‘Often it is the commonplace things, the locally abundant, the places and the wildlife on our very doorstep that we take for granted, that slip through our fingers.’ So writes the Common Ground website, a treasure trove for anyone interested in slowing down, paying attention, being curious, and searching for nearby nature and wildness. A spin-off from Common Ground, England in Particular, has the nice idea of putting together an ‘ABC’ for where you live in order to celebrate the distinctive details of your local area. (I love also their Rules for Local Distinctiveness.)
Following on from my Seven Summits ‘expedition’ and my North Pole to South Pole ‘trek’, this month I decided to try to create an alphabet of where I live – part of my mission to encourage more people to explore their backyard.
When you have lived or worked in a place for a long time you may cease to notice it unless something happens to jolt you. It might be the sun glinting on a stone wall revealing the fossils in it, discovering that the street name cheap indicates a market place which explains the wide pavements, the felling of an ancient and much loved tree which makes you look more closely at the remaining mature trees in the place.
Understanding what makes our place different from the next, what accumulations of story upon history upon natural history give it its uniqueness may help us to maintain a relationship which ensures a future for local distinctiveness. Attachment to place is a prerequisite to endeavour on its behalf.
Creating an ABC liberates us from classifying things as rare or beautiful to demonstrate what we care about in the everyday. It is useful in that it levels everything, it reshuffles things and juxtaposes them in ways that surprise and make you think. This can change what we see, disperse our complacency, make things we take for granted seem new to us and encourage us to action.
If you decide to try to do this at home, please share your photos with the hashtags #ASingleMap and #LocalABC so that I can see them and share them.
Good luck!
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