Walkspace Newsletter the First!
Hello Walkspacers!
Well, that turned out to be the worst possible time to start a long-term project based around people walking next to each other. After the pleasingly popular moon walks we had a veritable programme of walks planned and even a group trip to Coventry. Can you even imagine travelling to Coventry these days? It might as well be Mars. (Unless you live in Coventry, of course.)
That all had to be shelved and like the rest of you we had personal stuff to deal with, but Walkspace is something we're committed to. Losing that momentum made us sad and we want to get it back. So here we are.
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Mapping Stirchley
Everyone currently involved in Walkspace lives in the Birmingham suburb of Stirchley and the lockdown has made us keenly aware of our immediate surroundings. Walking the same routes again and again means we're noticing things for the first time and figuring out new routes to perambulate along.
So we've started mapping things-of-note, building up a database of curious things-of-note. Right now it's just got stuff from the four of us, and that's not good enough. If you're also from Stirchley and have a tendency to notice the odd, please send us your sightings.
Information on how to contribute (it's really easy!) along with the map-in-progress Is on this page. Once we have enough things-of-note we plan to devise walks, of course.
Robson joins Walkspace
We've added Robson to the Walkspace core team. Robson was the guy on the full moon walk who told the stories at reservoir and was always one of the people at the top of the list. He's been writing a series of posts on the Walkspace site mixing up walking advice and poetry.
- Robson on… Solitary Strolling
- Robson on… Sociable Strolling
- Robson on… Restorative Strolling
- Robson on… Avian Activity
- Robson on… Arboreal Beauty
We have a whole list of other people we'd like to formally bring into the fold but that process has been understandably curtailed. Now we can legally meet up in small groups the recruitment will recommence!
Moon Walks
Remember those New and Full Moon walks we ran way back in Feb/March? It seems so long ago, but thankfully Fiona wrote up her notes and Pete took photos.
Dark Moon Waking:
write-up | photos
Full Moon Walking:
write-up | photos
Walkspace Features
While figuring out what Walkspace might look like in a locked-down world we wrote a few things on the Walkspace blog. Here's a roundup in case you missed them:
Andy's Self-Isolation Stroll (26 Mar) On the day before lockdown, Andy took his video camera out for what might have been his last walk ever.
Walking in Lockdown (3 Apr)
Andy rounds up some walking-themed media for lockdown consumption.
A Walk Around the Block (5 Apr)
Andy joined Manchester's Loiterers Resistance Movement's distributed group walk with people across the country following a score by Blake Morris at 2pm on Sunday.
Resources for Vicarious Walking (28 Apr)
Podcasts, films and articles about walking, selected by, you guessed it, Andy.
Local roads in Birmingham are found to be in pain with irregular heartbeat (6 May)
Fiona got quite obsessed with being able to walk in the road and produced this short photo-poem.
Walking Weird Britain (28 May)
We came across the Weird Walk zine this month and can highly recommend it. Pete wrote a very long review and we're thinking the weird might be a fruitful furrow for us to plough. Look for more on this theme!
If you'd like to write something for the Walkspace blog, please do get in touch. If you're not confident we can help with editing etc and it's a really good way to get involved. Drop us a note with your ideas.
Thanks for your time and interest! The next newsletter will hopefully be in a month, rounding up anything we've been up to and stuff we've seen. If you have any tips that you think we'd be interested in, do send them our way.
Stay well and keep walking,
Fiona, Andy, Pete and Robson
http://walkspace.uk