I return to Cymru. It is time to visit family in every form. Yesterday morning I woke to Moel Famau calling – a subtle but insistent pull in the chest from this great grandmother, this goddess who is part of one of the world’s oldest ranges (formed in the Silurian age over 400million years ago). Her energy shaped my waking dreams when I struggled to understand all the ways in which the natural world weaves into our individual & collective…
An excerpt from one of the earliest OUTSIDER entries over a year ago. We’ve come so far in the time since this was written, both geographically & psychologically. Am I a different person? Or am I finally becoming my true self? Either way, these words continue to ring true, & I resolve to keep letting go of that comfort so as to welcome adventure into this wild & beautiful life. Link to full piece here.…
We are travelling more quickly than usual at the moment. As I do this final edit, a heatwave has pushed temperatures to well over 35ºC in central France, which in turn has hurried us north. We have learned to position the van so that the sun shines on the driver’s side where there are no windows and the walls are super-insulated, which also means I can sit on my trusty step in the shade. Today we’re parked under a giant…
words & photos: Andy Garside While travelling north towards Calais we stopped off for a lovely couple of days at this beautiful lake in central France. Located 25km north of Limoges it’s the second largest lake in the Limousin region. We’d not visited here for over ten years and it’s become a lot more developed and equipped for tourists now… water park, bike trails, wake boarding, way marked trails… but it’s still such a beautiful place and covers such a…
I have to be honest with you from the start and admit that slow cooking and eating didn’t come naturally to me. It’s why I’m working so hard to fold it into my everyday life. Over time I’ve mastered the art of slow food, of taking my time to create simple, delicious meals from seasonal produce – but still sometimes I crave fast-food. Not Macdonalds or KFC – I’ll well past those days, but still sometimes I just want to…
Is there anything better than picnics in the sunshine? I think not. I love this photo Andy took the other day. In the past I’d have frowned at my thick arms and the fact I’m not angling my chin correctly so it’s doubled over; I would have hated the grey streak in my hair & visible lines around the eyes. What a numpty ‘past Sophie’ was! Ah gods if only I could go back in time and tell myself how…
This poem is a good eight years old, but still, I’m thinking of it just now because I’m lying in bed, in a van, in a heatwave in the north of France. When the wild first came alive in my mind I did my best to ignore her, did everything to walk a different path from the one she was calling me down, and yet years later here I am, my entire worldly possessions fitted into this van, parked in…
I love this step. It is my favourite place in the world. Every morning I sit here drinking mint tea before doing anything else. It’s a way of connecting with my surroundings, of taking it all in. In a life where the only certainty is change, I love the liminal space this step inhabits – always the same trusty step, often a new view: crescendoing snow-covered mountains, a great thundering winter Atlantic ocean, lazy-morning waking summer meadows, the rolling contrary…
After a torrential rainstorm recently, I find this tiny birds’ nest on the ground under a pine tree. It is so perfectly formed & fragile I have to scoop it up. When I do, I’m enamoured with its delicate weavings – such artistry! Moss & grasses have been purposefully threaded to form the base structure. But mostly I’m surprised by the sturdy composition – a miscellany of hair: dog, horse, human, are tightly woven & layered so that the inner…