In the Beautiful Middles of Nowhere
Stories of the land, regenerative vegan smallholding, & relationship in Finistère
Those who walk the Old Ways know that our lives and our wellbeing are intimately tied up with that of the land. Everything is relationship, and our life is dependent on our connectedness with the land and the harmony and creativity of that relationship.
Trying to put this into practice in Brittany, on the land to which we’re learning to belong.
Welcome!
THE WHY
I’m passionate about the other species who share our little home planet, and desperate about what’s happening to them at our hands. Like many people nowadays I’m trying to figure out how we live in our wild and beautiful world with all its troubles, as we seem to be hurtling towards an abyss. What does that mean and what can we do about it? We need new stories; how can we bring them to birth? (Actually I’ve been writing about and teaching this for over 3 decades now.)
A question I bring is how can I live in meaningful, connected and reciprocal relationship with the whole of the wider world? How do we dwell deeply embedded in our kinship with this more-than-human world of which we too are a part? How do we move beyond the apparent dualities that separate ‘us’ from ‘them’, ‘human’ from ‘animal’, our species from ‘nature’? And, of course, ‘spirit’ and ‘matter’. I call this ‘ecosoul’ work – deep ecology coupled with soul.
I want to live in a way where the choices I make – what I eat, how I live, my small daily actions – can be in harmony with natural processes, and as much as possible a force for good; an attempt to ‘give back’ to the land we tend and inhabit who in turn shelters and feeds us, and its wider ecosystems.
It’s been, and is still, quite a journey to realise our dreams and visions on this land in Brittany, France, especially post-Brexit. It raises as many questions, dilemmas and challenges as it does delights. We live on a micro-smallholding, and are aiming for a degree of vegan food self-sufficiency, and to leave something harmonious and fruitful for humans and more-than-humans alike on this land.
It’s a long slow path. Out of this project is growing a nearly-finished vegan cookbook, as I’m convinced that our way forward, for many reasons, must involve our stopping our exploitation of other species.
THE WHO
I’m a writer (poet and author), and reflective, creative, therapeutic and psychospiritual writing course/retreat leader focusing mainly on our relationship with the other-than-human.
For the last 34 years, I’ve been tutoring and mentoring other writers through my holistic writing programmes, Fire in the Head & The Wild Ways. I offer many different kinds of writing courses, often online. If you would like a deep and poetic immersion in the experience of writing, I believe that what I offer is unique, and many of my participants are now published. (I’ve just had the honour of seeing someone through my very intensive Elements of Poetry course; you can read what she had to say at the bottom of that page.)
Besides my first love, poetry, I’ve a deep interest in psycho-mythology, partly as a result of combining my undergraduate studies at Cambridge (Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic with Mediaeval French language and literature) with my later training in Transpersonal Psychology & Counselling. My specific interest in my university studies and then in the psychotherapeutic training and work was, and remains, the continuing relevance of the Grail corpus to our psyches in our modern times, and the Welsh body of tales known as the Mabionogion. I studied the original texts in their original languages.
I practise Zen, and follow an ancient British shamanic path where I listen and watch for Awen. I have a small presence on SoundCloud where you can hear my thoughts on Zen & mindfulness practice, and several of my poems, including the commissioned long Dartmoor poem River Suite.
My family, from forever, comes from that magical little Celtic triangle that is West Penwith in the far west of Cornwall. I have spent most of my life either close to the sea in Devon, or on or near Dartmoor. Now, I and my partner live close to a Celtic magical forest in Brittany, which has inspired my life and my work and writing for many years. (My most recent book is A Spell in the Forest – tongues in trees; Moon Books 2021.)
I’m passionate about transforming our perspective from the anthropocentric to the ecocentric; to me, this is a matter of great urgency if we want to change the destructive path we’re on as a species. I also believe that we need to see the world through the lens of the sacred again. Expect these views to colour what I write.
Speaking of writing: when we moved here, in my head I had Hemingway’s approach: write 2000 words each morning, work in the garden (in his case tending his bees) in the afternoon. In practice, it’s not been like this, and my writing has taken a back seat – there is so much to do outdoors that I haven’t yet found balance. Thank goodness for the discipline of writing something on Substack most weeks. And thank you for reading it.
AND YOU?
Perhaps you too believe that in our crazy times of climate change, environmental disasters, loss of wildlife, forests, habitat and biodiversity, wildfires and droughts, flooding, water stress, starvation, we need to find a new way forward fast, and collectively. Perhaps you too are concerned about how we might reduce our consumption, especially of meat and dairy, and provisions like fossil fuel. Perhaps you’d like inspiration and ideas, and indeed plant-based recipes. I hope that you’ll find those things here. I would also like for this to be a conversation: please join in.
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Our lives, here in Brittany, involve organic growing in harmony with natural ecosystems: a large no-dig and permaculture (both as much as possible) veg garden where we try to use a closed-loop of mulches, compost, woodchip and green manures; a kind of habitat at the heart of our Home Meadow garden for the genius loci – that is, my circular bed of perennial veg, herbs and bee-plants. We tend small orchards, and are planting a forest garden that runs into natural woodland. We use no animal products, and obviously no chemicals on the land.
We are also able to forage for some of our food. (As I write this we have many more sweet chestnuts than I can possibly peel; all of them huge this year. I’ve made the first parasol-mushroom and chestnut soup; see Post #6.)
We have taken on more hectares than is sensible at this stage of our lives. Some – much – of it we can rewild, or let the rewilding happen. (Some is reserved for wildlife and is unvisited by us or anyone else.) At the back of our minds, though, is a sense that we may need to be able to feed more people ‘come the apocalypse’, as I say not entirely jokingly.
THIS WRITING
So that’s what this is about. Sometimes I’ll include writings that are relevant – some poetry, and also passages from my most recent book, A Spell in the Forest – tongues in trees, written in and about the forest that has drawn me so, as well as about 13 trees sacred to the Celts. And I’ll be sharing, too, my recipes. (And the name of this blog? I’ve explained that in my second post.) At the moment, these posts are free.
HOW OFTEN?
Currently, I’m posting a short essay or article weekly or every ten or so days, and adding ‘asides’ (including such things as recipes, passages from my books, poetry, and celebrations of the Celtic festivals by which I mark my own year) as and when.
I’m also writing a FIRE IN THE HEAD Substack sub-blog which will draw on my 34 years of writing courses and retreats, and offer my own writing. At a later stage, I intend to offer writing tasks, workshop sessions and mentoring. (See the sidebar for my books.) You will also see the Wheel of the Year page; see that for what’s happening there. At the moment all posts are free.
Recently, participants on previous courses have been quoting back to me things I had written – I don’t know why this should suddenly happen several times in a short space, but I do love these synchronicities. Some of the passages come from my previous blog, Qualia and other Wildlife, a deeply eclectic mix of writings on land, mythology, psychology, poetry, eco-spirituality and philosophy that unfolded over 12 years. I have revisited it as a result, and like what I find there! So I will replay some writings here too.
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