returning

a recent Cultures of Care session with Ruth Singer was about Ruth's lanscape work and how it's links with this topic  - we also touched on how we can interact with the environment without taking anything out of it

all this reminded me of how much i enjoyed my explorations during Place Making and my past experiments with nature art  - how these gave outings into my environment a sense of purpose through physical interaction with it - i really struggle with the idea of "going for a walk" being good for your wellbeing, but it now begins to make sense for me 

i have always found it easy to walk around urban areas because i feel there is more there that i can associate with - natural environments are attractive but i always feel i should be inspired by them in some way, yet i am happy to go and pick up a few conkers or interesting foliage to arrange and leave for others to find - i don't need to come back with an awesomely inspiring concept, just playing like a child with mud and sticks is enough really

so today i made good on my promise to myself to return to our local wildlife sanctuary, to sit and make from gathered ingredients, and/or journal about it on the spot - it got too hot to stay and write, but i gathered some fallen fruits and nibbled nut shells, wove a little dish for them and recorded my little offering

on my gathering expedition i came across windfall plums or damsons, so a bit of foraging happened as well!

re-playced - 4

 a twig with lichen

this replaycing marked a change of approach - i fell able to let go of my little treasures now, so i have stopped recording where i place them

instead i just hope that they are found and that they bring a little pleasure to the finder's day

for some reason lichen appeals to me, the combination of subdued colours and crunchy texture invites me to try and reproduce it in paper, or stitch, or something...

a photo of this after re-playcing will appear here soon

i saw this lichen covered twig created by Laura Youngsen Coll once and found it inspiring, but have never dared try to emulate it 

re-placed - 3

 compass case

this seemed an unusual object to find in a supermarket car park, but the colour attracted my attention as I got closer

re-playced - 2

cable hook with red thread (the one with pink thread will be re-playced later)

these came off the eves of the house next door during refurbishment -  the hooks attached a telephone cable under the edge of the roof, after it had branched off from a telegraph pole on the street 

they went out of use when cables went underground, and modern equivalents tend to be plastic - i really like the contrast of the pristine white ceramic "washer" against the rusted iron hook

location of re-playced 2

re-playced - 1

 the first to go, a nitrous oxide cylinder

i didn't know why i kept seeing these shiny little capsules lying around until i googled them - i had last seen these when we had a soda siphon in the late 60s, but i read that they are now filled with nitrous oxide (lauhing gas) and used as a recreational drug.... i suppose it was bound to happen!

i learned that these are normally

produced for making whipped cream in canisters, but now commonly inhaled for a high using a balloon 

so, in a way the rainbow wrap i gave it seems quite appropriate

re-playced 1 - in situ