Weaving the river

 

A meeting I was supposed to be attending today has been cancelled and I am using the time to finish a piece of weaving I started last week. It's only on a small scale but it reflects the river that runs through the town where we live.

Like many people I adore the sea. It was instilled in my by grandparents who lived on a beautiful stretch of Yorkshire coastline. It's one of the few places I have connection to. A deep grounded connection. I don't have it to the places I grew up in. The place where my grandparents lived was a constant in my childhood and still calls me back.

We now live in land and often I yearn to see the sea. Like many people do. We don't live close to the sea and the closest coast line is uninspiring and very developed. A proper trip to the sea is an hour and half away. Doable but only with planning and preparation.

We do live with a river. We don't live by a river, we don't live near a river, we live with a river. It's a living thing that ebbs and flows with the seasons. Notably flooding the town and regularly interrupting our lives with footpaths and roads closed. We live in a town that accepts the river as a character within the town and we watch and try to predict it's ways.

As a family we have walked different stretches around the town. It has crept into me in the way it creeps higher into the town as the waters rise. I now watch the river, feel the river, crave the open space it provides, the bank on the other side. I plan to walk it's whole length one day. From source to sea.

The threads picked up from an exhibition by Sarah Beadsmore flowed through my fingers and grew slowly like a river rising.

It's almost finished, it's not that I never finish anything, I just find it hard to show you finished things. I guess that's another post altogether!