A New Year, new plans.
15th January 2015
A new year, new plans
It is a new year, so I need new plans. These plans need to ensure I get into the outdoors more and ensure I can become better acquainted with the landscape, find new views and experiencing new and exciting scenes. My plans need to incorporate an opportunity for me to better understand and record my experiences of the landscape.
So what to do?
It is. in my mind, to mix some old with new. I want to expand my knowledge of places I have been before, but only touched the surface. I want to become more intimate with the land, it's seasons and its weather. I want to try to record these experiences as best as I can. Each image and account becoming a moment held in time that allows for not just nostalgia, but a fixed point to reflect upon. an anchor that can be returned to again and again, ensuring the 'boat' remains safely moored for another year.
This means a return to places I have been many times before, but this time approaching them (both physically and metaphorically) in a new way. It will include re-visiting old haunts such as the New Forest, South Downs and the wild and rugged seascape of Purbeck. In these cases, I will find new routes, arrive early, stay longer, leave later, so I can experience the full cycle of their days. It is my plan to see the ponies, fallow deer, stroll across the landscape of the poets such as the South Downs poet Edward Thomas:
"By Beech and Yew and perishing Juniper".....I will follow new paths.
It also means, though closer to home, a return to the 214 peaks known as the Wainwrights (summits listed in the authors 7 legendary Pictorial Guides). I have reached all these 'tops' twice before, but time now requires me to try this again. This time I will have the possibility of experiencing each Fell in different seasons and weather conditions encountered during in my previous journeys. Offering me new experiences and a chance to gain a greater insight of how this landscape 'works'.
I also need to return to Ireland. The Emerald Isle which contains a wealth of rarely trodden, wild and beautiful landscapes. I need to re-experience the vast wilderness of Connemara, ascend its rough, steep mountains and traipse across its endless moor and bog. All the while, being accompanied by the Atlantic Ocean that crashes on the lonely western shores.
"Walking all the day
By tall towers where falcons build their nests
Silver-winged they fly
They know the call of freedom in their breasts
Saw Black Head against the sky
With twisted rocks that run down to the sea
Living on your western shore
Saw summer sunsets, asked for more
I stood by your Atlantic sea
And sang a song for Ireland"
To get my plans underway I have started with a short, but extremely wild walk on the moor above Torver and Broughton Mill. This is a very quiet area comprising of a mixture of rough, rocky ground and very wet bog, punctuated by steep sided Mountains. The area is very primal and lonely and today extremely blustery due to advance of a major storm that threatens to carry 60 to 80 mph winds.
I did not dare to go too high as the wind was knocking me off my feet, so I stayed relatively low level, exploring the streams, falls and small tarns that pepper this antediluvian terrain.
The wind blew spray from the waterfalls and rippled the water of the tarns into small tides. The trees that shadowed the sides of the River Lickle roared as they bent to the power of the strong winds. To face this wind was to force my knees to bend and strain in an attempt to move forward whilst (and without grace) immediately developing a streaming nose and eyes.
However, despite this wind I saw a considerable mixture of bird life. This included half a dozen Snipe, that each flew off, individually, as I inadvertently came upon them. Discovering Snipe in this manner seems the only way I get to see them. I never have the opportunity to view them at leisure as they are always hidden. As I blunder along some tract of land I accidentally come upon them, scaring them from their roost, leaving me with only the briefest view as they fly off in their usual twisting flight.
Further down, now off the moor, I entered a Wood full of bare Larch. This sheltered spot was also starting to get dark, but the roar of the winds sounded high up. In a space of just a few metres I saw a flock of Long Tail Tits, jabbering together as they searched for food along the now needle free branches of the Larch. They hung upside down, swinging from the thin twigs of the trees. Then, joining them, small and hardly discernible, was two Gold Crests. These minute bundles ignored me and joined the Tits in their search for food. Finally, flying across my path, no more than a few feet away from my face, was a Treecreeper. It landed on a small, leafless tree and started its vertical journey up the trunk and along branches, again searching for food.
Just as it is for me, these birds have a new year in front of them. Their obvious activity, the volume and variety of wildlife indicating that the sun is slowly coming back once again. This is a positive symbol for the future and is a good start for my New Year plans.
It is a new year, so I need new plans. These plans need to ensure I get into the outdoors more and ensure I can become better acquainted with the landscape, find new views and experiencing new and exciting scenes. My plans need to incorporate an opportunity for me to better understand and record my experiences of the landscape.
So what to do?
It is. in my mind, to mix some old with new. I want to expand my knowledge of places I have been before, but only touched the surface. I want to become more intimate with the land, it's seasons and its weather. I want to try to record these experiences as best as I can. Each image and account becoming a moment held in time that allows for not just nostalgia, but a fixed point to reflect upon. an anchor that can be returned to again and again, ensuring the 'boat' remains safely moored for another year.
This means a return to places I have been many times before, but this time approaching them (both physically and metaphorically) in a new way. It will include re-visiting old haunts such as the New Forest, South Downs and the wild and rugged seascape of Purbeck. In these cases, I will find new routes, arrive early, stay longer, leave later, so I can experience the full cycle of their days. It is my plan to see the ponies, fallow deer, stroll across the landscape of the poets such as the South Downs poet Edward Thomas:
"By Beech and Yew and perishing Juniper".....I will follow new paths.
It also means, though closer to home, a return to the 214 peaks known as the Wainwrights (summits listed in the authors 7 legendary Pictorial Guides). I have reached all these 'tops' twice before, but time now requires me to try this again. This time I will have the possibility of experiencing each Fell in different seasons and weather conditions encountered during in my previous journeys. Offering me new experiences and a chance to gain a greater insight of how this landscape 'works'.
I also need to return to Ireland. The Emerald Isle which contains a wealth of rarely trodden, wild and beautiful landscapes. I need to re-experience the vast wilderness of Connemara, ascend its rough, steep mountains and traipse across its endless moor and bog. All the while, being accompanied by the Atlantic Ocean that crashes on the lonely western shores.
"Walking all the day
By tall towers where falcons build their nests
Silver-winged they fly
They know the call of freedom in their breasts
Saw Black Head against the sky
With twisted rocks that run down to the sea
Living on your western shore
Saw summer sunsets, asked for more
I stood by your Atlantic sea
And sang a song for Ireland"
To get my plans underway I have started with a short, but extremely wild walk on the moor above Torver and Broughton Mill. This is a very quiet area comprising of a mixture of rough, rocky ground and very wet bog, punctuated by steep sided Mountains. The area is very primal and lonely and today extremely blustery due to advance of a major storm that threatens to carry 60 to 80 mph winds.
I did not dare to go too high as the wind was knocking me off my feet, so I stayed relatively low level, exploring the streams, falls and small tarns that pepper this antediluvian terrain.
The wind blew spray from the waterfalls and rippled the water of the tarns into small tides. The trees that shadowed the sides of the River Lickle roared as they bent to the power of the strong winds. To face this wind was to force my knees to bend and strain in an attempt to move forward whilst (and without grace) immediately developing a streaming nose and eyes.
However, despite this wind I saw a considerable mixture of bird life. This included half a dozen Snipe, that each flew off, individually, as I inadvertently came upon them. Discovering Snipe in this manner seems the only way I get to see them. I never have the opportunity to view them at leisure as they are always hidden. As I blunder along some tract of land I accidentally come upon them, scaring them from their roost, leaving me with only the briefest view as they fly off in their usual twisting flight.
Further down, now off the moor, I entered a Wood full of bare Larch. This sheltered spot was also starting to get dark, but the roar of the winds sounded high up. In a space of just a few metres I saw a flock of Long Tail Tits, jabbering together as they searched for food along the now needle free branches of the Larch. They hung upside down, swinging from the thin twigs of the trees. Then, joining them, small and hardly discernible, was two Gold Crests. These minute bundles ignored me and joined the Tits in their search for food. Finally, flying across my path, no more than a few feet away from my face, was a Treecreeper. It landed on a small, leafless tree and started its vertical journey up the trunk and along branches, again searching for food.
Just as it is for me, these birds have a new year in front of them. Their obvious activity, the volume and variety of wildlife indicating that the sun is slowly coming back once again. This is a positive symbol for the future and is a good start for my New Year plans.