“where is the background noise? – My countryside walk

Posted on June 12, 2012

I swear to God, if you saw me when I am by myself in the woods, I’m a lunatic. I sing, I dance.
Chris Evans (Comedian)

Growing up I often got a lot of stick for living out in ‘the sticks’, away from most friends, the city’s bars, restaurants and general hubub, but having been raised in a countryside village for almost all my life, I always had an appreciation for the suburban silence. It’s powerful peacefulness which I suppose could be described as silently noisy.

“where is the background noise? …The cars, people, buses, cats, trains, sirens, loitering youth?”

In January, I moved into a new place which edges slightly more closer to the city, but despite being closer to the metropolis which I spend most of my time in or commuting to and/or from, I mourn my mother’s home in the countryside, and so decided on Saturday to take a 5 mile walk from my flat to hers along the country lanes.

I documented my journey using a Nikon D80 SLR with a wide angel lens. The journey was both calm yet exciting. It was relaxing to take in the surroundings, breath in the fresh air and pass the horses and cows on my journey, however, it was quite exhilarating (borderline scary), to be the only person in sight within a 3 mile radius, walk along a, windy, narrow pavement-less road trying to not get run over by cars travelling it over 50mph.

The most exhilarating feeling came from singing Jessie J whole album at the top of my lungs knowing that there is completely no-one around to hear me, besides the cows in the fields, whose milk likely turned sour as a result of my singing…sorry cows!

I found a few random items on my journey, a ladies hand bag, a discarded 80′s pop CD and a white slipper. In the city of London, litter and rubbish is rife and often goes unnoticed, however, in such a deserted and sparsely littered place, I couldn’t help think about the stories regarding how those items came to be there. Especially the handbag.