I had such a brilliant afternoon last Thursday; out on a walk with a family from the St. Dennis area. Organised as part of the project, we spent an hour wandering through the landscape around the village. If you've only ever seen images of the china clay country around St. Austell you'd be forgiven for thinking the landscape we walked through was stark, full of grey clay tips and little vegetation. Far from it! We had amazing views from above the village, across valleys and fields, out towards the sea; wandered through small country lanes with hedgerows full of grasses and wildflowers and dappled in sunlight and strolled across lush green fields.
The family were initially a little unsure as to what to expect; what would the walk entail? where would we go? who was this strange chatty woman that was leading the group?! But once I had introduced the children to “Spot Bob”, a game which kept
them entertained looking for the tiny pink petals of the Herb Robert flower in
the hedgerows and banks, then everyone relaxed into the walk. Occasionally you'd hear "There's Bob!" and "Here's another Bob!". There were other things to discover on the walk too; stony, dry stream beds, animal water troughs and ripe blackberries also stimulated interest and conversation.
An hour and a half later a group of smiling happy adults and children were enjoying a well earned drink and a piece of cake.
Dany Brookes,
Dementia Support Worker for Alzheimer’s Society in Devon, Cornwall and
Isles of Scilly was one of the walkers; she described the day:
“It was a lovely
opportunity to get out and explore the local community with others.
Chatting about what we saw en route prompted my own childhood memories of
similar walks with my grandmother and resurfaced previously dormant snippets of
knowledge to share with the rest of the group. We managed the walk easily
considering our varied walking abilities and ages and hope other people will
join future walks. Dementia can impact on a person’s ability to recall
memories and knowledge however our natural environment stimulates our senses
and can provide an array of memory and conversational prompts. ”
We're looking forward to organising our next walk in the area now; perhaps in the autumn when the scenery will change again. If you have dementia, or are affected by it and live in the china clay area around St. Austell (or in St. Austell itself) then please do come along and join us for an hour's stroll.
Wendy
Creative Spaces Project Manager
