A PhD about walking and footpaths in Cornwall in a climate emergency
Walking is simple. We are physically set up to perform what in reality has taken millions of years to perfect and what we now take for granted. Mobility, balance, gait, speed, direction awareness, multi sensory perception, fight or flight and health and leisure, some of the many areas to be explored when talking about walking. Walking is easy, so why do we make it complicated? Why do many of us in the developed world neglect our awareness about weight, diet…
Whilst walking around the Penryn Tremough campus of the University of Exeter where I have my office, I have become aware of long patches of what is presently mud and flattened grass. They veer around objects, connect low walls, merge and unmerge and basically connect buildings, major paths and areas of heavier traffic. These are known as Desire paths or Desire lines where people ignore what has been laid down as a route, normally a concrete or brick path and…
Having spent the best part of the day in my office pouring over the miriad of concepts that help explore a sense of place which in my case involves researching traversing Cornwall over the past 200 years, I ventured out on this cold crisp calm evening to stretch my aching legs (aching to get out I’ll have you know). My 1000 word proposal for my PhD on walking could not improve any further tonight. The experience is the walk, and…
I am embarking on a PhD on the use of footpaths in the 21st Century in a low carbon economy with the Institute of Cornish Studies within the broader college of Humanities at the Exeter University, Tremough campus. Full title is "The role of footpaths in the 21stC within both a climate and ecological crisis and an emerging low carbon economy" If you would like to see the abstract of this email me There will be lot more to add…
It’s hard, this job, working out where to walk for future clients. Believe that? No, I wouldn’t. A solo walk can be an introspective, selfish existence so one has to remember to have the critical eye, to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, so to speak which is, may I add, not to be recommended on a proper walk. I might for example not care so much about the steep terrain and mile after mile of mud and puddles but…
Bacon and eggs and God almighty’s thumb and finger are but two of the localized names for birds foot trefoil. Care of Plantlives, Sue Eland’s wonderful website, birdsfoot trefoil’s other names include granny’s toenails, kitty two shoes, dutchman’s clogs, bunny rabbit’s ears, boxing gloves and many more. What’s in a name? Linnaeus in the 18th Century simultaneously made the identification of plants both definitive and universal whilst making it that little less localized, creative and dare I say, fun. What…
CLIF walking (climate, future and landscape on the Lizard Peninsula Cornwall). What often fascinates me is how humanity and the landscape have interacted in the past as we often take for granted the vistas of where we walk today. How much is naturally formed landscape, how much is manipulated, for want of a word. Indeed how much are people aware of the narrative of whether there is any landscape that is entirely natural or what is conserved/preserved. Perhaps with three…