The Harvest
August's Newsletter - To read the full newsletter visit Cerridwen's Cauldron via the link at the bottom of the post.
Merry Met Virtual Traveller
What a difference a month makes! The almonds of last month have started to take on sugar and the irons in the fire are heating up nicely. July has seen a culmination of many projects in what I can only describe as the harvest of my year long contract with the South Downs National Park.
A walking tour featuring Pitt Rivers, a story celebrating the Meon River a chalk stream in Hampshire, and stories celebrating Hampshire Day.
Unfortunately it rained on St Swithin’s Day and so it is that pretty much every day since we have had rain. Intermittant sunshine has thankfully allowed me to amble along the local lanes in between the showers and I’m enjoying being able to get our for a walk more often.
I’m starting to make plans for autumn, which includes getting the podcast back up and running, at the very least so that I can finish Season 4 which I started over a year ago now. If you haven’t caught up yet you can find all the episodes in the podcast tab of this substack. Make sure you’re subscribed to this newsletter in order to be notified of new episodes.
I’m also putting together some ideas for a storytelling project that will need Arts Council funding. As always the planning and putting together of proposals for these projects can take a long time and this one’s no different. The other irons I mentioned are not yet ready to come out the fire, but as soon as they are I will share more with you. They involve poetry, writing and chalk streams and I can’t wait to see what fruits come with autumn.
This August I am at the Weald & Downland Open Air Musuem for several days for storytelling and re-enactment. I’ll be telling stories in the market square, and in the Saxon House, up on the hill, I’ll have a living history display where I’ll be chatting about the stories and lore found in the Lacnunga, an ancient Anglo Saxon medical text.
I was recently reaquianted with the Emily Dickinson poem ‘Hope, is a thing with feathers’, and I think it sums up this month nicely. There’s a lot of hope in August. Hope for the coming harvests, hope that hard labour will pay off and hope that this summer’s crops will be enough to see us through the winter.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers By Emily Dickinson “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.
Coming up this month on Substack for paid subscribers, is a celebration sheet for Lammas, (another collaboration between myself and Tiffany Francis-Baker) a behind-the-scenes look around the Anglo Saxon House I'm hanging out in this August and a little video chat exploring the Lacnunga and the Nine Herb’s Charm.
I wish you all a merry August!
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