Monthly Archives:

September 2019

dailyconnectionwithnature Europe feature nature water

Skinny dipping at 1850m (Andorra)

September 26, 2019

you have been steadily ascending a hike of the Valle del Madriu Perafita Claror for a few hours. The sun is a peach roasting slowly in azure skies. You stop for a break, rest weary feet; the hounds wade and drink. Deep in your being there is an urge to swim. You ignore it. Drink coffee. Eat cake. Still it is there – the need to feel that glacial-cold water on bare skin. You have no swimming costume or towel…

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dailyconnectionwithnature Europe travel vanlife

Returning to the mountains is returning home

September 25, 2019

You wake in the French Pyrenees at 1400m above sea level. post-yoga, you lie in corpse pose and experience the image of yourself as a receptacle for an endless flow of rubbish. Your heart tightens at this image of a rubbish dump. You shudder, whisper ‘I love you,’ and as you do the image transforms into an Atlantic wave: clean, powerful, abundant. You rise with the heart of a mountain; ribcage ringing with the echoes of your future self, you…

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dailyconnectionwithnature Europe poetry vanlife

When a hummingbird hawk-moth changes everything

September 22, 2019

I wrote this line sometime ago. I was thinking how overwhelming our lives are – there’s so many issues to worry about: on a personal level we care about work, family, money, friends, and all the micro occurrences in our daily lives that we have to deal with; on a wider scale we stress about the environment, recycling the massive amounts of waste we create, war in foreign countries, and the thought that nuclear power might wipe us all out…

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dailyconnectionwithnature minimalism nature travel vanlife

Vanlife mornings

September 19, 2019

Time is more fluid on the road. Some days we are early birds, others we are lounge lizards. Our mornings are not a pristine Instagram photo. We crumple on the bed, drink tea, rise in stages. Hounds stretch & wander & return to snooze. We share last night’s dreams. I do yoga then maybe swim in the mountain river engorged by yesterday’s wild & electric storms that skittered across slate-grey skies. We have returned to bright green landscapes and towering…

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creating dailyconnectionwithnature poetry

you are becoming

September 17, 2019

I’m learning to let go control. To not have expected outcomes. To let this life evolve as she will. I cannot see how things will transpire, I just know to turn my face to the sun each morning in the hope that she will shine, and if it rains I will celebrate the abundance falling from the sky.…

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Rocamadour. How to travel with serendipity:

September 16, 2019

Take the advice of locals. Let their words become early autumn swifts calling you to historic pilgrim sites. On the first day, immerse in white stone medieval abbeys built into the rock face. Eat lemon ice lollies, say ‘bonjour, il est très chaud!’ as you weave down pathways strewn with images of a prophet-turned-moneymaker, then drop into the cool, towering stone of Sanctuaire Norte Dame de Rocamadour, the heart of the pilgrimage: Admirer | Contempler | Prier, (to Admire |…

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full moon foraging

September 14, 2019

I woke this morning at 4am and couldn’t return to sleep. The full moon called from outside the van and so, pulling on shorts and fluffy poncho, I wandered outside to sit barefoot in brown, shrubby riverside grass knowing the wild mint threaded throughout the green landscape behind me. I have no photo. I didn’t take my phone. I sat with my face turned skyward for about an hour as the river silvered on before me, as constellations I do…

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dailyconnectionwithnature family nature OUTSIDER Patreon chapters poetry water

translating the blessings of the trees

September 14, 2019

It was a honour to create a ring ceremony for the wedding of two friends in Bute Park, Cardiff this summer. Aidan and Darren both spend a lot of time in the park, the place was instrumental in the early years of their relationship coming together, so it made sense to affirm their love for each other there. I know the trees of Bute Park, I’ve sat with them, dreamed with them, held heart & mind still with them, and…

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Wild mint foraging

September 14, 2019

I love the simplicity of life on the road. It feeds so effortlessly into the food we eat. Foraging is a skill I’m acquiring as we travel, but being a novice, I tend to stick to what I know, working to discover the properties of a new plant, flower or tree every few months before adding them to my repertoire. I tend to forage mint from the gardens of people we visit as it’s ubiquitous in some gardens. The mint…

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