Monthly Archives:

April 2019

dailyconnectionwithnature nature vanlife water

Conversations with water

April 20, 2019

Conversations with water: wherever we visit it is difficult to settle until I have connected with the water. Usually I do this through swimming, and we drink the local tap water, but where possible I’ll drink from streams too. The water here tastes like snow. Gloriously ice-cold & glacial. These routines are part of a simple water ceremony but if anybody has any to share I’d love to hear them? Living in a van makes us acutely aware of our…

Continue Reading

dailyconnectionwithnature Europe feature water

Ephemera in Aquamarine: a triptych

April 19, 2019

Ephemera in Aquamarine: a triptych. This water springs from a glacial cave 500meters higher up and doesn’t warm much during descent. A short, fierce, exhilarating blast of energy. I couldn’t stay in overly long – the body stops functioning properly. Afterwards, drinking hot mint tea, I think on the beautiful duality of water. Both a few seconds of raindrop, & universe-old. I dream of being the water-cycle: always changing, never tiring ????? ? @andyrgarside ? (Slovenia)…

Continue Reading

food vanlife

My favourite way to use up leftover food

April 18, 2019

This is one of my favorite ways to use up leftover food. I usually put veggies from a previous meal in this, but today I had a small portion of spiced chickpeas with peppers so chucked that in. Recipe is so easy: Leftover food. You can put basically anything in this: potatoes, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower, peas – whatever you have. For this I added a couple of grated carrots but you could also use tinned sweetcorn. Chop all veg…

Continue Reading

creating nature poetry

From tiny acorns

April 18, 2019

Psycholingualgeography is definitely the most pretentious title I ever gave a poem. I tried to change it on numerous occasions but the poem wouldn’t shift so it had to stay. It means ‘the language of the land’. An obsession over the years has been trying to reflect or share the myriad ways in which the land speaks to us, and I use the shape of the words on the page to mirror internal landscapes, but I can never explain it…

Continue Reading

dailyconnectionwithnature Europe nature

Back in cold water

April 16, 2019

Post-run cool-down in a Slovenian glacial waterfall. The water temperature makes me giddy; a thousand tiny ants ice-skate across skin. It’s good to be back home in Northern Europe: wild garlic is rife on the riverbank, yellow primroses are buttoned into the earth everywhere, & beech trees’ acid green spring leaves are spattered across azure skylines. Such energy! I wake each morning dizzy with the infinite potential of it all. ? @andyrgarside ?…

Continue Reading

creating poetry travel

Rediscover yourself

April 13, 2019

Sat on a 30hr ferry north, taking it slow, putting less miles on the van, less stress on our hearts. Remembering these words written on an overnight train across India a few years ago, & thinking that we are so much more than the one-dimension of work, or the narrow confines of our Instagram account, or even the family/community roles designated to us. We are kaleidoscopic, with infinite combinations of ourselves to share with the world. We try things, then…

Continue Reading

dailyconnectionwithnature Europe vanlife

Following goat trails into the hills

April 12, 2019

Following goat trails into the Greek hills, I explore white rocks split open by giants; patterned surfaces crocheted by rainfall & time. At the highest point I stand with a tree whose name I do not know but whose energy resonates across my chest as if I am a bell, or she a delicious shot of raki. Taking this photo of our van as memento, I scramble home, shins patterned with scratches; a river of energy tumbles words up from…

Continue Reading

creating Europe poetry

The naming of things

April 11, 2019

Some years ago I read an article where a scientist had written the name of the universe. It had something like 30+ syllables in it, each one denoting a different element or component. I thought about this for months and months because it just didn’t feel right. The naming of something is so important: it can be prophetic and expansive, or limiting and prejudicial. This poem probably took about a year to write in the end because whenever I walked…

Continue Reading

Europe travel vanlife

Don’t let ignorant people ruin your day

April 11, 2019

And here it was today – the reminder that people can be utterly awful wherever you go and whatever kind of life you choose to live. It’s also a reminder to myself that I have a tendency to romanticise people (whilst also not being terribly good at connecting). We pulled up just further down from here at a lovely big space. There’s only one large camper there with a French couple sitting outside so we wave and pull up about…

Continue Reading