Prompted by Nature
By Helen Forester
Guests include Naturalists and Environmentalists, Herbalists, Botanists, Wildlife Experts, Therapists, Nature Writers and Photographers, Outdoor/Wilderness Guides, Artists, Climate Change Activists and so any more inspiring souls using their creativity to work in and with nature.
Prompted by NatureMay 01, 2022
6.6 Shortlisted and Grateful (Solo ep.)
I'm thrilled to announce that Prompted by Nature has been shortlisted in the podcast category for a Bookshop.org Indie Champion Award. This was completely unexpected and I immediately felt sick when I got the initial email a couple of weeks ago!
I wanted to record a quick episode to share this news, and a little about my writing sabbatical, with you.
Thank you for listening and supporting this podcast. I'm so happy you're here; I'll be back soon (and remember you can always find me on Substack www.promptedbynature.substack.com , on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and my bookshop.org shop is here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/promptedbynature )
And of course a HUGE thank you Bookshop.org for recognising the podcast and for having it on your shortlist - it means everyhing to me.
Sending you lots of love,
Helen x
6.5a Lucy Power: Environmental Education through the Arts
6.4a Marchelle Farrell: 'Uprooting'
Hello! Welcome series 6 episode 4 of the Prompted by Nature podcast. I’m Helen, your host and today I’m thrilled to release a conversation I had earlier this week With Marchelle Farrell. Long-time listeners of the podcast will remember Marchelle from series 2 episode 10 - a conversation we recorded what feels like a lifetime ago, in November 2020.
Marchelle has a new book out, Uprooting, and it was wonderful to chat up with Marchelle and talk all things gardens and writing.
In this episode, we discuss:
- What Marchelle has been up for over the past two years
- Her new book, Uprooting, what’s about and how it came to be
- The reciprocal nature of the garden
- Redefining difficult conversations
- The importance of grief and mourning
- Non-verbal communication and writing
- The creative advice she’d give her younger self
- What she’s looking forward to
Uprooting has already won an award in the shape of the Nan Shepherd prize for underrepresented voices in nature writing. I urge you to read this book - it is profound and complex and explores Marchelle’s relationship with her garden as well as how these brings up connections to her beloved Trinidad.
Uprooting is out now in your local bookshop or library - and remember that you can always ask them to order it in if they don’t already stock it. Marchelle is usually to be found on Instagram under the handle @afroliage and on her website www.marchellefarrell.com where you can find upcoming dates of her book tour and speaking events.
Just a little note that the connection was a little sketchy at times but I don’t think it affects meaning.
Episodes that would go well with this one:
2.10a - My Garden, My Teacher - Marchelle Farrell
6.1a - All My Wild Mothers - Victoria Bennett
5.9a Writing in Place - Kathryn Aalto
As always, I’m on instagram @prompted.by.nature or on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk . You can also sign up for my Substack on www.promptedbynature.substack.com
Sending you lots of love.
Happy listening, and I’ll speak to you soon.
6.3b 'I Write with the Trees' Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Katie Holten
Hello and welcome to your writing prompt for my conversation with Katie Holten. For this one there are a couple of invitations.
The first is to, of course, download Katie’s tree alphabet as a font to your computer and have a play. It’s really fun turning your words into a forest and seeing that forest come alive on the page. You could write something new, inspired by the letters as trees, or translate an existing piece into the tree alphabet.
The second invitation is to put the title of this episode on a sheet of paper and see where it takes you. The title is ‘I write with the trees.’ I love this title because it could go in any and all directions. for me, it conjures up images of future communities and societies in which humans dream things into being in collaboration with the trees and the more-than-human world.
It might be that, having listened to the conversation, or even read the book, you have been inspired to created something totally different from these suggestions, in which case, go for it!
Have fun with it and let me know how you get on if you use this one!
Happy writing! Bye!
6.3a Katie Holten: Art, Activism and the Language of Trees
This week we’ll be hearing from the very wonderful Katie Holten. Katie Holten is an artist and activist based in New York City and Ardee, Ireland. For over twenty years Katie has made unconventional works that intersect art, activism, ecology, language and history. At the root of her practice is a commitment to fighting the climate and biodiversity emergency. Her collaborative research-based work explores the inextricable relationship between Humans and Nature, between organic systems and human-made systems. Several years ago, recognizing a looming crisis of representation as our species adapts to life in the Anthropocene, Holten created a Tree Alphabet and published the book ABOUT TREES, offering readers a language beyond the Human. During lockdown, Holten made an Irish Tree Alphabet (2020) to explore language ecosystems and the importance of our words and the stories that we share.
In this conversation we discuss:
Her new book, the Language of trees, how it came about and Katie’s process in putting it all together
Katie’s NYC Tree Alphabet and its wider implications
The magic of the Irish Tree Ogham
Art as facilitation of ideas
The book as a merging of science, poetry, journalism and music
Art as activism
The impact that her upbringing in Ireland has had on her work
The importance of community spaces in environmental activism
The creative advice she would give to her younger self and what she’s looking forward to
I love how far-reaching art and creativity can be when it comes to communicating about the urgency of climate collapse and climate justice as well as how connected we all are in order to inspire people to get involved in whatever way they can.
The Language of Trees is a stunning book filled with the words of some incredible writers from all genres and the beautiful artwork created by Katie’s tree alphabet. It’s out now and you can get it at your favourite independent bookshop. I’ve also popped in the Prompted by Nature bookshop over on uk.bookshop.org/shop/promptedbynature . You can download the font here: www.nyctrees.org/
Episodes that would go well with this episode:
5.2a Amy-Jane Beer: The Flow
5.1a Bryony Benge-Abbott: Exploring the Intersections
4.13a Jackee Holder: Writing with Trees in the Urban Landscape
3.7a Rosalind Lowry: Land Art: Celebrating our Boglands
You can find me in the usual places - on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk You can subscribe to my Substack newsletter over on Substack by going to promptedbynature.substack.com/ Thank you to my paid subscribers who help support this podcast and get lots of treats like the e-zine and write-along bonus episodes. Please do consider becoming a paid subscriber if you are able to.
I’ll be back in a few days with the writing prompt that accompanies this episode but in the meantime I’m sending you lots of love.
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon! x
6.2b Creativity as a Tool for Resistance: Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Katherine May
In my conversation with Katherine, she spoke about creativity as a form of resistance. This is something that really resonates with me as it kind of underpins everything I do. When we stay present and connected, think creatively and allow this to guide us through the world, we are actively shaping the world we want to see; not just that but we become active participants in our own individual lives, which then feeds into a stronger, more rounded and imaginative collective.
Often it can feel as if being creative doesn’t contribute in any tangible ways but we only need to look at groups like Writers Rebel, Cape Farewell, Julie’s Bicycle and Human Nature (all links in the show notes) so see that creative, artistic practice can feed into the move to a better future. Art invites us to think about topics or ideas in new and interesting ways, challenging our pre-conceptions and unconscious biases.
For this prompt, create something that explores the idea of creativity as resistance in your own work. The first thing that comes to mind when I consider this is the word resistance and how, by just forming that word in my mind, I feel a resistance. It evokes thoughts of anger and oppression in me, and makes me think of all the times someone has told me I couldn’t or shouldn’t do something I knew was the right thing to do, even if it wasn’t the most comfortable at the time - or the times when I’v told myself I couldn’t do something because of imposter syndrome or not feeling good/capable/knowledgeable (fill in the blank!) enough. Conversely though it makes me feel like what I’m doing means something; it makes me feel powerful and strong. I am actively resisting the things I know are not right and am trying, in whatever small way I can, to make a difference. There are so many nuances to the word ‘resistance’ and working with it as a starting point is something you might consider doing.
What about asking what it is you are resisting? Explore this idea to its limits and then begin. Perhaps go through the same process with the word creativity. Then put the two together and see what emerges.
Most of all, if you are a creative - and I imagine that you are if you’re listening to this podcast - please keep going with your creative work, whatever form that takes. The more of us who are sharing our experience of the more-than-human world as a response to biodiversity and climate collapse, the more we inspire others to do the same. Art as a form of expression and protest is by no means a new thing and we can all be a part of what nurtures that into the future.
Please do let me know if you use this one - even if just to share one word on my Substack or in a story, which you can tag me in on Instagram @prompted.by.nature or you can mention me in a note over on Substack if you’re a user, and I’ll restack your note.
Thank you as always for listening. Happy writing and I’ll speak to you soon. Bye!
6.2a Katherine May: Creating Enchantment
Welcome to series 6, episode 2 of the Prompted by Nature. I’m Helen and I hope this finds you well. Lots going on on this side of things but I’m going to jump straight into today’s episode.
If you enjoy non-fiction at the moment today you may have heard of today’s guest, Katherine May.
Katherine is an internationally bestselling author and podcaster living in Whitstable, UK. Her most recent book, Enchantment became an instant New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller. Her internationally bestselling hybrid memoir Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times was adapted as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week, and was shortlisted for the Porchlight and Barnes and Noble Book of the Year. The Electricity of Every Living Thing, her memoir of a midlife autism diagnosis, was adapted as an audio drama by Audible. Other titles include novels such as The Whitstable High Tide Swimming Club, and The Best, Most Awful Job, an anthology of essays about motherhood which she edited. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times, The Observer and Aeon.
Katherine’s podcast, How We Live Now, ranks in the top 1% worldwide, and she has been a guest presenter for On Being’s The Future of Hope series. Her next book, Enchantment, will be published in 2023. Katherine lives with her husband, son, two cats and a dog. She loves walking, sea-swimming and pickling slightly unappealing things.
In this conversation we discuss:
The weather!
The importance of hope and magic
The process of writing Enchantment
Creativity as resistance
AI and creativity in education
Forms & lineages of creativity
Mutation over survival of the fittest
The process of ‘unknowing’ in her work
Researching Enchantment
The advice she’d give to her 15-year old self
What she’s looking forward to
You can find Kathrine’s Substack newsletter and podcast over at https://katherinemay.substack.com/ - I highly recommend subscribing to this as it’s completely wonderful. You can find all of her books at your local bookshop or library (and if they don’t have the one you’re after, ask them order it in) and I’ve also popped Enchantment in the ‘Discussed on the Podcast’ section of my bookshop over at www.bookshop.org
Epsiodes that I think would go well with this one are:
1.10a Finding Magic in the Landscape, Jini Reddy
2.6a Art as Play, Beba Beeby
4.12a Soraya Abdel-Hadi, Finding my Creative Voice through Nature
5.11a Creating a Folklore of Place with Elin Manon
As always, you can find me on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find prompts, the pod and information about my upcoming woodland day retreat here in Sussex. I’m also on Substack https://promptedbynature.substack.com or you can find me on Instagram @prompted.by.nature or Facebook and Twitter by searching Prompted by Nature. Please do share, rate and review the podcast wherever you’re listening as this means the WORLD to me!! And do tag me on social media if you’ve enjoyed this or any other episode.
I’ll be back in a few days with the writing prompt that accompanies this episode but in the meantime I’ll send you lots of love. Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon!
6.1b Sifting through the Shards: Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Victoria Bennett
Welcome to your writing prompt for my conversation with Victoria Bennett.
Writing prompt, some news and an apology for this episodes tardiness! Thank you for your patience.
*
When I listened back to the episode with Victoria, what I remember most is her thoughts around the use of time in writing a memoir. She describes the process as engaging three forms of time: deep time, long time and momentary time.
‘I think that that combination of deep time in the Earth and long time in our sense of humanity and momentary time, all exist together, so in memoir writing, memories from my early childhood would sit alongside memories as a mother - with my son - so experiences of present moments and then memories of my mother are in there, and then her memories of her childhood. And so all these memories would kind of interweave with each other and speak to each other. But looking back into memories was a bit like that, finding these pottery shards in a garden because I would start and I would look back and think, ‘that's a terrible memory’, and then it's like, ‘that's a wonderful bit of pottery!’ So I'd find these moments that would be as alive and as present as the one I was in, and their stories that they had would be as present and and as revealing. I suppose if I'd written it all off as being terrible I wouldn't have bothered…’
The invitation here then, is to create three pieces: one that engages with deep time, one with long time and one with momentary time. These could take the form of journal entries, be three pieces of free writing, poems on the themes or something completely different. This is the sort of thing I like to write about in my morning pages as I find that in that liminal spaces between night and day, I’m the most alert to more abstract concepts such as time.
Enjoy this one and let me know how you get on if you use it.
Happy writing!
Helen x
6.1 Victoria Bennett, 'All My Wild Mothers'
Hello and welcome to series 6 of the Prompted by Nature podcast! Happy Beltane if you’re listening in real time and are celebrating! I’m Helen and I’m thrilled to be back after a little break. Not much has changed - read a few books, had some time out in Glastonbury, released this season’s newsletter over on Substack - get subscribed if you’re not already! - and generally had time to write and to get back to my own voice.
The action point for each episode will now be up on each episode’s page on the website.
Today’s episode is the perfect conversation to open with. It’s slightly longer than usual as we covered so much ground. We had to re-schedule it a few times due to covid and ended up speaking on the libra full moon - perfect for two chatty libras!
Victoria Bennet lives in Orkney with her husband and son, for whom she is also a full-time carer and home-educator. She is a writer, poet and creative producer, who founded Wild Women Press in 1999 and has spent the last 21 years facilitating creative experiences and curating platforms for women to share ideas, stories, inspirations and actions for positive change. Victoria has a wealth of creative experience and I encourage you to explore her website for all the information.
Victoria’s debut memoir, which we discuss in the episode, All My Wild Mothers, examines motherhood, loss, and the ancient art of wort-cunning (knowledge of medicinal plans and herbs) was long-listed for the Nan Shepherd Prize (2019) and the Penguin WriteNow Programme (2020) as well as winner of the Northern Debut Award.
When she is not juggling home-ed, freelance creative projects, research, study and chronic illness, she can be found howling with the Wild Women, her creative tribe.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- What took her to Orkney
- The process of writing All My Wild Mothers
- The symbiosis of writing and gardening
- Creativity and ecology
- The impact of her upbringing on her interactions with nature
- The structure of the book
- Choosing presence in both grief and joy
- Combining deep time, long time and momentary time in the writing process
- Re-finding creativity after loss
- Writing and memory
- Wild Women Press and prioritising creative projects
And, two new questions for everyone:
- The advice Victoria would give to her younger self
- What she’s looking forward to
You can find Victoria on Twitter and Instagram @beewlyd and on her website www.victoriabennett.me I’ve also popped the video created for the book using music inspired by it on the episode page on my website. You can find All My Wild Mothers via any independent bookshop or you can order it from the library. It’s also available on my Prompted by Nature bookshop. And if you’re in a book club, I highly recommend taking Victoria up on her offer of coming along to any online meet-up to talk about the book.
No change with me, I’m on @prompted.by.nature on Instagram, @promptedbynature on Facebook and @promptedxnature on Twitter plus you can subscribe to my Substack newsletter, read the latest on the blog and find out about upcoming events via my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk
Remember to pop back on Tuesday for the writing episode that follows this one.
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon. Bye!
5.13b 'Shifting Perspectives' Writing Prompt for my Conversation with LiLi K Bright
Welcome to your writing prompt for my conversation with LiLi K Bright and the final epsiode of series 5. This one isn't so much of a writing prompt specifically as it is an invitation to do something different in your creative practice (as the title suggests!).
LiLi talked about the inspiration they gain from attending ecology and naturalist talks and events as well as joining writers hours and social events. I was hugely inspired by this as something of which I don’t do nearly enough is attending events and courses which will shift my focus in unexpected ways and help me to engage with like-minded folk.
Since my chat with LiLi, I’ve signed up for some free and paid events in the coming months that I hope will both inform and enrich my writing, providing different perspectives - both scientific and artistic - that will allow me to go deeper into my understanding of the mechanisms of nature and where they intersect with a range of diverse creative forms. I think when you’ve been teaching and creating and holding space for people for as long as I have, it’s really easy to become quite isolated. This hasn’t been intentional but I’ve always been very ‘do it myself’ even when I don’t have to be; sometimes this can be a good thing and sometimes it can work out to my detriment.
So for you then, think about how you might want to diversify and expand your creative practice, or gain insights into areas you’ve always wondered about. There are lots of free and low cost events out there now as well as paid for courses. I’ve popped a couple of resources below and on the episode page of the website if you want to have an explore.
So that’s it for series 5! I told myself I’d stop for this series after 13 episodes and I think you’ll agree, we’ve ended on a high! I’ll be back in a few short weeks after I’ve had a bit of a break to tend to my writing and facilitating. If you’re interested in attending any of my future events - online or in-person - just pop through to the events page on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk Otherwise you can always find me on my Substack (where I’ve been really enjoying posting my weekly prompts and getting to know a few of you a bit better!) promptedbynature.substack.com and Instagram @prompted.by.nature. All links can be found in the show notes and on the episode page on the website.
In the meantime, please do reach out if you have any insights from any of these episodes and conversations or if you use any of the prompts and want to share how it went.
Happy writing, happy creating and I’ll speak to you very soon.
Helen x
Free course platforms:
https://www.conservationtraining.org/
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/free-courses
Also look into your local conservation charity if you're looking for nature-related courses. Sussex Wildlife Trust near me, for example, often runs tree and wildlife ID courses.
5.13a LiLi K Bright 'Multifaceted Creativity'
Episode transcription available here: https://www.promptedbynature.co.uk/podcast-transcripts
Welcome to series 5, episode 14 of the Prompted by Nature podcast.
Action point: See episode page on my website.
Substack newsletter: Sign up for the free subscription via the link in the show notes or by searching ‘Prompted by Nature’ on the app. If you’d like to go paid, I’m offering this at 30% off the monthly option until 30th April.
Onto today’s episode!
LiLi K. Bright is a writer and workshop facilitator who’s obsessed with city nature. They write climate fiction and ecopoetry, and their main poetry project is about migration, liberation, London, Freetown, Accra, and the painted lady butterfly, exploring textile arts as part of their creative process. They love supporting people to connect with nature and creativity by facilitating writing workshops, climate science training and nonviolent communication training.
In this conversation we discuss:
- LiLi’s insights into a multi-media approach to their creativity
- The merging of science and art in their work and the ways in which these disciplines can interact
- Their relationship with nature, how it developed and how it has shifted and changed
- LiLi’s fascination with trees and birds
- Wellbeing for writers and reframing ‘time management’
- How LiLi approaches their creative practice
All link to the website and events that LiLi mentions in our chat are in the show notes on the episode page of the website. You can find LiLi on their website https://cherrytreewalk.com and Instagram @cherrytree_walk
Companion epiodes:
1.8a Ian Solomon-Kawall: Biodiversity, Creativity and Safe Space in Urban Settings
2.1a Avni Trivedi: Reconnecting with the Wisdom of the Body
4.5a Cheryl Duerden: In a Land of Giants, Empathetic Forestry
5.1a Bryony Benge-Abbott: Exploring the Intersections
As always, I’m on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find upcoming nature writing courses and day retreats here in East Sussex.
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon.
Helen x
5.12b 'Writing with the Moon' Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Caro Giles
The transcript for this episode can be found here: https://www.promptedbynature.co.uk/podcast-transcripts
Hello and welcome to your writing prompt for my conversation with Caro Giles. So, obviously, this one is going to be moon-related! I often write with the moon and have created materials helping others to do the same. About 7 years ago, back when challenges were in, I ran the Follow the Moon challenge, followed by the ‘Create by the Moon’ challenges a couple of years later and this latter piece of work I’m in the process of turning into a workbook, which will be out in the summer - free to Substack subscribers on the paid level.
To get us started though, I wanted to think about how we can use the energy of each moon phase to influence our writing and then extend this to consider the names of each full moon, as Caro does in Twelve Moons, and how these can form ongoing prompts for our words.
Over on the blog, you’ll find a post about turning each phase of the moon into a character (link is in the show notes) and this is a really good exercise to familiarise yourself with the energy of each phase if you’re newer to it all, or just want another perspective.
So going from new to full moon:
- New moon - intention setting
- Waxing crescent - planning
- Waxing half - balance, making decisions
- Waxing gibbous - problem-solving
- Full moon - manifestation, clarity and understanding
- Waning gibbous - self-evaluation, patience and letting go
- Waning half - cleansing and transformation
- Waning crescent (balsamic) - reflection/introspection
- Dark moon - quiet/silence
Once we are familiar with the energy of each moon phase, we can start to see how these could be articulated in the settings and characters we create. For example, a setting that might reflect the waning half moon, could be a cascading stream in the early hours of the morning. How might that feel? What does the natural world feel like at that time of day? If the full moon were a character, perhaps they might be a creator or agitator, an activist or someone who works to shed light on a subject.
Then you might like to start looking at the different names given to the full moon by different cultures and traditions throughout the world. There’s the wolf moon, the cold moon, the harvest moon and more! Use your imagination and envision settings and events that might happen under each moon, each taking on the energy and meaning given to it by the ancestors.
Pop over to the post on the blog for more ideas, get researching and see how you get on. I love working with the moon in my own life and using its phases as a creative prompt is such a wonderful way to enrich your own practice, especially if you’re ever feeling a bit lacking in inspiration.
Keep looking up, my friends!
As always you can find me on www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find links to my Substack newsletter and get information on my forthcoming day retreats and nature writing courses down here in East Sussex. I’m also to be found @prompted.by.nature on Instagram.
Happy writing and I’ll speak to you soon!
Helen x
5.12a Caro Giles: Twelve Moons
The transcript for this episode can be found here: https://www.promptedbynature.co.uk/podcast-transcripts
Action point: donate if you can, to the Turkey/Syria Earthquake fund appeal through the DEC (www.dec.org.uk) if you’re in the UK or through the charities working in your country to help. Please ensure they are legitimate, reputable charities before donating.
Before I tell you about today’s conversation, I wanted to remind you that my Substack newsletter is now available via the Substack app or in your inbox when you sign up. You can sign up for a free or paid subscription - £5pm or £40pa (a saving of £1.70 on the monthly price). All information about what is included in each option is over on my Substack page https://promptedbynature.substack.com/ and in the show notes for the this episode. I hope you’ll join me for more prompts, workbooks, e-zines and nature-inspired creativity and community.
Back to the episode!
Today, I’m thrilled to release my conversation with the lovely Caro Giles, whose book, Twelve Moons is now available and published by HarperNorth.
Caro Giles is a writer based in Northumberland. Her words are inspired by her local landscape, the wide empty beaches and the Cheviot Hills. She writes honestly about what it means to be a woman, a mother and a carer, and about the value in taking the road less travelled. Her writing appears in journals, press and periodicals, including a monthly column in Psychologies. In 2021 she was named BBC Countryfile's New Nature Writer of the Year.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- The story behind the memoir and how Caro came to write Twelve Moons
- The part a master’s played in Caro’s work
- Accountability in your writing practice
- How she found her unique voice following motherhood and the breakdown of her marriage
- How her role as a parent-carer has impacted her voice and the way that she approaches her work
- Caro’s personal relationship with the moon
- How Caro approached the book and her writing process
- Caro’s life as a singer and musician
- What she’s learnt that she wants to pass on
- Her vision for the future
You can find Caro on Twitter and Instagram @carogileswrites and her book Twelve Moons is available via the Prompted by Nature bookshop on bookshop.org or at your local bookshop.
Accompanying episodes:
2.10a - Marchelle Farrell, My Garden, My Teacher
3.2a - Stella Tomlinson, Priestesshood and Earth-Based Spirituality
4.2a - Rebecca Schiller, Earthed
4.7a - Ben Myers, Writing with the Land
As always, I’m over at the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find information about my upcoming day retreats and writing courses in East Sussex as well as all the links to the bookshop and the Substack newsletter. I’m always on @prompted.by.nature on Instagram.
I hope you enjoy the episode. The prompt that accompanies this will be out on Tuesday. Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon!
Helen x
5.11b 'Creating a Folklore of Place' Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Elin Manon
Welcome to your writing prompt for my conversation with Elin Manon. This is one of those prompts that doesn’t have to be written - it can be if you’d like, and know that these prompts are always more of creative prompts that you can make of what you will - but could be one to use to inspire a piece of artwork like a collage or painting. Whatever direction you’d like to take this in is fine!
So the invitation here is to do a little background research into the folklore of your area. Folklore came up a lot in the conversation and Elin spoke of her connection to the stories of Wales and also of their connection to the folklore of Cornwall. (And by the way did anyone pick up on the link in her story about the horse that comes in the night- the Night Mare? Was I the only one who, upon listening back to the conversation, saw the light of realisation of ‘oh! Nightmare!!’)
Folklore and landscape are bound together - one, I believe, reflecting the other. We see folklore in a landscape when we notice things like standing stones and stone circles and when we visit a space and are told, ‘they say this is where X happened with Y, many, many years ago.’ The land holds these stories and, as humans, it can be a way for us to connect with it. Folklore is what is created when those who know the land the best begin to notice patterns, signs and symbols and transform these into stories we can learn from. For example, in Sussex, where I live, there is a story about how the Wilmington Giant got there. For those who don’t know, the Wilmington Giant is a huge chalk person carved into the side of a big hill. If you look closely, most areas have some kind of folklore attached to them; these may vary depending on landscape, of course, but even my hometown of London has its urbanised versions of folklore, usually involving the devil in some way!
The invitation here, then, is to do a little research into the folklore of the land on which you now live.
- What are the stories that exist in this place that may have been forgotten?
- Where did they come from and how have they moved and changed with the times? If you can’t find any, why not spend some time outside in your local area connecting with a particular tree or space over the course of days or weeks and see what stories arise from it.
- Perhaps you are lucky enough to live close to a natural spring or well - where stories does it hold?
- If you live close to a river, what does it say as it moves and flows on?
- Perhaps your local park - or even graveyard! - has something in it that has always interested you - what stories might there be in that thing?
Get curious and let your imagination run wild!
A couple of previous writing prompts that might help get you started are the meditation I did for my conversation with Nathaniel Hughes and Fiona Owen, 1.3b, as well as with Nana Tomova, 1.7b. And then the prompt for my conversation with Dawn Nelson (which would actually also be really good to listen to in connection to my conversation with Elin), 1.13b, tells the folktale of the river of Banorie, which you can then use as a writing prompt.
Let me know how you get on with this one. The folk tales of the world are always rich, diverse and, oftentimes, wildly entertaining.
All book recommendations in the 'Folk and Stories from the Land' section in my bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/promptedbynature
As always, you can find me on the website, www.promptedbynature.co.uk or over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature, where I post most of my social media content.
Happy writing!
Helen x
5.11a Elin Manon: 'Illustration, Folklore and Landscape'
Action point: www.ecotalk.co.uk
Welcome to series 5, episode 11 of the Prompted by Nature. How have you been? Imbolc has just passed here in the UK and I can feel the very tangible promise of the lighter months slowly creeping up. The full snow moon has just passed and has been illuminating the early mornings with an almost solar glare - it’s been so bright! I’m in the midst of planning my upcoming e-zine in time for the Equinox as well as working on a few pieces that I’m feeling really inspired by.
Onto to day’s episode.
Today I’m speaking with illustrator, Elin Manon. Elin is a freelance illustrator from Wales now based in Cornwall. Her work is inspired by the natural world, folklore and folk traditions, particularly those Welsh and Cornish. A passion for storytelling and the celebration and protection of our natural world has been a constant drive within her work. Through the power of imagination and imagery, she aims to deepen our connection to the natural environment, reflecting stories of the landscape, in a world that is often focused on the modern and material.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- Elin’s creative journey
- How Elin’s distinctive style emerged
- The place of storytelling in her work
- The boundary between Self and Art
- Finding the balance between work and creativity
- Charging what you’re worth as a writer
- Elin’s creative process
- The impact that Elin’s early encounters with nature and storytelling (especially the Mabinogion) had on her future work
- Why speaking and using Welsh is so important to Elin
- Why connecting with creatives can be an important part of enjoying and appreciating their art
- The lesson that Elin would like to pass onto you
- Elin’s vision for the future
This conversation was so rich and I loved speaking with Erin about her incredible artwork. you can find her on her website www.elin-manon.com and on Instagram @elin_manon_illustration
Past episodes that would work well with this one are:
2.5a Nick Hayes, The Book of Trespass
3.6a Jamey-Anne Redway, Illustration and the Natural World
3.8a Chloe Valerie Harmsworth, Nature-Inspired Creativity
4.10a Elizabeth Gleave, Restoring the Earth through the Arts
5.2a Amy-Jane Beer, The Flow
Please do sign up for the Substack newsletter and, if you’d like, join me in the paid subscription where you’ll get all the usual offerings like weekly writing prompts, the discussion board and PbN updates every six weeks, plus 10% off all online courses, a free seasonal e-zine, sneak peeks into my WIPs and much more!
Come find me over on the website where you can find all events, my blog, past episodes and link to the Substack and the PbN bookshop. On Instagram, I’m @prompted.by.nature, Facebook it’s @promptedbynature and Twitter I’m @promptedxnature. Remember that the writing prompt for this episode will be up on Tuesday.
Until next time, I’m sending lots of love and creativity. Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon! Bye.
Helen x
5.10b 'Start Where You Are'... Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Moya Lloyd
Welcome to your writing prompt for my conversation with Moya Lloyd of the Boundary Way Project. In the conversation, Moya talked about her love of using found objects such as plants, mushroom and pieces from her family history to create art. For this prompt then, the invitation is to get creating using things that already exist.
Perhaps you will create a collage out of old books (although I kind of shudder when I think about tearing up books, even old and decrepit ones!), photographs, till receipts, play programmes, your own drawings or sketches, photographs of the landscape, leaves, dried flowers or similar.
Maybe you’d like to stick to writing and find old work that you’ve never done anything with and create new piece - a word collage perhaps, a kind of tapestry of old phrases you’ve already conjured up and then sew them together with newer ideas.
The idea is here is to create something new out of the old. Make the most of what you already have and reshape and refashion it into something completely different. This is similar to a prompt I did way back in series 3, episode 4, inspired by my conversation with Grace Hull so do go and have a listen to 3.4b (and the accompanying conversation, of course!) if you want to extend this idea. That one also includes a short meditation, just to get your creativity flowing.
I’m going to take a break from writing for this one and create a collage similar to the style that Moya uses in her personal work. I’m then going to write a short story or poem inspired by whatever comes out in the collage. I’ll post both on my socials and blog once they’re finished and I’d love to see yours if you try this.
Remember no judgment on your own creativity, please - just experiment and enjoy!
Happy creating and I’ll speak to you soon,
Helen x
5.10a Moya Lloyd - Building a Creative Community at the Boundary Way Project
Action point: Right to Roam campaign www.righttoroam.org.uk
Today on the pod we have the lovely Moya Lloyd of the Boundary Project in Wolverhampton. I first heard about the Boundary Way Project and their work on Instagram during lockdown and have been inspired with their creativity and arts projects ever since. This episode is quite close to my heart due to my work with Benfield Valley Project and I came away with lots of ideas for creative initiatives we could run. It was an absolute pleasure to speak with Moya, who is a quiet powerhouse of creativity and inspiration.
Moya is visual artist with a passion for and background in community arts. She studied History of Art and Fine Art and uses these two disciplines to inform her work with Boundary Project, for which she is Project Lead. Boundary Way Project evolved through a series of arts and heritage projects inspired by people, nature and place at the Boundary Way Allotments and Community Garden, where is has been based since 2015. Through the Boundary Way Project, Moya works with a diverse and wide range of the community, organising arts events and projects such as art exhibitions, creative workshops and health and wellbeing sessions.
In this conversation we discuss:
- Moya’s work at Boundary Way Project
- Her creative background and how she came to work in community arts
- Making art accessible and moving away from elitism in the arts
- Using found materials to help reduce materials’ costs
- Connecting with her family history through her creativity
- What the Boundary Way Project is, what they do and how Moya got involved in it
- The importance of connecting people with their creativity through nature
- The Boundary Way Writer’s Group initiative
- The biggest challenges and biggest joys that Moya has encountered through BWP
- How Boundary Way Project inspires her creativity
All of Moya’s pieces that we talk about are on the episode page on the website: https://www.promptedbynature.co.uk/series-five/510-moya-lloyd-of-the-boundary-way-project-building-creative-communities. I’ve also popped a link in the notes about the research that Moya mentions in the episode that makes the link between creativity and cultivating deeper relationships with the natural world. https://www.derby.ac.uk/research/centres-groups/nature-connectedness-research-group/
You can find the Boundary Way Project on www.boundaryway.co.uk and on the social @boundarywayproject and Moya can be found on Instagram and Twitter @artsandhealth
Linked episodes:
1.2a Anna Neubert-Wood - Creating sisterhood in the Wild
1.8a Ian Solomon-Kawall aka. KMT, Biodiversity, Creativity and Safe Space in Urban Settings
1.9a Lucy Jones, Why Our Minds Need the Wild
5.5a Bella Gonshrovitz, ‘Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear’
As always, I’m at www.promptedbynature.co.uk, where you can find all episodes to the podcast, writing prompts, my own writing and a link to my newly-relaunched Substack newsletter. I’m also @prompted.by.nature on Instagram .
I hope you enjoy the conversation. Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon!
Helen x
3.9b 'A Sense of Place' Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Kathryn Aalto
Linked episodes:
1.10a Jini Reddy, Magic in the Landscape
2.10a Marchelle Farrell, My Garden, My Teacher
4.2a Rebecca Schiller, Earthed
4.7a Benjamin Myers, Writing with the Land in ‘The Perfect Golden Circle’
Hello! Welcome to your writing prompt for my conversation with Kathryn Aalto. I got a lot out of the chat with Kathryn and it was lovely to be able to catch up with her and go a little deeper into her own creative life and practice.
For this prompt, I’m combining two ideas that came up in the conversation. Firstly, Kathryn’s definition of ‘sense of place’ and secondly her thoughts on ‘show don’t tell.’ Both of these concepts we covered in the course I took with Kathryn and the ‘show don’t tell’ technique is something I used to use a lot with my groups as a school teacher and still use now with my nature writing groups.
Kathryn spoke of ‘sense of place’ as being ‘That invisible layer of memories, history and emotions that covers a physical landscape with this invisible strata.’
For this prompt, I’d like you to create a description of a place. This could either be a space new to you, or that you know well, a place in which you feel a sense of belonging. Perhaps it is a space close to where you live, somewhere you once visited, or somewhere you’re new to.
Wherever it is, you are going to take your reader there using the show don’t tell technique. For this, you are avoiding telling your reader anything but are rather trying to show them it. For example, if you are in a woodland space, rather than telling them explicitly that that’s where you are, show them that that’s where you are. If you need any ideas, consider the following:
- How does the air feel?
- If you close your eyes, what sounds can you hear - close up and far away?
- What colours, shapes and shades catch your eye?
- Consider Kathryn’s definition: what layers, memories, history and emotions exist in this place. Maybe you have no emotional connection to this place as yet, and aren’t already aware of any history or memories held in the place. What comes through when you are here? What can you imagine about this place?
When you read your work through, any sign of you telling me something, edit it to be more descriptive. Remember this is just an exercise in which you are training your descriptive muscles to be more perceptive, to create more detail and to entice your reader, inviting them into this world with you as their guide.
Please do reach if you use this prompt. You can find me in my favourite online places - on the website, www.promptedbynature.co.uk and on Instagram @prompted.by.nature
Happy writing!
Helen x
5.9a Kathryn Aalto - Writing in Place
Welcome to series 5, episode 9 of the Prompted by Nature podcast. I hope this one finds you well.
Action Point: WhenToPlugIn app: https://www.nationalgrid.com/cop26/when-to-plug-in-app
Today, we hear from one of my teachers, the wonderful Kathryn Aalto.
Kathryn Aalto is an American teacher, designer, speaker, and New York Times best-selling writer of creative nonfiction. For the past twenty-five years, her creative practice has fused nature and culture: teaching the literature of nature and place; designing beautiful and sustainable gardens; and writing about the natural world. Based in England, she teaches popular online and live writing courses, mentors emerging writers, and leads writing retreats in England and the United States. Kathryn is the author of three books including Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World (2020), The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest that Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood (2015), and Nature and Human Intervention (2011). Her personal essays and book reviews, appear in Smithsonian Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Buzzfeed, Resurgence and the Ecologist, and more.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Kathryn’s childhood and youth growing up in Southern California
- How her love of the personal essay came about and how this influenced her writing
- How Kathryn’s connection to nature and place has changed and developed through her life
- Her definition of sense of place
- How her perception as an ex-pat enriches her understanding and encounters with nature and landscape
- The circumstances that surrounded her stepping into what she always knew she was meant to do
- The impact public speaking has had on her writing
- Kathryn’s writing tips and what it means to ‘show, not tell’
- The lesson she’d like to share with you (and it’s a good one!)
I took Kathryn’s nature writing course last summer and absolutely loved it. I’m not often able to invest in myself or my ongoing learning so it was amazing to finally take a writing class. I’m so used to teaching that it was joyful to be a student again. I can highly recommend any of Kathryn’s classes and workshops. You can find Kathryn and all information about her forthcoming writing courses at www.kathrynaalto.com and over on social media @kathrynaalto. I’ve also added Kathryn’s books to my bookshop over on bookshop.org so please do pop over there and have a browse. https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/promptedbynature
As always, you can find me over on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk and on social media @prompted.by.nature on Instagram, @promptedxnature on Twitter and @promptedbynature on Facebook. I have a few local in-person courses and day retreats coming up so do have a look on my website events page if you’re local to Brighton and Hove.
The writing prompt that follows this episode will be up on Tuesday.
Happy listening!
Helen x
5.8 Tending the Compost (Solo Episode)
Welcome to series 5, episode 8 of the Prompted by Nature podcast. This episode is a bit of a pep talk and a follow-up to my latest blog post, which you can read here: https://www.promptedbynature.co.uk/writing-prompts/tending-the-compost
I discuss my own thoughts around new year's resolutions and why I use a 'word for the year' instead as well as how I'm using all the fear, doubt and indifference to compost what comes next. Please do read the post as well as listen here.
As always, I'm over on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk and on the socials Instagram: @prompted.by.nature, Facebook @promptedbynature and on Twitter @promptedxnature
Happy creating!
Helen x
Ps. Just a note that I talk about 'allum lilies' in the episode, but of course I mean 'arum lilies' - I don't know why I always get it wrong! :-D
5.7b 'Where are you *not* blocked?' Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Rebecca Beattie
Welcome to your writing prompt for my conversation with Rebecca Beattie. Something Rebecca said really resonated with me while we were speaking and that was her approach to creative blocks. I’ve done episodes on creative blocks before (links below to previous episodes and blog posts on the website here: https://www.promptedbynature.co.uk/series-five/57-rebecca-beattie-rediscovering-natures-seasons-amp-cycles if you want to have an explore) but I loved when she said ‘find where you’re not blocked.’
The idea of focusing on what is working rather than what isn’t, isn’t a new one but sometimes it can be so powerful to be reminded that blocks are a. not forever, and b. may not even exist at all. It all depends on your perception. The areas in which I personally feel most blocked when it comes to my creativity, and especially my writing, is in the actual action of creating. I have all the ideas and all the notebooks containing many, many fragments of these ideas, but I often struggle to actually sit down and start. I know for myself that I benefit from working with others in a writers’ circle, having a mentor or setting myself clear but small goals for anything I want to write.
You may not need this prompt right now, but I want you to bookmark it for the times when you might do in the future.
So, if you are feeling blocked creatively right now, I want you to do the following:
- Firstly consider whereabouts you are blocked. Which part of the creative process feels hard for you right now? The beginning, the middle or the end? Is it approaching one particular piece of work? An article you want to submit, a poetry competition you’re trying to create something for, or writing anything at all down on the page? Only you will know how to answer that. For me, for example, I often feel blocked out of fear that what it is I want to create won’t be as good as I want it to be and that I’ll just let myself down and then be worse off than if I hadn’t started at all. I often compare myself to others, telling myself that they, whoever ‘they’ are, could do it better than I could so I shouldn’t even start?
- Secondly, to help you find where you’re not blocked, just create anything. So, for me, that always seems to look like the morning pages, or some kind of stream of consciousness practice in which I just sit down, set my timer for thirty minutes, or tell myself I’m going to write just three pages in my notebook, and then start writing. For you, it might be that you would benefit from experimenting in an entirely different way. So, if you are a writer, do some doodling or painting, or play with clay. If you're a painter, do some writing or sculpting and so on. What about getting out into nature, collecting whatever natural objects, like pine cones or leaves, you can find and making some seasonal decorations. Sometimes we need to totally change our perspective to jolt our brains out of this blocked state and return to ‘manufacturer’s settings.’
- Lastly, do this for as long as you need to before you return to your regular practice or that piece you have been working on and can’t get through. Perhaps return slowly and just create some small, manageable goals for yourself - one paragraph at a time, work on a different section of the story, poem, or piece you’ve been stuck on. Take it slowly and see what happens.
The idea is that you give yourself whatever time is available to you (and I realise if you’re up against a deadline, things can become pressing!) to move through whatever has been getting in your way.
As I say, you may not need this right now, but feel free to save it and come back to it whenever you need.
Happy creating,
Helen x
5.7a Rebecca Beattie: ‘Rediscovering Nature’s Seasons and Cycles’
Welcome to series 5, episode 7 of the Prompted by Nature podcast. I hope you’re doing well and keeping warm if it’s as cold where you are as it is here. Well, it’s the final episode of 2022 and I’m very excited that this week’s guest is the one who will help us draw it to a close. i’ll be taking a short break but will be back to continue series 5 in the new year.
This week, I’m speaking with Dr Rebecca Beattie. Rebecca is a Wiccan Priestess with a PhD in Creative Writing, whose childhood growing up on Dartmoor gave her an early appreciation of the power and joys of nature. She has been practising solitary witchcraft for twenty years and an initiate of the Gardnerian Wiccan tradition for fifteen. She is acclaimed for her highly informed teaching of witchcraft subjects at Treadwell’s Books in Bloomsbury. By day she is a professional in a major charity, with advanced degrees in Literature and Creative Writing.
In this conversation we discuss:
- Rebecca’s creative journey
- How Rebecca found modern Paganism and how this led her to find her path as a Wiccan Priestess
- ‘Life as a Training Ground’
- How Rebecca approaches creative blocks
- How her ‘Wheel of the Year’ book came about and what makes it different
- The connection between creativity and spirituality
- Walking as an opportunity for stillness
- What the wheel of the year is and how it can be used
- The interfaith nature of the wheel
- Storytelling as a learning tool
- Rebecca’s early life living on Dartmoor and what drew her back there
- Connecting to nature in an urban setting
- Hiraeth is the word Rebecca uses to describe her feeling of homesickness
- Rebecca’s tips for connecting with each festival
You can find Rebecca’s book, ‘Wheel of the Year: A Nurturing Guide to Rediscovering Nature's Seasons and Cycles’ is available at all good booksellers and in the Prompted by Nature bookshop over on bookshop.org (link in show notes). Remember to support your favourite indie bookshop by buying through them and then post a review on Amazon. Rebecca's website is www.rebeccabeattie.co.uk and she's on Instagram @rebeccambeattie
Some episodes that would go well with this one are:
1.10a Jini Reddy, Finding Magic in the Landscape
3.2a Stella Tomlinson, Priestesshood and Earth-Based Spirituality
4.11a Annabel Abbs, Walking into Creativity
4.12a Soraya Abdel-Hadi, ‘Finding my Creative Voice through Nature
As always, I’m on www.promptedbynature.co.uk and on the socials @prompted.by.nature on Insta and Facebook.
The writing prompt for this episode is available straight after this one if you want to use it to inspire your Winter Solstice celebrations.
Have a wonderful festive season, whatever you’re celebrating.
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you in 2023!
Helen x
5.6b 'A Thread in the Tapestry' Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Angeline Morrison
Welcome to your writing prompt for my conversation with Angeline Morrison. A shorter one for you today - either a prompt or just an opportunity to pause for a moment and consider the wider impact of your work and creative practice.
In my conversation with Angeline, she discussed how she sees her work as one part of a whole, something that feeds into a greater body of work started generations ago and contributed to by all those working to tell the forgotten, ignored and hidden stories.
For this prompt, then, I’d love you to consider your own work as a single thread in a much bigger tapestry, or, if you’re musical like Angeline, a note in the symphony of life. This tapestry is beautiful, with every colour you can imagine, nothing is out of place and everything is as it should be. It tells the stories of nature and envisions a world in which humans and the other-than-human collaborate and dance together to create beauty and to live in a way which nourishes us all equally. The human footprint is a mere whisper of a shape in this tapestry and moves in a way that does not interfere or smother everything else but rather honours the small things, considering its impact before taking a step.
The work that you are creating is just one thread in this kaleidoscope of experience but without it, it wouldn’t be the same. Whether the thread be your words, your images, the shapes you are moulding with your hands, your voice, the way you move or any other way creativity moves through you, it is an integral part of a piece of art that extends back through time to meet our ancestors, and reaches forward to hold hands with those who will follow us, nourished by what you have created.
Take this prompt in whatever way you need or want to. Put ‘A Thread in the Tapestry’ as a title and see where it takes you; create your piece of the tapestry; or just take this as a pep talk that, whatever your art form, and whoever it is created for, it is important, it is valued and, most of all, it is a sacred part of you that affects the world in ways you will never know, whether you choose to share it or not.
Let me know what comes out if you use this one.
Happy creating!
Helen x
5.6a Angeline Morrison, Folk Music as Storytelling
Welcome to series 5, episode 6 of the Prompted by Nature podcast. THANK YOU for the 10k downloads!!
Action point: Go to on my website to see this week's action point and all the links that I suggest.
Onto today’s episode!
Angeline Morrison is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who explores traditional song with a deep love, respect and curiosity. Angeline mostly makes music
in the genres of wyrd folk and psych folk, her work infused with elements of soul music, literature, ‘60s beat pop sounds, folklore, myth and the supernatural.
With a feral approach, a handmade sonic aesthetic and a belief in the importance of tenderness, Angeline’s original compositions and re-stitchings of traditional songs focus on storytelling and the small things that often go unnoticed. Sounds like solitude, memory, nostalgia, a rainy walk amongst trees…
In July 2022, Angeline was announced as the fourth winner of the prestigious Christian Raphael Prize at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Her latest album, The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience (released October 2022, Topic Records) is a work of re-storying. The historic Black presence in the UK dates back to at least Roman times, yet is often hidden, forgotten or unacknowledged.
In this conversation we discuss:
- Where Angeline’s love of folk music and where that comes from
- How her uncle instilled a love of playing and performing music
- How she overcomes creative blocks
- Angeline’s creative inspiration and her practice of ‘welcoming ideas’
- The natural voice and story-telling
- ‘Creative singing intervention’ and how the Sorrow Songs came about
- Angeline’s concerns around creating Sorrow Songs and why she did it anyway
Just a little note about the connection in the first half of the conversation. We had a few problems and then it cut out completely. The sound quality was much better after we reconnected but it doesn’t get in the way of the interview, I don’t think.
You can find Angeline on Instagram @angelcakepie and on her website www.angelinemorrisonmusic.com You can also buy any of her EPs or albums via her Bandcamp page www.angelinemorrisonmusic.bandcamp.com
As always, I’m over on the socials @prompted.by.nature on Insta and @promptedbynature on facebook. I have some in-person nature writing courses and day retreats up on the website too so go to www.promptedbynature.co.uk and follow the link to the events page.
Thank you once again for the 10k downloads, I’m utterly thrilled. Thank you for your support as always.
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon, Helen x
Books mentioned in the episode (all are available on my Bookshop.org page):
- Daphne Du Morier, Monte Verita (from The Birds)
- Sharon Blackie The Enchanted Life, If Women Rose Rooted
- Amy Ray, https://www.amy-ray.com/ , https://countryqueer.com/stories/interview/amy-rays-queer-country-story/
Angeline's Jools Holland performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBnahOo1GBo
Happy listening! Helen x
5.5b 'Grow, Cook, Dye or Wear' - Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Bella Gonshorovitz
Welcome to this writing prompt for my conversation with Bella Gonshorovitz. For this one, it could be done purely for writing but I feel like it’s more of a general prompt for whatever creative practice you want to try at this point.
Bella talked a lot about her process in terms of the circular economy structure and the inspiration that this can provide to not just our work in the garden or growing things but in our creativity. I want to encourage you to choose one of the verbs, grow, cook, dye or wear (as in, sew) and see where it takes you.
Perhaps you could take some time to think about what you’d like to grow come Spring, or do some winter seed sowing for your garden, window sill or balcony space. Maybe you’d like to dive into foraging and what might be around at this time of year - Bella’s book, as well as my conversations with Ebony Gheorghe (4.2a) and Nathaniel Hughes and Fiona Owen all the way back in 1.3a, are great for finding inspiration for this - and how you can plan your year in foraging to really get to know the plants and how they can support you and your health.
Perhaps you have a few bits of fabric scraps lying around or have some budget to raid the charity shops for the amazing fabrics they so often have in stock and want to experiment with sewing your own clothes or something simple, like a tote bag or a face cloth to help you gain confidence in sewing and making clothes if you don’t already.
Once you’ve decided, you could sit down and plan - perhaps three month ahead or so - how you might develop this knowledge or skills set. So for me, for example, I’d like to try the full process that Bella suggests but I don’t want to overwhelm myself so I’m going to get to know onion a bit better, purely because I can hold of it at this time of year and Bella’s glow when she spoke about it was infectious! I want to save the skins and start to experiment with dyeing with it. Then, once my garden is ready for planting, I’m going to try and plant some of my own. I’m following Charles Dowding’s No Dig method, so I’m going to follow this and what Bella says in her book about tending to onions and see how it goes.
I’ll then use this process as creative fuel for a Solarpunk piece I’m working (and if you don’t know what Solarpunk is, just get on Ecosia and give it a search. You can thank me later ;-). I want to see how it feels to grow something that I will later eat and then use to create something that I will wear. I want to experience how it feels to fully close that circle.
I’d love to hear from you if you use this prompt and how you get on.
Remember you can get hold of Bella’s book, Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear via the PbN bookshop on bookshop.org - the link is in the show notes or you can go over to their website and search for the Prompted by Nature shop and have a browse. There’s also a direct link on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk
Happy creating!
Helen x
5.5a Bella Gonshorovitz, 'Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear'
Action point: Earth Hero app. Download the app via your app store or go to their website for more information: https://www.earthhero.org/app/
A little apology for the tardiness of this episode. I was hit by a car whilst cycling to work last Thursday and it pushed everything back a bit. I’m ok with thankfully just bumps and bruises to recover from and the only thing that broke was my helmet - thank goodness for helmets!
I was thrilled to have been included in a list of the 7 best nature podcasts for wildlife enthusiasts on www.bestpodcasts.co.uk
Onto todays’ episode…
Bella Gonshorvitz is a multidisciplinary fashion practitioner, author, natural dyer and allotment plot grower. Her debut book ‘Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear – From seed to style the sustainable way’ was published this year by DK/Penguin Random House. The book captures her miniature circular economy process through the prism of five crops: grow-your-own and foraging advice; vegan recipes for the harvest; instructions to creating natural dye from the cooking waste and full-size patterns with sewing instructions to creating your own Onion dress, Nettle duster, Rhubarb bolero, Blackberry shirtdress and Cabbage shorts.
In this episode we discuss:
- How the book came about
- Her work in clothing design and (truly) sustainable fashion
- Making gowns for hospital staff during COVID
- The magic behind the book
- The importance of emotional connection with the clothes that we wear
- Connecting with the soil
- Community and unlikely friendships
- Composting as a creative process
- Tips for natural dye newbies
Bella’s book, as well as the book she mentions, Wild Colour by Jenny Dean, is available in the Prompted by Nature bookshop over on bookshop.org . Buying through bookshop.org is a great way of supporting the podcast as for ever order I get a little kick back, which helps me to create more of these episodes and lot more free content for you to enjoy!
Bella’s website is www.bellagonshorowitz.com and you can find her @bellagonshorovitz on social media.
A few episodes that would link well with this one:
1.11a Heal Rewilding, Jan Stannard
1.14a Supporting Local Economies through Land-Based Crafts, Karen Collins
2.4a Creative Sustainability and the Joy of Buying Less, Erica Purvis
2.10a Marchelle Farrell, My Garden, My Teacher
3.1a The Plant Scientist, Rebecca Lazarou
3.4a Holistic Sustainability, Grace Hull
3.5a The Timeless Wisdom of Plants, Barbara Wilkinson
Remember you can find me on www.promptedbynature.co.uk on Instagram @prompted.by.nature, where I’m currently adding more prompts and extracts of my own writing.
Happy listening!
Helen x
5.4b Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Catherine Lucktaylor: 'Creative Visionaries'
In this prompt, I invite you to consider Catherine's thoughts on creatives as visionaries, something she speaks about in the main episode. Consider a future you want to see, what part might you play in that? Where is nature and how do we embrace and protect her? What would happen is humans 'got it right'?
If creating a future society feels a bit much for you, perhaps keep it local and create a piece around your garden and/or favourite natural space. What do you envision it to look like in 2, 5, 10 years time? How might it feel? What might live or flourish there?
As always, have fun with this one and let me know how you get on.
Happy creating!
Helen x
5.4a Catherine Lucktaylor, 'Landscapes of Clay'
Welcome to series 5, episode 4 of the Prompted by Nature podcast.
Action point: Pop over to https://unfccc.int/ and https://www.cop27.eg/#/ to find out about the COP27 conference. Also follow @mikaelaloach on Instagram or Twitter if you don't already, as she has been at the conference, both attending and presenting.
Catherine is a ceramic artist based in West Cornwall specialising in Raku clay ceramics, who draws on her English/Ghanaian heritage for her stunning pots. She is passionate about the Cornish landscape and uses this as inspiration for her work. Drawing on her African heritage, she specialises in traditional hand building techniques, such as pinching and coiling with many surfaces burnished to a smooth sheen using her favourite beach pebble.
Her work has appeared on BBC’s The Great Poetry Throw Down and her Raku ceramics are available through galleries in Cornwall, London and Scotland. Catherine also hosts regular open studio events where she demonstrates the Raku firing process.
She also runs grief retreats, using a combination of nature and art therapy create safe spaces for those going through grief and wishing to take time out within a supportive and nurturing community.
In this conversation we discuss:
- Catherine’s creative journey
- Embracing and celebrating her Ghanaian ancestry through her work
- Her work with the adinkra symbols and what they mean to her
- The meditative aspects of creating ceramics
- The creative process as ritual
- Where Catherine gains her inspiration
- Catherine’s love of the Cornish landscape
- Her grief retreats and the healing power of nature and creativity
- The importance of creativity in our modern world
- Art and hope
- The lesson she wants to pass on
- Her vision for the future
Just a note that my microphone cuts at one point - I am getting a new one imminently!
Episode that would be great to listen after this one:
2.3a Lorraine Tindale, Nature-based EMDR
2.8a Punam Sanghrajka, Skyscapes and Art as Meditation
3.7a Rosalind Lowry, Land Art: Celebrating our Boglands
4.10a Elizabeth Gleave, Restoring the Earth through the Arts
You can find Catherine at her website www.lucktaylorceramics.co.uk and on social media @lucktaylorceramics Definitely check out her shop, especially if you are looking for something extra special for yourself or a loved one.
As always, I’m www.promptedbynature.co.uk and @prompted.by.nature and @promptedxnature
Happy listening!
Helen x
5.3b 'Creating an Intentional Creative Practice' Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Eleanor Cheetham
In this prompt, I introduce you to the Intentional Creativity workbook that I've created inspired by my chat with Eleanor. You can download the workbook via my Substack newsletter - https://promptedbynature.substack.com - by visiting my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find the link.
Let me know how you get on and what you create if you use it.
Helen x
-------------------------------
*From the introduction of the workbook*
Welcome to this short Intentional Creativity workbook. This book accompanies episode 5.3a of the Prompted by Nature podcast and is inspired by the conversation I had with writer and facilitator, Eleanor Cheetham, In our conversation, Eleanor spoke about the part that embracing a more intentional creative practice has played in her work.
If you are a regular listener, you'll know that I usually create more specific writing prompts for each conversation but for this one, I wanted to do something more tangible that you could use in your creative life.
How to use this Workbook
Similar to the 30-Day Writing Prompt Project Workbook I created last year, this book can be started at any point.I've designed it so that it runs for 8 weeks, roughly the period of time between a fire festival, like Yule, to a cross-quarter festival, like Imbolc, but you can increase or decrease this timescale as works for you and your life.
The main idea is that you are creating a cycle of creativity with one or two creative projects in mind and a focus of mind that lasts for the length of that cycle, after which you'll take a break or work on your creativity in a more unstructured way.
A few things to consider:
- Be realistic about your end goal and the amount of time you can dedicate to this each day/week. Every day will be different so move and flow with your time and the demands on it so that you are enjyoing this process rather than turning it into yet another item on life's to-do list!
- If the more structured approach that I discuss in the episode doesn't work for you, feel free to adapt the daily planning sheets so that they do; everyone works differently and you know yourself the best.
- There is an invitation to have two 'rest and reflect' weeks, one in week 4 and in week 8. These are to give yourself space to look at where you are and make any necessary adjustments. Perhaps you could use the final week to look ahead at what you might do with this piece of work, write that pitch email, or turn it into something bigger as and when you are ready for another cycle of creativity.
Enjoy the workbook. I hope it helps you to create something you can feel proud of and maybe even share with others!
5.3a Eleanor Cheetham: 'Weaving Words and Spinning Tales'
Welcome to series 5, episode 3 of the Prompted by Nature podcast.
Action point: Contact your MP about standing up for nature, whether that be asking them to speak out against fracking, reading the state of nature report and asking them what they’re doing to support the transition to renewable energy, or the move away from fossil fuels. Here in the UK you can contact you MP or local councillor through the website www.writetothem.com .
Onto today’s episode…
Today you’ll hear my conversation with the wonderful Eleanor Cheetham.
Eleanor is a writer, editor, mentor and teacher, intrinsically connected with the land, inspired by ancient British folklore and stories, and the soulful relationships that our ancestors had with the more-than-human world. She believes that words and stories are medicine for our mind and food for our soul, and that we are all storytellers. You'll find her at Creative Countryside, an independent publishing press, Wild Writers, a sacred space for soulful words, and The Wild Academy, a home for untamed learning.
In this episode we discuss:
- What the concept of creative spirit means to Eleanor
- Her creative practice and how she removed the pressure
- The importance of following our own creative flow
- Finding our ‘tilt’
- Creating an intentional creative practice
- Eleanor’s journey of creativity
- The problem with permission slips
- How Creative Countryside and the Wild Academy about
- Intentional, sustainable publishing
- How Eleanor overcomes creative blocks
A little note before we start that I seemed to have had microphone issues in this conversation, which I didn't realise until after we had recorded. Hopefully it's not too distracting and Eleanor's is fine so I don't think it detracts from the chat.
You can find Eleanor on her websites www.creativecountryside.com and www.thewildacademy.co.uk and on Instagram @creativecountryside
Episodes that would accompanying this on well are:
1.8a Ian Solomon-Kawall - Biodiversity, Creativity and Safe Space in Urban Settings (composting words)
1.13b Dawn Nelson - Rewilding the Self through Story-telling
2.10a Marchelle Farrell - My Garden, My Story
3.2a Stella Tomlinson - Priestesshood and Earth-Based Spirituality
As always, I'm www.promptedbynature.co.uk or on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and Twitter @promptedxnature
5.2b Writing with Water: Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Amy-Jane Beer
In this writing prompt I invite you to write with water. You will need to be in a quiet space in which you feel comfortable to take some time for yourself. We begin with a short breathing practice to get you feeling a little more relaxed and to help release off any tension.
You will then hear a soundtrack of a stream running through a forest. This last for about 10 minutes.
Please feel free to write as you listen or wait until the end to start writing.
Enjoy!
Helen x
5.2a Amy-Jane Beer: The Flow
Welcome to series 5, episode 2 of the Prompted by Nature podcast.
Action point: Find out more about the Right to Roam campaign www.righttoroam.org.uk that Amy speaks about.
Amy-Jane Beer is a biologist and nature writer. She earned a doctorate studying sea urchins before swapping the microscope for a keyboard. She was editor of Wildlife of Britain magazine, and of Wildlife World magazine for the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, and is author of several non-fiction books on science and natural history. She writes regularly for The Guardian, BBC Wildlife and Countryfile magazines, and is working on her first, nature-inspired novel. She contributed to the 2018 People’s Manifesto for Wildlife, commissioned by Chris Packham and sits on the steering group of Networks for Nature. She lives in North Yorkshire with her husband, nature- and Lego-obsessed son and turbo-charged Border Collie.
In this episode, we discuss:
- How Amy’s work and writing practice has shifted in recent years
- Amy’s relationship with water and kayaking
- The inspiration behind her book, The Flow
- Water and stories
- Water as shapeshifter
- How writing the book strengthened her connection to the land
- How Amy connects to nature
- Access to nature and creativity
- Amy’s work with the Right to Roam Campaign
- How nature interacts with her creativity and vice versa
- What she’s learnt on her path that she wants to pass on
- Her vision for the future
You can find Amy on social media @AmyJaneBeer on both Instagram and Twitter. Her book The Flow, is out now wherever you get your books - and you know we love an independent bookshop! Remember you can purchase any books discussed don this podcast and lots more in the Prompted by Nature Bookshop over on bookshop.org - I get a little kickback when you buy through the bookshop, which helps me to fund all the things on the pod! The address is: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/promptedbynature
As always, I’m on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk , on Twitter @promptedxnature and Instagram @prompted.by.nature
5.1b Finding the Landscape in You: Writing Prompt for my Interview with Bryony Benge-Abbott
In this writing prompt, we explore the ideas conjured up by Bryony in her interview around gaze and using our creativity to interpret nature. The prompt questions I ask are:
- What’s your earliest memory of nature?
- What part has that played in how you see nature?
- What landscapes are you most drawn to in your creative practice?
- How do you feel when you encounter nature and how might that influence your creative voice?
- How can you use your creative practice to explore different landscapes and those which you have less knowledge of?
- How can you play around with tone in your writing and experiment with ways of expressing your ideas that feel less familiar?
You can answer the all the questions thoroughly, or just use them as jumping off points for an exploratory piece.
Have fun and let me know how you get on if you use this one.
Happy writing!
Helen x
5.1a Bryony Benge-Abbott: Exploring the Intersections
Welcome to series 5, episode 1 of the Prompted by Nature podcast!
Action point: Go to RSPB, Wildlife Trust and sign the petition/email your MP regarding the changes in law regarding:
- Lifting the ban on fracking in England
- Removing important laws that protect nature
- Considering scrapping plans to reward farmers for managing land in a nature-friendly way
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/get-involved/our-campaigns/defend-nature
Onto the episode…
Bryony Benge-Abbott is an interdisciplinary artist working closely with scientists, activists and community groups to explore our relationship to the natural world. She explores the potential for art to transform our relationship to nature can be unearthed in the space where science, social justice and spirituality meet?
We talk about:
- The intersections that exist in the ways that we approach nature and what these mean to her
- The capacity for art to explore these intersections
- How her artistic practice started and how it developed
- The ways in which her work at museums has enriched her creative practice
- Her work around Pre-Raphelites and how this gave rise to her work on ‘gaze’ and natural world
- What climate anxiety did for her creativity
- Art as ritual space
- Bryony’s Colour of Transformation project and how the life cycle of a butterfly inspired this work
- How Bryony’s for has developed as a result of working with different practitioners in Colour of Transformation
- How her connection to nature influences her creativity
- Her vision for the future
- Her hope for the future
You can find Bryony on her website https://bryonybengeabbott.com where you can also find out about her Colour of Transformation project, on Twitter @BryonyBA and on Insta @bryonybengeabbott
As always, I'm at www.promptedbynature.co.uk and on Insta @prompted.by.nature as well as Twitter @promptedxnature
Happy listening!
Helen x
4.13b 'Bark Mask' - Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Jackee Holder
In this prompt, I use Jackee's beautiful writing maps for inspiration. We look at the prompt, 'bark mask' and the directions we could go in in writing using this title. I read the extract from the 'Writing with Fabulous Trees' map and share thoughts on how you might use this in your own writing.
Some ideas:
- 'Writing about ways in which surfaces protect us...about your own or your character's masks, and the importance of surfaces.' (JH)
- Put the title, 'bark mask' at the top of the page and free write for at least 10 minutes (15-20 minutes if you have it!) on the theme
- Get outside and put your hands on a tree trunk; or forage a some sticks and see how the textures differ when you are back at home
Please do share your writing with me as I love to read your words!
Jackee's writing maps and the Inner & Outer World Self-Discovery deck can be found in the shop section on her website www.jackeeholder.com
Find me on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk
Happy writing!
Helen x
4.13a Jackee Holder: Writing with Trees in the Urban Landscape
Welcome to series 4, episode 13 of the Prompted by Nature podcast. So today is the final episode of the pod before I take a little break for the summer.
Today’s action point: Stop Jackdaw campaign are organising a week of action to push back against the approval of the Jackdaw gas field. All information about the week can be found on their website www.stopcambo.org.
Today, I’m speaking with the incredible Jackee Holder. A well seasoned walker of London streets, parks and green spaces with over 10,000 walking and writing hours under her belt, Jackee is a custodian of trees gathering stories and narratives on paper and through the spoken word to keep memories of our urban woods and forests alive. Jackee is an author, leadership and wellness coach and coach supervisor working in leadership and organisational development.
Jackee is the author of four non-fiction titles including 49 Ways To Write Yourself Well (which you can find in the PbN bookshop on bookshop.org) and Be Your Own Best Life Coach. Her published works includes the illustrated Writing With Fabulous Trees Writing Map and ReWilding The Page: Urban Forest writing maps, portable illustrated guides offer writing and journaling activities tips for connecting with nature and the environment. Jackee is currently a columnist for Psychologies magazine where she pens the Write To Flourish monthly column.
- Jackee’s connection to the nature of London
- The wisdom of tree and what trees and forests mean to her
- How her love of nature influences her work as a coach
- Her relationship with Sanctuary
- Jackee poses a question from her deck
- How the writing maps came about
- The beauty of the elder years
- What she’s learnt that she wants to pass on
- Her hope for the future
You can find out more about Jackee and her work plus buy her maps and card deck on her website www.jackeeholder.com and on her instagram @jackeeholderinspires
Conversation that would go well with this one are:
1.7 Nana Tomova, The Story Apothecary
1.8 Ian Solomon-Kawall (KMT), Biodiversity, Creativity and Safe Space in Urban Settings
4.5 Cheryl Duerden: Empathetic Forestry
4.11 Annabel Abbs, Walking into Creativity
As always, I’m over on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk I’m on instagram @prompted.by.nature and twitter @promptedxnature
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon. Bye!
4.12b 'Nourishing your Creativity': Prompt for my Conversation with Soraya Abdel-Hadi
In this prompt, I encourage you to try something new - painting, sculpting, writing, sewing! Life is about variety and we can nourish our creatives selves by trying out lots of different things, something Soraya spoke of in the conversation.
Let me know what you try and how it helps you in your main creative practice.
Happy creating!
Helen x
4.12a Soraya Abdel-Hadi: 'Finding my Creative Voice through Nature'
Action point: All the Elements, the CIC founded by today's guest. Go to alltheelements.co and have a look around at their resources pages, the directory and everything they’re doing and have coming up. You can also find them on Instagram and Twitter @alltheelements_
Today I’m speaking with Soraya Abdel-Hadi. Soraya is a powerhouse of creativity. She is an award-winning writer, artist, and advocate for women and diversity in the UK outdoors. She believes in taking a holistic approach to making the world a better place, and writes about sustainability, nature and adventure travel. Soraya is Lonely Planet Sustainable Storyteller 2021 and founder of the All The Elements – a community working to increase diversity in the UK outdoors.
- Soraya’s journey into her creativity and how she came to combine her love of writing with her love of nature and the outdoors
- How she inspires and engages with her creativity through multiple mediums
- How burnout inspired her to create more
- What working for a magazine taught her about her creativity
- Finding her voice through blogging
- The power of creative community
- How her interactions with nature influence her creativity
- The power of storytelling
- Her work with All the Elements
- And so much more
This was such a rich conservation and, for me personally, highlights why I love having these conversations so much - it was all about nature, creativity and all of their connections and intersections.
To find out more about Soraya and her work you can go to www.soraya.earth or @sorayaearth on Twitter and Instagram.
As always, I’m on www.promptedbynature.co.uk, Insta @prompted.by.nature Twitter @promptedxnature and facebook @promptedbynature
Happy listening!
Helen x
4.11b A 'Prompt Per Minute': Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Annabel Abbs
In this prompt I invite you to go on a walk in your local area and do what I’m calling a ‘prompt per minute’ activity. In the conversation, Annabel talked about ‘walking deep’ and this prompt encourages you to have a go at this whilst using it as a source of creative inspiration.
Instructions:
- Go on a *slow* walk in your local area, for around 20 minutes if you can - remember to take a notebook and pen! You can also do this in your garden if you have one and would prefer to stay closer to home
- Find yourself a sit spot in which you feel comfortable
- Set an alarm on your phone or watch to go off every minute for ten minutes
- Every time it goes off, write one sentence about your surroundings. Could be a metaphor, an observation, a sight, smell…whatever comes out when the alarm goes off but it can only be one sentence
- Then sit and just be there until the next alarm goes off
- Once you have done this, continue on your slow walk paying careful attention to your surroundings
- When you get home, set your timer for around 15 minutes - more if you have time! - and write a piece that incorporates the sentences you’ve come up with
Variations:
- Do the same timings but write as you walk. Depends on how comfortable you feel in the space.
- Just do the prompt per minute activity for 5 minutes, or extend it to however much time you have
- When writing at home afterward, don’t incorporate the sentences, just use them as inspiration
- Make it a longer session and extend the timings to writing a sentence every two, five, ten, 30 minutes or more!
Remember to reach out if you try this one.
Instagram @prompted.by.nature
Twitter: @promptedxnature
Facebook@promptedbynature
Happy writing!
Helen x
4.11 52 Annabel Abbs: Walking into Creativity
Action point: www.accessiblecountryside.org.uk A fantastic resource for those with mobility considerations in the UK. Gives a comprehensive range of maps to accessible routes around the UK countryside. Definitely pop over there and have an explore and pass it on to anyone you think might find it useful.
On to the episode! Annabel Abbs is a writer of fiction and nonfiction and in this episode we discuss her book 52 Ways to Walk. We had this conversation a few weeks ago and with everything that’s going on in the world right now, it’s been so lovely editing it and just listening to a chat about walking!
In this episode we discuss:
- Her journey in walking (pardon the pun!)
- Her no-car promise to herself
- How an accident that left her immobile caused her to recognise her privilege in being able to walk and inspired her to write about women walking
- Why she prefers walking to running
- The value of walking in creative thinking
- The part that walking plays in Annabel’s creative process
- Endocannabinoids and walking
- Walking as rebellion
- The concept of ‘walking deep’
- The joy of graveyards!
- Lessons from her journey and her hope for the future
Great episodes to accompany this one are:
- Anna Neubert-Wood, WanderWomen Scotland 1.2a
- Lucy Jones, Losing Eden 1.9a
- Jini Reddy, ‘Wanderland’ 1.10a
- Dr Sheree Mack, Representation in Nature as a Path to Oneness 1.12a
- Lorraine Tindale, Nature-based EMDR 2.3a
You can find Annabel on her website www.annabelabbs.com or on Insta, Twitter and Facebook all @annabelabbs I’ve added 52 Ways to Walk as well as Windswept, one of the books we discuss in the episode to my bookshop on bookshop.org so please feel free to have a look over there. I’ll get a little kick back if you order through my shop, which helps me to keep the podcast going. Thank you! You can also pop to your local library if you’re a library user and ask them to order it in.
As always I’m www.promptedbynature.co.uk or on the socials @prompted.by.nature
Remember to listen in to the writing prompt that follows this episode.
Happy listening!
Helen x
4.10b 'Restoring the Earth through the Arts': Writing Prompt for my Interview with Elizabeth Gleave
I absolutely love the Land Art Agency tagline, 'restoring the earth through the arts' - so much so that I thought I'd use it as a starting point for the writing prompt for this episode!
In this episode I give you some ideas as to how to might approach this. Remember to check my social media feeds for the bullet journal prompt that accompanies this episode as there will likely be fresh inspiration there too :-)
Instagram: @prompted.by.nature
Twitter: @promptedxnature
Website: www.promptedbynature.co.uk
Happy creating!
Helen x
4.10a Elizabeth Gleave ofThe Land Art Agency: 'Restoring the Earth through the Arts'
Welcome to series 4 episode 10 of the Prompted by Nature podcast.
Action point for this week: Join the #stopEAcop campaign, which is calling on global insurance broker, Marsh, drop the east african crude oil pipeline. You can find all the information on their website https://www.stopeacop.net/home They are having a day of online action on Tuesday 28th June. Go to the series 4 episode 10 post on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk (you can find it in the podcast dropdown menu).
Onto the episode. This week, I’m thrilled to introduce the lovely Elizabeth Gleave to the podcast . Elizabeth is the founder of Land Art Agency, an agency that puts nature and the environment at its core to ensure that the creative industry’s great ideas can be executed in a sustainable way, both highlighting environmental issues and at the same time transforming the landscape in which they are created. I feel like the Land Art Agency is and does so much that its hard to encapsulate it in a snappy bio. Elizabeth talks a lot about it and how it came about so I’ll let her do the talking. Go to their instagram @landartcollective to find out more about what they do and the absolutely stunning creatives that they represent and support.
Just a little note that Elizabeth joined me from her cabin and was hot-spotting from her phone so there were a couple of instances where the reception cut out. I’ve edited it as best I can but no meaning is lost, I just wanted to let you know so you don’t think ‘oh! What was that?!’ when it happens!
You can find Elizabeth photography over on instagram @elizabeth.gleave and on her website www.elizabethgleave.com and Land Art Agency is @landartcollective and www.landartagecy.com where you can find the information about the Sustainable Futures residency plus talks and workshops. I’ve also popped the information about the artists we mention below for you to look up and enjoy!
Alternative photography collective: http://www.londonaltphoto.com
Hannah fletcher: https://www.hannahfletcher.com
I would also highly recommend going to the shop on the Land Art Agency’s website as all funds go back to directly supporting the artists and their pioneering sustainable methods. Also look out for their upcoming podcast, which promises to be absolutely incredible and I can’t wait to listen!
One final note that Elizabeth mentions the mountain that was awarded personhood status in New Zealand but we couldn’t think of which it was. Well, I’ve done a little ecosia-ing and found the following:
New Zealand granted legal personhood to the Te Uruwera forest in 2014, and to the Whanganui river and Mount Taranaki in 2017. An Indian court granted legal personhood to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in 2017, citing the Whanganui Act, and soon after Colombia awarded rights to the Atrato river.
As always, you an find me in the usual ways www.promptedbynature.co.uk, @prompted.by.nature on insta, @promptedxnature on twitter and (apparently!) @promptedbynature on Facebook!
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon!
Helen x
4.9b 'Looking to See' Writing Prompt for my Conversation with Hannah Bourne-Taylor
For this prompt, you are invited to ‘look to see,’ something Hannah speak about in the episode. I talk you through some ideas for what to do on a walk to you local green space or favourite natural spot, such as breathing and allowing your breath to bring you back into the present and looking at what’s around you with the aiming of ‘seeing.’
Some recommended guided meditations from previous writing prompts:
Episode 1.10b - Searching for Magic in the Landscape (my prompt for my conversation with Jini Reddy)
Episode 2.5b - Quiet Enough for Nature (my prompt for my conversation with Nick Hayes)
Enjoy and let me know how you get on if you use t his one!
Happy creating!
Helen x
4.9a Hannah Bourne-Taylor: 'What the Fledgling Taught Me'
Welcome to series 4, episode 9 of the Prompted by Nature podcast.
Today's action point: Visit Hannah's website to find information and resources for connecting and protecting nature on your doorstep: www.hannahbournetaylor.com/resources
Today I speak with writer and nature advocate, Hannah Bourne-Taylor. After careers in both equine photography and copy-writing in the branding industry, Hannah moved from London to Ghana in 2013 where she lived for eight years. She has ghost-written and edited best-selling books and FLEDGLING, her debut memoir, is a celebration of the wild and is being published by Aurum in April 2022.
For context, before the main conversation Hannah had been telling me about the swallows she was trying to help after soffits were created during their migration south meaning that they couldn’t get back into their nesting spot. Hannah heard about this on social media and got to work trying to help the birds. I also told her about the Benfield Valley Project. An update of the swifts situation is that since our chat, the landlord of the property involved has agreed to put up nesting boxes on the house that is their home. I mention these points as we refer back to them in the conversation.
In this episode we discuss:
- Her passion for looking after the individual
- What the finch and birds in general have taught her
- The finch as representative of ‘voices of the wild’
- How her experience as a ghost writer and photographer influenced her ability to tell the finch’s story
- The parallels between Hannah’s experience of caring for a finch and my own experience of early motherhood
- The importance of feeling empowered to help with even the ‘smallest’ things
- The place her upbringing played in how she encounters nature
- The process of ‘looking to see’
- The importance of enthusiasm in adulthood
- The emotional aspect of writing the book
- Hannah’s experience opening up about her anxiety and OCD
- The importance of not losing hope
Recommended previous episodes to accompany this one: Lucy Jones 1.9, Lorraine Tindale 2.3, Anita Bagdi 2.11, Lucy Groves 2.12, plus Sophie’s episode last week 4.8.
Find Hannah on her website www.hannahbournetaylor.com and @hannahbt on twitter or @writerhannahbt on instagram. Fledgling is out now and is published by Bloomsbury. I now have a shop over on bookshop.org, where I’ll get a little kick-back on anything you purchase through it. This will help me to fund future episodes of the podcast. The link is on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk, where you can find all episodes and upcoming course dates, or you can go directly to bookshop.org and search for ‘Prompted by Nature.’
4.8b 'Writing with the Lost Species of Forget-Me-Not' (plus a bonus meditation practice) writing prompt for my interview with Sophie Pavelle
In this writing prompt I invite you to get to know the species in your local area who might be on the conservation amber or red lists, or who may at threat of endangerment. I go through the list of species that Sophie covers in her book, Forget-Me-Not, and offer up the possibility of using these animals as creative prompts for your own work.I also share a mindfulness practice that I like to use whenever my eco-anxiety comes to tea.
I hope you enjoy - let me know how you get on if you use either of these.
Happy writing!
Helen
4.8a Sophie Pavelle: 'Finding the Lost Species of Climate Change Britain'
Welcome to series 4, episode 8 of the Prompted by Nature podcast! This week I’m thrilled to release my conversation with the lovely Sophie Pavelle, a Science Communicator, writer, and part of the Beaver Trust team. I came across Sophie a few years ago and have been wanting to get her on the podcast for a while. I love her creativity and the sense of fun that she brings to potentially challenging topics like climate change, environmental advocacy and wildlife and conservation issues. Sophie regularly works with past interviewee Nina Constable, who appears in series 2, episode 2, on the documentary Beavers without Borders in 2021 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK6qrCcVwacand ) more recently On the Edge, about making space for rivers in Great Britain ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJOpfHDuww8 )
Sophie is both humble and quick-witted and it was a joy to speak with her about her new book Forget-Me-Not, which explores the lesser-known species threatened by climate breakdown here in the UK. We discuss, amongst other topics:
- Her connection with nature and doing it her way
- Science communication and its connection to her creativity
- The importance of knowing your own strengths
- Sophie’s process of communicating complex topics and publications such as the state of nature paper
- The power of personal voice and letting the words flow
- Hope as a narrative technique
- Individual species as gateway to wider climate issues
- How she overcomes any creative blocks
In my eyes, Forget-Me-Not is a down-to-earth take on what can be very complex - not to mention scary! - subjects and I really feel that this is an important book in terms of the way in which Sophie makes these issues understandable to those of us who don’t necessarily know the ins and outs of how the natural world works as well as people new to the conversation and climate breakdown conversation. Sophie’s passion for nature and wildlife shines through and I really think you'll love both the book and this conversation.
Sophie is on social media @sophiepavs, where you can find links to all her work. Forget-Me-Not is available through Bloomsbury via your local bookshop, bookshop.org, hive.co.uk or you can ask you local library to order it in if they don’t already have it! Remember to support your indie bookshop, read the book and then post that all-important review on Amazon, which is a really good way of supporting writers without having to support a multinational conglomerate. I’ve popped direct links to these websites on the episode page on my website plus links to the documentaries I mentioned above.
As always, I’m @prompted.by.nature on Insta, @promptedxnature on Twitter and on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find links to my substack newsletter, my buymeacoffee page, all episodes of the podcast, upcoming writing classes in Brighton and Hove, plus my own writing.
Remember to listen in to the writing prompt that follows this episode.
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon!
Helen x
4.7b 'Landscape as Character' Writing Prompt for my Interview with Ben Myers
In this writing prompt, I read a short extract of Ben's latest novel, The Perfect Golden Circle (pg 28) to get our creative juices flowing. This prompt is all about seeing and feeling the heartbeat of the landscape around you - whether that's hills and mountains, the sea, or even a concrete jungle. Nature is everywhere, sometimes we just need to look a little harder to find it.
A few idea to get you started:
Choose one aspect of nature, find something seemingly unrelated and connect them - perhaps, as in the extract 'the outlying hills are charcoal smears' - as if blended by an artist's hand; perhaps the crest of that wave reminds you of the candy floss you ate at the fair when you were five. Maybe the bees don't buzz but hum a song to which only they know the tune. Find the pulse in what's around you and think about how this particulate landscape can play a part in your creative work, a part that is wise, joyful, or even mischievous.
Let me know how you get on if you use this one and enjoy!
Happy creating!
Helen x
www.instagram.com/prompted.by.nature
4.7a Benjamin Myers: Writing with the Land in 'The Perfect Golden Circle'
Welcome to Series 4, episode 7 of Prompted by Nature. This week I have the privilege of releasing my conversation with writer Benjamin Myers. Ben Myers is a writer and journalist from Durham in the north of England. I’ll let him introduce himself but his writing awards and accolades are intimidating - though well-deserved! - and his novel Gallow’s Pole is about to be released as a TV series directed by Shane Meadows.
We talked a lot about the novel The Perfect Golden Circle as well as Ben’s relationship with the land and I loved hearing about the ways in which he finds inspiration. I really urge you to get hold of a copy of the book, via the library, your local bookshop or via bookshop.org and then post a glowing review of it on Amazon. Time flew when I read the book and I think you’ll really love it. I’ve also started reading Under the Rock, which is a non-fiction piece and is just beautiful so I highly recommend having a look at that too!
We discussed:
- His literary background
- The experience of having a book turned into a TV series
- The process of ‘letting go’ as a writer
- How the idea for Perfect Golden Circle came about
- Art as an egotistical practice
- Crop circles as land art
- Landscape as character
- Land art and death of the author
- Whether the novel could have been written now
- His hope for the future
- What he’s learnt
I am a bit gutted I didn’t ask him more about his own journey as a writer of a variety of genres but perhaps I’ll get to interview him again one day and ask him all the questions I didn’t get around to!
Before the conversation he told me that he’d listened to a couple of the other conversations on the podcast so I thought I’d recommend them as they both tie in nicely with this episode. They were my interview writer Nick Hayes, episode 2.5a and my interview with land artist Rosalind Lowry, episode 3.7a and I also thought I’d link to another artist episode, which was 3.6a with Jamie Redway, who is an illustrator of the natural world and we have conversations around mindfulness and being out in nature as a creative practice.
You can find Ben on Twitter @benmyers1 and on instagram @benmyers76 and over on his website www.benmyers.com
As always, I’m on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and now on Twitter (let’s see how it goes!) @promptedxnature and on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find all the link to all the things!
Remember to listen in to the writing prompt that follows this episode!
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon,
Helen x
4.6b Four-Word Writing Prompt for my interview with Georgia Wyatt-Lovell
In this prompt I give you four words to get you started on a creative piece. I hope you enjoy it! Remember to share anything you create with me either via my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk or on insta @prompted.by.nature
Happy writing!
Helen x
4.6a Georgia Wyatt-Lovell: Bags and Bouncy Castles
Today's guest is Georgia Wyatt-Lovell an artist, creative and the founder of Wyatt and Jack, a business that turns UK-sourced broken inflatables and deck chairs into the most beautiful bags!
Georgia studied ceramics at Chelsea School of Art before continuing her studies at Swansea uni. As we’ll hear, she started Wyatt and Jack when she found out what happened to deck chair fabrics and got inspired to try out turning them into something else. Wyatt and Jack have been innovating since 2010 and Georgia runs the business with her husband Steve and Marianne, who does customer services. Georgia handmakes each and every bag herself and stockists include the National Trust and The Barbican in London. W&J have collaborated with, amongst others, Surfer’s Against Sewage, Refuge, Coppa Feel, Lucy and Yak, the Royal Navy and Marines charity (recycling old life rafts!) and Surf Sistas and have been featured on the One Show, BBC News, The Metro to name a few.
This conversation doesn’t following the usual structure as we started talking really quickly and the conversation developed naturally - we ended up chatting for and hour and a half; we start mid-way through the conversation and we’ve already spoken about the need for open conversation in the climate movement and Georgia is talking about the need to choose where she puts her energy and her nerves around launching new collections.
There are a few swears so be aware of that if you are sensitive to that.
We discuss:
- Choosing where you put you energy
- The sudden growth of her business and how she dealt with that
- Definitions of success in business
- How the idea of Wyatt and Jack came about
- Her work with corporate businesses and the need for boundaries
- The importance of the little things and not aiming for perfection
- Th importance of mental and physical health in running a product-based business
- Creating achievable price points
- The work that goes into entirely handmade products
- The importance of creative exchange
- Knowing your limits and sticking to them
Georgia shares so many stories and anecdotes all of which outline her dedication to her work and creativity and I really appreciate how Wyatt and Jack as a company are driven by the designs and the innovation that comes with that and are solely focused on that.
Find Georgia over @wyattandjack on the socials plus on their website www.wyattandjack.com
As always I on insta @prompted.by.nature and on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk and you can buy me a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/promptedbynature
Please do rate and review.
Happy listening!
Helen x