A walk of a thousand paces, part nature observation, part a mythology of my own creation. Looking at the landscape through a different lens.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Phil Barnett, Louise Mee and Micki Colbeck, whose generous reading improved this piece.

This piece was deeply inspired by the Metrical Dindshenchas, a text compiled between the 11th and 14th centuries that records Ireland’s much older oral traditions.  https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500C.html 

This episode draws inspiration from the Songlines of the Australian First Nations peoples, the oldest continuous narrative geography on Earth. I acknowledge their custodianship of a landscape where every path carries a living voice. https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/Life_Lore/Songlines 

Acknowledgement is also given to the enduring creation narratives of the Haida Nation, who celebrate the figure of Raven, the masterful trickster whose curiosity coaxed humanity into being from a simple clamshell.  https://moa.ubc.ca/2020/01/the-raven-and-the-first-men-from-conception-to-completion/ 

Ethiopia, women washing at a well.  https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07015046

Flowing river. https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07031097 

Wind. https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=NHU05012151 

Raven. https://xeno-canto.org/346231 

Wren alarm call. https://xeno-canto.org/692833 

Song Thrush. https://xeno-canto.org/1082934 

Stone Chat. https://xeno-canto.org/1135845 

Chiffchaff. https://xeno-canto.org/566729 Willow Warbler. https://xeno-canto.org/1133423

Cuckoo. https://xeno-canto.org/653108 

Long-tailed Tit. https://xeno-canto.org/1080201 

Buzzard. https://xeno-canto.org/510736 

Badger. https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=NHU05079106