Gleanings From the Field
It has been a good start to the year.
Dear all,
The year has started off on a good note up here in the Yorkshire Dales. The fells have been regularly dusted with snow (still waiting for a proper snowfall) and the beautiful semi-wild fell ponies have been congregating on our local fell, Winder.
Further afield, we have gone for hikes in the stunning remote valley of Keld with its deep river ravine, climbed two Wainwrights (Sallows and Sour Howes, for those in the know) and, closer to home, we have had some work done to our small garden! Four raised beds have been built for vegetables and we are now looking to dig a (very) small wildlife pond, cram in as many different varieties of local heritage apple trees/bushes as we can, and deal with some invasive bamboo… We are greatly excited to finally put our localist beliefs into practice and I look forward to sharing our progress with you all here on Over the Field in the future.
At the beginning of the year, I started to keep to Online Hours. This has been going splendidly well. In practice, this means I am checking my Substack and social media platforms on Mondays and Fridays only. For the rest of the week, I am “off-line” (though I do still check emails and keep a (reduced) eye on the news). I am aiming to publish pieces on Substack on days when I am offline (so as not to be distracted by the flurry of notifications post-publishing). So, if I am late replying to messages, comments, notes etc, this is why.
Against the Machine Reading Group
A reminder that tomorrow at 8.30 PM UK time, the Against the Machine Reading Group will be meeting to discuss Paul Kingsnorth’s essay No.2: The Great Unsettling. The Zoom codes for this session are at the bottom of this email for paid subscribers and new participants are more than welcome to join us. The following session is on the 26th February: The Faustian Fire followed by 19th March: Blanched Sun, Blinded Man.
Also, the schedule for the Spring Term of this reading group is now ready to be released. The dates for the Deep Dive group are:
9th April, 8.30PM UK time: A Monster that Grows in Deserts
30th April, 8.30PM UK time: A Thousand Mozarts
21st May, 8.30PM UK time: Do What Thou Wilt
4th June, 8.30PM UK time: The Great Wen
As always, any questions, please do not hesitate to ask me.
The Village Green
As some of you know, Over the Field has a sister publication: The Village Green. This is where I publish essays, reflections, and tours on the beauty of Britain: old Church tours, nature writing, Natural History Digests, and more.
Below are a selection of some of my favourite pieces from The Village Green as a way of introduction.
Other worthy pieces
From time to time, I like to highlight some of the other great writing I read here on Substack, of which there is plenty! All the following pieces are ones I am keeping on my longlist for the 2026 Turner Award.
Thank you to all those who have been supporting me over my writing journey, through messages of encouragement, sharing my pieces, and financial support. It means a great deal to me.
