Hello.
We hope this turning Autumn finds you well.
As the seasons rush on, we all keep pace.
Our path over the last 7 months led us to St David’s, to our great delight. From Canterbury, this counts as a half-pilgrimage to Rome, we were told ( it’s actually double, a Welsh lady assured us).
We travelled back from Wales toward the bright lights of London Town to sing a gig in the South Bank Centre, which went down most well. Microphones were turned off, and all the bright lights kept the audience invisible, so we just chattered and jumped about, having fun. It seemed to work…
Back in Kent, irresistibly drawn to respite, we’re now making various winter preparations. Stockpiles of wool, dried fruit, and tools, are piling up slowly. We have been dyeing clothes with walknut husks, making chutneys and syrups from plums, pears and rosehips. We’ve dried many apples, and gathered pig-weed seeds, nettles, fat-hen seeds, acorns, sea-beet, and other bits. We are trying to be winter-ready.
Oour winter plan is to stay in one place, in woodlands, beneath temporary straw shelters to evade the worst of the cold wet. Being still will be a real treat, and will let us learn the skills that cannot be practised while constantly walking. Taking a good rest is a crucial part of nomadic tradition.
When the snowdrops rise, we’ll be walking on, northwards. We had always intended to be in Scotland by now, but we’re not. All-willing, we’ll be there next year.
So we’re on the point of launching into our winter adventure. We will be a group of fourm with Ayla and Rose joining us. This new gang has a better balance than Ed and Will only, and our skill-resources and capacity for good work are thus greatly broadened.
Very soon, we’ll be heading back to Wales. We’re fermenting, pickling and drying the abundance of autumn wild foods, nuts, fruit and grain, and almost ready to head out again. The only missing detail, right now, is where we’ll go.
We still don’t know the place, the right location for this adventure.
We really want to be in the middle of Wales, as we’re enjoying very much the learning of her ancient language, and the depth of community in this oldest of landscapes. We are discovering great love for Cymru.
So the question is…
Can you help us find our place for this winter?
not here ed...
For 5-6 months, from now till March, we need to borrow a small patch of woodland. A stream, good trees, and permission to build temporary straw-bale shelters, is the sum of our needs. These shleters can be dissembled, or left standing, when we depart.
We will live as low to the ground as we can, gathering food and tending our space, collecting water, building an earth oven and a kiln, making baskets, spoons, bowls, cord and tools. We will ground ourselves in craft, to deepen our relationship with the objects we use everyday, that each small thing can be beautiful, and hold its own story and power.
We hope to raise our strength for the spring, and record another album of songs while we’re at it. And, there is the matter of the book we’ve promised to write. It is going to be a beautifully busy winter.
We’ll be filming this chapter of the journey, and potentially invite the occasional expert along, to teach us tricks we can document and share.
Everything we’ll need, we’ll have with us, and we will be no burden for anyone.
We want to get to know our neighbours, help out with local projects, and partake in local culture and traditions. We’ll probably also be singing a lot. But the essential plan is to be quiet, still, invisible and calm.
If you know of anywhere that might be suitable, any woods with streams that are owned by friendly folk, please send word.
Likewise, if you have good knowledge of temporary winter settlement, in any respect, please write and advise us. Tips, tricks and templates, whether general or intensely specific, are absolutely needed. If this is not your area of expertise, but you know someone who does specialize in long cold wet months outside, please put us in touch with them.
And lastly, if you somehow possess an excess of…wood-burning stoves, kilner jars, iron bath-tubs, solar-panels, honey, beeswax, demi-johns, seasoned firewood, straw-bales, chisels, a throwing axe, green canvas, wool, hides, fleeces or sheepskins, please let us know.
Thank-you very much, friends and strangers alike, for sharing the time to follow our small journey.
it is not getting dark
if you have good knowledge of temporary winter settlement, in any respect, please write and advise us. Tips, tricks and templates, whether general or intensely specific, are absolutely needed. If this is not your area of expertise, but you know someone who does specialize in long cold wet months outside, please put us in touch with them.
