkers had happily grown in numbers. We left the station chatting contentedly with water bottles, Carolyn's laden picnic bags and glistening windmills.

Winding our way South through an industrial estate, we went through a waymarked gap and instantly found ourselves once again in a place overtaken by nature. The sounds changed, a stream bubbled below, wild flowers brushing our legs.

Squeezing through the permitted gap in search of open spaces

Onwards, a path took us over a stretch of water towards two monstrous warehouses standing like lego blocks against the sky. Many enticing paths engaged our curiosity, but we followed the way over a metal bridge and between the warehouses.


Cloud overhead but the day stayed fair.

Seductive deep water


The bridge echoed under our feet. This resulted in a playful jumping and stomping on the bridge and Carole tried to record the metallic resonance of our stamping!

curvaceous young Dock

The path led us through a beautiful created walk edged by wildflowers and hedges, until we came back to a road. But along the road further down we crossed a stile and once again found ourselves in a cool woodland.

Through the gate and into the woods,
traffic noises replaced by birdsong,
following soft, earthy pathways

Testing the man-made arch,
listening to birdsong,
adventuring,
being embraced by the woods

The path through the woods went on and on, the shade brought coolness and the sounds changed. Dappled sunlight scattered across the path. To our left a deep furrow ran parallel to our track, trees growing out of it in a single line.


All of a sudden we burst out of the wood and were confronted by a huge open field, lush green, a panorama of fields and trees spread before us. This was the place to plant our windmills!


We picnicked here to the sound of the windmills rhythm.

Eating plums
one of 5 a day
warm breeze,
gentle heat,
open space

Exploring Jo's map

Then back on our return journey. We were all so calm and content that we didn't realise for some time that Carole was no longer with us! Somebody asked the question, and we waited... and waited...

Eventually she came back to join us. Seduced by the woods, she had lost herself recording the birdsong...

Along the route we had all been collecting things to put in small envelopes.
These resulted in a fine tuning of our attention to detail and the small things... the results of the envelopes were exquisite arrangements of colours and textures. We must use these somehow on our next walk.




Peter's request
a golden poppy
self-seeded
growing in the path

We got back later than expected but the walk had been a wonderfully relaxed, calm experience, and what a lovely sociable group! We look forward to our final walk next week, which must include an element of celebration to complete our explorations!

Journey's end - almost

Our route

Friday 10 June 2011

Take a Walk in Leicester This Weekend


This weekend I'm taking part in the ArtHouse 5th Annual Exhibition -
Sat 11th & Sun 12th June 2011.



ArtHouse is an Annual Exhibition of over 40 Artists, in 9 individual houses in the Clarendon Park and Stoneygate areas of Leicester. A great opportunity to take a different kind of walk, the streets are full of interesting buildings and tucked away treasures. I'm exhibiting with Sarah Kirby in the stable / studio at 67 Avenue Extension, a terraced house with a fascinating history, behind large blue doors there is a cobbled courtyard leading to a converted Victorian coaching stabling building.



Sarah's work features lino prints of many landmark buildings in Leicester and I have some mono prints and a selection of bottled jewels inspired by the Held in the Hand Hoard, I made for Leicestershire Museums earlier this year. Jo had a major part to play in the Held in the Hand commissions and you can see the fabulous first handling collection here




The Art Houses are
18 Ashfield Rd LE2 1LA,

73 Holmfield Rd LE2 1SF,
6 Aber Rd LE2 2BA,
67 Avenue Road Extension LE2 3EP,
24 Portland Rd LE2 3AB,
231 Queens Rd LE2 3FP,
222 Clarendon Park Rd LE2 3AG,
192c Clarendon Park Rd LE2 3AG,
12 Pendene Rd LE2 3DQ (no parking available at this address).



Extraordinary Art in Ordinary Houses.

Open 11am until 6pm each day.
Hope to see you there.


There will be cake!


Tuesday 7 June 2011

Along The Tracks


In between masses of paperwork and eBay listing, I've been watching this
Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film on BBC iPlayer
"Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers.
Lovers parting at the station, runaway carriages and secret assignations in confined compartments - railways have long been a staple of romance, mystery and period drama. But at the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural. Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Hardly surprising, as he had been involved in a horrific railway accident himself.
Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted - Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers - until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman.
Finally, Martin asks whether, in the 21st century, Britain's railways can still stir and inspire artists. (R)"
We're certainly inspired! We'll be exploring a couple of stations in Derbyshire soon, but in the meantime, spurred on by railways and textiles, I've been playing on the V&A website - I uploaded the photo above to their Patchwork Pattern Maker and you can see the results here. Team of plucky volunteers anywhere to help me make it?
If you want to make your own pattern follow thislink

Retreat from the Real





From Robert Macfarlane's wonderful book "The Wild Places"