Continuing Thoughts on Assignment 4

Since yesterday I have made a further edit on the footpath images and include them below.  The unedited set can be found in the previous blog at this link.  I have also had an initial attempt at writing the text that might accompany the images.  I am conscious that it shouldn't be too long or answer too many questions.  I would also like it to be quite emotive.

Walking in Woods

Walking allows me to slow down and fully experience and appreciate the landscape through which I travel; to be a ‘human being’, rather than a ‘human doing’.  It not only provides exercise and improves health; it nourishes the mind, providing spiritual refreshment through contact with nature, allowing for the study of the appearance of things.  When walking in woodland, it is easy to lose and find oneself again, to reflect, meditate and absorb the natural world around; it allows me to reconnect with the world.  Woods, especially beech woods are often likened to cathedrals, which are also places of calm and contemplation.

Footpaths disappearing into the distance are seductive.  They, along with the ‘forest’  occur in literature and fairy tales.  Woods are often places of mystery where the characters become lost such as the Wildwood in The Wind in the Willows, Mirkwood and Fanghorn in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and The Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter.  In woodland paths often wind and twist and seem to have no purpose except to be followed.  The horizon is limited and paths often disappear round a corner or into a hole in the vegetation leaving the walker to speculate on where they lead.  Sometimes they may lead to unexpected things or glades and clearings, places of meeting, but with no one to meet.  Sometimes they just disappear to leave the walker with no alternative but to retrace their steps.

As Bilbo Baggins says in The Hobbit ‘The Road (path) goes ever on.')