The transcript for my most recent podcast episode is below :

Something that’s affected me recently is the quiet I’ve had a month off in May where I was outside a lot because we had some lovely weather. And one of the things that I remember most about it was the quiet and the sounds. So the sounds of birds here are just so, I don’t know, it feels like I’ve never really heard birds before being here during a really quiet, still period of life.

It’s like a sort of sensory soothing feeling of just listening to nothing but the birds and the sheep. We don’t get many cars down the road, especially on a Sunday. So, on a Sunday, if you sit outside, all you can hear is this beautiful bird song, especially in the early morning. And it makes you realize how important that is in life and how silence can help you think.The silence enables you to rest your voice. But also when we’re not talking, you can hear your inner voice growing louder. And if you can do that in a perfectly eased way, that’s quite a powerful thing.

So, this rest period has been a revelation for me and a perfect thing. Because it’s opened up so many thoughts and so many ideas and a new way of living, I’ve been slowing down and reconnecting to, I suppose, how I feel that we should live. , it’s not always that easy, but that slower pace and just really tuning into the, to the nervous system, which I think when it becomes dysregulated, we can often go into burnout or stress, and it’s a prevalent thing, but a tricky thing to heal and one of the ways of doing that for me has been silence and quiet.

I’ve also been cooking quite a bit. This is partly because I’ve wanted to stay still, and the shops are a bit of a distance away, so I don’t always feel like just running to the shops for little things. So I decided to get stocked up and to be able to make everything that I needed. So, I have been making my own bread.I’ve been making soups, and I’ve been making healthy pickles and vegetable concoctions. I cooked recently for our Creative retreat in June in Harris, and it was just an excellent way of opening up to that because cooking can be mindful, it can be creative, and when we think of all how we can be creative and slow down, what cooking is one of them,

And connect to these slower, more mindful ways of living.

I will be sharing my bread recipe for those who have asked. I think I’m going to try and start blogging again. I’m talking of going back to sort of the older ways of doing things. Now, blogging used to be quite big when I first started out in business, which was twenty years ago now, and then a few years after that, blogging was the thing. So we didn’t really have social media back then, so I’d write a lot on my blog, and I’m going to try and get back to that, and maybe more of a lifestyle kind of thing, so around how I’m living, changing, and what’s going on in life.

Because my life is pretty cool right now, hopefully, you’ll enjoy reading that. Now that I’ve said that, I’m going to have to commit to that. I’m not going to say I’m going to do that every week. I don’t really believe that we should put that pressure on, but I will be updating you a little bit more.  Some seals are kicking off in the background. I’m not sure what they’re doing, but they’re kind of seal barking at each other. They’re lying on the rocks in the sun just now because the tide’s low. So they’re just lying there sunbathing.

Talking about being still and quiet, one of the things that I’m thinking a lot about at the moment is being in one place and connecting deeper. And I’m fortunate that my place is here, and it’s so, so beautiful. But this idea of really getting to know one area and going deeper with it so your connections are meaningful and your creativity can kick in because sitting in one place for a very long time is a very interesting thing. I recently watched the film where the Crawdads sing, and I’ve been so deeply moved by it that it’s really kind of affected everything that I’m thinking about.

It’s kind of in tune with what I’m doing just now, and I love that this One place is all that she needs and being dragged out to somewhere that is supposedly exciting or what everybody wants to do, what seemed to be good. She doesn’t want to do that because she’s enjoying the marshland all around her and getting deeper, and then the creativity comes out because she’s observing all the wildlife and the animals.
I’ve been very inspired by that, and talking of inspiration, we’ve been doing a month of learning how to find inspiration in my creative haven group online. It’s something that I feel very strongly about because, , often we get frustrated about not being creative, but we can’t just do it from a standstill.

It’s not like you can just turn a switch on and be creative just like that. You can certainly make space for it, but it’s always important to think of that, , the deeper, wider view to it. So. What are the circumstances in which you feel inspired? And when you start to know them, because they’re different verbiages, I can’t tell you, but when you start to realise, oh hang on a minute, every time I go for a walk for more than an hour by myself, I begin to feel inspired to create. I start to feel like my brain’s tuning into something. I’m starting to be able to think there’s clarity coming through. And actually, I’d like to paint that scene or photograph it, and if you notice that happening repeatedly, really see it, so that when you feel I’m not feeling very creative at the moment or inspired, well, you’ll remember what you have to do.

It seems so basic—it actually feels quite basic when I’m talking about it—but I don’t think it is because I have to remind myself all the time to get out of the house and do the thing that makes me feel creative. So, for instance, when I’m recording a podcast or a live show, I tend to wait for a beautiful, calm day when I can be outside.

I don’t know how it will work in the winter, but we shall see. But when I’ve got some space outdoors, I start to be able to think clearly and start to have these connections, and I begin to want to talk to you, inspire other people, and create. So I’ve come down here with my cameras today, and I’m looking at the wildlife, the birds. —I’m not a bird photographer, but I’m increasingly interested in how it feels to be here and document the wildlife that surrounds me, I suppose, and doing that in different creative ways.

So, I’m just talking a bit more about that inspirational idea, The concept from Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way, having an artist date, making a date with just being creative, allowing for play, and failure. So often, when we play or we do something new, you’re prone to fail at it because it’s new. And it’s definitely something that’s happening with me at the moment with my painting. So I was a little bit frustrated last night because it just wasn’t working, and I just couldn’t quite get the colours or the technique going very well. So I stepped away from it in the end, and I realised that it was more to do with my state of mind than anything else.

I wasn’t feeling loose enough or well enough, maybe, to connect to that and to freely fail and put the painting in the bin, as Leslie Lindholt once told me that she often paints for the bin. So five minutes painting and she’ll put it straight in the bin. So the idea is that you’re free from failure, from needing it, and from worrying about failing because you are going to fail. It’s a certainty. You are going to put it in the bin. There’s not an outcome there. So being free and playful is a way of connecting to creativity. It’s so important, it’s so important, and this can take different forms or other ideas for you. For, me, it’s being out by the water, being on the water, being out for a walk, being by myself,

Actually, what was really, really interesting during the retreat that we had was it was a creative retreat rather than a photography, so it encompassed anything creative, so everything I’m talking about here, anything creative that, , people wanted to connect to. Watching people on the retreat last week connect differently in their own ways was really interesting. And when we allow people to connect differently and not tell them that they have to be creative at this certain time in this certain way, and you allow people to find their own ways of doing it, they will. It was just beautiful to watch people go off and do things in their own way, whether that’s part of a group or part of a lead session. And then you would see all the people who would be creative or take inspiration from staying behind alone and needing that alone time.

And some people, it was, group exercises. So that was a fascinating week. We also had had a very beautiful week on the Isle of Harris. The weather wasn’t like June at all. It was more like October, but we managed to get out every day. We didn’t have any rain, and we did. We went wild swimming with a sauna on the beach. We managed to get in surfing again. And all of these things that you might not necessarily connect to, developing your photographic skills or your artist skills, , are so, so important . We start to feel like ourselves. We start to feel like we’ve achieved something and we’re part of something and we just had a lot of fun. One of the things that did come up is why creativity is important, and I see it as vital to us because it gives us a set of tools. So even when life’s good, and everything’s fine, and we can create easily, and everything’s smooth, when we hit a bump in the road, or we have these extremes of emotion, We need creativity.

We really need something to express ourselves as an outlet, I suppose. And the other options aren’t so good. So often, people tend to overwork or drink or whatever it might be to outlet those emotions. But being able to paint or photograph or write down these emotions is probably almost life-saving in these extreme circumstances. So, creativity is a luxury, but no, it’s not. Definitely not.

I just wanted to let you know that I decided to slow down on the retreats that I am offering. IIn 2025, I will only be running an art retreat with Ellis O’Connor in May, which will be followed up by their creative light festival in October in Harris. We have a couple of spaces on each of those still, but that is all that I’ll be offering. So I will be doing the remainder of 2024. We have some spaces in September due to cancellations, but otherwise, we are fully booked. And I just decided to take a little break. I have been painting more. I’ll open my online shop briefly, probably in August or September, with my new art added to it.

My Within Hebrideen Seas book is being reprinted as we speak. And I have my first art exhibition in August, which is Open Studios Hebrides. So I’m actually exhibiting in Leverborough with another artist. The dates are the first weekend and the second weekend in August, so come along if you can. I will also be building a gallery, so that is going ahead now after a long-awaited planning permission and ordering of buildings and groundwork. The building will arrive in two weeks.

August, and then we will be building it in September. It’s not going to open until the season next year, just to give me plenty of time to fit it out and make it a lovely space for you to come and see me. It will be in my driveway in Geocrab in Harris. I’ll be sharing details of that as we go along. It’s fascinating. In the online membership group Creative Haven , we’ll be welcoming Carien Borst for a couple of art sessions in October and November. So Carien Borst is coming in to do some drawing sessions with you, which will be lovely. It’s quite nice to expand a little bit from the photography that we have. on an ongoing basis, so we’re going to bring some drawing in there as well.

And, that is all from me. I will be bringing you a podcast with the lovely Bill Ward on the next episode.