On Tuesday I released a new episode called Silent Space.   My conversation with Liz Ware, the founder of the charity Silent Space, has made me acutely aware of my behaviour in green spaces. In a good way! Do I reach for my phone to take pictures to WhatsApp to friends, do I start googling the plants or do I just look?  And if I do just look, how long does that looking last before I get distracted by things around me or perhaps my own mental ‘to do’ list? 

As you will hear in this episode, Liz first became aware of the value of just enjoying a space with no distractions, when her job as a writer and garden historian involved her arriving in gardens very early in the morning, to take the photographs.  There was then a quiet time whilst she waited for her interviewee and that quiet time had quite a profound effect on her for the rest of the day. It led to this charity. She still recalls a visitor to one of the designated silent spaces in a garden saying: “its wonderful to have permission to be silent”. I hope you will listen and share the episode with others, I think her observations can speak to all of us who like to spend time in nature. 

In other podcast news I am writing this as I travel back from South to North London.  (Yes it is just a river but strange how many of us settle one side or t’other and can’t imagine living on the other side!) I have been recording in the Eden Nature Garden in Clapham with two wonderfully knowledgeable people; Benny Hawksbee and Lucy Houliston.  I won’t share Lucy’s plant story yet - that will be for series 3 but suffice to say that there is real joy in wandering around a garden with two people who are passionate about the little creatures, so often overlooked in our world. As Benny lifted a log or parted some grass, there were squeals of delight from Lucy.  We talk about ‘people finding their people’, this is ‘people finding their insects’. 

My plan is to release Offshoot episodes in November and December but we will return to plant stories with a new series in early 2025.  I hope you will enjoy the Offshoots too and that it will keep Our Plant Stories on your podcast radar!  I love knowing where people are listening and it was wonderful to be bought a ‘virtual’ coffee by Garry a listener in Canada this week who said: “this has become one of my favourite podcasts. As much as I enjoy the actual "how to" behind raising plants, both indoors and out, your podcast adds a human side to the wonderful world of plants.” Thank you to everyone who is part of the Coffee Crew, supporting the podcast in this way. It means a lot.

I want to leave you this week by sharing a recommendation. It’s a podcast that I have been listening to over the past couple of days. Tape Letters is another finalist in the Independent Podcast Awards in the History category.  It is the story of families from Pakistan who had come to live and work in the UK, using cassettes to record and send messages back and forth to their families still in Pakistan. It is just so beautifully put together with so much love and care and it reveals so much about people’s lives and the power of a voice recording. Do give it a listen.  I started with episode 6 yesterday and have just finished listening to the whole series.  

Have a lovely weekend 

Sally 

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