WalkListenCreate Prize!

Delighted to have won the first prize in the Walking Writing prose competition. Well, its official now. I am the Writer in residence for WalkListenCreate 2021/2. I am delighted to share this with Lydia Kennaway, who won the prose section.

During this time I intend to develop my ‘Thinking aloud’ form of writing while walking. Those will be produced in regular monthly texts over the 12 month period.

I will also explore the possibility to have monthly in-tandem walks with people from very different places across the world. How to record and document them will be part of this process.

I just love walking! Walking and the outdoors have given me life-long physical as well as mental health through ever renewed inspiration and friendships.

Here is my winning text:

Walk, Look, Listen

Slow Marathon: Cabrach - Huntly

Phone box, red, redundant, bind boots, off, off we go, tarmac, fresh, air, upwards, onwards, cemetery, farm, redundant, pee, up, up, landrover, rowan tree, keeps witches away, kestrel, up, Old Wife of Aldivalloch, down, down, ford, along, along, trot the pace, bridge, mink trap, wood, dense, sitka, map, break, wine gums and water, sitka, spruce, dark here, pee, gate, farm, redundant ,sheep shit, landowner, absentee, Scottish Land laws, awful, must protest, when?, where?, road, Grouse Inn, tea, cakes, thanks Mhairi, thanks, thanks, along, the river, the Deveron, the path, hot, anorak off, Scottish flag, flutter, independence?, maybe?, one day, raspberries, yum, muddy, farm, sheep, shearing, gate, undulating, the river, bull, scary?, onwards, burn, cross, flowers, yellow, pretty, name?, deer, gorse, thick, redundant house, what happened?, to the owner, dead, left?, green, so green, only Scottish green, down, up, up, talk-to-myself, clouds, cumulus, another landscape, step, by step, farm, bins, sheep, mess, tarmac, hate tarmac, sing, song, Die Gedanken sind frei, are they?, free, the thoughts, not sure, emerging blister, along, along, along, hi, along, car, bloody cars, sandwich, water, apple, wine gum, up again, up, up, up, down, down, bridge, willow herbs, from France, they say, brought after WW1, from the trenches, in the kilts, up again, berries, yum, up, woods, pee, woods, sitka, compass, map, right, left, right, curry tonight?, no view, just sitka, there it is, the Clashmach, house hill, the trig point, the cairn, the view, the Huntly, the home, down, down, path, down, road, ASDA, beer.

Claudia Zeiske 18 July 2021