Wrecked

I had no expectations of having a journal waiting for me at home as I left work. I drove home deciding to go to a nice shady wildlife reserve called Kennall Vale for a walk with Little Dog. It is a steep sided valley which used to be home to an explosives factory and then later a granite quarry. The mills for the explosives works were water powered by the river and a series of channels (leats) that run between the mills. All is ruined now but more beautiful for it. Full of growing things and water. Go see my other blog for some pictures.

So I got home and there it was - the book I have been waiting for. But I wanted to go out.... I decided to break the back straight away. This is a bit symbolic to me. I always break the backs of my books but never of library books or books belonging to others. Breaking the book is my way of claiming this journal and making it mine...

So I had a quick flick through and found it... 'tie a string to the journal. go for a walk, drag it.' ooohhh... but people might see me - um, so? but it will be muddy and dirty and nasty - er, isn't that the point? I couldn't think of a good reason NOT to do it... Not given the whole point of it.

So off we went in the car. Little Dog had to stay on the lead there so I had two leads... There is a long path into the reserve proper and since last time they have covered it in granite chippings. This started to scuff it up nicely. I was starting to feel braver and stopped thinking about the things to come.

My two leads got tangled up a couple of times and Little Dog ended up trampling Journal Dog a couple of time - mind you so did I. The path was fine to start with but it got muddier the closer we got to the main river and my book slowly started to get dirty.

The path along the other side of the valley goes along the backs of the mills, past the leats and the waterfalls, through shallow streams, across wooden bridges lined with chickenwire, down steep granite steps. I had to grit my teeth to get through the first puddle but after that it got easier.... And my book got dragged through it all...

I bumped into a couple of people and I picked up my book. My excuse is that they had dogs and dealing with two leads - one of which held an excited hound. I got my book back to the car, not exactly safe and not exactly sound, not any more...

My journal is now officially wrecked, having done this in such a big way, right from the beginning I feel free from the desire to make my wrecking pretty. Nothing I can do to this book is ever really going to make it pretty now! *laugh*

Hope you are all having as much as I am!

The wrecked front - not too bad?

This is what remains of the back....

This gives you some idea of how much of the back of the book has gone.... *grin*

So how do I feel? I would never have chosen this prompt to follow if I hadn't been desperate to do SOMETHING to blog about tonight and still go for my walk. This was a pretty tricky one for me, some of the others would have been easy. Trashing it so much, in public, was fun! Nothing else I can do to it, could wreck it this much (could it?) so surely now there is no pressure? (is there?) It was very, very much beyond my comfort zone - no safe easy start here...