According to NASA rain is caused by two processes: condensation and coalescence, depending on the temperature inside the clouds.
CONDENSATION and COALESCENCE
PRACTICE WALK 3: 17 February 2016
HORSINGTON TO CHARLTON HAWTHORNE
A stroll through deep mud and rain water jewels on sheep's wool.
PRACTICE WALK 2: 13 February 2016
From Seer Green to Amersham = 11.5 miles (5 hours)
NIGREDO: The new boots start their journey with mud.
"She Endures". The River Wandle constrained but still flowing over her brown gravel bed to the Thames.
PRACTICE WALK 1: February 2 2016
Ham to All Saints West Dulwich = 12 miles (4 hours)
Vessels 3 + 4
Meindl Gomera GTX, 2016
Nu-buck, Gore-tex, steel, Air-active soles
(27 x 21x 18 cms)
We will become good friends...
"fac fortia et patere..."
and a definite date.
I have booked my flight. I fly to Biarritz from Stansted on Monday 9th May 2016 at 14.05. I'm planning to stay over night there and then take a train the next day to Irun or San Sebastian - a direct journey of about 30 minutes by train.
Strange how an airfare advertised at £27.00 ends up being £66.78 when all the add-ons are included!
Having previously mentioned Hermions (Gifts of Hermes), I have decided to reread TRICKSTER MAKES THIS WORLD by Lewis Hyde. I hope I'm not asking for trouble by doing so, but I intend to trust synchronicity for the journey; that and the hand of a life-affirming God. It's worked so far...
Hermes is the god of crossroads, boundaries and transitions. The lucky-find is the flip-side of unlucky-loss and I suppose that a long journey will involve both at some point. Hyde starts his chapter on THE LUCKY FIND with a quotation from Paul Valery?
'The bottom of the mind is paved with crossroads.'
A Tentative Route
Perhaps I will start my walk-ing from the town of Irun or perhaps San Sebastian along the path that follows the Spanish coast of the Bay of Biscay via Santiago de Compostela and onto Finisterre.
500 miles is a long way...
My main concern is getting fit. I've joined my local gym and signed up for Yoga, Pilates and lots of treadmill training on a gradient. I now know how unfit I am and so that concentrates the mind, let alone the muscles. But is it art yet....?
To the End of the Earth
Intention 2016: to walk to the end of the Earth
Cape Finisterre, Galicia, Spain.
I will be leaving England in early May to walk along the Northern coast of Spain on the Camino del Norte to Cape Finisterre (Cabo Fisterra). I am currently collecting the objects, implements and vessels that will accompany me on the 500 mile journey; my alchemical tools perhaps. Although technically I am no longer a journeywo-man, being a maestra, I suggest that art cannot be mastered. Once again I will be setting out on an phenonomological exploration of 'my place in the world'.
Hermaion 1.
Scallop Shell (Pecten albicans)
The ancient Greeks considered a 'lucky find' to be a gift of the god Hermes - the trickster god of crossroads, transitions and boundaries.. Hermions come in many guises, this one was found by a friend while we walked on Saunton Sands in Devon in October 2015.
The Latin word pecten means comb. I have a feeling that I will be again travelling with mermaids.