At a time of disconnection – from nature, one another, and ourselves, this is the kind of work that matters most to me. Space like this offers us the opportunity to slow down, notice, and connect, through attention.
A tour of the Exeter City of Literature Book Market on Sunday JUne 9th, part of Exeter’s indie Arts festival, June Boom A firm favourite
It’s Friday lunchtime, and outside, on the cobbles of Stepcote Hill, the sun is shining. There’s a steady flow of parents manoeuvring buggies and holding the hands of little people, moving towards The Hall. A sign on the door reassures us that the gig finishes in time for the school run.
Inside the nearby 17th-century Custom House – once an excise centre for the busy port, now a visitor centre and arts and culture hub – an audience was gathering to hear Philip Marsden talk about his new book, Under a Metal Sky – a journey through minerals, greed and wonder.
We laugh, united in the dark stalls by the sight of this soft-voiced woman, her notebook stuffed with words, ideas and doodles, the pages marked with flurries of orange and pink, alone under the spotlights of the proscenium-arched stage – reclaiming the mic and helping us back to ourselves.
The event is billed as ‘vibrant and uplifting’, and as it turns out, it’s both of these things. But, as is characteristic of Spork!, it’s comically dark, thoughtful, and subversive too.
A new community poetry project in Sandford is set to bring generations together through nature and creativity thanks to funding from Literature Works’ Seed Bed programme.
I can see that the oaks, once part of ancient hedgerows — wavy lines of hawthorn, oak and dog rose — have been set adrift again, floating islands on a furrowed sea.
Spending time in nature is good for our mental health and wellbeing. This might seem obvious, but it’s an idea now supported by reams of evidence-based research. I need to be in the green, but I also need culture and cities and grime and bustle. Is it possible to have both?
It was the middle of May and still there was no sign of the swallows. The roof of the yellow house, where every year since before even Greta could remember, a pair had perched, waiting for each other’s return, remained empty.
What does sustainability mean when you’re running a small business? We meet organic and ethical living enthusiast Elaine Wan to find out.
When I turned on the radio, the news was of continuing rioting across the country. It had stretched overnight, across the South West, beyond Bristol to Plymouth.
‘When we moved to the village, to our funny house, with all its quirks and corners, steps and riddles, it was the garden that got me.’
“The function of poetry is the function of being human. Of every civilisation we’ve uncovered, the earliest things we detect are not their governments or their money, it’s the things they made, and wrote.”
‘Yesterday blue fought through the cloud and the sun came out. In the walled garden, the birds sang, a hundred tiny voices making a chorus of good news.’
‘In the last week of March the blackthorn flowered. Rosettes as white as snowburied fields burst from stems black with witchcraft, from between the thorns of fairy tale and folklore; thorns whose vicious stab cast Sleeping Beauty into a hundred year sleep.’
Winter brings reflection on the nature of exhaustion and the connection between mind and body and each other.
I bought a keyring a lifetime ago, from Roskilly Farm’s gift shop in Cornwall. It’s a round ball of smooth, turned walnut, fissured with black
““I’m not a happy camper or festival goer”, I hear myself say over again in the run up to the festival. But as a kid I went to festivals and camped a lot, so maybe that’s not strictly true. Maybe I’d just forgotten how to do it.”
“…it can feel as though we have no control over the climate or our environment, that nothing we do matters; whereas in truth, everything does.”
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