(Nimue) During April, The Folk of Gloucester is hosting a Ukrainian festival. This has been put together by Robin Burton – who I’ve worked with on a number of things, and who sings with Carnival of Cryptids. The festival has multiple aims. One is to raise awareness of Ukraine’s struggles. Some of the art on display directly reflects this.  The event is also giving people a chance to find out about Ukrainian culture and traditions, and giving Ukrainian refugees in the UK the chance to come together and share in those traditions. Putin isn’t just trying to invade Ukraine. Russia has a long ..read more

(Nimue) For many years now, I’ve been following a blog called Your Rainforest Mind. Paula Prober works with gifted young people, and also supports the adults they eventually become. I started following because it was helpful to me as a parent. Over the years I’ve seen her talk about many things that I recognise in my friends, and just occasionally, things that are familiar to me, as well. One thing she’s come back to repeatedly is the way in which bright kids can be shamed by adults for being clever. Using ‘know it all’ and similar terms as a criticism and a put down makes clever kids anxious ..read more

This is the new cover for a madcap speculative novel of mine – Spells for the Second Sister – that you can find in my ko-fi store. https://ko-fi.com/s/f312aa059a It came out last year with an entirely different cover that didn’t have much colour. I’ve seen at events over the winter that people weren’t even picking it up to look at the back, where books with stronger colours on them get a lot more attention, which was a significant motivation for the new look. I like colour. A lot of my fiction books have comedic elements – this one certainly does and I think brighter visual approaches better ..read more

(Nimue) Thanks to a recent prompt from Sheldon I thought I’d look at the flip side of praise culture. When do you admit defeat? When does trying to pull another person out of problematic behaviour and ways of relating to the world become something to turn away from? When do we stop helping? The first thing to say is that none of us can take responsibility for ‘fixing’ or ‘saving’ someone else. You can’t help someone who does not want to be helped. How much time you are prepared to spend on establishing that is really up to you, but be aware that there is a price tag. Devoting years to trying t ..read more

(Nimue) Some people have terrible experiences and get over them without too much trouble, others do not. This is something I’ve thought about a lot, and I have a theory that one of the differences may be whether you feel that you could have done differently. Sometimes there are no good choices. Whatever a person does in Gaza right now, they cannot act in ways that will keep them safe. No amount of planning, assessing, trying will make any difference. We humans are drawn to looking for patterns and explanations, and things we can do to shift the odds in our favour. Sometimes this serves us well ..read more

(Nimue) The best book I ever read for exploring domestic magic is Maria DeBlassie’s Everyday Enchantments. She makes a powerful case for caring for your space as a magical activity. Keeping your living space to your liking is a meaningful act of self-care as well. For animists, everything has spirit, and at least the potential for some kind of consciousness. I experience my living space as a community. Everything around me has its origins in the natural world. I have items that belonged to my ancestors, and newer things that are part of this new life I am co-creating with my partner. He too ha ..read more

(Nimue) Creating for yourself is a fine thing to do. If you’ve made something for yourself and you put it out into the world, how that may go is anyone’s guess. It works better to imagine your intended audience. That might sound mercenary – and it can be – but it doesn’t have to be. You can also think about this in terms of service. It’s not possible to create something everyone will like. Trying to do so tends to result in blandness and unoriginality. If you focus on a subset of people, and make something for them, the chances are that a bigger group will be able to enjoy or make some use of ..read more

(Nimue) Parenting taught me a lot about the power of praise. Children crave attention. If the only way they can get attention is by acting out, then they will do so, because being shouted at is often more appealing than being ignored. I went into parenting aware of how conditioning works and that the behaviour you reinforce is what you get more of. Attention is a reward. If you are rewarded for being kind, helpful, funny, clever, or creative then you have every reason to do more of that. What happens to the person who is rewarded for acting out? Some will figure it out as they grow up and will ..read more

(Nimue) If you’ve encountered standard-issue wheel of the year instructions for would-be Druids, you know now is the time to plant your seeds. Not just physical seeds, but the ideas you are going to nurture this year and harvest in the autumn, In the photo are some seedlings I have sprouting in a window box. In a few week’s time I’ll plant more, and I’ll keep planting through the summer because that way I can keep cropping. Seed planting happens for a much longer season than spring. Flowers that bloom in the summer do their seed planting then. Autumn and winter crops exist, you may be plantin ..read more

(Nimue, review) Econarrative, by Arran Stibbe follows on from his book on ecolinguistics and the stories we live by. This is a book exploring the way in which stories impact on our relationship with the world. It ranges widely, taking in religion, science, advertising and fiction to look at how the mechanics of a story inform people’s thinking. These are important considerations for anyone on the bard path. How do we talk about the living world? What can we do that would be helpful? What’s acting on us, and on the people around us? There’s a lot of material here to inspire and engage you. Whi ..read more