Hiding in plain sight

I think one of the many joys of walking is that it helps you get to know your local area better and even though I’ve lived here for over 15 years I am still discovering new places thanks to my love of walking. The first walk I found when we moved here was to my local park, which includes its own woodland. This remains one of my regular walks and also one of my favourites as it is the fastest way of getting my tree fix! It’s also a walk that I can do throughout the year, whatever the weather.

In addition to that one we can walk into the main town centre, which we can also extend into a stroll to the seaside. And we are lucky enough to have several links into the countryside. There was a regular walk we were already familiar with that has a steep start but then drops down into the neighbouring village. However we’ve since found another walk that cuts across a nearby field and after that you can either join the Cuckoo Trail or head into Abbot’s Wood. Another recent addition is the new shared path for cyclists and walkers which is a useful one in winter as it’s a proper path and therefore will be safe to use when others get too boggy. I also like this path as it’s the most direct route for visiting the 1600 year old Wilmington Yew.

You may have guessed where this post is heading already but if you haven’t I feel now is the time to put you out of your misery. Yes, last weekend we discovered a whole new series of paths to be explored. Although the daft bit is that this ‘so-called’ new area is actually right next to the countryside walk we’ve been doing the longest. Once we found the original route and I realised it was one I could navigate solo as well, I just stuck with it. I do have a theory that if I walked that route every day for a set amount of time, perhaps a week or even a month, I would never get bored of it. While the directions may not change, other factors would and therefore it would be a different experience each time. I do quite like the idea of testing that theory out one day but I don’t think it’s feasible while I’m working full-time, perhaps if my numbers come up though…

Anyway I digress, the point is that I now have some new paths to try in addition to my old friend and this is all thanks to art. No, not a chap named Arthur but actual art. I rather like the fact that art is often designed to challenge you to see things you think you know in a fresh perspective. This is usually achieved in a figurative sense but this time art has literally made me see the familiar in a new way and revealed to me what was hidden in plain sight. For you see, the walk that we regularly do is in an area called Butt’s Brow (tee hee, butts – yes we say that every time!) and recently there was an arts trail encouraging visitors to connect with nature through the artwork. Well as someone who loves any excuse to spend more time in nature and who also loves a free event, this was a must.

The arts trail was split into two main areas, one was by the car park and the other was at Butts Brow Meadow. While we usually walk away from the car park I did at least know where that was, but what’s this meadow they’re on about? A quick look on google maps and I was able to see the meadow but how to access it? It seemed to be behind a close but I was fairly certain we couldn’t go trampling over people’s gardens. The meadow appeared to be close to the usual path we take up Butts Lane (tee hee) but perhaps instead of crossing the road at the top, we stay on it. Perhaps, maybe? As I think I’ve mentioned before my sense of direction is severely lacking, hence the trepidation. However this was not going to be a solo stroll, so at least if we did get lost, we’d be together so wouldn’t need to worry about the other one wondering where we’d got too.

We thought we might need to walk on the road for a bit but it turned out our usual path doesn’t end where we thought it did, it keeps going and leads onto Butts Brow Meadow. Here I must confess I’m not sure if I quite got the artwork that was meant to be here, but then that’s my own fault for not bothering to scan any of the QR codes for more information. Aside from taking photos, I generally ignore the phone when I’m walking as I want to enjoy the scenes, not my screen. However I’m still very glad that this event was taking place as it introduced me to a whole new area to walk around. Mind you we did still manage to go wrong as I feel there must be a path that links the meadow to the car park but we failed to find it and ended up walking in a loop and coming back out at the meadow again.

We then set out on a different path, which I loved as while it didn’t take us to the main brow, it was a gorgeous woodland pathway. While I enjoyed the views from the meadow, across the town and even with a brief glimpse of the sea, I am happiest surrounded by trees and so this final discovery was the highlight for me. So now I not only have a new route to add to my collection, I have a whole new set of trees to get acquainted with and I think we only strolled through a small section of these woods, so there should be a lot more to explore.

So while the individual artworks didn’t inspire me in the way the artists probably intended, I am still grateful to them and the organisers of this event as they tempted me away from the usual and helped me to see what was there all along, patiently waiting for me to stroll by and say hello. Although as I re-read the blurb for this event, I realise that their mission was accomplished after all, as the stated aim is: