Husband

We have esacped the madness for a few hours to see my mother in law
and the circus , piers has had a shower and has a nice shirt on ,
looking good x

Sent from my iPhone

Children on the cart

Merlons beautiful eye

Tarmac man

Thistle breakfast

Sleeping beauty

Decorated dinnerctable

Discussions with Tarmac man

Lush parents and dog

Hassle

In a nutshell as so many things happened:
Parents came and walked
7 other people came and walked , Jo, vicky, andy, torin, Sarah, sam,
lush baby
Merlin wouldn't leave the place that we had bean staying in as he was
scared of the water mill
Nearly killed me by walking backwards and impaling me on the shafts of
the cart and the not moving
Everyone from the b and b tried to push him out
Piers and I not speaking to each other
Finally ( half an hour ) merlin leaves the premises
Serious roadworks on the road
Dad swears at the road men ( I think he did anyway)
Road man swears at us ( fuck off donkeys)
Very large tail back
Turn off road to small road , surprising number of lorries all the
same make
Discover that tiny road is being tarmacced
Walk over quite hot Tarmac
Teddy nearly bolts with my dad holding on to him due to loud
motorbikes driven by teenagers
Piers and I still not speaking
Interesting to see my parents in such an alternative situation
Piers says this is black thursday
Get back onto busy road
Very large tail back
Finally arrive at over farm
Phew!
Louisa our artist has dilemma, she needs at least 50 empty beer cans
for her workshop to make pinhole cameras
I feel scared at the challenge, we do however make a good attempt
Good supper , parents stay
Mum goes wooding,
Parents pretty lush
Piers and I sort of make up
Sleep outside, now wish I had done so every night the nicest thing I
have done for a very long time
Children doing great x

Sent from my iPhone

Marriage

Not sure that being my husbands manager is the best thing for our
relationship Thursday am on tgexway to over
Sent from my iPhone

Bliss

I was in a foul mood yesterday morning , found piers intensely
annoying and stillnot sure wheter it was me just being too touchy or
whether or not he was being irritating!
Anyway we finally finally set off, seemed to take forever which annoys
me!
Had a few donkey adventures yesterday , cows in field either side
flanking us down a very narrow road for quite some time. Wax exciting
just felt that the donkeys might go at any point. Walked a very
circular route and ended up at an old rectory for lunch . Anna and
James joined us (old friends) my mood was restored and they brought
lots if cheese for lunch hurray .
The heavens thenopened and we spent 20 mins sheltering under trees.
Arrived at Colchester farm , gorgeous old farm. , started to walk
through , field with a massive horse , horses started to go mental ,
jasper winding situation up, we all a bit nervous , then it jumps the
bloody fence and is in the field with us
Moments silence, James looks quite scared, horse runs into next
field . Wow!
Farmer and family very chill about it, we set up camp in a lush old
orchard, raid the excellently stocked village shop in ashleworth , too
many if us in the shop
Have been planning a dry week , decided percieved thigh gain is down
to beer
Artist this week needs us to drink 100 beers over the week so she can
use them for pinhole cameras
For gods sake!
Lovely night round the fire, donkey anna returned! Louisa ( artist)
did pinhole photography , great food , ned who is mollys friend
entertained us brilliantly with stories of ferreting and loud burping
on demand,
Kids slept out by the fire , starry night, all is well

Sent from my iPhone

If i had a Twitter account

If I had a Twitter account I would write that right now my husband is
annoying me

Sent from my iPhone

Molly at the festival

Molly sleeping out

Week six

Aaaaagh week six fourth public camp done shit shit shit going so
quickly that I want it to slow down
Recap
Thursday: rewrite grant application Thursday am horrid horrid being at
home,
Pick up john Hegley
Parents arrive, nice to see them
Go shopping with dad, come back to find molly driving around the field
on her own rather well, not too happy about that
Friday, walk to Gloucester cathederal , meet rather attractive artist
in residence, David, good public relations at the cathederal lots of
interest
Walk back past gypsy camp again, whole camp cones out to see us , get
called pykies which I enjoy

Sat: camp
Many people john does brilliant workshop , 52 people attend, martha
tilston and maggie Boyle come to play lush lush evening
I feel quite tearful listening to the music , really beautiful
Have to go to Trowbridge next day to pick up molly from festival, bit
of a culutyre shock but quite fun
Swim a lot in the river at the festival , bikini tight, molly tells me
that I have put on weight and she will stop biting her nails if I will
eat less !
Shit, tried not to have a beer this eveni g but failed miserably

Donkeys great, I am in love with archie, he is an amazing donkey, just
so solid

Louisa ( artist ) and Helen have joined us and anna and Adrian have
gone
So far all good, teddy a bit naughty without anna
We called in to see john and tilly today
two faieground people that we met years ago
They loved it, reminded john of travelling with horse drawn fairground
rides
Feel tired today and a bit emotional .
Want to write something witty but not feeling it
Sent from my iPhone

Fwd: What is art if not a donkey ?

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Sarah <bleurs@aol.com>
Date: 26 July 2010 08:56:03 GMT+01:00
To: "sue.smith@stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk" <sue.smith@stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk>, "tamash.lal@stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk" <tamash.lal@stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk>, "ashley.loveridge@stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk" <ashley.loveridge@stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk>, Lucy Heywood <lucyheywood@hotmail.com>, chris gardner <phscg@tiscali.co.uk>, "jo.bousfield@gloucestershire.gov.uk" <jo.bousfield@gloucestershire.gov.uk>
Subject: What is art if not a donkey ?

I recieved an interesting email this week asking me to write less about myself the weather and the donkeys and more about art and the artists that are walking with us on out trip. Initially I felt quite affronted that what I had been writing was not considered art, then it led me to reflect on the many conversations that I have had with the artists on our journey.
One of the points of our journey with the donkeys has been to provide a reflective space for artists to think about their work and hopefully be inspired by our gorgeous landscape, the donkeys and as this is England the weather.
Because of the nature of our journey , the sheer physicality of what we are doing I have not seen much "art". What I have come to understand though from discussions with our artists is that they have had to drop any preconcieved ideas of their art, what they hoped to create and achieve because what we are doing is do utterly consuming. Many of our artists have said ( and managed to not sound pretentious !) that the art is the whole experience, ie: the donkeys, the landscape, the walking , the weather and the opportunity to take z sideways step from our increasingly frantic, competitive and critical lifestyle has been really inspiring .
We have had a pretty cool week as far as artists go , john hegley walked with us and managed to write whilst walking
He ran a brilliant public workshop for 52 people ( no mean feat ) and entertained us royally around the fire . The beautiful martha tilston and maggie Boyle also came to sit by the fire and sing , I tell you it was truly wonderful .
Donkey walking: by john Hegley
Archie, merlin Chester teddy
The lord Was once upon your like
We are set and hiking ready
Moving hooves and tails a sway
Three are brown and one is grey
Down to Gloucester on our way
Nowwhere near to eton bray

Walking on at quite a rate
In the lanes with manes us straight
Bearing up beneath the weight
When they're done and free of freight
They eat grass til very late
And when the grass is down to stubble
My hand is grand with night time nibble
Archie Chester teddy merlin
You dint want your toes a curlin
If one don't apply the clipper
You can get aladdins slipper
With mandolin upon my back
As tomorrows getting black
In Gloucestershire and in July
Man and beast see eye to eye


So back to me the weather and the donkeys,
I continue to pray for sun although today is looking slightly ominous , the donkeys continue to be the star turn wherever we go and are awe inspiring in what they do, personally I am still loving every second of this and invite you to come and enjoy our journey . We will be at over farm  in gloucester on Friday night details on the website www.asiiwalkedout.com
Sarah blowers

Sent from my iPhone

John hegley returning his high visibility jacket after walking with the donkeys

Art pieces

Nature in art

John hegley art workshop

Waiting in the q for tynchy stryder

Merlin , the dean , Adrian Nina and archie Gloucester cathederal

Dead duck , children made a shrine for it

Sat at nature in art

Have been slack and not written for days, time is slipping fast and
the weekend is here again ,in summary :
Pmt gone , managed not to bite peoples heads off
Good journeying this week
Again have not managed a dry week, probably the reason that I cannot
get below 10 stone
John hegley was with is for some of this week , lovely , dry ,don't
quite know what he made of us, think he may have thought me a bit
uncouth
Walked into Gloucester, parked up at the cathederal, good reception
Met the gypsies who shouted at us for not shoeing the donkeys and then
were great , called us pykies which I really enjoyed
Went to see tynchy stryder with piers toby and Scott
Ash performed, was all fairly grim although was proud of ash
Everyone stared at us , I looked fairly out of place , piers looked
Neanderthal toby looked like throwback 70,s child, suspect we did
nothing for ashs image in the rap world
I lied and said I was ashleys mother when he was performing so I could
push to the front
People didn't really believe me, not because I don't look old enough I
suspect but because I look so unlikely
Anna and Adrian finish this week, will miss them so much,
Nature in art awesome place to be,
John hegleys workshop pleasantly enjoyable, felt moved, inspired and
reminded that maybe I could like doing art
Feel I have a sore throat coming no no mo
Want to have a quick siesta
Maybe a drink would help
Martha tilston coming to play tonight

Sent from my iPhone

Tynchy strider

Sat watching tynchy stryder in a half empty hall feeling old and
missing my donkeys toby very excited
Sent from my iPhone

Rapping

Am in a q for a tynchy strider gig in Gloucester we all look very out
of place possibly like gypsies hope no one picks on us

Sent from my iPhone

Anna and teddy

Scott archie Sarah and piers

Tewkesbury abbey

Molly trying to coerce archie into Tewkesbury

Tredington school

Marieke with children at tredington

Jasper at tredington

Blue

Have pmt so hard to know what is really annoying and what is my
hormones so will try and be objective:
Good things about yesterday:
Court farm at Stoke orchard, denise leanne, tricia, fred , boots the
dog and all the people who,s names I have forgottpn,
Nice, generous friendly interested lovely people , thankyou
Tredington school for letting us in to do an impromptu workshop and
proving that even today that schools can be spontaneous
Tewkesbury abbey for letting us in
Gupshill manor for letting us stay in their field
Bad things:
endless noisy road
Traffic all day
Motor way bridge
Pmt
Having to think about a bloody arts council application whilst running
this project
Only three weeks left
Have to go home tonight to write arts council apication
Three weeks is probably not enough to lose half a stone
Feeling tearful and knowing will have to try really hard to be nice
today as natural inclination today could be to be horrid
So, bit of a rant, hopefully walk will be lush today along the river
Realised the journey has become like a walking exhibition, engagement
is not just workshops or people walking with us but people stopping
and talking and looking. The pleasure that the donkeys bring in towns
is almost immeasureBle and though it is grim walking into a town it is
well worth it for the experience it brings.

Sent from my iPhone

Outreach work in gothetington

Pies and carrots

Miles at the royal oak in gretton

At the co op

Postlip hall

Rain

I am hiding in my tent as the weather sounds grim and i think today
may be tricky . Need to recap yesterday though as there were sn many
good bits that it was almost funny :
1. It was hot and sunny
2. Lovely co-op (thanks barbara) gave us a food voucher for their
store in winchcombe , felt like I was on supermarket sweep
3.press came out and stopped traffic to take photos of us all
4. Walking near gretton and a nice man shouts " pull over at my pub
and I'll get you a drink"
The drink turned out to be a pint for everyone , bags of carrots for
the beasts and , and two enormous pies for us to take away , each pie
enough to feed us all at for supper
5.lastly another nice place to stay
Want today to be as good but think the weather may not hold, it is
raining as I tap my phone.

Sent from my iPhone

Marieke speaks

Well what a lovely day with the donkeys! I have done a full day of
walking and am now sat in a field in court farm in Stoke orchard, with
a lovely cup of tea. Highlights of the day include a photoshoot with
the donkeys in front of winchcombe's coop. Carrot heaven for the
donkeys and £50 voucher heaven for the humans
A beautiful encounter with Miles from
The royal oak, who offered us a free drink and gave us loads of pies;
gretton now officially has the most generous pub owner on the planet,
random chats with donkey lovers of all ages, offers of free eggs, the
most expensive cup of tea in the world and the kids setting a new
putting-up-the-tent-best time:5'23" . Now we're just hoping the storm
will hold off so that the tents won't blow away-toby,molly I hope you
didn't forget those pegs in your new record. Anyway I have two more
days of donkey heaven. You should all be here!!!

Sent from my iPhone

woops

have just realised that I have put up a job advert by mistake on the blog, am at home trying to re-write a grant application and thought I would look at the blog,

It is very hard to write a blog on an iphone , I am not quite as dyslexic as it may appear, must have pressed attach at some point as well hence the job application.

Am re-writing this application and not sure as if the arts council may think I am losing my mind (which I might be) the really good news is that I have got my jeans on from home and they feel a bit loose!

 

"Cinderella and Prince Charming are old, the palace is bankrupt, and the ugly sisters are in a care home that they cannot afford to pay for.

Cinderella and Prince Charming leave the palace on a donkey cart and travel around Village halls with a 70's Karaoke machine powered by the solar panel on their cart. They are hoping to raise money for the ugly sister's care plan.

Throughout the evening Cinderella and Prince Charming re-tell their original story liberally peppered with anecdotes about donkeys and the people they have met along the way.

Audience involvement is key and with the help of the audience and the solar powered karaoke machine the night draws to a romantic end."

 

does it sound like I am on drugs, are the arts council going to laugh heartily at my expense?

 

lets hope that the donkeys can work their magic

 

Me back at postlip

Evening camp

Toby and jasper

Cyanotypes in thexsun

The blue monument

Tobys monument

Will Morris

Childrenpainting postlip hall

Cyanotype workshop post lip hall

Writing workshop postlip hall

Hollys tent at the race course not pushed over by jasper

Still at postlip hall

We had a great day yesterday for the public camp, kept muttering to
myself thank god were here and not at the race course. It really was
an idyllic setting and completely contained and sheltered. I went to
lidl to stock up for the weekend, momentarily lost my brain and bought
enough food for 40 people, no one seemed that hungry so i then ate
enough for 40 people. Workshops were great , toby wrote a great piece
if you ignore thr soelling and the writing, barney and lucy hung a
giant blur balloon in a tree and asked people to write what it was
toby said it was a monument to a giant bulberry which illuminated at
sun down each day which was different in the winter and summer ,
scarily Helen owen( county arts officer ) dropped in to see how it was
allgoing. Felt like the queen had come to visit, she was great and got
totally stuck in although I couldn't persuade her to ride a donkey.
Went for a short walk to cleeve common , piers and I fantasizes again
about moving here but realised that molly would kill us. Lush night
around the fire with music, slide show and short film which stand and
stare artcgroup hadmade, kids ruined or improved it deending on your
opinion by going behind the screen and inventing their own shadow play
at the same time . Havecwoken up this am and weather foul , Helen owen
blithely told me that it had rained on st swithins day, didn't know
what that meant now I do and feel a bit depressed. Weather is crap
this morning , what if she is right . Also I have to go home this week
and try and rewrite a bid for our autumn tour which I feel like doing
about as much as returning to the race course. We are half way through
and I am sad at the thought . Feels like my life in the real world has
changed during thiz thing and that the "real world ". has too, think
that tocarve a living as an artist will be even less likely when I
return.
Sent from my iPhone

Next day

We survived, woke upbto find mini storm raging but everything still intact , group jointly decide that the race course is not where we all want to be . A mixture of landscape, lorries, close to the rubbish, an uncomfortable feeling of distinctly inferior and nostalgia for all the lovely people and places who we have stayed with over the last month who have embraced us, the idea and particularly the donkeys, the race course didn't quite feel the same . Gorgeous lovely generous and quite brilliant postlip hall have allowed us back for the weekend .thank god .

Firstly we walked into chelt with the donkeys and Paul mckee chelt art officer . Great day , Paul a total laugh , donkeys behaved great, chelt folk loved them being right in the centre of town, only one poo to clear up . Really nice to have them in town, rural into urban , real big animals in the centre of a city, then back over cleeve common almost exactly the same way that we had come 24 hours before. The relief to walk back into postlip hall after the chelt and the race course was huge , to feel welcome is really important . am tucked up, warm ,well fed and relieved to be sAfe out of the rat race .   
Sent from my iPhoneYAYW8 at Arnolfini, November 2010

 

TRANSIENT LIVING: 1625 INDEPENDENT PEOPLE COMMISSION

 

Commission Partners: Who we are

 

Groundwork South West

Groundwork South West is the regional body of Groundwork UK, a national environmental regeneration charity. We regularly commission socially-engaged practitioners to work with us and our partners in a diverse range of environments and on a broad range of issues. For Transient Living, we are commissioning in collaboration with 1625 Independent People.

 

Independent People is the leading provider of housing, support and advice to young homeless people aged between 16 and 25 in Bristol and South Gloucestershire. They exist to support young people to build independent lives, by helping people find (and keep) a safe and stable home and develop the skills and confidence to achieve positive outcomes in all areas of their lives.

 

YaYW

You and Your Work is an artist-led not-for-profit Bristol-based arts organisation, which seeks

to facilitate and provide a platform for innovative and socially engaged projects between artists,

communities and audiences. We aim to support high quality work from emerging

performance artists and link them to marginalized communities who are not primarily engaged in the arts. Since 2007 we've showcased seven performance platforms involving more than 80 artists, commissioned five artists and companies and engaged more than 1200 audience members. YaYW8 is the first platform event to take place at Arnolfini.

 

Arnolfini

Arnolfini is one of Europe's leading centres for the contemporary arts based at the heart of

Bristol's harbourside. As a multi disciplinary art centre Arnolfini has regular exhibitions, film,

live art, dance, music and literature programmes.

Arnolfini's live art programme has developed a reputation for taking innovative risks, showing

the most provocative and uncompromising work from emergent artists and practitioners

working on the edges of established art forms or criteria.

Each season all Arnolfini programme areas converge to consider a themed research area,

the current thematic is 'Old Media' which investigates technologies considered to be old or

redundant, and questions their relationship to a given place in time.

 

YaYW8 is produced by artists and YaYW curators/ producers Sylvia Rimat and Rhiannon Chaloner - in collaboration with Ray White, Cultural Programme Manager for Groundwork South West, a key partner over the last three platforms, and Sarah Warden, Assistant Producer (Live) at the Arnolfini.

 

Commission objectives

•

To make a new work with service users of Independent People.

•

To provide an opportunity for young people who have been homeless to express and develop their skills, abilities and shared experiences through the creative arts

•

To raise awareness of the issues of youth homelessness.

•

To highlight the responsibility we all share for ensuring that young homeless people receive the home and support they need to achieve their potential

•

To engage at least 10 service users from Independent People in the project

•

To consider ideas around neighbourhood and belonging. Shared identity, community, and location are strong themes in the overall 'Transient Living' programme and the selected artist(s) should have one of these at the heart of their proposal.

•

To open links between the art centre and the young people involved in the project.

•

For the selected artist to develop a project for public presentation at the Arnolfini in November 2010 with the support of Groundwork.

•

If possible we would be keen to see a piece of work which will be in such a form that it can have a continuing platform /presence for the public to experience - at a given location outside the Arnolfini.

•

For the selected artist to participate in one interim discussion/informal showing of

your project and in an online conversation with the other artists and curators involved

with the Transient Living project, which will endeavour to talk about experiences, ask

questions, and create links between the individual projects, approaches, and

research in the programme.

•

Potentially to respond to a wider research strand within Arnolfini's programme relating to the theme of Old Media: see Arnolfini section above.

 

 

The Community

The young people supported by Independent People have all been homeless people or are leaving authority care and form part of a wider community of young people in Bristol. Young people are supported by Independent People to build independent lives and aspirations. This project forms part of a programme to offer new opportunities for young homeless people to develop their aspirations, options and skills whilst expressing their experience through the creative arts.

 

Potential outcomes

At this stage we are open to all proposals or methods of approach to working with Independent People. We are interested in your practice and would like to hear your response to this

invitation. Outcomes could be site specific event based, performance, film, research based

but must sit within the live programme at Arnolfini for the YaYW8 Festival.

 

Availability

You should be available on the Event Date 13/11/2010. How you use your time to develop

the project and work with the community over the period leading up to November is your

decision. However artists not based in Bristol please take into account that travel expenses will not be refunded.

 

Resources

We will endeavour to accommodate artist's requirements with resources such as work space as the project is clarified.

 

November Event

The exact format and content of November's event is flexible, we will work with you to create

the right context for audiences to engage with your work /process.

The core Arnolfini spaces available for use will be: Dark Studio, Light Studio, Reading Room.

There is also the potential to use the Auditorium space. For more information and images of

facilities please see:http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/pages/hires/

The other communities selected for inclusion in this project include the Roma Community in

Bristol (commission led by YaYW), The Boat Dwelling community on the Harbourside in Bristol (commission led by Arnolfini) and a group consisting of primary school children and elderly people (commission led by YaYW).

In addition to the commissions, four performance art projects relating to 'Transient Living',

will be selected from an artist call out and presented at YaYW8 festival, as well as an

international writing project with previous YaYW artist Malcolm Whittaker and Performance Space, Sydney.

 

Proposal:

Please outline your ideas to this invitation on a max two sides A4. Please state:

• Why you are interested in the commission.

• Methods of working with the community in question.

• What potential outcomes you envisage ie. event based, film based etc

• How this commission would inform and relate to your wider practice

 

Fee

Commission fee: £1850, paid in installments

Materials budget: £150

A translator budget of £50 is available if required

 

Selectors

Ray White, Groundwork South West

Tom Dunn, Youth Involvement Worker 1625 Independent People

Pilar Garcia, Funding and Communications Officer, 1625 Independent People

Sarah Warden, Assistant Producer Live Art and Dance

Sylvia Rimat, Co-Producer / Director YaYW

 

Contact:

To have an informal conversation with Ray about this invitation please contact him on 01752 217721 extn 332

or email Ray.White@groundwork.org.uk

 

Proposals should be sent to:

 

Pilar Garcia
Funding and Communication Officer 
1625 Independent People
Kingsley Hall, 59 Old Market Street 
Bristol BS2 0ER

 

Deadline for submissions: 5pm, Monday 2nd August2010. Shortlisted candidates will be called for interview the week beginning 9th August. It is envisaged that the commission will start by the beginning of September, subject to agreement from all parties.

 

This artist(s) commissioned will be working with vulnerable young people, and for this reason an enhanced CRB check will be required/carried out.

 

 

Oh god

Time 22.47
Venue : car park chelt race course
Weather : gale force winds
Mood: stiff upper lip
In brief: a shit day
Left the gorgeous idyllic postlip hall , got to coerce common donkeys
went wild and ram around scattering contents of their panniers
liberally , Marianne phoned to say arts council have said no to
funding application, I am now unemployed from sept onwards fairgames
fate dubious, went to a pub small boy walking with us had a stone wall
collapse on him ( he is ok). Arrive at the race course apparently we
are a day early , nit sure how that has happened but was nit a good
start , put up tents , force 10 gale begins , holly work experience
girl tent colapses , we have to move entire camp into car park, toby
and holly ( work experience ) sleep in car with dog , the drain next
to us is rising with what looks like sewage , am not even worried
about my weight just whether or not we will get through the night ,
tent has started to leak
Sent from my iPhone

Grim reaper at salperton church

Getting to winchcombr school

Toby and teddy

Rain

The rain

Well we survived it! I did think though that my blog entries would have been rather different had it rained every day instead of the amazing sun we have had . We stayed at manor farm in brockhampton which again was a gorgeous place to stay , walked to the pub , very nice and woke up to drizzle. Packed up much  quicker than normal. Walked, holly is here for a week for her work experience hope she is enjoying it , bloody busy road trucks and four by fours on a single track road, got to belas knapp and realised that we couldn't get down it as it was too steep for the cart! Aaaagh Jo b flagged down a car and we met James who very kindly helped us down the hill, cheers James! Then workshop at winchcombr school brilliant one thanks Stand and stare and then came the proper rain. It was miserable and a longish trek to postlip hall , they had a barn, not only a barn but a tithe barn with electricity and hot showers.  There is a god! On the walk up I fantasised about watching a film , WE Watched a film! Barney had a small projector , I guiltily admit it was heaven , anna cooked great paella and barney and Lucy bought a bottle of gin, it was all good. Met several members of the postlip hall community who were really really friendly /interested , think I am interested in the postlip hall life!  The rain is still here and I would like the sun to reappear , looking forward to a day off though . 

Sent from my iPhone

Toby

Donkeys early morning

Ella cyanotype

Me and piers cyanotype

Upcote farm totally lovely

View from my tent upcote farm 7 am

End of week three

We have spent the weekend at upcote farm outside withington . Yet
another idyllic place, the journey here was staggering in it's
beauty , feel like I am starting to over egg the landscape and
endlessely wax lyrical , il starting to rin out of words to describe
it . We walked from the outskirts of chedworth down to the roman
villa , it was like walking through a BBC costume drama that had been
perfectly dressed, obviously the weather helps massively. We stopped
for lunch in a lush field with a stream running through it . Ella our
artist managed to persuade Scott ( young man from Stroud ) to pose for
a cyanotype print . Thus involved lying naked for 30 mins on a piece
of photosensitive paper and them washing it in a stream. Unbelievably
he did, Ella took her clothes off for moral support . Very funny
watching from the distance particularly as the donkeys wouldn't leave
them alone , scott would never have done that two weeks ago. We then
took the beasts up to the roman villa which went down very well.
Carried on to upcote farm , again countryside unbelievable, the houses
we passed almost embarassingly large . Have started to think about
privilige and wealth and where I stand in this . Feel very priviliged
to see all this and then start to think about the Money divide
particularly in relation to some if the young people I work with.
Also no matter how much we might pretend it doesn't matter how much a
public school education will stand you in good stead and connect you
for life. Occasionally I feel the unfairness of that and yet I am
relatively priviliged , how must it be for others, actually these
places are so remote and private that you have to search for them off
the beaten track . Upcote farm has been great , lovely lovely farmer
and his wife, the farm has a very open feel , they are preparing for a
big festival next week. Two thousand trees festival , looks great .
Also fantastic skinny dipping in the large spring fed pond as
reccommended by the farmer .
Had to go home yesterday , it was really hard and I hated it . Don't
want to sound sanctimonious or preachy but even living like this for
three weeks has highlighted how crazy our world is and what stress we
are under all the time . The minute I was in the house felt stressed
and fat! Still bloody 10 stone , that stressed me, then the bathroom,
then the post, then the garden , tax bill , mirrors, choices
everywhere , stuff everywhere. Then the cars, the shops, so many
people talking felt almost nauseous by the time we got back , feel we
have lost something that is fundamental to our soul
, I spend so much time stressing about the frantic life that we are
all persuaded to buy into , how we look ,smell, eAt, shop etc etc
think I will need rehab at the end of this . Looking forward to
walking again, plotting a huge walk , Istanbul to London , am going to
manifest it and hope that it can happen . Hope some rich
philanthropist reads this , a travelling art, craft, solar, donkey
powered year ling walk x x x
Sent from my iPhone

Chess donkey

Lying in field making print rendcomb

Thursday

Peaceful evening , calm after the business. Dangerous start , left
our beautiful camping with luscious views over rendcomb onto a very
steep road with grAvel onto a very dangerous main road, all our new
artists hanging on to the back of the cart , skiing at some points
heading towards a fast junction , quickly moved into vertical hills ,
pushing the cart up , an hour in we were all sweating madly pushing
the cart up up up massive hills . Early lunch break heaven Ella one of
our artists lay naked in a field and made a cyanotype print of
herself , we ate and ate then walked through more glorious lanscape
thankfully flat . We split offinto two groups, I walked on and the
others picked a whole bucket of cherries . Made it to our campspot,
the brilliant cotswold farm shop , cold beer and a great shop . Now
stuffed , annas parents brought gorgeous food over , all great .

Sent from my iPhone

Bagendon 7th July

Feel like we are on a very priviliged journey through villages that
are so beautiful that they are almost unbearable, sleepy , quaint ,
twee , not sure that I would want to live in one of them but lush to
pass through. The thought of re -integration is a horrid one. Know
that time is going to rush through, trying to live in the moment and
not think endlessely about the next thing, jasper has seemingly taken
speed and is running around us all in manic figures of eight whilst we
are trying to eat lunch . The donkeys are not tied up and keep
lurching over us, teddy is trying to eat everything including an empty
crisp packet a chess piece and teddys panniers . Wd are staying in a
huge house tonight at the top of a hill which will be good pushing for
my thighs .

Sent from my iPhone

Merlin playing chess at bagendon