Celebrating Our Senses - Walk 5 - Touch

The fifth in a series of Mindfulness and 

Wellbeing walks to celebrate our senses. 

We walked from the Green Patch 

along the river path to Warkton.

Inspired by the exquisitely carved feathers 

of the angel which is part of one the 

Montagu Monuments in 

St Edmunds Church, Warkton

artist Carole Miles decided to create a 

temporary installation of printed feathers 

suspended within a copper framework.

A feather seemed a good motif for Touch - 

which could be feather light yet very powerful.

We followed a trail of feathers

and sat inside or

 stood around the outside.during 

our Mindfulness meditation - Touch - 

was written and lead by Carolyn Bantin 

We felt very tranquil as we closed our eyes

and allowed our minds to hold and enjoy

the words, breathing fully and deeply.

feeling relaxed and in touch with ourselves.

We had our lunch in the meeting room 

whilst the installation was dismantled. 

We folded origami fir trees and 

wrote some thoughts about the day. 

We stopped to play Pooh Sticks on the bridge.

We walked back to our start point with 

quicker steps and lighter hearts. 

One walker said to Carole 

"You make the best walks EVER!"

Many thanks to Anne-Marie Sandos who worked on the Montague Monuments Project and is now working in education and outreach for Boughton House for making it possible for us to visit, create, meditate and have our lunch within this peaceful place. Many thanks also to Michael Miles AKA Copper Man for helping with the installation.

You can see the complete photo set here

Walk distance  3 miles.

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

PS - you may catch a glimpse of a familiar red head singing her heart out with the Deep Roots Tall Trees Choir  during Remembrance and Rebirth – Songs for the Montagu Monuments in May 2016 :-)

Hanging Out on the Line

Working with artist Carole Miles young people from the Avondale Grange Ward have been making screen prints for Christmas stockings and sacks at the Green Patch Community Allotments in Margaret Rd / Valley Walk, Kettering. We cut paper stencils and used textile inks and screen printing equipment to transfer our designs onto fabric that had once been covers for shelving units.

Prints drying in Carole's living room.

All prints were ironed at The Resource Centre, fronts were trimmed and backs were cut from a fabric sample book before being sewn together to create stockings or sacks. 

The stockings then became a temporary installation hung on a line attached to some trees growing just off Stamford Rd, very cose to a textile recycling bin and within our postcode area for the whole View From Here project. 

The installation gave us the opportunity to talk to passing members of the community and to tell them about the project. 

The children will take their stockings home just before Christmas to share with friends and family during the festive season.

This has been the start of The Binding Thread aspect of our project in which we will be using textiles to explore toughts, feelings, memories and ideas.  

This installation was an simple and effective way of altering the view, caused a few raised eyebrows and sparked some interest in our project. You can see more images here.