Prompted by Nature

Hello! Welcome to episode one series THREE! of Prompted by Nature. It’s so lovely to be back and speaking with some amazing people who I know you will love.

A few updates from me before we start. Things have been busy on this side of things as Benfield Valley Project becomes an official CCG (regular listeners will know this story but you can catch up with the goings-on with this in most of my solo episodes), and I’ve also been getting more involved with the Climate Change pressure group Parents for Future.

I’m also really excited that I’m going to be launching my Patreon very soon! This is something I’ve toyed with the idea of for a while; I knew I wanted to begin to create more of a community around the podcast and the work that I do on my website, social media and in my online and in-person sessions but really wasn’t sure how it would work. I’ll be using Patreon as more of a membership platform so look out for all the information in my newsletter, the first of which I’ll be sending out next week (sign up via my website), and on social media and I’ll go into a bit more detail about the offerings in the next episode.

Due to all of this, I’ve decided that episodes will be released every two weeks rather than every week, just to give myself a bit of breathing space. I’m so excited about upcoming conversations and am so happy to be back at it again after a lengthier break than I had anticipated!

So back to today’s conversation. Today I speak with the wonderful Rebecca Lazarou, otherwise known as Las the Plant Scientist.

Rebecca is a medicinal plant researcher at Kew Gardens, an editor for the academic Journal of Herbal Medicine, science teacher at schools of herbalism including Botonica, a writer and educator. She is also the proud founder of Laz The Plant Scientist, an educational platform for holistic wellness, science and plant medicines and where she’ll soon be offering her gorgeous botanical creations.

In this conversation we talk about:

You can find Rebecca on Instagram @laztheplantscientist and sign up for her newsletter over on her website www.rebeccalazarou.com

As always you can find me over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature or on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find all the details of my upcoming in-person outdoor creative writing sessions and creativity day retreats as well as my online versions of these offerings. My Thursday evening session is the highlight of my week and I’m considering starting another Monday night one. Please do join in when you can.

Hello lovely!  I wanted to take a little opportunity to say hi and see how you are.  In this episode I talk mainly about the ways I've been keeping myself connected to my creativity and to nature in this time of disarray.  I hope my suggestions help. <3

Remember you can always find me over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature or on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can also book onto my weekly nature-inspired meditation and creative writing sessions.

See you in a couple of weeks for series 3!

Happy writing!

Helen x

Welcome to this meditation and writing prompt inspired by my conversation with Lucy Groves of the White Stork Project.

This prompt is a little different to what we usually do. I’ll be talking you through the prompt and then we’ll have the pleasure of listening to a White Stork greeting ceremony for a few of minutes to help get your centred and inspired to create a piece of work based on whatever comes up for you as a result.

I’d also recommend opening the white stork project website and look at the migration map on their ‘news’ page. The link is in the show notes for ease but you can find it at www.whitestorkproject.org/news and it’s the entry for 13th October 2020.

As I mentioned, this prompt is all about the storks that Lucy spoke about and her work with them. Here are some ideas if you listening to the soundscape and struggle with getting started:

These are just a few ideas, just see where the prompt and the ideas brought up in the episode take you. As always, don’t judge your creativity before you’re started and enjoy the process!

I’m going to play the soundscape for three minutes and then it’ll fade out for you to either listen to again to start creating!

Happy writing!

Hello lovely you! Welcome to series 2 episode 12 of Prompted by Nature. How are you this week?

This week’s episode is my final conversation episode of 2020 although next week the tables will be turned when my amazing friend Priya Shah will be interviewing me, which should be interesting, as she’ll be asking me the questions that I usually ask my guests! I hope you’ll join us for that!

But onto this week’s episode. Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with the wonderful Lucy Groves of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Lucy is a conservation biologist working on a range of projects across Sussex and has an interest in animal behaviour, movement ecology and nature connection.  Lucy joined Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in 2019 as Project Officer for the White Stork Project which is a multi-partner project aiming to restore the White Stork to Britain after a 600 year absence.

Based at the Knepp Rewilding project in West Sussex, Lucy is responsible for coordinating partner organisations and release sites, post-release monitoring of the storks including movement data from GPS tracking and collation of sighting reports,  as well as delivering public engagement using the emblematic White Stork to drive nature connection in local and wider communities.

A self-confessed nature nerd, small mammal lover, thread painter and Mum to a Little Owl, she is happiest when outdoors searching for British wildlife.

In this conversation, we discuss:

I first found out about Lucy work on BBC Springwatch when they showcased the white stork project at Knepp. I started following Lucy on social media and an absolutely fascinated by the journey of the storks and the work that Lucy and her team are doing. It was so lovely to hear more about the project and the wonderful things that we can do to help heal our planet and its wild inhabitants.

You can find Lucy on Instagram and Twitter @lucyinthewild and can read all about her work with the white stork project on www.whitestorkproject.org

As always I’m over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can sign up to my weekly online nature writing sessions, book in for any of my 2021 in-person outdoor writing and creativity sessions and retreats and buy gift vouchers for the nature lover in your life! And if you enjoy the podcast, please do share with your communities by sharing on social media or in real life. And please pop in a review and five stars wherever you’re listening if you can - every little helps get these voices and conversations out there.

Remember to stick around until the end when I’ll give you a little insight into the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode.

Happy listening and I’ll speak to you after.

———————————

Wasn’t that so inspiring I hope you enjoyed it! In the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode, we’ll be taking inspiration from the storks and creating a piece guided by their journey. As always, I’m sending you lots of love. Happy writing and I’ll speak to you soon!

Hello!  Welcome to this meditation and writing prompt for my interview with Anita Bagdi.  In this episode, I speak about my own eco-anxiety and strategies that help me to manage and soothe it.  There are a few prompt questions (below) and I direct you to some meditations that help me over on the website.

Prompt Questions:

-----------------

Some ideas listed in the episode:

Let me know how you get on!

Helen x

Hello my love! Welcome to series 2 episode 11 of Prompted by Nature. How are you? How this week been for you? I’m not going to lie, this full moon has had me all over the shop - that of course, and the fact that we have a new house mate in our abode. We are over-wintering a baby hedgehog, Carrie, who was very poorly and underweight when she was found in a garden nearby on Halloween, and is now too young to hibernate so the lovely Carole, who runs the local hedgehog rescue group and who has been amazing in helping and advising me in setting up the Benfield Valley Project, asked if I wanted to look after her now that she is doing better. Suffice it to say, it feels like a huge responsibility, especially with hedgehogs being on the ‘at threat of extinction’ list, but she’s settling in well and we love her already! I’ll keep you posted as the weeks go on as to how she gets on.

Anyway, onto today’s conversation. In this episode I speak with Anita Bagdi. Anita is a self-taught freelance illustrator, a book lover, coffee addict, Mum of two beautiful girls and a worried warrior of climate change. She loves creating mood, capturing everyday feelings, finding different, sometimes funny ways of telling stories and showing beauty in colours or in black and white.

In this episode, we discuss:

As I mention in the conversation I first connected with Anita through the parent climate change group, Parent’s for Future, which we joined at the same time and then were part of the group who worked on the Open Letter to Boris Johnson calling for a ‘Green Recovery’ earlier this year. Anita shared a few things about her artwork in the WhatsApp group and I followed her on insta and was immediately enamoured by her use of colour, structure, and the powerful messages about our natural world in her creations.

You can find Anita over on instagram @anitab_art or on her portfolio website, where you can find the link to her shop www.anitabagdi.com

As always, I’m over on insta @prompted.by.nature or on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find link to my Etsy shop, gift vouchers for my in-person outdoor retreats and creative writing sessions as well as information and bookings for my Monday night online nature-inspired meditation and creative writing sessions.

Please do give the podcast a five-star review if you have time and share with your community on social media or in real life. Thank you to those who have already done this, it’s making a huge difference in getting the meditations, writing prompts and these voices ‘out there.’

Remember to stick around unit the end when I’ll give you a little hint at the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode. Happy listening and I’ll speak to you after!

Find yourself in a comfortable, seated position somewhere quiet.  

We’re going to begin this meditation and writing prompt with some breath work and then do a little bullet journalling.  

If you want to download the full transcript and questions for later they are up in the show notes on Marchelle’s episode on the website - just go to the series two page at www.promptedbynature.co.uk Otherwise, just have your notebook or journal to hand.  I’ll guide you through the meditation and questions and then leave you to write whatever these inspire, whether these are connected to the questions or not.

Enjoy!

Helen x

Hello! Welcome to series two, episode 10 of Prompted by Nature. I hope this one finds you well. It definitely feels like we’re well on the way to winter here in the UK, with cold snaps aplenty and lots of my favourite cold, crisp, sunny days I can spend outside.

Today’s episode is all about the wonderful Marchelle Farrell, also known as @Afroliage on Instagram.

Marchelle Farrell is a gardener, writer and mother, born in Trinidad and Tobago, but has spent the last 20 years attempting to become hardy here in the UK. She has worked as a consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist in the NHS, and currently spends much of her time getting to know her country garden, and writing about the things the garden teaches her about herself.

In this conversation, we discuss:

And so much more - honestly, that summary doesn’t even scratch the surface of our chat!

I first connected Marchelle after following her on social media and becoming inspired by the words and images she posts about her work with and relationship with her garden.

As we discuss in the episode, Marchelle’s work has played a big part in my own learning and understanding of gardens as spaces of privilege as well as empowerment and her words around the place that colonialism plays in each of our relationships with nature and green spaces have deepened my own understanding of the role I can play in helping to dismantle the systems that we have all, in one way or another, inherited from our ancestors.

Marchelle is humble, wise and always thought-provoking and I’m so grateful to her for agreeing to be a part of this podcast. You can find her on her Instagram, where she posts images of her garden accompanied by the insights that come from her work in it, on @Afroliage and you can also sign up to her wonderful newsletter through the link in her bio there.

As always, I’m on @prompted.by.nature on Instagram or or your can find me over at my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can sign up for my weekly online nature-inspired meditation and creative writing sessions (bit of a mouthful!) and find out more about my work.

Remember to stick around until the end of the episode, when I’ll give you an insight into the meditation and writing prompt that follows the conversation.  Happy listening, and I’ll speak to you after!

—————————————————

Thank you so much for listening - wasn’t Marchelle just wonderful! In the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode, you’ll be looking into your own relationship with green spaces and asking questions around how you (and I!) can listen more deeply and play a bigger role in ensuring that nature is an enriching and accessible space for us all. As always, I’m sending you lots of love. 

Happy writing, and I’ll speak to you soon!

With winter upon us and the festive season around the corner, I wanted to do an episode on how we can support small businesses, makers and not-for-profits in our gift-buying decisions. In this episode, I showcase some of the nature-inspired small and micro-businesses, not-forprofits and social enterprises I love buying from and supporting .  The blog post that supports this episode can be found at www.promptedbynature.co.uk/blog/put-your-money-where-your-heart-is

This list is ever-expanding so do check back to see the new additions and feel free to email me [email protected] with your recommendations <3

Enjoy the episode and I'll speak to you soon!

Helen x

In this meditation and writing prompt I invite you to get yourself into an outdoor space, or somewhere you can see the sky, to spend time gazing softly at the passing clouds, the shifting light and the creatures that dwell in that space.

In this explanation I mention the free meditations that now sit on my website.  You can find them here: www.promptedbynature.co.uk/free-meditations  I hope they are of use.

I'd love to hear how you get on.

Enjoy!

Helen x