personal project | read more on SubstackChop Wood, Carry Water is a project exploring the remarkable power of doing things with our hands, together. It is an ode to labour, heritage, landscape, and community. Each photo essay is an attempt to understand and share how different restorative practices can influence collective wellbeing and serve as a form of meditation in action.
Brickfield
I heard about Brickfield - community brickworks in a repurposed china clay pit - for the first time last year. Since then, the project and Rose, artistic director, keep coming up in conversations. By summer this year, I knew I had to make my way to St Austell and see for myself this “magical, otherworldly place”.
Loveland
Learning how to grow food, tending to the land, and supporting your local farms is a way we could have a direct impact on the future of the place where we live. Growing my garden has held me while traversing the sticky lands of grief. It’s what makes me feel inspired and keeps me humble. I often tell my students that growing a garden deepened my Buddhist practice. Having all of this in mind, you can imagine how keen I was to visit Loveland - an 8- acre community field in Penryn.
Dartmoor Tea
I visited the farm on a scorching day in June. After a relatively smooth journey (just a few cancelled trains) I arrived in Totnes, where Kathryn kindly picked me up from the station. We dived into conversation, and the moment I fastened the seatbelt I knew this is only the beginning of many wonderful exchanges.