Nicholas Hedges

Art, Writing and Research

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Lists

More entries on 'Lists'
List of Everyday Moments

Mindful Walking I

One of the ways in which I have helped myself during recent low points has been the practice of mindful walking, where instead of walking as the mind spins around thinking on a problem, you try and focus on what ...
Lines Drawn in Water

Lines Drawn in Water

The following passage is taken from 'The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot' by Robert Macfarlane. In a chapter on water he writes: "The second thing to know about sea roads is that they are not arbitrary. There are optimal ...
DSC07879

Glimmerings: The War Poets, Paths and Folds

One of the nicest compliments I received during Friday's private view was '...these remind me of Siegfried Sassoon...'. The works in question were those images of imagined World War I landscapes painted onto folded paper, one of which I have ...
Bartlemas Chapel Excavation

The Material World

"What, then, is this material world? Of what does it consist?"So asks Tim Ingold, in his book, Being Alive, Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description. It seems an obvious question, or rather, a question for which there is an obvious ...
Junk Shop Photograph

Moments

Following on from the completion of my text map (which I'm thinking of as a map of an individual rather than a place) I remembered this photograph which I bought in a junk shop, which seems, visually, to capture the ...
Map Work

Completed Map

Today, on a walk around Oxford, I completed my first text map which I began in Ampney Crucis about a month ago. Below is both the map and an image of the walks as recorded on my GPS (and then ...
Map Work

Map Work

I've almost completed my map of observations made during a number of walks over the past few weeks and am now looking to see how I can progress this line of work. The paper shown above has started to soften, ...
Return to England

Return to England

Since returning to England this morning after my residency in Australia, I've been looking at my notebook, and feel it's worthwhile putting the pages up on, in particular those relating to the walks I did. So reproduced with this blog ...
Lists and Bill Viola

Lists and Bill Viola

Whilst writing up some notes on making lists as a strategy, I thought again of the Bill Viola quote I mentioned in the last entry. The following is taken from what I wrote concerning lists, starting with an extract from ...
Diaries, Lists and Haiku

Diaries, Lists and Haiku

Last night I watched Chris Marker's film 'Sans Soleil' or 'Sunless', and having watched it, downloaded the text from the film. There was one passage in particular which interested me which was as follows:"He spoke to me of Sei Shonagon, ...
Day 12

Day 12

Today I walked the second walk in this series and made the following list of additional words:engines roarsirencigarettesightseeing bussunglassesman in a suitrefuse sacksred manpushchairspireglass domeChinese characterslook both waysdead endgreen wheelie binbarrierfamily walkgirl with a trolleymoundrucksackloud musiccar screechescameraparking ticketssmall windowstreeold railingsflag ...
Day 11

Day 11

I've been looking at my work so far and have started to think about what I will have to show and how I will show it."The Smell of an English Summer 1916 (Fresh Cut Grass)"Deckchairs and GraphiteThis piece takes the ...
Day 10

Day 10

Finished priming the canvas and then painted a layer of Paynes Grey on top. Over this I'll rub some white before working in the graphite powder. Into this I'll then scratch the outlines of Loggan's 1675 map which I will ...
Day 9

Day 9

I received the canvas today and so made a start on priming it.I also walked my new route and made a list of objects, sounds etc. The full list is as follows:voicesa siren burstthe sunengine startsLeffezebra crossingfat stomachboarded windowsremnants of ...
Day 8

Day 8

Having consulted two maps (one a Google map, the other David Loggan's map of 1675), I finally planned a new route for my 'walking work' which is as follows:Gloucester GreenChain AlleyGeorge StreetWorcester StreetTidmarsh LaneSt. Thomas' StreetParadise StreetCastle StreetBulwarks LaneGeorge StreetGloucester ...
Day 7

Day 7

I decided to do a walk today, one which I would record in single words or very short phrases. I am interested in how we relate to single words and phrases when trying to picture a past experience, particularly of ...

Blenheim Palace Park

I discovered this walk with my children at the weekend and so I returned today to do another walk, incorporating within that a walking meditation.

The idea of a walking meditation is to try and remain fully in the present, taking in everything that you see while not letting your mind wander. When you’re dealing with a difficult issue in your life and it’s one which seems to stop you thinking of anything else, then it’s a good way to let your mind breathe. It’s not a quick fix of course, but bit by bit, it should help reset your thoughts; especially if they are prone to going round and round a question that’s quite impossible to answer.

The list below comprises the things I noticed and chose to write down. There’s no particular reason why I chose these particular observations.

Walking meditation observations made at Blenheim Palace Park

Strong winds
Blue sky peppered with clouds
Ripples on the surface of the lake
The monument standing above the trees
Bright sun
Old dog
Dimpled mud at the edge of the grass
My shadow on the tarmac
The drone of a plane
Leaves blowing across the grass
Geese honking
A bird blows above like litter
Belly fulls of grey in the sky
Lichen on the old bridge
An old pollarded tree
Crows in the trees
A duck quacks
The trees talk
The sun reflected on the water
A bird runs from the bank
The raised roots on the path
Water gushing from a drain
Last year’s leaves still clinging on
Reeds like spears at the lake’s edge
The sun comes out and warms my face
Bright on the lake
The ground rises
Moss covered stump
Old leaves crunch beneath my feet
Beautiful birds then someone shouts up ahead
The sun returns
Shadows on the ground stretch to meet it
Suddenly warm as the wind drops
Gun shot, birds on the lake take flight
Mosquitoes in the sunlight like dust motes
Sun twinkling on the lake’s surface
Tentacled roots of a tree
Squelching underfoot
A helicopter flies past
A small waterfall gabbles as it flows
Graffiti covered tree
Brambles scribble themselves across the water’s edge
Reeds lie like logged trees in the water

Paw prints in the mud
The sky in a puddle
Beautiful colour water
Waves on the lake like a small sea
Two moorhens
Black fungus on a fallen log
A broken fence
A fallen tree on the opposite bank
The surface of the water, calm amongst the reeds, rippled without
A tree stands waiting to embrace
Two ducks with their heads in the water
Immense roots of a tree like the foot of a dinosaur
So quiet
Flies on the sheep dung
A feather in the grass
The winds picks up and blows away the siren
A small branch falls from a tree
A leaf skits across the tarmac
A pheasant runs away
I squint against the sun
Felled logs
Beautiful colours in a gap in a tree
A seat carved from an upended tree
Daffodils signalling Spring is on the way
Tyre tracks on the grass
Otherwordly trees
A fountain splashes water
Trees grow like an excess of time
Trees like creatures from the deep
The rings of an old stump
The sound of a power tool
Old leaves shiver on their branches
Slow rippled wood of the ancient oaks
A lost glove
An old wall follows the slopes
A crow flies with something in its beak
Patch of tarmac like a fossilised footprint
Ducks laugh ad planes drone
My shadow stretches before me
The call of a red kite
Jackdaws take flight

© Nicholas Hedges 2024

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