Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Wednesday 17 February 2010

In touch with The Wild Wood

As I familiarise myself with the landscape around the place I live, I've realised that there is wildness in the most benign landscape. No English landscape is virgin forest or a desert untouched by human feet – it is molded by generations of lives lived on the land, but that doesn't mean that the untamed doesn't exist.

I've set myself a project to get to know one small area of land, our tiny plot that we acquired last Easter. Whenever I can, I plan to eat my lunch sitting on the seat in The Wild Wood, and while I eat I'll read and think . . .


A meditation in The Wild Wood, 17 February 2010

A brook and a small tributary stream run along two sides and meet at one corner. There are Yew trees and an Ash. The soil and Ivy hide broken lumps of what was probably a furnace, maybe from the Old Forge which once stood on the opposite side of the brook. We have made beetle banks and a log pile half submerged in the ground. Cliff constructed a seat from Yew branches, which is bathed in warm sunshine at midday. Spring is starting to wake up The Wild Wood.




Today I read the introduction and first chapter of Wildwood – a journey through trees by the late Roger Deakin, who loved and was inspired by the Suffolk countryside.


"To enter a wood is to pass into a different world
in which we ourselves are transformed."


22 comments:

  1. Ahhh luvley post, oh to sit a while in the wilderness.

    Thanks

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  2. It was a lovely post-and you have sunshine too. The ladybird was so enjoying that wander.
    Lovely post Celia-how I envy your wildwood and your stream, so thank you for sharing them here.

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  3. It is so nice to be able to read all the blogs again after my 'glitch'. Thank you for your comment! Even now in miserable February Freckles is blooming round my gate and the snowdrops are a delight. How fortunate we are to have this beauty on our doorstep.

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  4. oh how I wish I had a stream at the bottom of my garden, what a lovely relaxing noise !

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  5. Loved the progress of the ladybird - no sign of any up north yet! Our snowdrops are just little buds at the moment too, whilst yours are blooming!
    Have you read Notes From Walnut Tree Farm?
    Enjoy your Wild Wood!

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  6. We still have snow. No snowdrops. Our ladybugs are hibernating in my windowsills.

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  7. The Roger Deakin book is one of my absolute favourites. Have you read any of his others?
    I feel almost greedy to say that, with all I have here, I would still love a wood!

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  8. How lovely to have sunshine - we have wall to wall murk. I loved the ladybird - 'places to go, leaves to hide under'!

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  9. Hi James - not really a wilderness, but our little corner.

    Hi Threadspider - we call it The Wild Wood, but it's really just a tiny bit of land with a few trees on it!

    Hi Mavis - I used to have Viola 'Freckles' - it seems to have disappeared!

    Hi Scented Sweetpeas - the seat in The Wild Wood is in the perfect position to listen to the trickling water.

    Hi Dan - Roger Deakin's other books are on my lunchtime reading list.

    Hi Terry - I hope the Ladybirds have found a cosy place to hide - it's sleeting today!

    Hi Elizabethm - I'm envious of your lovely views.

    Hi Veg Heaven - thank you for sending the 'murk' down from Yorkshire - it's very gloomy today.

    Celia
    x

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  10. I love this idea Celia - I will enjoy reading your thoughts and experiences in the Wild Wood through the seasons.

    How did you manage to set up the different pages for your blog?

    Jeanne
    x

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  11. wonderful post! since i've moved there isn't a stream nearby to listen to, or crows calls, both of which i miss dearly. thank you for the clip--& another book for the list ;)

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  12. Hi Jeanne - start a new post and you should see a tab that says 'edit pages' - click on that and you can create new pages.

    I needed a place in the day to read this book (and others) - this seems a good way to cover lots of things I want to explore...

    Celia
    x

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  13. Hi Petoskystone - you snuck in there when I was typing...

    I've been meaning to read this book for a while now and it has to precede the next book on my list...

    This will be a good way to record The Wild Wood's year.

    Celia
    x

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  14. What a charming video. The sound of the water whilst watching the Ladybird was just so restful. Thank you.

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  15. I love your babbling brook.

    We have just returned from London and saw your lino prints near the British Museum, sadly the shop was shut.

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  16. I have this book on my Amazon wish list, think I must get it!
    Love
    Lyn
    xxx

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  17. I envy you the stream. I lived in Wales for a while and the sound of tinkling water was ever present. Sadly the water in Norfolk lies flat (apart from when it is falling out of the sky!) Penny x

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  18. Your wild wood video was lovely to watch. I realised how much I miss the sound of running water. My lab dog must miss it too. He was asleep, but his ears perked up when the video started. The ladybug looked to be enjoying basking in the sunshine too. I very much loved Roger Deakin's `Notes from Walnut Tree Farm'.

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  19. A lovely, lovely post - especially as I write this from the middle of London, dreaming about the countryside.

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  20. Hi and thank you Toffeeapple!

    Hi Acornmoon - what a shame, I don't think they open on Sundays.

    Hi Lyn - I've been meaning to read this for ages.

    Hi Penny - The 'babbling' is contrived, the previous owner's sons made a dam across the tributary stream and the water cascades over the top.

    Hi Kate - lovely to see you back in blogland, maybe I should set up The Wild Wood web-cam? 'Notes from Walnut Tree Farm' is on my reading list.

    Hi Bloomsbury Bell - transporting city dwellers to a virtual Wild Wood - I like that idea :-)

    Celia
    x

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  21. This book is on my reading list, I've recently read The Wild Places by Roger Macfarlane which I really enjoyed.

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  22. Yes, please! I love the idea of a Wild Wood web-cam.

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