I’m still hoping it will be a book—I have the bones of the thing, the framing story, and putting together the rest, writing and rewriting a book proposal (along with other samples and parts of the whole). It’s a long process!
And thank you, I’ll keep you up to date with any developments on the book front!
Thank you! We were so lucky. At first the hurricane was coming for us so the island went into emergency mode - pulled all the boats out of the water, something I’ve never seen them do in all my time here although we’ve had monster storms before. But then it weakened before making landfall in Nova Scotia - off our eastern shores (we can wave at Nova Scotians from where we are! 🥳). Downed trees, electrical lines, and no internet was really the worst of it - all minor inconveniences compared with other places. 🙏 How are you doing? Is the eye continuing to improve?
That does sound like you were lucky. Although it is also good that the island has strategies to cope, and clearly used this as a good test. Growing up in Orkney, I couldn't always understand the damage a storm can wreak upon a place not accustomed to them. Up there, everything is low, tied down, with very few trees to drop branches or topple. When I moved to England I was surprised by how a light wind (to me!) would cripple an area.
My eye has been doing well, with just a hint of occasional discomfort, but last night I was awoken by pain. I'd had a migraine the day before and I wonder if that somehow had an impact upon it (perhaps by a tightening of muscles or similar?). Either way, I had to take painkillers in the middle of the night, which surprised me. Today, it is just tired, but I'll keep an eye on it. If you'll pardon the terrible pun!
That sounds horrible (not the pun, the eye...) - wishing you a speedy recovery! You weren't by any chance laying on "the eye side?" I've been getting occular migraines recently, and I found that if I lay on the side of the hurting eye it makes it worse. Just a thought? :-D
Exactly that, yes! That's what woke me, being laid on the eye side. I don't usually have eye pain with my migraines any more (I used to), just an aura, sense of dislocation, and sometimes a crippling headache (along with doing and saying stupid things for some time after!), but I think you might be spot on here. It makes sense!
I'm just now catching up on all the wonderful posts I've missed this past week. WOW! This is incredible, and I'm looking forward to reading more from this series.
Oh thank you! I was thinking about you this weekend, having seen you mention the weather (not reading the news meant that one almost passed me by!). I hope all was well where you are?
As for this series, there's a lot more to come! I'm really enjoying sharing it with the added value of perspective through hindsight. I can really see how this adventure changed my life, entirely. Which can only be a good thing.
I'm in awe. I have zero belief that I'd survive more than 3 nights alone in the woods. It sounds like an amazing experience and the photo of the handwritten journals is really cool.
I think much of the process was actually believing I'd be okay, so you hit the nail on the head with your comment. I think much of being out there is mental/psychological, rather than skills or physical traits, something often overlooked by many.
It really was an amazing experience, and I hope I can do it justice here.
I also wonder if it will be interesting for those who've read some of my fiction, seeing as some of the camp- and woodcraft skills I mention in those stories was really honed during this adventure!
The life-changing boldness of this undertaking feels huge as a reader … I imagine it felt planned/the obvious thing to do/‘normal’ back then but, wow. I am a little late to it but I’m really looking forward to learning from your words, Alexander. It is definitely a book I’d pick up … feels like Neil Ansell territory (Deep Country is a good read). It’ll be fascinating to peer into your feelings now as you revisit that time and place. B
Thank you! I have Deep Country on my reading list, thanks to an earlier recommendation from you, I believe, but have yet to get to it.
I think the undertaking felt needed, that is certain, but there was little in the way of planning beyond ‘get off the train somewhere which looked okay on the O'/S map and walk around the coast’, a plan which wasn’t really a plan and rapidly changed, anyway. I think the ability to change my ideas, to live and breathe in a different fashion, that was the real experience, the real lesson.
Yes, I totally get that need for a change of scene, and a chance to see something (an idea, approach, purpose) in a different light, through a different lens. It’s the reason we closed our deli … in a modest way, it’s the reason I took off for a short writing retreat. It’s all about holding on to the lessons when we return.
Thank you! I tried it last year, but I think it was too soon for Notes. This year, I’m reworking and adding to the project, as well as actually bothering to market it elsewhere, see if I can’t bring in some readers from other platforms!
And I agree, I think Notes, and Substack, is a great home for sharing this particular adventure.
What a thing to have done!. I have an affinity with a wood near my home that I've been visiting for nearly 40 years with family and friends, so it's very close to my heart, and I spent a year photographing it and researching its history (it became an exhibition); although I love to go there on my own I never had the courage to do what you did! So I'm looking forward to reading about your 'sojourn' with trees. And that photo of the journals, as someone else noted, is wonderful. Your sister must be very devoted to you!!
Poor Lydia, my scribbles are not the easiest to read sometimes! And now she's saddled with storing my library and anything else I didn't give away/sell/recycle when I left Scotland. Devoted or, as I often say, long-suffering!
I think that when you know a wood, or any other place, for as long as you say, then your relationship with that space takes on a different meaning. Observing closely adds so much and, as you demonstrate, there's no need to actually go and live in the space itself, just pay attention when you are there. It is one of the topics I love to talk/write about, and how it is something we as a species need. My archaeology dissertation, a long time ago, was entitled 'Life in Woods, or Woods in Life?' and discussed what it would have been like, practically but also psychologically, spiritually and emotionally, to live in woodland during the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic of what is now the UK and Ireland. So, yes, I've rambled on about this topic for over twenty years now!
Thank you so much for commenting and reading, I really appreciate that!
‘Life in Woods, Woods in Life’! Such a good topic! I’m sure you’ve plenty to read but if you like and have an idle moment you could look at the intro to my Woods project back in 2001. https://lizmilner.blog/2001/11/08/the-woods-a-year-and-a-day/#more-599 I kept a journal over the year too, so interesting for me to re-read it recently.
If your writing does become a book, I think it is one that I would like to read. Meanwhile I shall try to read more
I’m still hoping it will be a book—I have the bones of the thing, the framing story, and putting together the rest, writing and rewriting a book proposal (along with other samples and parts of the whole). It’s a long process!
And thank you, I’ll keep you up to date with any developments on the book front!
Thank you! We were so lucky. At first the hurricane was coming for us so the island went into emergency mode - pulled all the boats out of the water, something I’ve never seen them do in all my time here although we’ve had monster storms before. But then it weakened before making landfall in Nova Scotia - off our eastern shores (we can wave at Nova Scotians from where we are! 🥳). Downed trees, electrical lines, and no internet was really the worst of it - all minor inconveniences compared with other places. 🙏 How are you doing? Is the eye continuing to improve?
That does sound like you were lucky. Although it is also good that the island has strategies to cope, and clearly used this as a good test. Growing up in Orkney, I couldn't always understand the damage a storm can wreak upon a place not accustomed to them. Up there, everything is low, tied down, with very few trees to drop branches or topple. When I moved to England I was surprised by how a light wind (to me!) would cripple an area.
My eye has been doing well, with just a hint of occasional discomfort, but last night I was awoken by pain. I'd had a migraine the day before and I wonder if that somehow had an impact upon it (perhaps by a tightening of muscles or similar?). Either way, I had to take painkillers in the middle of the night, which surprised me. Today, it is just tired, but I'll keep an eye on it. If you'll pardon the terrible pun!
That sounds horrible (not the pun, the eye...) - wishing you a speedy recovery! You weren't by any chance laying on "the eye side?" I've been getting occular migraines recently, and I found that if I lay on the side of the hurting eye it makes it worse. Just a thought? :-D
Exactly that, yes! That's what woke me, being laid on the eye side. I don't usually have eye pain with my migraines any more (I used to), just an aura, sense of dislocation, and sometimes a crippling headache (along with doing and saying stupid things for some time after!), but I think you might be spot on here. It makes sense!
I'm just now catching up on all the wonderful posts I've missed this past week. WOW! This is incredible, and I'm looking forward to reading more from this series.
Oh thank you! I was thinking about you this weekend, having seen you mention the weather (not reading the news meant that one almost passed me by!). I hope all was well where you are?
As for this series, there's a lot more to come! I'm really enjoying sharing it with the added value of perspective through hindsight. I can really see how this adventure changed my life, entirely. Which can only be a good thing.
I'm in awe. I have zero belief that I'd survive more than 3 nights alone in the woods. It sounds like an amazing experience and the photo of the handwritten journals is really cool.
Thank you! :)
I think much of the process was actually believing I'd be okay, so you hit the nail on the head with your comment. I think much of being out there is mental/psychological, rather than skills or physical traits, something often overlooked by many.
It really was an amazing experience, and I hope I can do it justice here.
I also wonder if it will be interesting for those who've read some of my fiction, seeing as some of the camp- and woodcraft skills I mention in those stories was really honed during this adventure!
Thanks again.
The life-changing boldness of this undertaking feels huge as a reader … I imagine it felt planned/the obvious thing to do/‘normal’ back then but, wow. I am a little late to it but I’m really looking forward to learning from your words, Alexander. It is definitely a book I’d pick up … feels like Neil Ansell territory (Deep Country is a good read). It’ll be fascinating to peer into your feelings now as you revisit that time and place. B
Thank you! I have Deep Country on my reading list, thanks to an earlier recommendation from you, I believe, but have yet to get to it.
I think the undertaking felt needed, that is certain, but there was little in the way of planning beyond ‘get off the train somewhere which looked okay on the O'/S map and walk around the coast’, a plan which wasn’t really a plan and rapidly changed, anyway. I think the ability to change my ideas, to live and breathe in a different fashion, that was the real experience, the real lesson.
I’m really glad you are reading along! Thanks!
Yes, I totally get that need for a change of scene, and a chance to see something (an idea, approach, purpose) in a different light, through a different lens. It’s the reason we closed our deli … in a modest way, it’s the reason I took off for a short writing retreat. It’s all about holding on to the lessons when we return.
This is an awesome idea, Alex. I also think Substack is a good home for it. I'm looking forward to reading more.
Thank you! I tried it last year, but I think it was too soon for Notes. This year, I’m reworking and adding to the project, as well as actually bothering to market it elsewhere, see if I can’t bring in some readers from other platforms!
And I agree, I think Notes, and Substack, is a great home for sharing this particular adventure.
Oh wow, what an incredible adventure. I'm looking forward to reading your notes and posts as I follow along.
Thank you! I'm really happy to have you along for the adventure.
What a thing to have done!. I have an affinity with a wood near my home that I've been visiting for nearly 40 years with family and friends, so it's very close to my heart, and I spent a year photographing it and researching its history (it became an exhibition); although I love to go there on my own I never had the courage to do what you did! So I'm looking forward to reading about your 'sojourn' with trees. And that photo of the journals, as someone else noted, is wonderful. Your sister must be very devoted to you!!
Poor Lydia, my scribbles are not the easiest to read sometimes! And now she's saddled with storing my library and anything else I didn't give away/sell/recycle when I left Scotland. Devoted or, as I often say, long-suffering!
I think that when you know a wood, or any other place, for as long as you say, then your relationship with that space takes on a different meaning. Observing closely adds so much and, as you demonstrate, there's no need to actually go and live in the space itself, just pay attention when you are there. It is one of the topics I love to talk/write about, and how it is something we as a species need. My archaeology dissertation, a long time ago, was entitled 'Life in Woods, or Woods in Life?' and discussed what it would have been like, practically but also psychologically, spiritually and emotionally, to live in woodland during the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic of what is now the UK and Ireland. So, yes, I've rambled on about this topic for over twenty years now!
Thank you so much for commenting and reading, I really appreciate that!
‘Life in Woods, Woods in Life’! Such a good topic! I’m sure you’ve plenty to read but if you like and have an idle moment you could look at the intro to my Woods project back in 2001. https://lizmilner.blog/2001/11/08/the-woods-a-year-and-a-day/#more-599 I kept a journal over the year too, so interesting for me to re-read it recently.
I shall certainly have a look, thank you! I find re-reading journals to be such a strange and fascinating thing.