I'm looking forward to speaking about 'Mud and Wonder: how we can explore our spirituality in nature', at this conference run by my friends as Grund School, Oradea, Romania, focussed on outdoor education and pedagogy. Booking link here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Looking forward to @greenbeltfestival.bsky.social 🙌 If you're coming, pop these two things in your diary. Come and make kites with me as an act of worship, and listen to stories about hosting refugees with @refugeesathome.bsky.social

I couldn't run my usual family retreat week this year, coz appendicitis 😭. My lovely friends all pitched in and got it done 🥰 Would just like to note that 1 Rachel carries the force of five people. ADHD ftw 💪

Huge thanks to Allan for writing the background stories to my childhood and my children's childhoods. My favourites to read to my children were Peepo, which is a work of warm human genius, and Each Peach Pear Plum where the rhyme gallops along to a satisfying plum pie finale.

Spent my weekend having appendicitis. 💯 do not recommend. It's good to be home, hoping for a boring and uneventful recovery.

It's blackberry time!

Beautiful London 🌳💚

Fruit of the earth and work of human hands (our hands, we collected grains of wheat from ears of corn, threshed them, ground them, made dough and cooked it). Fruit of the vine and work of human feet (we stomped on grapes in a ziplock and added to wine). Blessed be God for ever!

Have I told you you are wonderfully made? Enjoying Waltham Forest Pride with local inclusive churches.

Was just sitting drinking my cocoa when Daphne jumped up on my lap for a cuddle 🐔

Found a beautiful friend.

Look, when it comes to reducing channel crossings you have two main options: 1) Invent a time machine and stop Britain colonising half the world so that people do not have strong ties to the country 2) Provide safer and simpler options to seek asylum without having to use irregular routes. #r4today

I'm so excited about this. ✝️⚓

Great for @stpeterintheforest.bsky.social to be able to host a screening of The Nettle Dress and nettle themed activities thanks to the London Forest School Association. What a varied day- I started with an 8am BCP communion service!

Twenty years ago I was a member of an internet message board (remember those?) of mums with new babies. One of those babies had the absolute coolest small sibling, one of those awesome internet babies, toddlers, children, teens who you never meet but you think are absolutely brilliant.

Computers used to scream every time they connected to the Internet. They knew. They tried to warn us. We did not listen.

It's St Peter's day, the saint our church is named after, and our patronal festival! Come along this Sunday to explore St Peter's qualities and the ways we try to embody these as a church, while we make Rocky Road for Peter the Rock 🪨

#30DaysWild day 19 A beautifully small but special eucharist and benediction for thanksgiving of the institution of holy communion aka Corpus Christi. I collected rose petals, and they were scattered in the path of the holy sacrament as we walked round @stpeterintheforest.bsky.social ✝️⚓

#30DaysWild day 15 The elderflower champagne 🍾 was drinkable to celebrate Solly's confirmation today! 🕊️

It's Trinity Sunday! ✝️⚓

Interested in worship outside? I'm leading a workshop at this conference in September. Booking link here: htl.churchsuite.com/events/rr1eu... ✝️⚓

#30DaysWild day 14 Hanging out in my hammock, enjoying the trees, listening to a very noisy green woodpecker (but I didn't see it).

#30DaysWild day 14 Hanging out in my hammock, enjoying the trees, listening to a very noisy green woodpecker (but I didn't see it).

Imagine meeting someone who was alive when Stonehenge & the pyramids of Egypt were built 5,000 years ago Daft yes? Well what about a tree that was alive then, and still is The Great Basin Bristlecone Pines of California Photo: Rick Goldwaser

#30DaysWild day 13 We have a family of crows in our garden. Parents and two babies. The babies are cute and huge and clever and funny. They literally roll on the ground play fighting. They sit with wide open beaks so dada and mama crow can pop things in their mouths.

What if this bridge was a park? What if this concrete was a vibrant meadow, buzzing with life and waving grasses when the breeze blows? What if this shuttered shop front was a door open to a place filled with the fragrance of Pakistani mangoes?

#30DaysWild Day 12 Feeling a bit grotty today so enjoying the trees from my bed. Whatever the problem, trees can help.

#30DaysWild Day 11 Collecting sticks from a scruffy patch by the side of the road to share their sticky wisdom at a conference about estates ministry. Lovely versatile sticks 🥰 This is not a stick, this is a...

#30DaysWild day 10 Urban fox in urban meadows in Woodford Wells.

#30DaysWild Day 9 Hammock time

An exploration of moss & monotropic ways of being. An invitation to slow down, sink in & reconnect through sensory depth & shared presence in liminal spaces. https://autisticrealms.com/mossy-minds-monotropism/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social

#30DaysWild Day 08 Making and flying kites at our outdoor Sunday school 🪁

#wildflowerhour Great loads of ox eye daisies around at the moment.

Eight years ago we hosted a young pregnant woman through @refugeesathome.bsky.social Things had been very difficult for her, and she ended up with a crash C-section. It was touch and go for her and her impossibly tiny one.

#30DaysWild Day 7 A few years ago when doing this challenge month, I decided to try to sniff every rose I came across. It's a habit that's stuck, and which I commend to you now.

The Dickin Medal is the highest award that can be issued to animals in British military service. Bearing the words "We Also Serve" it has been awarded 75 times since its creation in 1943. Only one cat has ever received the award. This is the story of Able Seacat Simon, of HMS Amethyst. 🧵 1/25

#30dayswild Visited two of my forest school trainees who ran a fab session for home ed kids in Westcliff. And when I came home I decanted my elderflower champagne 🍾🥂 into dizzy pop bottles.

#30DaysWild day 5 Waiting for the bus in the rain, and counting the species of trees I can see in Epping Forest across the road from me. English oak, sycamore, ash, some kind of cherry, hazel, elder, hornbeam, and maybe laurel?

#30dayswild day 4 Have spent the day working on a book for our memory cafe. I'll let you know when you can order one- self publishing through Amazon so e-book or print copies I think. It's a resource book to handhold you through setting up a nature based memory cafe for folk with memory loss.

#30DaysWild day 3. Picked a selection of grasses walking home from dropping youngest off at the station for school this morning. (Epping Forest is a patchwork of forest and meadow; this is a meadow bit just round the corner from my house.)

#30DaysWild Day 2 Visiting TrustLinks Shoebury to observe two of my forest school trainees, watching frogs, and watching a small group of primary school kids re-find themselves in nature 🌱

#30DaysWild Day 1: nature based memory cafe.

Snuck in two nights retreat/holiday solo camping in a different Essex field. So many birds. I don't know how many hours I 'wasted' just listening to them. Plus, bonus! Discovered campsite has pop up sauna on Thursdays 🙌

Essex Green Weekend on the wild Dengie peninsula. Sea swimming, camping, ancient chapel, music, food and conversation, a bit of forest school, lots of cups of tea on the veranda at The Othona Community, Bradwell on Sea.

We got new rescue chickens on Saturday after my lovely three girls got foxed last month 😭 We were away. Our housesitters heard a commotion. Fox INSIDE the chicken run! 😱 Somehow they got the chickens inside the coop to safety and with the help of the dogs, scared the fox off.

Also, preach a bad sermon rather than a stolen one or fake one. Your congregation doesn't want a liar for a pastor. They hired you - in all your busyness, ups and downs. AI is not your friend. It is thievery.

Sure Start centres saved UK government £2 for every £1 spent, study finds

I am #FastingForGaza today by doing a solidarity fast. I'm cooking Palestinian white beans stew for my one meal, a dish that's on regular rotation at Gaza Soup Kitchen. If you're not in a position to fast today, perhaps you could think of those without food in Gaza today before you eat? #FastForGaza

A glorious walk along the River Roding yesterday; I felt we'd begun to make friends.

We made elder bead rosaries, found Mary/Our Lady themed flowers, and made rosary beads from rose petals (you whizz them into a smoothie, heat over the fire, squash out all the water, then roll the dough into balls to dry!). And we cooked elderflower fritters over the fire. ✝️⚓