Tag: walking

“I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it.”

February 20, 2018

This week we’ve handed over the blog to Ordnance Survey Outdoor Champion Barbara Walshe, who lives in Boxted and said in the Gazette that her favourite walk is from Flatford to Dedham.

Barbara plans to walk the Essex Way as well as all sorts of other long distance paths. Read more below or on Barbara’s website www.barbsoutdoors.co.uk

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Barbara Walshe writes…

“I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it.” Those words, spoken by Celia in ‘As You like It,’ remind me of the first time I stepped off the train at Manningtree in June 2015. The fields were bathed in the warm reds and oranges of the sunset. Though London was only an hour away, we felt we had escaped to some kind of Shakesepearean pastoral idyll. Just under six months later we had sold our flat in London and moved to Boxted near Colchester. My husband and I still work in London but we feel so lucky to be able to enjoy the beautiful countryside in this part of the world.

I have my parents to thank for my love of the outdoors. When I moved to London ten years ago to train to be a lawyer I don’t think I knew that the hours I spent in Richmond Park were not a luxury but were actually a necessity. The importance of time spent outside started to dawn on me when I began my training contract at my law firm and worked very long hours with quite a lot of stress. Going for a run or cycle in the park seemed to make me feel so much better after a tough week. More and more research is showing the positive effects on physical and mental health of being active and being outside. Fortunately, mental health is not the taboo subject it once was and I firmly believe that our own mental health is not something that we should ignore until we reach a crisis. We should consciously try to take care of our mental well-being. Making time to enjoy the outdoors is a crucial part of that.

As we get older we tend to lose our sense of adventure and our sense of wonder. It is so easy to slip into a routine and not take time to explore. When we moved to the Stour Valley I made a conscious decision to explore as much as I could and ordered some Ordnance Survey maps. When I received the paper maps, I discovered the wonderful OS Maps app that allowed me to check I was always on the right track. It was through this I became aware of the Ordnance Survey #GetOutside campaign and was delighted when my application to be a #GetOutside Champion for 2018 was accepted. Being a #GetOutside Champion allows me to combine my love of the outdoors and my belief in the mental health benefits of being outside with my enjoyment of the beautiful landscapes of the Stour Valley.

Through my website www.barbsoutdoors.co.uk I hope to inspire more people to #GetOutside by blogging about my adventures (big and small) and my thoughts on the outdoors. The River Stour Festival has so many fantastic events providing so many opportunities to #GetOutside and I am very much looking forward to attending events throughout 2018 and encouraging others to join me.

Welcome to the River Stour Festival

December 14, 2017

Ruth Philo writes…

I am very pleased to welcome you to the new River Stour Festival and thank you for dropping by on our website. We now have leaflets ready for distribution across the whole of the Stour Valley in Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire and will be putting these out in December and January. Further events are being added as the year progresses so please check back on the website from time to time to see the updated programme.

The festival came about through a project The River Runs Through Us that I have been working on with sound artist Stuart Bowditch, which has involved a series of public walks and swims in 2017 as well as research for a short film that we are making about the river, supported by Arts Council England and the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project. It has been a fascinating project to undertake and we have met so many different people involved with the river in a myriad of ways. Stuart has been keeping a blog about the project on the website theriverrunsthroughus.uk where you can read individual stories. The Stour Valley is a rich area in many ways, geologically, historically, artistically and there are layers of connections to be found. There are the obvious ones with major artists John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough but there are many others to be found that not everyone knows about, with artists, writers, swimmers, walkers, historians, musicians, foragers, botanists, wild life people, birders, fishermen and women, archaeologists, sociologists, boating people, landscape and food specialists. In working on the project we visited other rivers including the Waveney and the Thames, both of which have festivals and I thought our river was equally deserving of being celebrated. I found a lot of other local people and organisations thought the same, so together we have formed a steering group to put on a festival that not only includes our own events but those by other organisations in the valley, curated together to make a rich celebration of place in the Stour Valley over the year.

 

 

 

In 2017 we ran public walks and swims on a number of topics, all of which sold out, including a Witchcraft Walk in Manningtree by Professor Alison Rowlands, a Wildlife Walk in Nayland by Darren Tansley of the Essex Wildlife Trust, a Painters Walk out of Constable Country by artist Simon Carter, a Foraging walk in Wrabness by forager and mushroom grower Matthew Rooney, a Wild Writing walk from Wissington to Wormingford with Dr James Canton, an East Country walk by Professor Jules Pretty and a couple of Wild Swims with the Dedham River Swimmers. These were all such rich experiences, where everyone could share their own experiences out in the landscape. The festival will build on these. I hope that you will join us on some of the events in 2018. You might event want to come onboard and help us with the festival organisation, we are currently looking for someone with financial experience who might help with our funding plans, but also other forms of help such as distributing leaflets, helping with events and publicity – if you are interested please get in touch through our contact page.

Ruth is a painter and filmmaker and is both the director of the festival and its originator. See her work at http://www.ruthphilo.co.uk