CAROLINE FRASER PHOTOGRAPHY
  • welcome
    • news
  • Photographic works
    • Shore Life
    • rain dance
    • fire on water
    • findings
    • Conversation pieces
    • unbearable lightness
    • previous works
  • artist books
  • Workshops
  • Blog
  • shop

blog - an ordinary life

Walking with Ted and Fay

1/6/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Poetry by Ted Hughes and photography by Fay Godwin

I wanted to get away. Somewhere different. To see some new scenery.

Somewhere with hills.

So where better that Lumb Bank, for a writer's retreat with the Arvon Foundation. Five days of peace. To write.

Or not, as the case may be.





Picture
Lumb Bank, Yorkshire
T


Lumb bank is the former home of Ted Hughes, the poet. His wife, Sylvia Plath is buried in the graveyard just up the road. Fay Godwin, the legendary landscape photographer, and Ted Hughes created a book together 'Remains of Elmet'. Ted Hughes wrote poems in response to photographs by Fay Godwin.

I found the book in the library and was taken by the words and images describing the local landscape.

I felt sure I would find inspiration here.

With a view like this what could go wrong?


Picture
The view from Lumb Bank garden



My fellow companions were writers in ernest.

Autofiction, a comic travel novel, a wellness book and the story of a goldfish on adventures in the Gulf of Mexico were all being worked upon seriously and diligently.

I felt a fraud. I was really there for the scenery.
I tried to write.

I really did.

I wrote some 'morning pages' every day before so much as  a cup of tea passed my lips.

I wrote some 'breakfast pages' too. Mainly about how I was not really enjoying breakfast 'in my room'. Something to do with covid...... and featuring a banana and a soggy croissant wrapped in plastic.

After recording my daily temperature......taken by me, myself and I, I set to work.



Picture
covid daily temperature chart



I sat at my tiny writing table with its puritanical hard wood chair, and tried to write.



Picture
a writing table



If in doubt. Go for a walk. That is my motto.

Something always comes from walking, even if it is just a calmer frame of mind.

So I loaded up my OS map onto my phone, and away I went.

Up hill and down dale. Along the Rochdale canal and up onto the moor.



Picture
up on the moor, following the Pennine Way


I talked to cows and sheep.

Stepped in bog.

Walked by lush, peaty rivers.


Picture
moorland sheep
Picture

Picture
ancient stone path
I strolled by the Rochdale canal.


Picture
towpath, Rochdale canal, with dog.
Picture
back yards beside the rochdale canal
Picture
Rochdale Canal



And then, when I was completely exhausted, I tried to write.

I learned a lot about writer's block. I read self help books for writers.
I felt frustrated.
I went for more walks.

I got my typewriter out.


Picture
Olympia Splendid typewriter



Eventually I gave up trying and instead made a book about writer's block. The cutting, typing and sewing were very therapeutic.




Picture
artist book - writer's block


Having completed that, I allowed myself to give up trying to write, and to spend my remaining day beside the river, in the damp beech forest, and watching cherry blossom drift by on the Rochdale Canal.




There is a moral to this tale......

Creativity cannot be forced...... it comes when it is ready, and while I can work at it daily, first and foremost I need to feed my soul .

I had a wonderful time. And if nothing more comes of it, then at least I am refreshed and ready for my next adventure.


Picture
wild garlic and beeches
'

In wild places

I went on a ‘writer’s retreat’.
To Hebden Bridge; the home of Ted Hughes.

But really, all that I wanted to do was to see some hills and green fields,
running water and moors.

To step out in a different landscape,
climb on boggy paths and feel the wind on my face.

I needed to walk beside rivers and streams;
to leave my footprints once more upon the Pennine Way.

I didn’t write.
No words came.

Instead I walked
and walked,
and walked some more.

There, in those wild places,
I was reunited
with my true self.


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Caroline Fraser - an ordinary life

    on life, suburban living, art, creativity, photography, book art and travel.

      Sign up here if you would like to be notified of future posts, news, tips and special offers.

    Join my mailing list

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020

    Categories

    All
    Art And Creativity
    Book Art
    Lockdown Life
    The Art World
    Travel

    RSS Feed

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
Welcome to Caroline Fraser Photography

Colourful abstracted and traditional photographic landscapes, book art and workshops. Capturing the moods and beauty of nature whether in wild open places or in small sanctuaries in suburbia.

About Caroline Fraser
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • welcome
    • news
  • Photographic works
    • Shore Life
    • rain dance
    • fire on water
    • findings
    • Conversation pieces
    • unbearable lightness
    • previous works
  • artist books
  • Workshops
  • Blog
  • shop