Location:
OS Grid Reference:
Date: 29 January 2007
Time: 3.30pm
Site::A twitching man kept hopping out and....

Description:The river is gushing, ground covered in beechnut cases, squirrels crossing the river on elastic branches. Work out direction of West while moving, stretch, touch, sense the rock, hands, lips, feet, back, belly. It’s difficult, I mean in its inflexibility and coldness. A constant rushing of water so dominant it feels like its restricting me in some way, but the breath of the fast water air tastes good. I’m turning on this rock, a human pestal on stone, round and round, how long till I make a mark? . 2 walkers peering from the opposite side and then my hand is finding a clod of earth the same size, stringy veins of root, it crumbles apart. I cant feel a flow – travelling away from the river rocks I play contact with a beech branch, its so much stronger than me, I can give it 100% of my weight, its holding me, using slight movements of my head to wave the branches, for a second feels like antlers. Slide down a steep rock and return to curl on a rock and I’m laughing knowing it will happen, you curled, I picture you curled, almost sleeping in the bowl of the rock.

Present:Jo Salter

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Location:
OS Grid Reference:
Date: 29 January 2007
Time: 10.30am
Site: Shelburne Falls, Glacial potholes

Description:
Preparing with the Sun Moon meditation- also known as Nadi Shodana and Lom Vilom Meditation- breathing in through one nostril whilst closing the other, then breathing out through the other and in through the same nostril you just breathed out of and continuing. Then moving on to prepare with the chant Om Na Hun from the DzoGchen Buddhist practise, balancing the body, mind and the breath.
Then focussing on balancing the five senses
Facing East, A-M, you are just beyond the corner of the building behind me. I defocus my eyes trying to rely less on sight. The branches right in front of me become hazy, the sound of the water roars next to me, the smell around me is crisp and the taste in my mouth is sweet and nutty from my morning breakfast. I feel the icy air around my face and along my stomach and I feel the sun warming me also. I feel my clothes on my skin wrapped around my body. I wrap the scarf over my head, its softness drawing my attention to the contrast of the rocks. I want to feel them with my body, snuggle into their crevices. I notice green plants, a type of which I have seen similar in England- it is furry and a teeny bit like lettuce in shape, nestled in the cracks into the rock. I remove my gloves to touch its furry leaves. I run my fingers across the rock, it is so smooth. As I get lower and lie along the rock I feel it supporting the weight of my soft body. Its curves and undulations come up to meet mine and I slide and roll along it, feet first towards the deep hole. I come across a lump of ice and I kick it. The sound is hollow and surprisingly bassy. I enjoy it and begin to kick and stamp and crack the ice into smaller and smaller lumps. With the bass frequency are higher sounds, little cracks as the pieces shatter. I pick up larger pieces and throw them across the water to bounce and split on the rocks opposite, teeny dustings of ice shower out from among them, white and sparkling as the sun hits them directly. I pick up one piece and it has taken on the mould of the rock beneath it, interwoven with twigs and long reeds and grasses. I hole it up and the sun gleams through it and turns it orange and yellow and gold. I dangle it from one of then long grasses and am amazed by the strength of the grass as it tenaciously holds this fairly large sculpture of ice and it spins slowly in the breeze. Then suddenly, with no warning, it snaps. The ice shatters n the rocks below. The first information I have of this fact is the sound. I am so shocked, my awareness slightly behind the action, and then the spray of ice as it explodes just at my feet. I move on to explore the large blocks of ice in the frozen water. Can I stand on them? Is it safe underneath? Is it too sloppy? Can I balance? Can I turn? How does it affect me? My boots seem to restrict my possibilities but it doesn’t occur to me to remove them. That thought is too practical for this mental space that I am in. It is only looking (and hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting) back that this option has occurred to me, during this writing. I discover a large pothole and need to lie in the deep crevice right at the back of it. It is layered inside with ice and I want to just jump straight in but do not know if the ice would break and there is water underneath. I use the rocks to help me lower my body gently. Underneath is rock. I snuggle into the crack and feel I am a part of the earth, protected, surrounded, cradled, and powerful in this place as if I could leap out at any moment and pounce through the hole above me. The sound of the water is quieter from in here as I am surrounded by the rock and I put my ear to the rock to see if it makes any sound. I hear nothing from the actual rock and am merely aware of the cold surface and the density of the structure. I explore different ways of being in this place and attempt to leap out only to repeatedly slipping back. I feel the desire to do it successfully and knew if A-M was there she could do it and that would make me feel more inspired. I try again as if she can see me and I slip again. So I crawl out. A creature from the depths, crawling and slithering out from her nest. And then I came to a space where there is more flat rock and I became tall and strong and towered over the water getting as close to the edge as I can as it roars and tips down the waterfall with immense energy, through the sheets of textured ice. I test my balance at the water’s edge. I am aware of A-M and I begin to dance and spin and explore the route of the movement through my body. I lean far back as if I will come to rest upon her and I see my shadow and the sun beats down. I hold a balance on one leg feeling as though I am flying across the landscape with the sea running below me. I am so in love with this work, our questions, the experiences it brings to my life and I turn and test my ability to leap off the ground onto my hands and into handstands. I have a vague thought of time, it feels long, when a snowball flies past me and bounces, shattering on three or four surfaces of rock bouncing between them, and I laugh and try a couple more handstands and I get braver and braver with them until I hold one seeing the whole place upside down and I turn and look at Kalyan and he tells me 41 minutes. We lost track of time! And I laugh and we are both so excited we talk for a while and I realise I need to come and write

Present:

Kalyan Uprichard: treespace@hotmail.com

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We had some discussion about how we would know the 30 second interval and we decided to use the stopwatch on Kalyan’s first cell phone. This meant he had top hold two things so held the phone in one hand and the camera in the other- the intricate details are that the screen on the phone blacks out every 20 seconds so he has to keep pressing a button to get the screen back, and then shade it with his thumb so he could see the screen. And it was so cold we wanted to check he could still wear his gloves and operate both items of equipment. Thankfully he could.
And we also talked about the beginning and end signals- how does he tell me and take a photo at the same time? What sense do we want to activate with the end signal? We really wanted to go for touch rather than the obvious visual or sound but he would then be too close to take the picture and it may be too much of a jolt for me. Maybe throw a rock that would vibrate through the other rocks? That would probably be much too hard to feel though. When we arrived on site and saw the snow we decided on throwing a snowball just past me.