‘Spurn Head encapsulates so many memories, from the prehistoric - encapsulated in rocks, fossils & shapes; through to relatively modern - expressed through the various human endeavours to defend the realm and, more recently, the landscape. Those who study the physical imprints of these memories can chart some of the creatures involved and their motivations. But the overarching memory of this landscape is of an ever-changing and uncontrollable mash-up.’

‘I remember sitting on a grassy bank at Waudby Green and that being used for sledging in snowy weather. This is now a ploughed field with the focus on the adjacent wood which is now known as Nutwood. This seems to have expanded in size and is a popular destination for walkers. There used to be many bluebells in this wood which are now very sparse, with wild garlic being more prolific.’

‘Foraging along a green lane for hazelnuts. There seemed to be hundreds.’

‘There is a phenomena of light in this area because it is so flat. The rising sun can become trapped between the sea and low clouds causing a beam of light to dance across the landscape.’

‘Reeds are tall and pale yellow.
The boats which go past look as though they float above them.
A church with a rectangular spire sits above the reeds in the distance.
The sky is pale blue.
Water dances.’

Virtual Ecologies Tracing Layers workshop at Bempton Cliffs, with my son, and a wet weather forecast. But it was mild, calm and sunny. There to find out why I was there. What might materialise. The chalk cliffs - already a connection. Standing on a cliff, once the bottom of the sea. A cliff created from things living above, dying, descending, compressed, reformed, and lifted upwards. And I’m there, standing on the top. My bones, made from calcium, just like the cliffs, just like the calcium tablet I’d taken that morning. Just like the eggs sitting on the table in the workspace. The cyclical, the rebirth - birds arriving from distant lands to lay eggs, to recreate. Egg shells, hardened by calcium sourced from the sea, just like the cliffs. And I'm there, on the cliffs, with my offspring.

‘I remember the rapeseed fields and corn fields by my grandad's house - I remember walking with him through no right of way land - we would go through and he would teach me how to beat back the rapeseeed to make a path.’

‘I live in the countryside and one of my favourite things to do is look at the nature around me. On a night, I love to see animals such as deers and hedgehogs, sometimes even foxes - but my favourite are the moon-gazing hares. They sit and stare at the moon in groups.’

‘When I was very little, I lived near Oxford, and my parents would drive me to a smooth grassy dry valley with a stone bridge, which my mum told me was called "Sheep Bridge Bottom". As I ran up and down the grassy slopes, my mum would explain how it was special because it had a roman road running through it. The stony track making it's way along the valley just above the flood plain didn't look very special to me. She told me how thousands of years before, it was a road, and roman soldiers had marched along it. It seemed a very long time ago, but then, so did last week.’

‘Driving over the Humber Bridge from Barton, in glorious sunshine that creates a metallic shimmer, while mist lingers over Hull to the east.’

‘I remember going to East Park a lot as a child. We would walk around the perimeter of the animal enclosure, listening to the sounds. We spent many an afternoon there as a family, usually ending with an ice cream.’

‘As a child, our immediate family used to go to my brother-in-law's small-holding in the country. Us children ran riot in the fields and lanes. There were masses of wildflowers. One weekend we were told about the ditches being scraped out and dredged. There were violets growing there so we dug some up and took them home. Their descendents still live in my current garden.’