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Prompted by Nature episodes
- 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
www.promptedbynature.co.uk
@prompted.by.nature
17 min - 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
1 hr 9 min - 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
www.promptedbynature.co.uk
@prompted.by.nature
9 min - 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.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/rspb-news-stories/uk-government-attack-on-nature/?from=hphero
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
1 hr 10 min - 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
7 min - 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!
1 hr 16 min - 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
6 min - 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
1 hr 12 min - 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.
www.promptedbynature.co.uk
Instagram @prompted.by.nature
Twitter: @promptedxnature
Facebook@promptedbynature
Happy writing!
Helen x
8 min - 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
1 hr 2 min
About Prompted by Nature
From the publisher's feed
The Prompted by Nature podcast is a series of interviews punctuated by meditations and writing prompts inspired by each conversation. It explores the connection between nature and creativity through story-telling.
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.
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