15/7/2012
Day
25 begins
The
wind was brisk and the sun was out very briefly as I rose to the new
day. I was going to be doing that small walk down the cliffs to a bay
below Ravenscar later, but I felt able to do a bit of exploring this
morning. Actually I didn't get very far as the walk to and near the
Raven Hall Hotel was a lovely scenic setting. There are old castle
like garden walls on the cliff side of the hotel and the views over
the scar below were very powerful and intense. I took some pictures
and watched the birds flying in and out of their cliff side homes for
quite a while.
A
view over the small golf course was tranquil and the Yorkshire
countryside is just very lush and hilly and well, so perfect for my
days here exploring.
I
decided to go and have a sneeky peek inside this great looking hotel
with views over the bay. When I went inside I was blown away by its
old world feel. The richness of the surroundings was a perfect
backdrop for a few hours maybe to write and catch up with my blog and
several poems that I had been avoiding posting on my poetry blog.
Mainly because some of them were about my dear friend Richard who had
died only last month, and the feelings are still very raw.
I
did sit in the end and found a very comfy sofa, watched the goings on
of the hotel and wrote almost constantly for about eight hours. Yeah
I know, a marathon and no real leg work..... But heck the people here
were diverse and I met and chatted with a couple who had come down to
have their afternoon lunch who told me that they had recently
received a telegram from the queen, because they also had been
married for 60 years. I didn't catch their names as they rushed off
to eat, but they were certainly a very happy and active pair of
almost 90 year olds. I was sweetened by them still holding hands and
talking about one another with genuine and endearing affection. They
said that they had had a good life, and I said that it looked as
though there would be plenty more to come. They giggled like a pair
of teenagers whilst smiling at one another.
During
the day I had sipped tea, eaten wonderfully prepared prawn
sandwiches, and had a cream scone to rival any other dessert man
could make. I felt rather decadent as I sat and enjoyed the luxury of
this place whilst only contributing a small amount for my services,
and the thoughts that all these people were sleeping like kings and
paying maybe a kings ransom, whilst I had been sleeping a few yards
away in my tent made me smile happily. Only because I found it
fascinating that we were all enjoying the same views and weather but
from much different budgets.
Near
to the time I was to meet Chris I packed up my things and began the
short walk to his home at the Tearooms. He was just finishing his
dinner so came out shortly afterwards. We set off at a pace to go and
catch the tide out on this end of the bay. Chris was eager to share
any information he could about the bay the life of people here and
his own projects that he was diligently working on. I still wanted to
know more about his concepts for performing, as he was keen to
collect articles, particularly wood form off the beach. In a way he
was a walking clean up guy, taking away so many items from the beach.
He found a piece of wood that it would appear was from an Ikea bed
base and began to explain that he found it fascinating how it had
arrived here, and what must have led up to its being discarded in the
first place. I guess you and I don't really care too much about
things to this degree, but it showed me several sides of the man. He
hated like me and many others, the sight of rubbish on the beaches.
He wanted to know why and how it had arrived here, and also that he
cared that so much was bing dumped or cast away. We clearly live in
our part of the world, in this throw away society. We dump so much
waste that could and should be recycled or re-used for of other
things but in the end just dump it in the earth or the sea or any
other convenient spot along the side of the highway.
I
had taken a few pictures of Chris sitting looking out over the bay,
he seemed miles away in contemplation and I was inquisitive as to how
like his art this was. He was explaining that he wanted to come here
to the scar and do his performance, a kind of very slow and silent
watching out to sea maybe moving about as and when the art described
a movement to him. But he wasn't sure if he wanted an audience, or
even a video camera to record it, because that may change the act in
the way that knowing you are being observed would. I found it very
fascinating, but have yet to see more examples of this type of thing,
but I happily watched Chris as he collected pieces for his projects.
 |
| CHRIS IN ORANGE OVERALLS ABOVE |
I saw some seals on the scar, sunning themselves in the late evening
rays, and then quite by accident came across a dead seal. It was
laying on its back and didn't seem to have moved in a few minutes, so
I wondered what had happened to it. Just then another seal probably a
male appeared from behind a rock and began snorting and flapping its
feet, and the other seal suddenly came back to life. He flapped his
way quickly to the sea and swam away, leaving the female behind to
fend for herself from this fearsome predator. Typical, the courage of
the male seal....tut tut tut...
The
female didn't seem too bothered, but then I wasn't aggravating the
situation by moving towards her. I took a brief video, I was sure
I'll never get this close to a live seal again. Then I left her to go
and make her way back to the cowardly man she had chosen on his way
to Dogger bank......
I
really need to find out more about this seal species and update the
blog, I am so new to all this finding out so many new things all day.
I
had asked Chris if he would mind being my first interviewee for the
documentary that I hope will give my project some credence later on.
The records of ordinary people telling their stories and sharing
their ideas about the Nation in which we all live at present. How
they feel we came to be great, what is making us great at present and
what could help us to improve and show more equality and fairness.
And the all important question, about personal involvement in this
shift towards a new era of tolerance and community activity. I
thought it would be great to shoot outside the Tearooms his parents
ran with his help. Chris had been a manager in another place running
a restaurant, and he admitted the skills he had learned from working
for his parents had been invaluable to his ingress into that
hospitality trade, though of course his first love was his
performance art. I saw this was why I had noticed the brilliant way
in which he had dealt with the customers in the shop several times I
have visited.
We
made our way off the scar and back up to take the video as the last
sunlight was dropping over the horizon. Great skies, and just enough
light for my little camera to catch the action and Chris's answers. I
hope that you all enjoy the footage as and when I can get such a big
file uploaded onto the blog. (As you read this I am four days further
along the walk and there have been so many other great encounters it
is difficult to keep up with the story. I may have to compress many
days into one smaller item in future, but we'll see. I won't get
much walking and meeting done if I have to type all day now will I ?
Or can anyone with secretarial skills come and join me ?)
We
said our farewells and I said that I would be in for breakfast before
I definitely set of tomorrow. And besides, I was going to be leaving
a flat mark on the cliff edge if I stayed any longer, the tent had
been up three days. (Note to Matt at Crag and Moor, I have worked out
now why I have missing pegs, the clips on the inner tent connect to
the outer and therefore I need less pegs......Simples.....)
So
back home I quickly got myself ready for a nice long nap.
And
that my friends was what happened on day 25 of the Imagine project.
No comments:
Post a Comment