LAND AND LIGHT
"Land and Light" was a series of four creative sensory walks devised and facilitated by Wild Gathering and funded by the Adur and Worthing Trust. These walks started in June 2021 at the time of the Summer Solstice and finished in August around the time of Lammas. We worked with West Sussex MIND and Social Prescribing, offering places on each walk through these local community organisations.
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In April 2021 we were absolutely delighted to receive additional funding from Sport England's Tackling Inequalities Fund, via Active Sussex, to extend our mindful walks programme by another 11 walks. This meant we were able to continue our walks through the autumn and into the winter.
Our sensory walks explored the beach, Waterwise Garden, meadowed urban spaces and Whitebeam Woods, the last site of ancient woodland in the Borough of Worthing. Once we had used our senses to explore these spaces we invited participants to create ephemeral images inspired by their experience using natural found objects. We then gathered words and sentences to create word pictures of our time together.
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Pictures of the images together with typed up copies of the poems were sent to our contacts at Social Prescribing and West Sussex MIND who then passed them on to the participants.
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“Your guiding is really helpful for the mindful exercises.”
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BEACH BIRDS
Those birds
The way they stick together
Flying in shoals above the sand.
Scrunchy swirly wood bleached by the sun
A macrocosm of everything.
The drying grasses blowing in the wind
Finding their way.
Joined by a dragonfly, butting in on our talk,
Listening as we paused.
Butterflies duelling, undulating together,
Beauty of the dandelion
Four strangers enjoying the day.
BEAUTY OF THE OAKS
The beauty of the woods,
History, strength,
Protection, shade,
Rows and rows and rows,
Peaceful and full of birdsong,
Green ness of the leaves,
Trees giving out oxygen,
By doing good they need protecting
Different world that’s very calming
Coolness of the breeze
Refreshing against our skin
ANCIENT ONES
Ancient woods and ancient oaks
Established authorities – the bosses of the woods.
Tree beard the old old oak,
Nine hundred years growing,
Four hundred years homing.
Collaborating and sharing space
Branches touching, reaching out
Hand in hand.
In this space hand and heart connect.
The rustic rough oak to the smooth warmth of the finished furniture.
Within the green a multitude of other colours,
And the sunlight dappling through the leaves.
Freedom – able to be myself,
Time to look,
Crawling skin calmed down listening to the sea.
Not knowing
Felt able to talk.
Not judging
Noticing different things
Space, sea, tide going out.
Colour of the sky – dark and intense,
Lighter a happier vibe – when the wind pushed it away.
Dark clouds being overpowered by light blue sky,
Sun warming my skin in the grasses.
NOTICING THE NEW GROWTH
Tide coming in
Cutting the sea grass.
Birds flying around
Singing in the sky.
Standing stones as time and tide go by.
Wind in your face,
Sun in your hair,
The water so quiet and still.
Today is so peaceful and calm,
Flat sheet like sea
Covering the sea bed.
Quiet and still by the sea
No traffic around to distract.
Paws and claws on the sea shores.
WE ARE ON THE BEACH, WHERE ARE THE MERMAIDS?
About the bees
Colour, flowers, intensity
Changing clouds
Peaceful
Differences moving across the pebbles
Calming water
Different textures
We are on the beach
Nature in hostile salt
Next to traffic noise
We are hugely grateful to the Adur and Worthing Trust for funding this project, and to everyone at Colonnade House for supporting us in developing Light and Land.
Thank you so much Active Sussex for supporting our application for funding. Supported by National Lottery funding, Sport England’s Tackling Inequalities Fund aims to reduce the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the widening impact of the inequalities in sport and physical activity.
