feature – OUTSIDER

STEPHEN’S LAST NIGHT IN TOWN (NOT)

June 24, 2020

I’m not doing a ‘Stephen’s Last Night In Town’,* promise 😂. But just to say that on this OUTSIDER blog I’ve opened up all the additional paid-for content so that it’s free. In the right-hand column there’s a category ‘OUTSIDER Patreon Chapters’ click on that and you’ll find additional recipes, poetry, photography and some longer essays. My hope for this online project was to illustrate that living slowly with less doesn’t have to be purgatory, in fact it can be…

books creating Europe feature minimalism slowlivingactivism

Some thoughts on change

June 22, 2020

I haven’t been posting on here so much lately, & it feels as if I’ll be posting less now as the months roll on. Originally I set up this account, and the OUTSIDER Instagram to document our shift from a settled life stuffed full of overwork & fast-paced living, to a more minimalist, slow, migratory way of living. That was thirty months ago. I cannot believe how quickly the time has flowed around us & we have felt like a…

creating feature poetry

The Awakening

June 7, 2020

The product of early morning insomnia. Wind is wild outside the van this morning. #awakening #wakeup #poetry #poetlife #insomniacs #waketheheartup…

creating dailyconnectionwithnature feature nature politics

Where is your freedom?

June 1, 2020

How much freedom do we have, if we’re completely honest with ourselves? Every choice come with conditions: buy a home, and agree to trade an extortionate amount of debt for comfort and security; focus on your career, and know that the more successes you have the greater the compulsion to compete, the need to remain current and relevant; choose a family, and be enfolded in love, but also all the drama. What is the price for absolute freedom? To live…

creating feature field recordings India poetry

poetry and song

May 11, 2020

Sometimes beautiful things come to you from out of the blue and they make you smile. This is a piece by my friend Moushumi Bhomik incorporating sections from a poem of mine. The photo is of us travelling on the overnight train from Kolkata to Jalpaiguri in 2018. Her words about it are below. I’m so lucky to know such lovely, creative people. “Song for My Father, with Sophie MckeandI met Sophie, a beautiful poet and spoken word artiste, in…

creating family feature

Sixteen years strong

May 1, 2020

On May 1st, sixteen years ago I met @andyrgarside. We bonded over our disbelief that we’d been dragged to a terrible club night by mutual friends. We were both also single parents who were practical & not looking for love. He used to make me mixtapes, I’d make him home-cooked food; we took our kids (who were 8 & 10 at the time) on days trips & went out to gigs. Gradually we fell in love. It was honestly quite…

books creating Cymraeg feature nature poetry Wales

the language of the land

April 12, 2020

Another Instagram TV poem for you. below is the two-dimensional version of the poem.…

creating feature poetry

Instagram TV

April 8, 2020

First foray into IGTV yesterday and I was so nervous I forgot to post it here. I think I might do more in future though as it feels a lovely way to share the spoken word. as requested, written versions of the poems in the order they’re performed below…

creating feature poetry slowlivingactivism

Take a chance…

April 7, 2020

Difficult times can offer the chance for deep reflection. So many people are beginning to question this world we’ve all created, that we all buy into. There’s a feeling of overwhelm at times, that perhaps the individual ‘I’ is so utterly insignificant, that unless we hold important titles, our brains overflowing with knowledge, we should leave it to others to figure the way forward. Then change comes and sits at our table, she looks us directly in the eye, refusing…

dailyconnectionwithnature Europe feature nature photography travel

travelling from your sofa in times of quarantine

April 3, 2020

If you’re fed up with the four walls this weekend, I’ve removed the paywall on two beautiful photodiaries by Andy Garside of some of our travels in autumn last year. I know we can’t get out much or travel just now but I’m finding the nature photos and blogs online a great source of inspiration and a reminder of just how wild and beautiful this planet is. I love Andy’s take on the world, the way he focusses on the…

Older Posts →