Another fork

Within all our lives there have been those moments when we have come to a “fork in the road” and have had to choose to go one way or the other. Throughout history the symbolism of such a moment is always ponderous and fraught with indecision.

For years, there was only one road into Windgrove. For years, I was content to travel along it. Yesterday, machinery arrived to fork a new road off of it.

The reason is that Windgrove needs funding. No benefactor has arrived on gossamer wings to underwrite the costs for building the infrastructure of the Windgrove residency program and I refuse, for ethical reasons, to seek government funding. The sale of my art work barely keeps me afloat let alone supporting other artists. In the end there was a choice between remaining whole and self contained or opening up a portion of the land for sale.

Today, as I write this blog, machinery and men are busy creating a driveway to two new house sites that fork off the Windgrove drive.

Exciting, because the money earned from the sale of the house sites (six and eight acres virtual waterfront) will be used for the construction of, I hope, four artist-in-resident’s cabins as well as a multipurpose studio. Exciting, because I sincerely believe in the mission of Windgrove to be a “refuge for learning” and this money will help create this reality.

Sad, because I have had to let loose of land that I have wanted to keep “untouched” by human development. A creation of human habitat for sure, but a loss of habitat for others.

In the end, throughout all the emotional comings and goings of what is the best path to take for Windgrove, great care has been taken in the design of the driveways to minimise environmental disturbance and to create an aesthetic approach. Likewise, the house sites themselves, have been placed in locations following passive solar considerations as well as minimising any impact on the environment. A real challenge over the past year, but the final solutions speak of a high quality of care and understanding of the land.

Whoever ends up living here will be very fortunate indeed.