The Understory - 52 Sestudes on Trees

It's arrived - the book version of 26 Trees!*  Beautifully produced, you can order a copy here.  Proud to have been part of it!


* A joint project by the writers' collective 26 and the Woodland Trust.  You can see the full online version here, including photos and 500-word pieces on the writing of each sestude.

Electro Swing - Because We Need the Joy

Do you remember me showing you this?

Or this?

Well, here's a new one -

And a video on how to make your own Electro Swing music -

As for the dancing - off you go!

Happy National Non-Fiction Month!

Maybe a better known writerly thing about November is NaNoWriMo, but it's also the month to generally celebrate non-fiction.  And in the spirit of that, let's specifically celebrate Gill Arbuthnott's Balloon to the Moon, illustrated by Christopher Nielsen, which has just won the 2019 British Book Design and Production Award for Children's Trade 9 -16 Years.

Yahoo for National Non-Fiction Month!

Big Climate Fightback

Find out about the Woodland Trust's Big Climate Fightback - there are lots of different ways to take part!

Tree Planting

Our first ever tree planting day at Kinclaven Woods was fabulous!  First shrub planting - hazel, holly, hawthorn and blackthorn - and then oak trees.  Between the three of us we planted 31 shrubs and trees.  We'll be back at the end of the month for the Woodland Trust's National Tree Week Big Climate Fightback - the campaign to get one million people to join the fight against climate change by pledging to plant a tree by Sat. 30 Nov. 2019.  Please join in, any way you can!

Me and a mighty oak in the making  

This is a misleading photo, as a) the sun was shining - it was a beautifully bright, brisk autumn day, and b) the field was full of people planting happily away.  Thanks Woodland Trust for organising it!

Day's End and the Banana Tree

Please join me on 26 Trees for a poem about a banana tree and a piece on how I came to write it: Day's End and the Banana Tree, Jakarta (Akhir Hari Dan Pohan Pisang, Jakarta).

We're only on Day Three of the project but there will be much, much more to browse through, with 62-word sestudes and 500-word pieces appearing right through November, in celebration of the tree.  And news coming soon of a beautiful book collecting them all together!

Little Red Hat - The Winner

And the photo winner is ...

Thanks for voting!