this weekend all of us (the shelter girls) went to the picnic at old durham gardens where we met all the other groups and told each other their mapping ideas. On monday we actually went out to do our map with a video camera and audio equipment. Our shelter is for youths found outside without any where to go, for them to hang out or just sit and chill.
It was a good day thanks to dott 07 for giving us this opportunity to change our local area.
The Shelter Girls

Blogging for the first time here, having just been decanted from a flight in from Sydney, and having very little idea of what time of day, week, month it is I climbed aboard the train to Durham. A promise made to play a part in an exciting project for a virtual park in Durham called mapping the necklace.

Belmont viaduct may have been closed to trains for many years but I can remember walking from Brasside to Belmont over the viaduct about 20 years ago. It seemed to suddenly become inaccesible due to fencing alterations on the surrounding land. Even now there is a sign saying 'Private land' at the Low Newton Junction crossing (Near to the kennels).Do we know who owns the land?

Are you likely to run into herds of camels in Necklace Park?

Are herds of cows beads on the necklace? We have cows where I live, in the South of Oman, but they are so small they are more like large dogs. They live in the rocky desert and mountains, and somehow or other, always manage to find enough to eat.

Durham University are contributing to the Necklace Park map events by creating real-time Google map-trails using electronic tracking devices. This map is a reduced version of the display here that you will be able to monitor during the mapping weekend. The software behind the map is pretty intensive, so be prepared to wait a bit longer than you would for a regular Google map to load.

From the time I was eight years old and experienced my first memory of foaming rapids, in a river in the Andes mountains in Chile, I have always held a special place in my heart for river banks. I have sat by many rivers since that first time, quiet, meandering ones, wild frothy ones; I have copied quotes and poems about rivers into my little black notebooks, I have sat on riverbanks with friends in so many countries, and we have shared memories together of riverbanks in Canada, Bolivia, Germany, Iran, Italy,..... so many riverbanks.

Prototype 8-foot tall abstract origami sculpture under construction in my studio.

 
Have you sent us a postcard? Have you been sent a Necklace Park postcard? Would you like to comment on a card you've seen, or sent? Look here to see the cards we've received, and here for further blogposts on the topic.

The Necklace Park Postcard Project is part of the Twinned Cities strand, where people from other places tell us something about where they live, especially if it has something to do with outdoor activities (fishing! dens! skateboards!), water, bridges, trees, wildlife, livestock (cows! pigeons! critters!), old buildings (churches! ruins!), towns and countryside. That covers just about everywhere, me thinks.

We want your postcards and descriptions of where you live, the kinds of things you enjoy doing outdoors, your favourite building or tree, things you like doing on or in the water, what you do in the countryside or town. We also like fanciful stories, so if you know one about the cow that slept in the church, or the magical talking broccoli that lives under a tree by day and runs a jazz club in the vennels at night, please do tell!

Send us a card, and we'll put it on display. Visitors can leave comments here, so you may find a new postcard pal in addition to having your card seen and appreciated by people in Durham! You can send us a card directly, or via PostCrossing, the world-famous postcard-sharing website.