Today's post is a bit of digression from the usual craftiness, but bear with me, there is a point... I'll remember it soon ;)
A lot of what I make, and in particular my colour scheme, is inspired by nature and by the photos I take. The usual stuff, trees, leaves, sky, flowers, bumble bees.
Living in the city, and not being a driver, I usually have to make do with rather urban versions of nature, so today, after dropping Ruby at nursery, I decided to take Alex in the buggy for a stroll along the Harborne Walkway, a disused railway converted to a very urban footpath. It's a lovely wooded route, with great opportunities to peek into the vast back gardens of Edgbaston "proper", but it's rather isolated and quiet.
Actually, the timing for this walk was a bit unfortunate. Last night we watched "Shelter", a horror/serial killer/supernatural thriller, which used the same Se7en-lite visuals that every serial killer movie of the last 10 years (and incidentally, every Fine Art degree show) has employed. You know the kind of thing, a bit of semi-religious grafitti, some doll parts, some bones, some superstition, some excellent sketchbook work. So far, so average.
However, the finale of the movie, in which (spoiler alert!) the lovely, satanically possessed, Jonathan Rhys-Myers over-acts his way onto a conveniently placed iron spike, takes place in a wooded hollow uncannily like the one I was walking through this afternoon.
So, was I scared? I probably should've been. I was probably silly to be there, on my own, on a rainy afternoon. Not because of potential Jon R-M satanic possession, but just because it seems normal to assume that a lone woman in a quiet place is inherently in danger. There were other lone female walkers, but most had large dogs to look after them.
It put me in mind of childhood family walks, following the route of the English watershed through overgrown, forgotten bits of footpath and through then ends of people's gardens. Dad always keen to find an undiscovered urban rambling gem, me frankly terrified of finding a body in the undergrowth.
It struck me that, while there are many campaigns to re-claim the streets and take back the night, walking alone in these semi-urban areas is even more worrying for a lone girl (and her 7 month old boy!) than on a city street.
I think re-claiming the un-streets can be done, and we have a good example on our doorstep here. Our local reservoir used to be a rather lonely, unfriendly place when we first moved here, about 10 years ago. Now it's frequented by, often female, dog walkers, joggers, cyclists, buggy pushers and elderly folk out for a stroll. How did it happen? I'm not sure, I think it's a bit of a leap of faith - if you believe it is safe, it will be.
The theme of "Shelter" was faith, belief, call it what you will. If you have faith, you'll be saved. So maybe that's why I took my walk today - why shouldn't I be able to take a walk with my boy?And if I can, so can anyone else.
Hmmmm, good in theory, lets just hope the husband doesn't find out about this bit of risky rambling with the boy, he may not share my faith ;)
These are some freaky-looking mushrooms, no connection, but I liked them!
Due to battery shortage I've had to take some photos on the back-up camera, so here's some quick snaps of what I've been making this week, along with...
