Upcoming Forward Footing walks in Norwich and Spalding

We are very excited, having visited the location for our Norwich walk, Eaton Park - what a beautiful place! Please do join us for one of our three hours walks there on Saturday 25th July.  All the walks are free to join, suitable for all ages, sign up on the day - limited numbers.

Saturday 25th July
Eaton Park, Norwich
11am Meadowlands walk
1pm Ping Pong Promenade
3pm Ringing Round walk

Also, we have a NEW DATE!
Monday 24th August
We will be walking in Spalding, Lincolnshire.
Exact details and location to be confirmed, for now save the date!

We hope you can join us for one of these dates.

By The River

Forward Footing There and Back photo set here

For our third Forward Footing walk we staged a closed event 

with pupils and staff from Year Two at 

Priory Lower School in Bedford.

Here is the essence of the walk in their words

Year Two and I went to the river, we all walked there. 

When we got there 

we sat on the ground 

and Carole and Jo, the artists, 

explained what we had to do

They handed out viewers, 

a card with a window, 

we looked and drew what 

we saw through the window

onto card flags. 

We put them on sticks and 

put them in the ground by the wall. 

They made it look very colourful.

Forward Footing Flags photo set here

We made plaits together 

and tied them by the river.

We wrapped ribbon around some trees.

We had a picnic. 

We brought our lunch 

and water in paper bags, 

we brought some 

for Carole and Jo

We placed colourful stones around a tree

Forward Footing Ribbons and braids photo set here 

We stamped words on card,

 words about our day

and Carole put them on the wall

Forward Footing Word Wall photo set here

On Wednesday the 15th of April the whole 

of Year 2 went to the glittery, sparkly river.

We went to the river because we wanted

to decorate the whole beautiful river

We decorated the floor with some chalks.

Forward Footing Chalks photo set here

We went to the pretty riverside with artists Carole and Jo.

We went to the river to brighten it up.

We ended with bubble wands

We had lots of fun!

We made art!

We walked.

The artists gave us a kit bag full of things for more walks.

We hope we go on more walks soon!

Thank you for a lovely Blog Year 2

and so making it such a memorable day!

It may have only been a short distance

but we covered a lot of ground.

Miles and Dacombe

Forward Footing programme of walks, 2015

In the New Year we will be running a series of walks around the Midlands and a little further afield to introduce our Outdoor Art Kits to as many people as possible. The list of walks will be updated on this page as we confirm things; here is the list so far. If you're interested in coming along on one of our walks, please check back to this page, email us or sign up to our mailing list to be kept informed! If you want to come on any of the walks listed below, please email us.

Forward Footing walk dates:

Nottingham, 2 February 2015, 10am-12, meeting at King Edward Park, Sneinton. Organised with Self-Help Nottingham ENDED

Stoke-on-Trent, Tuesday 14th April 2015, 1-4pm with Dan Thompson's London Road project.  ENDED

Bedford, Wednesday 15th April 2015, with Priory Lower School (sorry this walk is not open to the public)  ENDED

Various venues starting at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, Sunday 7th June as part of the Flaming Skirt Festival, 10am-5.30pm.  ENDED

Birmingham, Saturday 20th June 2015, as part of the Still Walking Festival.

Various venues starting at Ironville, Amber Valley, Derbyshire, Sunday 28th June 2015 as part of the Flaming Skirt Festival, 10am-5.30pm.

Norwich, Eaton Park, Saturday 25th July 2015 as part of Love Parks Week events. Walks will take place from 11am-12, 1-3pm & 3-4pm; sign up on the day.

Light Walks Further Afield: a farewell walk

On the morning of our final walk the weather was undecided - rain, sun, wind, a bit of everything seemed to be thrown into the pot. Before leaving the hostel we heard a wide variety of bird song, along our route cows sheltered beneath trees and the Light Walkers donned their fabulous Poundland ponchos!

We had prepared copper tags for our final walk. What has the walking meant to you? What was the best thing?

Now to find a perfect place in the landscape to install and photograph them. We scanned the walls for just the right mossy, stone wall in which to install our copper thoughts.

 

One final shot of the group! Before heading back...

 A curious cat came to introduce himself.

Not unlike the cat, the three that walked together yet alone strode off

Carole and Jo had had many thoughts and conversations about trees during the stay and the ash tree seemed foremost in their minds because of its current threatened position. On their first day in Alstonefield they saw this piece of tree lore in the local pub.

Walking round the village from a different direction led us to an information board about the Green Well...

...which we also managed to find.

The stone lining was beautifully crafted and reminded us just how important a reliable source of water is to a village.

After the walk and a spot of brunch it was time for the Light Walkers to pack their bags, but you can see from the picture above, that they seemed in no hurry to leave. We hope they left Alstonefield tired, happy and eager to take other walks in other places in the future.

Day Four - a weather installation

Today we started making parts for our weather installation for the summer house at the Green Patch allotments.

Weather has been a big feature in our residency so far, it's a physical struggle at times to create work in gusty wind, sudden heavy rain and hot sunshine, all of which we have experienced in one week! Of course weather is important for growing and the allotment too, and every day we are all hoping for enough rain to refill the depleted water butts, followed by hopes for enough sunshine to ripen everything, wishing for that perfect balance and making constant adaptations here and there to protect plants from drying out or from becoming waterlogged.

Therefore we felt that we should create an installation in the summer house to reflect aspects of weather. We spent the day cutting, heat bending and machining pieces of acrylic sheet. We'll start installing the pieces tomorrow.

 

A Greenway and Blue Ribbons

Our March walk for our Light Walks project took us to Finedon.

Half the group were late arriving, so meanwhile we wandered around the church. There are a number of rabbit holes in the green next to the church, we watched a while to spot them! Someone noticed birds flying in and out of a broken air vent making a nest.

Some of the headstones are fascinating and beautiful. To think people had been there for nearly 300 years!

Ornamental hedges spied over the Churchyard wall

Strange holes, like small explosions in the ironstone

Once the whole group had arrived we set off up the road from the church, carrying our bags of seed bombs.

We soon came across a likely place - a patch of land next to the road where a building had stood and had been torn down, leaving bricks, debris and weeds. 

We launched our seed bombs here - made from wildflower seeds, clay and compost, we hoped there would be enough rain to get them rooting here over the next few weeks.

The strange round tower, now attached to a house. We all speculated on what it could have been. A flour storage tower? Part of a castle? No, an ice house!

Walking along the road towards an enticing woodland. The shadows already getting long.

We met this lovely walker who had been exploring these paths and fields since childhood, remembering the ice tower when it was just part of the field and not incorporated in a house on an estate. 

She was delighted that we were coming to discover a place so dear and so familiar to her and her faithful companion. She told us about the wild flowers and the former profusion of snowdrops, bluebells and violas "There aren't so many now as when I was a girl."

 

Following desire lines by the edge of the field...

  

... then suddenly descending down steps into a deep greenway - a line, previously a rail line, now a long straight walk dug deep into the earth, cool with steep slopes either side, now reclaimed by the trees. As water gathers in greenways, it etches them still deeper into the ground over time.

Under an ivy-clad branch - natural or man-made archway we wondered?

March blossom illuminated by the spring sunlight.

Sleepers, hinting at the greenway's previous function.

The greenway gradually rose again until we were walking level with the fields once again. Across a small bridge, and back into dense woodland.

We came to a clearing, a single, slim tree standing in the middle on its own, naked and not yet awakening for spring.

We suggested tree dressing to celebrate this tree, an old pagan tradition to celebrate trees. 

Jo had a bag of bright blue ribbon, and so we began...

 

John's ingenious use of feathers as stakes to hold the ribbons in place.

We enjoyed lying down, looking up

We lay underneath our creation and looked up at the sky. Branches and ribbons mingled.

We enjoyed being inside, looking out

John looked so at home there we thought he might stay all night!

We would have liked to have left our tree dressed

It was intriguing to catch sight of the bright blue flashes through a multitude of branches. But we had seen a sign on an information board - no structures could be left in the woods - would it be wrong to leave it for others to find?

Would the ribbons cause damage to the tree?

We decided it would be far more appropriate to unpeg the ribbons

and unwrap the tree

rewind the beautiful blue strands.

Tempting as it was to leave one streamer

or a clue that we had been there

 we decided to leave no trace other than these pictures.