By Kate Hodges
10th November 2021
EVENT ONCE UPON A TIME…
This year’s magical Yorkshire Festival of Story is free and online, available everywhere. This year’s event is curated by Kevin Crossley-Holland and uses the epic, folk and fairy tales of our past to explore how we want the world to look moving forward. Find a dreamy line-up including fairy tale queen Dame Marina Warner, Michael Morpurgo, Alan Garner and Chris Riddell. Plus follow an epic version of The Odyssey, learn how to spin your own yarns, and enjoy stories by the fire or at bedtime. Find the full programme here and find the tips storyteller Susan Perrow gave us for sharing tales here
MAKE UP BEFORE THE BEAK
Winter is coming and nature is hunkering down. As berries and seeds become more scarce, it’s time to give the birds a helping hand. Making your own bird feeder out of a recycled yoghurt pot or pine-cone (use single-ingredient peanut butter as a lard substitute if you’re veggie) is easy and fun – hang yours in view of a window. Or, for a prettier feeder, try repurposing a vintage tea cup.
EVENT HUMAN BEING
The riotously diverse Being Human Festival is an enormous, country-wide series of online and real-world events across the UK with major hubs in Coventry, Glasgow, Swansea and Lincoln. It explores the way the humanities can inspire, and help us understand ourselves and our relationship with a changing world. This year’s theme is Renewal, and will be launched with an online event with Lemn Sissay. Explore the enormous programme to find an event near you or online. You might learn to bead and weave Cherokee-style, head to a museum after hours, or enjoy a huge, lighted parade in Lincoln to commemorate the Mayflower pilgrims. Find the full programme here or pick by themes including health and wellbeing and politics and protest here.
EVENT AND DO RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
Saturday is World Kindness Day, a time to celebrate generosity of spirit in society and everyday life. Why not take the opportunity to spread the love with random acts of kindness? This year, suggestions include sending a thoughtful text to someone you know, saying good morning to everyone on your way into work or school, offering to return someone’s shopping troller, or to sort some unwanted possessions for charity. Longer term ideas might be volunteering at a soup kitchen, undertaking litter picks or spending time getting to know your neighbours. Be kind!
EVENT LONDON PARTIES
Saturday’s free Lord Mayor’s Show might seem a quaint tradition; the great and ‘good’ of the city garlanding themselves in their finest jewellery and parading through the streets. But there’s a lot more going on than stuffy old dudes in tricorn hats sitting in gold-encrusted carriages. The giant basket-woven figures of Gog and Magog, the guardians of the city, lend a Summerisle-style pagan feel to the procession, parading alongside full-size model elephants, Japanese drummers, a horse-drawn bus and the tallest fire engine in Europe. Find out more about the event’s rowdy history here. After the parade, why not take one of the free guided walks of the stranger corners of the city? Download a map of the day’s events here.
WHAT WE’RE READING Embracing Radical Body Love. ”Your body is worthy of being loved because it exists. It’s radical self-love that actively starts with you and then uproots systems of oppression, agitates oppressors, and creates change for the oppressed.” Read more here
WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO Rachel Rainbolt lives ‘wild and free in connection with my three wildlings and the papa bear in our fixer-upper on the beach…” and has the most delicious voice. Gather with her around a virtual campfire as she shares meaningful conversations with inspiring and insightful friends around Gentle Parenting, Natural Homeschooling, and Simple Living. Listen here
