The Plot

You may have heard it said, “Don’t cast your pearls before pigs.” But this week the pigs are the pearls. Checking in again after a few weeks of navigating the mental disruption of our times, as many of us are feeling. This one’s about finding your way into a safe nest and taking heart—along with spring—that our ideas and plans really are coming to life irresistibly. And plenty of close-up piglet chat.Find out about Catherine Edsell’s work here:https://cathadventure.com

Adjusting to a new pattern of life and creative opportunity under 'shelter at home' orders, this episode is a rather personal reflection but I hope you will find resonance in it. This is about trying to find a way through the conflict of feelings many of us are going through at the moment with ideas about how to navigate the tricky transition to a new creative mindset and energy in working life. It's what I've been finding helpful anyway, and hope it brings you comfort too.

As many of us prepare for a few weeks of staying at home to combat the spread of The Virus, we face a period of adjustment to a ‘new normal’. Rather than being cut off, I share an attitude of gratitude and what’s on my hopeful mind despite all the worry of unknowns many of us have, starting to feel our way into new priorities and opportunities. Starting very simply and quietly, this was recorded 8am on the first Saturday morning of the retreat home many of us face.Links:Vivienne Rickman That post I mentioned from David

In this rare blistering heat of our English summer, the necessity of taking a slower pace means approaching tasks much more mindfully, showing up to each moment and asking what needs to be done right now. As the path unravels ahead it’s a brave move to calmly but faithfully open up to it, at a slow enough pace to register what it means or could lead to, and there’s a sort of fruitfulness at play too. Within all this, finding simplicity and focusing on a few tasks alone really helps.

“This is not birds of paradise in Papua New Guinea, but it is still the earth and the air and the sun, and growth, and life persisting. Learning how to slow down and settle into pace with seasons – of work and ideas and inventing and solving, balanced with rest and reflection, nourishment, quiet germination of new life…”

Finding flow to keep great plans hatching, even when the world out there is too ridiculous to fathom and hiding seems like the best plan!

In these short, cold days of January, it's better to go gently into a new year and give plans time to take root, so give up over-ambitious resolutions, come and take a seat on my bench and give new plans the easy nurture they need for this new year.

This week we follow seeds of hope from episode 06 with a big dose of creative courage, just loving those ideas into bold and beautiful life! What is creative courage, and how do we bring it to our work and life?

Welcome retreat from normal routine of work plans and content marketing strategies. This week, planting winter seeds in fresh soil, I'm letting the seeds teach me about how inspiration sometimes works – slowly and secretly.

Turning seasons here at the farm as Autumn takes hold, and cause to reflect on brilliant seasons of work and life now done – what have been your most inspiring seasons?

This week, it's welcome peace and calm at the farm after a busy little while. I take a moment to explain what my work is all about, and enjoy a short pause amongst the plants before our working week kicks off again.

Inspired this week thinking about roots and staying true to an original mission. And thanks too, for the brilliant people who founded Windmill Hill City Farm 40 years ago.

This episode is all about how best to nurture ideas at different stages along the creative journey. In this episode I'm learning lessons as I prune sweet peas and cherry tomatoes, which ask for different sort of attention.

Week one, and introduction to the creative inspiration, encouragement and clear thinking I discover from amongst the plants and animals on my allotment at Windmill Hill City Farm.