Walking with a canine companion on an exploration of place, space and self
Do you ever wish you could have an ending like a comedian dropping the mic and disappearing off stage? I do. 'Thank you and goodbye'. Boom! Gone. Prolonged goodbyes have become something of a fixation for me... since I discovered it's ok to mark endings. The goodbye bit is not even the hardest bit, it's… Continue reading Thank You & Goodbye
If I don't walk, I don't write
“Good luck exploring the infinite abyss” Garden State (2004) I have been lucky enough to visit the captivating Province Town, Massachusetts, every few years or so since I was a teenager. This was pre-pandemic of course. It's a vibrant and liberal peninsula, where I have enjoyed many vibrant and liberating experiences… often vicariously. Such as… Continue reading The Deep
Phone notes 2020: Coronavirus... April 5th (brother's 40th) Looking at pink tree in Arnos (park) Yesterday went to Callington Rd Nature Reserve, walked fast away from home, really needed that! I later wrote in my journal about this being the first proper walk we had, just my dog and me, as restrictions eased towards the… Continue reading Mild Mild West
This morning I leant on a tree, closed my eyes and listened to woodpeckers. Schools are back, the birds are busy and there's a frenzy of activity accompanying spring. How to keep a steady rhythm? Nomar is doing what he usually does, sniffing around looking for tennis balls. Nothing really changes for him, he's oblivious!… Continue reading 6 Parks in 60 minutes
Please proceed with caution if you come across this and have had some similar experiences to those described below - I was triggered for a long time by some of the same and similar words to those used in this post, which was why I didn't include those words in much of my writing, until… Continue reading Stepping out…
On our walks, Nomar and I ‘move apart and we come together, with synergy, unspoken (mostly), without effort, like a dance’. I feel a profound sense of belonging, I wonder if he does too? Merleau-Ponty, a French phenomenological philosopher, suggested perception plays a foundational role in understanding the world as well as engaging with the… Continue reading Magic Pool
In August 2016 my father went into cardiac arrest and had no pulse for 7 minutes. He was in intensive care for nearly a week and miraculously returned home unscathed not long after; roughly the fourth of his apparent nine lives. This was following several years of cancer treatment - he had been in remission… Continue reading Borrowed Dogs
‘A windy day – shelter and support from the trees in Perrett Park. Feeling overwhelmed again and need space. Nomar has been needy, or trying to look after me, not sure… FOG… Intrusion… Little gaps of light poking through the clouds, little bits of space.’ Several times I have come across this FOG thing in… Continue reading Fog and Willow
Psychodography 