Stick and Stone
In praise of making real things, plus some other news
Hello there.
Winter still holds us tightly in its cold and dreary grip. A disappointing winter with little frost or snow yet still cold with a near constant howling easterly wind. Sure, there are signs of change: the days are slowly lengthening; bird song is gradually increasing; tiny shoots thrust tentatively skyward and sap runs in the trees. Yet with no sunshine to greet these subtle harbingers of spring, all is forlorn, damp and dull and we find ourselves inside more often than we would like, sheltering from storm and flood.
With adventures in scant supply, we have been looking to creativity to keep us inspired and enthused about Nature. We’re excited to share one of the outcomes with you here, our little zine titled ‘Stick and Stone’.
Stick and Stone is a collection of black and white drawings celebrating trees, rocks and often the relationship between the two. All the drawings are by me, taken from sketchbooks filled since we moved to the rocky landscape of the Lake District four years ago, with design and layout by Emma.
I’ve written before about losing the ability to draw and write so I’m not going to write about it again here, but after such a struggle it feels good to have accumulated a body of work and to see it existing in the real world.
You can read more about that here if you like:
There is something deeply satisfying, joyous even, about seeing a stack of something you’ve made yourself. A pile of prints, a handful of hand carved wooden spoons, a bundle of zines. Ideas made real and tangible. Something real to hold and touch. A product of the process.
We’re selling copies of Stick and Stone through our store for £6.00 so if you’d like to get your hands on one then you know what to do.
Other News
It’s been a busy time as we juggle our many endeavours. The end of the winter conservation contracting season is soon upon us so there’s lots of woodland work to try and fit in before birds start nesting and dormice are on the move again. A lot of this winter has been spent removing sitka spruce trees in the remote valley of Miterdale for a landscape scale Nature recovery project called Nature Rich Miterdale. It’s been brutal work at times, working on steep slopes in often wild weather, but highly rewarding to help native broadleaf woodland reclaim the land.
Photographer, filmmaker and expedition guide Ian Finch visited our corner of Cumbria recently to interview us for a new project he’s working on all about slow adventure and Nature connection in the outdoors. He’s put together a really lovely two part video of our chat and you can watch the first one here:
It’s was a joy to talk about Nature connection, what it means to us and to share our journey with Ian. We plan to do more of this kind of thing over the coming months.
We also contributed some words and photos to an outdoor magazine for a forthcoming feature about foraging, celebrated our 4 year anniversary of living in the Lake District, made and installed some oak furniture for a local holiday cottage and embarked on another major life upheaval - more details on that to come soon…
Well, that’s all for this week, we have a busy few weeks ahead but hopefully I’ll get back into a better writing routine soon…
Until next time, with warm wishes
Andrew, Emma and Benji
x
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That's a great video with Ian - you hit the nail on the head in saying once you find that connection to nature you cant ignore it, no matter where you live. A wonderful zine too - you must be very happy to see all of your drawings pulled together like that...a lovely collaborative effort!