A couple of years ago, I was introduced to Wellness Walks; a social enterprise that was born out of COVID, now a successful charity, run by the inspirational Kelvyn James and home to now many walk leaders all over the United Kingdom.

I originally completed my Lowland Leader training, along with my outdoor first aid training with Kelvyn and a group of other lovely folk in Rivington, but as a result of illness and cancellations, I am only just (thankfully) undertaking my Lowland Leader assessment in Bassenthwaite this coming Easter weekend.

As I’m sure it’s very clear now, the mountains and outdoors in general, have been an incredibly important part of my life for many years. I am now so glad that my art practice has led to me being able to combine fieldwork out on the hills, with my love of photography; capturing these raw and beautiful parts of our landscape, with a view to telling a story of my journey, whilst also hoping to raise awareness of our ongoing fight with class divisions.

I will be staying in Keswick over the weekend, and undertaking my assessment in Bassenthwaite over two days. I’m hoping I can fit in a Wainwright whilst I’m there but it may be a little ambitious. It just feels very fitting that I would be doing my assessment at a time where the outdoors is very important to my art practice.