The Harvest

August Newsletter

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.

Photo by Scott Goodwill on Unsplash

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.

Photo by Nadiia Vynar on Unsplash

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! Read on to find out what stories, events and recommended reads I have for you this month.

This is a free post for all subscribers. For an archive of posts and an extra dose of wild stories to your inbox in the form of Kitchen Witching, spoken word poetry, Notes From The Downs and lost stories , please consider upgrading to a paid subscription for less than the price of the average pint of beer in your local.

Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash

August's Track:

Upcoming Events For August/September :

• 4th, 7th, 11th, 14th, 28th August - Summer Of Saxon Stories - Weald & Downland Museum - More information here

• 5th August - VillaFest - Rockbourne Roman Villa - Tickets here

• 12th August - Iron Age Stories - Family Storytelling at Andover Museum - Book Tickets here

• 2nd September - Community Storytelling - Paulsgrove Summer Party.

• 22nd September - Autumn Equinox - Stories of light and dark - Online Storytelling with Jason Buck - Book Here

• 23rd September- Equinox Boat Burn - Butser Ancient Farm

For more information visit my events page using the button below.

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July’s Paid Subscriber Content, Available In The Archive:

• Dancing Women, Wizards & Sacred Cows - Watch Here

• Crab Spider - Spoken Word Poetry - Symphony Of Animals - Read Here

• You Are Called Una, The Oldest Of Herbs: Mugwort - Read Here

Thank you for supporting this newsletter through July. Supporting my work in this way allows me to continue to write freely and authentically and I thank you from the bottom of my storytelling heart.

Upgrade to paid with the subscribe button below and receive at least two extra posts a month exclusively for subscribers.

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August's Read:

I have a To Be Read pile that is teetering dangerously and yet I still seem to manage to pick up books when I’m out and about and this was the case with this one. Many of the books on the TBR pile at the moment are to do with research and so my excuse for this one is it’s my summer read and whilst it focuses on Greek myth it will allow me some time out from the ‘work’. I’ll let you know how that goes.

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