Finding Your Way Back To Your Happy Place - One Year On

An early morning recording location in the Lake District

This week - an anniversary.  I have been writing and sharing this blog for a year!  I look back at that first one and see that I wrote of my podcasting journey: ‘There will be stories about plants which I see as the fun bit.  There may be struggles with the technology which I see as the challenge.  At the end in April 2023 there will be a podcast’. And there was! 

I have turned to writing this blog post having spent the day editing a plant story.  It’s the first episode for the second series which will begin in January.  I was correct in that the stories about the plants is the fun bit and the photograph above was taken in the Lake District, whilst recording this new episode. It really is a beautiful tale. Of course it has a plant at its heart but it also has a love story and adventure and friendship and it has come from a listener, who found the podcast via Instagram. So to me that means it truly is: ‘our’ plant stories.

What have I learned over the past 12 months?  That creative ventures take longer than you think and even then they evolve.  I am seeing this new season as a series of chapters.  Each month there will be a plant story but there may also be offshoots and short bonus episodes enabling us to go deeper into some aspect of that story. So - keep reading this blog and you won’t miss anything.

I’ve met lovely people - gardeners generous with their knowledge, podcasters willing to share what they have learnt.  I love collaborating and hopefully in December I can put my ‘Radio 4 Pick of the Week’ (Pick of the Year if you were really lucky!) skills to good use.   Watch this space, I hope we will have some best moments from a few plant podcasts;  though one of the podcasters did say that choosing a favourite moment was like being asked to name a favourite child! 

A challenge for the next series is to broaden the range of guests and stories.  I’ve worked out how to make the podcast, now I need to focus on the ‘our’ in the title. So do let me know if you have suggestions of places I should go or people I should meet.

I have learned that you need to take a leap of faith to launch a new thing but then you need to be consistent. Publish a podcast when you say you will. If it is to be a weekly blog then the discipline is - remember it is weekly. Learning can be a little bit exhausting and at times you will feel frustrated by slow progress but don’t just focus on the problems, look at how far you have come. I hope that maybe someone is reading this and thinking ‘I could do ….. ‘ insert the thing that will take you back to your happy place. Even if it is just a first step like logging the ideas on your phone. My first note about podcasting goes back to Oct 2018 and one of the lines is ‘How do you make one!’ It also says in the same note ‘so I am hoping to find passionate gardeners who will be generous with their knowledge’. ✅

 Good luck in your ventures and thank you so much for taking the time and the trouble to read this blog.