As I come to the end of my MA in Fine Art I wanted to tell you what it has meant to me also how much I have enjoyed Park Life.

This is not the end of Park Life however, there will be an online exhibition at wetdovetail.com (link to come) and then hopefully a physical exhibition in Darlington in 2023, so watch this space for further information. I will be adding more artwork as it develops and maybe more stories but until then I will just be enjoying the park like everyone else.

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So it is day 40 and we have come to a finish. We have finished on a run of hot days and today is another, although maybe slightly cooler. It is 1pm and the park seems quite busy. I am right in the corner and struggle again to see the whole park from here, in fact it feels like it’s own little glade here. There are the most trees of any section and can look like a little wooded area. However unlike yesterday, quite a few people and dog walkers come through my section. In fact 3 dogs and 2 dog walkers whilst I was talking. It was hard to see how many dogs were in the park in total but definitely more than yesterday and I think it shows that the temperature has come down a bit. There are two exits or entrances in this section, one is a bit hidden and until now I hadn’t realised it was there. It’s funny because maybe this corner was seen as the main entrance at some point as there is a large notice board which needs a bit of maintenance, shall we say, and any notices that may have been there have long disintegrated. The other corner (section 35) is definitely the main entrance now in my opinion.

There is an electrical box, well I assume it is. It is a plain greyish box with graffiti and spider webs covering it so I don’t know if it has any use anymore. This corner seems to have that slightly forgotten feeling. There is a dog poo bin but no other bin and no seating area but lots of undergrowth and flowers and the only litter really was by the wall on the side where the college students might gather and sit.

I have loved being part of this park for 40 days, how people recognise me and I see the regulars. We have talked to families with their children playing with Chloe and I have talked to people just relaxing and enjoying the park on their way home from work or shopping, people having illicit picnics, students enjoying their friends and chilling, couples meeting in a pandemic and sitting at each end of the benches, old people having a break from the home they live in and reminiscing about younger days in the park. I have met nearby residents who play a part in the park by planting things and collecting rubbish. I have learnt about The Friends of the Park. Tennis players, footballers, badminton players, hide and seekers and bike and scooter riders, everyone. The park, as I said, continues to surprise me. It isn’t one thing and there isn’t one type of person that comes here. It is a little slice of an area of Darlington. There are problems with drugs and drink that have been reported in the past but I didn’t see anything over the time I was there, but I also think that would be the same in any park and possibly worse in some, I don’t know. I do know that I see people not only enjoying the park but really caring about it. There were huge old trees and small saplings and all were beautiful and cared for. As one woman said to me, ‘in some parks the saplings would have been vandalised but not here,’ and that is true. There was litter but also people who came and picked it up and tidied. In autumn there are groups of leaf collectors and numerous children collecting conkers. I never felt concerned about my daughter as she scootered around and chatted to dog owners, she was always visible. I think I can only be positive about my time and of course we will continue to go and I might even continue to tell you a bit sometimes. It is an emerging space as the pandemic continues. People are seeing it as a place they can meet friends and feel safe and I am definitely see more and more interaction within the park. Of course students will be back soon and I would like to explore the park as we move through the seasons. So watch this space.

Today I saw 10 trees, 2 entrances, 1 dog poo bin, 1 large notice board, 1 electrical box thingy, 1 slight slopey hill, grass, path, daisies, clover seems to have gone a bit, bush, nettles, wall, some new codes on the trees, 4 feathers, lots of litter and cigarette ends round the wall, 1 scooter rider, spiders webs.

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So we have reached the penultimate day. I am actually loading this blog a little late as I went to an exhibition launch at Middlesbrough Institution of Modern Art where there is some of my work yesterday evening. Very exciting. Anyway with that and the heat I just fell asleep halfway through uploading my blog! The park yesterday was hot, consequently I saw very few dog walkers, just two in fact. I guess it is a quite shaded park so if they lived nearby then it would be ok to walk your dog there but if you had even a short distance in this heat you would probably wait until the morning or evening to walk your dog. Having said that there was a dog on the sunny tennis court.

I couldn’t see much whilst in my section as my view was quite obscured by the trees and tennis court cage, but whilst walking about after there seemed to be an electrical theme. There were four motability scooters and an electric bike, very unusual. The park had a steady amount of people walking through and a few people sitting. There were a father and son playing football on the tennis court and then a mother and son came along to play tennis. They knew the father and son so chatted a bit which made me ask was this an arranged meeting whilst pretending it wasn’t?! I have to wonder. So generally quite busy although no one sitting sunbathing which I suppose I kind of expected. Again my beautiful if not slightly crazy daughter is riding her scooter around. No luck with the search for secret codes today.

This section didn’t have too much litter, most on the court, but lots of undergrowth: 4 trees, tennis court tarmac, paving path, 1 branch in the cage, undergrowth, door, padlock, spiders webs, sign, 1 mushroom, 28 pieces of litter, 9 feathers, tennis net post.

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Section 38 is maybe not the most interesting. It is a hot day so we have come late but seemingly so have others. Including a family playing tennis, who I have seen on here before and some lads playing football. The family playing tennis are so lovely. I explained what I was doing and told them to ignore me whilst I talked to myself and took photos, but they were really happy to stop playing for me. I obviously didn’t want that as I want to capture the park as it is but I felt that it was really kind to offer. I saw a few dog walkers, but not in my section, however it is a good temperature to be walking dogs. Still warm but the sun isn’t blazing down. Altogether I saw 4 dogs and 4 dog walkers. Chloe was the only child playing apart from the family on the tennis court.

I think there is something about hot weather that means nothing seems to happen, or maybe it’s easy to miss something! There was another code woven into the tennis court cage. I am seeing more and more of these codes. This one was almost wicken so you have to wonder about midsummer?!

Today I saw: 3 trees, 1 tennis court, cage, tarmac, paving path, grass, undergrowth, nettles, tennis net, empty pole, markings, daisies, mud, 1 manhole cover, 1 drain cover, tree roots, wall, 64 pieces of litter (mainly cigarette ends), 4 feathers.

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section 37 and I feel very rushed today. I am alone as Chloe is at a leavers morning at school and I will join her later with a picnic lunch. This is another COVID thing, she wouldn’t normally be doing this. It shows how our world is still dominated by Covid. After her leavers thing we will be driving to a hotel for a friend’s wedding so I feel rushed. Tomorrow is also so called freedom day, despite case numbers rising exponentially we apparently won’t have to do anything that we have got used to over the last 18 months. I wonder how this will affect the park, if it does at all. Today there is a family on the tennis court, but they leave so I can go on and take a few pictures, just in time before another family comes on.

The park is steady, not really busy, with a few dog walkers, including one in my section. The day is going to be hot, you can tell even though it is quite pleasant now and pretty much most of this section is in shade as there are 5 trees. I am still near the entrance so quite a few people walk by me and think I’m strange, I’m sure, but I don’t really care. I see friends of mine and we stop and chat and I see Dave the bulb man. The roads and the world carries on round the park but this is a little section of peace, where the pace just slows momentarily.

Today I saw: 5 trees, 1 dog and walker, grass, path, wall, lots of undergrowth and nettles, tennis court tarmac, cage, 1 caught branch, 1 tree stump, 1 hole, 26 pieces of litter, 5 feathers, tennis net, tennis bag, 2 water bottles, 8 tennis players (2 households).

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Section 36 (not 35 as I say in my video!!) we are on the final row and I am right at the main entrance. It has been so hot today that we didn’t venture out until the evening. It’s a lovely evening, still hot, and the park is quiet. A few dog walkers, 6 dogs 4 dog walkers, Chloe was particularly taken with one who she managed to persuade the owner to let her walk round the park holding it on his lead. This section has a lot in it, 6 trees, I think is the most we have had in a section. There was also two lampposts, including one that had a lot of signs on. One of the signs was for a lost dog. It was dated from February and you have to wonder if it was ever found. It is very sad. There is also a sign that says no cycling but many people seem to ignore that and you have to wonder if it applies to the children that are here learning to ride their bikes in the park. To get to the trees near the bottom boundary, I had to climb through some undergrowth and as I stepped there were flying, probably biting things, flying out so I am probably going to be covered with bites tomorrow and as we were in the shade often of these trees, there were several clouds of gnats or something. It was quiet in the park but as we were near a roundabout the traffic noise was steady.

There were a series of codes carved into some trees. I definitely feel they were giving information to a foreign agent, maybe the one who left the vial yesterday

I have definitely noticed whilst photographing rubbish that some rubbish you see in one section can often relate to a piece of rubbish you find in another area too. Very odd.

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section 35 and we are almost there. I am at the boundary again and not on the tennis court today. It is about 11am and it is really warm today. I am in quite a secluded section of the park and no one comes into this section whilst I am here. I can see people walking through and I can see some dog walkers but I still feel quite separate. I like it if I’m honest. It is a beautiful day and it feels so calm. Again my lovely sister and my knitting group have Chloe so I am on my own. I love exploring the park and this is a beautiful, shaded section close to the QE college but not overrun with litter. There is a beautiful beech tree and shelter from the horse chestnut. I love the solitude in the park and I think others do too.

Today the section was quiet and uneventful. It felt like my own little park within a park as it is a quite separate corner whilst the college is closed. When open I expect I would be reporting something very different here.

today I saw: 1 tree, 14 pieces of litter, 4 feathers, 5 conker pods, 1 vial, lots of cigarette ends, wall, path, grass, daisies, mushrooms, tree roots, holly offshoot.

I found a small bottle on the ground and have to question what it was. Was it like the Salisbury poisonings and in this bottle was a Russian nerve agent. In Salisbury, Dawn Sturgess very sadly died from a found bottle of what turned out to be a nerve agent. What if that was here in Darlington? Should I pick it up, obviously not! Should I report it? TBH the chances are it’s a discarded bottle and the idea of calling the whole North East terrorist squad to the park for that is not a realistic plan either. It is a bottle, but you do wonder why it is there?!

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Section 34 and we are getting nearer to the end. I enjoyed today as, thanks to my lovely sister, I was alone. Don’t get me wrong I love Chloe more than anything and her spirit and positivity are infectious and inspiring but when she is with me in the park, my focus is always on her and not on my project and I realise how much I have enjoyed the time by myself just being an observer in the park rather than a participant which is what I need to be when Chloe is there. So today I could just be the odd lady in the park with her camera. I honestly don’t know if anything I have done here is of interest to anyone but I have learned so much and I believe I have documented a park at an unusual time just after the pandemic. Looking at people’s behaviour and a community joined by a park and I can definitely feel a book is there somewhere too.

The park was sunny and relaxed today, with people sitting and strolling. No tennis players today but a toddler and her mother trot round the tennis courts. There are 7 dogs and 6 walkers including a regular hairy dog who is walked by the vets on the corner so maybe he is in recovery. I felt even more alone today as because I was on the courts, which are encased by cage and bushes, I wasn’t really part of anything happening in the park. It was all a little distanced. Nice though.

Today, again because I was in the tennis courts, there was not too much to see and because there is not seating then there is little rubbish. Anyway here it is: no trees, tennis court, tarmac, grass, bushes including nettles, brambles and lots of leaves and flowers and insects, butterfly, fly, cage, 12 pieces of litter, 1 feather, some berries. No dog walkers came into my area.

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Section 33 is mostly in the tennis courts with a small section on the outside. It is about one in the afternoon and quite muggy and hot but not particularly sunny. There were people, a father and son, playing tennis on the half of the courts with a net, luckily I was mainly looking at the court without a net. I must admit when I first saw them I thought shall I come back another time, but this project is about the people in the park so I just worked around them. This maybe more difficult on section 36 so we will see then. We didn’t meet anyone we know today and it was much quieter, with just a few people on benches and a few dog walkers. There weren’t too many people walking through, which considering it is lunch time surprised me. When I first went onto the tennis court I wanted to explain to the father why I was there taking photos so I started to speak to him, but he responded, without giving me a chance to explain, by saying that they didn’t live there and he couldn’t help me. I felt like I was in a foreign country thinking I was talking to a local as he almost shouted it at me like I spoke a different language. When I did explain he was ok, but it made me wonder what the initial panic was for. Possibly they should be isolating and escaped to somewhere they weren’t known as they shouldn’t have been out.

Really there wasn’t too much in my section today as the tennis court dominates and although not the smartest tennis court it generally quite litter free. It is mainly the bushes all round the cage of the courts that have a lot of insect life (even though I couldn’t actually see any today except a couple of ladybirds).

I saw: lots of different bushes, stinging nettles, 2 ladybirds, 2 tennis players, 2 tennis balls, 3 branches stuck in the caging, 9 pieces of litter, 1 feather, no cigarette ends, tennis court, grass, daisies, clover, small yellow flowers.

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section 32 and it is a lovely evening, beautiful blue sky and quite warm and sunny. There are quite a few people in the park today, including people on the tennis court which means I will have to try and creep onto the court to take my photos. For the first time since I have been doing these blogs there is a real level of diversity in the park. All ages, all ethnicities, all backgrounds. People just enjoying the evening sun or watching their children play. It is really nice and Chloe has found the friends we see here every now and then and she’s enjoying playing with them. In fact there are a few children on their scooters having races and terrorising dog walkers. Talking of dog walkers, there were not many about 3 walkers with dogs, including a beautiful basset hound, like Snoopy.

The tennis courts are surrounded by a kind of cage. They aren’t too well maintained with only one court having a net and there is a lot of undergrowth around the bottom of the caging and lots of nettles. There used to be a lot of trees growing into the caging which have been removed but there are a few branches that must have grown into the holes and are still stuck there. Whatever, the kids love the opportunity to ride scooters around it and the guys playing there today certainly seem to be imagining themselves on a clay court in Melbourne or somewhere. They are firing aces at 100 miles an hour and grunting like the best of them. They warn me, when I go on the court, that I may be in danger of their fast, powerful shoots. I was ok fortunately.

Today I saw: 2 trees, tennis cage, tennis court, bushes, nettles, grass, path, 18 pieces of litter, 2 stuck branches, 2 signs, daisies, clover, conkers, 1 feather, 4 tennis players.