Year One
01st January 2015
One
One whole year has past. It is not only now 2015, but also one whole year since I made a fundamental decision to change my life. Dec 2014 I left my job, career and friends to come and live in the Lake District. I had no job to go to and very scant plans. My only plan was to start enjoying life and to experience as much natural, untamed and wild landscape as possible.
One year later and my plans are no more defined or complex.
During this year I have been able to explore many parts of the District and much of the Dales. This year has been an amazing adventure as I have discovered new, wild and dramatic landscapes and experience new flora and fauna. I have also been able to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of areas I had visited many times before. These familiar places revealing new facets and characteristics.
I have also come to recognise that the wildness of the Lake District is, in many ways, an illusion. This image is a veneer, a brand, that suggests adventure and excitement. The Lake District is a commodity that uses the language and imagery of raw mountain landscape to sell all manner of things, from accommodation to woodland biking, from compasses to waterproofs and from life threatening adventures to free roaming walks under leafy canopies. Very little of the imagery is strictly real as the district is carefully managed making it easy and risk free. The risk is an over stated element designed to bolster the Brand and therefore the Brands commercial attractiveness.
However, one year has provided me the opportunity to peer underneath the chocolate box imagery, see beyond the thrills and spills of flocks of brightly coloured walkers and mountain bike parties, pouring down Fell tracks, to see a deep stillness in the land. A stillness that is unaffected and uncaring of mans trivial need for entertainment. A stillness created by the ancient and non compromised landscape that works to its own needs and follows its own motivation. A landscape that experiences and creates its own weather, beaten by winds and rain, crossed by flowing watercourses. A landscape that hides and sustains the lives of flora and fauna, whilst ignoring, unseeing, uncaring of our passing through. A landscape that is in spite of us and our desires. This stillness, like the deafening sound of silence, has a pulse that can be felt, if you try. It reaches deep into the body, pulling you into balance with that is around you.
This whole, one year has shown me I do not need highly specified kit, life threatening adventures or experiences. I don't need to climb the unclimbable, descend faster, summit more or record and boast. I just need to 'be' to get in rhythm with the stillness of the land. This will be my plan for year two.
One whole year has past. It is not only now 2015, but also one whole year since I made a fundamental decision to change my life. Dec 2014 I left my job, career and friends to come and live in the Lake District. I had no job to go to and very scant plans. My only plan was to start enjoying life and to experience as much natural, untamed and wild landscape as possible.
One year later and my plans are no more defined or complex.
During this year I have been able to explore many parts of the District and much of the Dales. This year has been an amazing adventure as I have discovered new, wild and dramatic landscapes and experience new flora and fauna. I have also been able to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of areas I had visited many times before. These familiar places revealing new facets and characteristics.
I have also come to recognise that the wildness of the Lake District is, in many ways, an illusion. This image is a veneer, a brand, that suggests adventure and excitement. The Lake District is a commodity that uses the language and imagery of raw mountain landscape to sell all manner of things, from accommodation to woodland biking, from compasses to waterproofs and from life threatening adventures to free roaming walks under leafy canopies. Very little of the imagery is strictly real as the district is carefully managed making it easy and risk free. The risk is an over stated element designed to bolster the Brand and therefore the Brands commercial attractiveness.
However, one year has provided me the opportunity to peer underneath the chocolate box imagery, see beyond the thrills and spills of flocks of brightly coloured walkers and mountain bike parties, pouring down Fell tracks, to see a deep stillness in the land. A stillness that is unaffected and uncaring of mans trivial need for entertainment. A stillness created by the ancient and non compromised landscape that works to its own needs and follows its own motivation. A landscape that experiences and creates its own weather, beaten by winds and rain, crossed by flowing watercourses. A landscape that hides and sustains the lives of flora and fauna, whilst ignoring, unseeing, uncaring of our passing through. A landscape that is in spite of us and our desires. This stillness, like the deafening sound of silence, has a pulse that can be felt, if you try. It reaches deep into the body, pulling you into balance with that is around you.
This whole, one year has shown me I do not need highly specified kit, life threatening adventures or experiences. I don't need to climb the unclimbable, descend faster, summit more or record and boast. I just need to 'be' to get in rhythm with the stillness of the land. This will be my plan for year two.