Celebrating Our Senses - Walk 3 - Listen

For our third walk we revisted 

the Kelmarsh Tunnel on 

the Brampton Valley Way

where we were once again joined

 by the wonderful storyteller Allan Davies 

who told tales at various points in the walk. 

Our Mindfulness meditation - Listen - was lead by Carolyn Bantin in the picnic area in the car park before the walk commenced to center our thoughts sharpen our ears and regulate our breathing.

In the clearing of ash trees and picnic tables Allan told us the story of a bucket with a hole and Carole Miles showed the group how to make a wind chime with spoons. 

All the wind chimes were hung together 

and sang out whilst we had our lunch.

Then those who dared walked into the dark of 

the tunnel towards the air vent. 

Standing in a pool of light and 

droplets of water Allan told 

a wintery tale with an 

excellent ending.

We walked in twos and threes, back along the Brampton Valley Way listening to the birds, watching a rainbow and noticing the glorious colours of autumn.

You can see the complete photo set here

Walk distance 3.5 miles.

Part of a series of Mindfulness and Wellbeing "Celebrating Our Senses" walks made possible with a Grant awarded from Margaret Giffen Community Fund and Northamptonshire Community Foundation and with support from NStep.

How You Can Help Raise Funds to Replace Missing Brampton Valley Way Mosaic

Since we have had no sightings of the stolen mosaic panel but lots of great support and comments about the pleasure the way markers have given we are attempting to raise funds to create a replacement. This Autumn Local Giving are Running their Grow Your Tenner Scheme where for every individual donation of £10 Local Giving will match it with £10 and if you Gift Aid there will be an extra benefit to your donation! The campaign launches 14th October 2014 and finishes when the match fund runs out or the 31st January 2015 - whichever comes first.

You can support Back To Books by visiting our Local Giving Page HERE your £10 can help to fill the empty space left on the Brampton Valley Way and will bring joy and inspiration to walkers, runners and cyclists who regularly use this great community asset. You can read about the original project here. We hope you can help us make this a reality!

It's All About the Grout!

In a shady corner outside Caroles' Studio (shed) there have been signs of tea drinking, butterfly watching and grouting!

This is the part we look forward to but in spite of gloves there is a certain artist who always gets plenty on herself and her clothes, hence the attractive overall!

Starting to clean away the excess grout

to gently reveal the image beneath

We thought it was nice to include parts of the surroundings to show scale and where most of the work has taken place. What photographs can't really capture is the play of light on the tiles, some of which have a lustre which changes colour as you move round.

So here are Puddle Jumping 

and Signal Box completed!

Many thanks to Andrew Rushton for the photographs and to Lucy Anderson so being such a star. 

11 panels done one to go! 

Return Shednologists!

Margot Norris nipping and tucking

Sonja Wilson deep in concentration

One of the best aspects of this project has been to see the excitement, pleasure, satisfaction and relaxation it has brought to all the participants. There have been so many interesting conversations, much shared laughter and a real sense of community both in the shed and out in the community venues we have visited. For the most part we have been lucky with the weather, even when it has been overcast or wet, people have come to take part. We really appreciate all the extra hours our Artist / Project Coordinator Carole Miles has put into the project to make it such a success! She also brews a mean cup of tea!

Frost Completed!

Carole spent the weekend completing the frost panel

Saturday

Sunday

Thursday

Puddle Jumping - Filling in the Figures

Carole spent Monday and Tuesday working 

on the figures in the Puddle Jumping panel

Another Welcome Guest Shednologist!

It was lovely to be joined by long time 

Back To Books stalwart Margot Norris

who liked the look but not the taste of the cherries in the 

garden until she sampled some of Carole's cherry vodka

and came up with her own unique recipe!

Then it was down to work, helping Carole to 

take the Signal Box panel on a stage further!

Bridge Complete!

Bridge

This bridge is one of Carole's favourite parts of the Brampton Valley Way and one of the few remaining parts of the original railway line's architecture. 

Each year there is more rust than bridge left, the stair treads have been removed and it stands like a ghostly sculpture in the landscape.

The Northampton and Lamport Railway at Brampton Halt told us that would dearly love to move the bridge to the station and restore it's fragile rusting ironwork, 

but this may be a long way off as they have many other restoration projects underway at the station. It would be wonderful to preserve it, but then again, there is something graceful and strange about it's gradual weathering and decay.

Back in Carole's studio the Bridge mosaic panel begun at Stephenson Way continues to take shape, in spite of the thunder and heavy rain.

In the galley-like workspace, Carole has balanced one end of the panel on an open plan chest drawer and the other on the workbench in order to be able to work on the panel.

This is when the weather and the lack of space prove challenging, it is hard to check whether the colours are working and the lines describing the column are straight, even in the progress photograph, it's still quite hard to judge.

Having a limited budget, it is also a challenge to make the tiles we have and the colours we'd ideally like, stretch to cover the twelve panels. If you feel you'd like to help us overcome this practical concern you can make a donation to the project via our page on Localgiving.com. We would really appreciate your support, or you could wait until October, when there will be another Match Your Tenner campaign! 

Signal Box and Puddle Jumping Continued

Friday's Shednologists were Carolyn and Alice Bantin who worked together on the Signal Box panel 

Alice also took the opportunity to do some drawing and to try some new art materials.

After a very warm morning of mosaic making

mother and daughter had a rest in the shade before heading for home

In the afternoon Carole was joined by Kate Dyer and mosaic making stalwart Lucy Anderson. Kate worked with Carole outside on the Signal Box panel whilst Lucy braved the heat of the shed, aided a small electric fan and continued work on the puddles in Puddle Jumping.