I have my second tutorial with Peter Fraser this afternoon and have once again been charged with shooting with my feelings following a 30-minute meditation. I’ve been very conscious this week that I didn’t want to do this exercise at home, but have been working full-time at the Big Issue and tend not to take lunchbreaks. Thankfully we finished the magazine early and I got this morning off. It’s damp and very windy so I wrapped up warm and went to Highfield Park, an area of common very close to my house. I found the most comfortable log I could find and settled down. It was fairly tough this week not to engage too much with my thoughts – worries about MA work are plaguing me at the moment – but I tried to focus instead on what I was hearing. This is inner city Manchester and certainly no unspoilt paradise, but the more I listened the more I was struck by the sense I was listening to a battle. Birds were singing and the wind was very gusty. But closing my eyes meant I ‘tuned in’ in a way I probably wouldn’t normally. These natural sounds were beautiful and calming but were competing with not one but two distant but busy railway lines and an airport flight path. The man-made sounds weren’t unpleasant – there was somehow something reassuring about them as well – but they meant I couldn’t forget where I was. When my alarm went off that was the feeling I was left with – one of gentle invasion. When I got up I found my first photo about two metres from where I had been sitting – although I hadn’t noticed the boot before. From there I honed in mostly on the litter and detritus I found as I strolled towards home, and on other signs of human encroachment.