Jubilations

Whilst waiting for the group to arrive Jo and Carole were amazed by the amount of birdsong they could hear in such a built up area. Their meeting point was at the entrance to a narrow public footpath which cut through a housing estate and ran past a building site and a cricket pitch.

 

Once the walk began we came across this sign

small roses wound their way over rickety wooden fences

John could not resist the allure of this digger busy breaking the ground, creating space for new houses

Lilac bushes escaped the confines of suburban gardens, providing a blush of subtle colour at the side of the dark, shady pathway. Broken glass lay glittering in the mud, and the calling cards left by less than caring dog owners. We also spotted a mini windmill attached to the side of a house. 

The sky wasn't at its most photogenic, but gardens gave colour to the day.

Once at the entrance to the middle section of our bridge Jo produced her visual of the woven bunting and explained that, like the tree tent created in Finedon on the previous walk, this would be a very temporary addition to the bridge.

Jo had found some wonderful fabric with really strong colours and texture and had devised a fixing method using the ever trusty cable tie! Carole was tasked with organising the weaving on the bridge whilst Jo worked with the documentary team who would film some of the activity for the Light Walks film.

These two photos were taken by John

and the event was filmed diligently by Jo, Sam and Daniel

 

During the installation the weaving team received toots of encouragement from the passing traffic, we wondered if any of them had read Jo's Tweet earlier that morning!

Everyone worked in small groups, trying to create 

as little distraction as possible to passing vehicles.

Two Light Walks team members were extremely brave as both were incredibly nervous about heights so it took great courage and determination for them to cross the bridge. 

Everyone gave cheers and shouts of encouragement as they made it to the other side, no one wanted them to miss Carolyn's Jubilee treats! 

Whilst waiting for the intervention to be completed they made friends with this beautiful pony.

Here is the jubilant Light Walks team, glowing with pride after their weaving triumph and ready for the next part of the walk.

It seemed amazing and strange to have walked through housing, across a main road and to find ourselves back in the countryside on a narrow path enclosed by trees, hedges, wild undergrowth and cow parsley.

We tried not to disturb the sheep and lambs as we walked past, but they were full of the joys of Spring and bounced off across the field, leaving us to our picnic.

Homemade herb scones with cream cheese and smoked salmon horseradish

with lovingly created Victoria Sponge

After the picnic we returned to the bridge to remove our beautiful bunting.

Light Walks For Dark Days May Intervention

Woven Jubilee Bunting

1.00 pm - 3.00pm,  May 21st, 2012

Imagined by Miles & Dacombe

and created by the Light Walks For Dark Days Team

Blowing Away the Cobwebs - Wellbeing Walk 2 - North

Turning North. Armed with our seed bombs, seeking a neglected placewhere we could throw our seeds and hope for the best! We were encouraged as one of the bombs had already developed tiny shoots...

We met at the station as usual, great to have two new people join us!

Cutting around The White Hart, we crossed the stream over the footbridge and walked across an open green space with many benches and sheltered seating, all looking rather unused.  A predictable shopping trolley in the stream.

Along up Rockingham Road, but then turning off the main road and down some steps which could so easily be missed, leading from the main road down beside the railway track.  Here our adventure really began...

Walking with the rail track to our left and an industrial estate to our right, but then there is a gap in the fence... we followed the desire-line worn by the feet of others.

The path took us into a wild space, grasses growing all around us, a burnt tree, wild flowers.  Ferns unfurling.



Following this path it began to get more and more overgrown until we were enclosed in a wooded area.  Everywhere new trees beginning to grow, tiny oak trees below our knees, willows that had self seeded.  We talked about how nature moves in and makes its own any spaces that humans leave.

Further on it became apparent that this path had been created with walkers in mind, there was a distinct line surfaced with gravel, now overgrown. Here and there we came across picnic benches in the undergrowth. There was evidence of human use here, somebody had made a fire and drink cans were strewn about. Further on a picnic bench actually had a tree growing through the middle of it!





Deeper and deeper in we went.  It was a windy day, and the silver birch trees swayed above us, their leaves sparkling silver as the wind flipped them over.  Somebody said the sound of the trees swaying were like the sound of the seashore, gently shooshing.

Across the rail tracks someone’s makeshift kite had crash landed.


Up a hill, we suddenly burst back out into an open ground, high up with an amazing view taking in a wide area of the north end of Corby - the Weetabix factory, a footbridge that led to the lakes where we had picnicked for our last walk, and the cream coloured towers of the Flour Mills gleaming in the sunlight like a castle on the horizon.
Below us, down the steep bank, and beyond high wire fences, was the neglected area we sought!  Broken up hard core, bricks, and cracked concrete lay about across a huge wide area, but creating its own pattern across the cracks were wild flowers and grasses.  We spotted aquilegia and budleia growing.  Somebody said "they seek out the cracks and there they grow."  A motto for life.



Carole had a short video on her phone of our friend Maureen, who knew this place from her childhood.  She talked about how it was once where the rail carriages were left and that there is a tunnel somewhere.
We decided this was a good place to launch our seed bombs.  The round ones made high arcs and exploded on the concrete below.  The flat ones flew like frisbies, one of us even managed to curve a bend in the trajectory of his throw!
We picnicked here, admiring our gardening work and shouting to each other to be heard above the wind, before walking back to base.
Continuing our theme of the wind, we made windmills and put words and drawings in them inspired by the day.

"Let The Wind Blow"

 "The wind in my face helps me breathe"

"blow wind blow and we shall have snow"

"Blowing away the cobwebs"

...and drawings of the sun, flowers, the weather:

We will seek a place to plant our windmills, like flags claiming our land, in our next walk, which will take place in mid June.

On my way home, it began to rain... a perfect end to the day, I imagined our little scattered seeds seeking out the cracks, lapping up the rain and beginning to release their energy into new life....

Growing from a gutter - the persistence of nature