Commentary

The text is both metaphorical and literal. It springs from two sources. The main one being the guide post itself and the fact that it presents a blank face on the approach from Bakewell. Blank, because there are only three directions of travel at what is a Y-shaped junction. The fourth (pathless) direction however, beyond a verge summery with blue meadow cranesbill and over fields towards a wooded slope, is of more interest to me than Sheffield, Chesterfield or Bakewell. And given that most passer-bys are walking not to a settlement but into landscape, the critical direction today is surely towards nature itself. A direction we overlook at our personal and collective peril.

It is a truism that we cannot experience landscape unless we are responsive and open to what is out there.

Poem

For the other rode

Go inward

By cranesbill and leaf-star

Clear the stream