Up and out of bed at dawn for one of THE most beautiful scenes I’ve ever encountered. I don’t do much of this kind of early shift and it took a bit of waking up before realising that I’d stumbled into the spectacular. In spite of all the wonder, however, I currently am finding it hard to know what day it is. And now I’m barely holding it together to make any sort of point. I don’t do sleep deprivation that well…
So many wonders and hand-in-hand pain of life are perceived through the fog and grizzle of over-tiredness – parenthood, the waiting game and physical demands of fishermen (are there any women – and should I say “fishers”?), the extended days of anyone working in agriculture. A lot of the time the wonder isn’t enough to compensate the sheer grind of day-to-day living – taking time out in some way can be important, even if it’s just a little meander out of the ordinary.
This residency feels like time out and it feels like proper hard work. Perhaps wonder happens somewhere in between? Walking in this afternoon’s weather about-face of penetrating, mizzly rain, I’m feeling really cold, my back is twingeing due to carrying a heavy tripod to the estuary in the morning… I look down and find a little piece of human ephemera washed up as flotsam. A snatch of willow pattern, perhaps, with what seems like the fronds of seaweed. It’s somehow a perfect motif for A Year in Beadnell and it brings a smile.
Our daily routine
- Wake 4am
- Sunrise – photo + sound (15 minute to harbour / 1 hour round trip to estuary)
- Second sleep of four hours
- After breakfast
Process yesterday’s SUNSET photos + audio
Upload audio to Soundcloud
Post yesterday’s SUNSET
Process this morning’s SUNRISE photos + audio upload
Prepare today’s 3 posts, with daily data and Carson quote
Publish SUNRISE
Tweet something of interest
Process scrapbook images - Lunch
Walk to estuary / rockpooling / explorative meander
Discussion about nature / art / life / everything
Tea-time
Write and post today’s log
Prepare scrapbook images if time
Make something to eat - Sunset (around 10pm) – photo + sound (15 minute to harbour / 1 hour round trip to estuary)
- First sleep of four hours