Words From the Woods

Amongst grand trees and birdsong

This week I have been in the woods. I’ll be back next week with the next of the ‘See with the Body Eye’ essays. But today it’s time for a tour of the green wood, some words from amongst the trees, and an impromptu teaching from a wren. After all, my Uncivil Savant strap line says ‘Notes from the way, words from the woods, water from the springs’. We’ve recently had plenty from the way and springs, so now it’s time for chestnut and pine.

Looking back at the film, I certainly look tired and a bit wild, after a week’s hard work tanning reindeer hides, packing the van, and then cooking venison for a group of students for 3 days, mainly over the open fire. However, I have not edited it, nor changed it in any way from the original adlib meander, as it says what I wanted to say to you.

Nature, especially the woods or the sea shore, is where I encounter the Great Mystery most readily and (not coincidentally) let my sense of self melt into the rich living world around me. This week, my dear partner

Jonny Randall

said, ‘More and more, the idea of self doesn’t hold much water for me.’ And as he spoke I imagined shallow little cups holding each one of us, seemingly separate, but always filled by, and eventually returning to, the greater flow.

It would be funny, if it weren’t tragic, to think how important we seem to ourselves, we funny little fleeting vessels of earth and spirit.

It is midsummer week, and though it has been cool and damp here, I wish you the warmest wishes, wherever you are. Thankyou for watching, reading and listening to this Substack, I am excited for what I want to share with you over the coming months.

Also: The summer date is set for the next paid subscribers’ online movement class. More on that next week.

NB. I got John’s name wrong in the film, for a reason you might be able to guess. Our hosts in the beautiful Devon woods were Survival School.

Mentioned in the video:

Willow Lohr, my first bushcraft teacher, who introduced me to spruce roots, safe knife use, and Jack London’s To Build A Fire.

Megan Rowland of Wayfaring Hind where I have learned much lot about deer and habitats in the UK.

I first learned to manage a cook fire, use a Dutch oven, build a rainproof brash shelter and know one end of a stick from the other, as well as at least a hundred other essential life skills, courtesy of Joe O’Leary, of Wilderness Survival Skills.

My first book was Found and Ground, on natural and foraged paints. My next book Drawn From the Wild comes out June 2025 in UK and USA and is about ancient, natural, foraged and scavenged drawing materials.

The second fallen tree whose roots I show is a pine, not an oak.