Prompted by Nature

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:

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

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:

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

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:

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

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.

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

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:

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

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

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:

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

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:

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

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:

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

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