Gleanings From the Field
Rural life, Substack mentorship, and some excellent things to read
I used to publish a monthly newsletter, Gleanings from the Field, which functioned as a way to reflect upon things that I had recently done, a place to update folk on developments to my writing here on Over the Field and elsewhere, and a space to showcase some links to other people’s work that I had particularly enjoyed.
On the prompting of my wife, I have decided to revive this habit. Though instead of doing this monthly, I will be publishing a Gleanings once a quarter, so as to not overburden already overstretched email inboxes.
Beginning to Live a Rooted Rural Life
It has been almost seven months now since we moved from city life in sunny Essex to rural Sedbergh, nestled in the Yorkshire Dales (and a short drive from the Lake District). We are absolutely loving living in England’s Book Town, with our house being next to a large secondhand bookshop, and we are delighted to have a fell a short walk behind our house (Winder 473m) that we can climb, complete with semi-wild fell ponies, cascading waterfalls and rare Rough Fell sheep.
Slowly we are starting to integrate into community life. I have joined the Community Orchard Group which has provided an opportunity to put my agrarianism into practice (the orchard is run using traditional management techniques) and my wife has joined the Book Town committee. We are also slowly turning our small garden into a (hopefully!) productive vegetable patch, wildlife garden, and little apple orchard (my wife is determined to cram as many apple trees as she can into our very small space!)
If any of my readers are ever in the area (Yorkshire Dales or Cumbria near Kendal) please do let me know! I would love to give you a walking tour of Sedbergh and the surrounding countryside. Here are a few photographs to whet your appetite.
Substack Mentorship
The first big update to make you al aware of is that I have recently launched a Substack mentorship program. This is for anyone wanting to start a Substack (or who has been publishing on Substack for sometime) who would appreciate some advice from someone who has been there, done that, made the mistakes, and learnt the lessons.
I have three years of experience using the platform and can advise on how to navigate the nuts and bolts of Substack; how to manage diverse audiences; how effectively use Substack Notes; how to run a reading group; how to develop a strategy for going paid; and lots, lots more.
This mentorship takes place one-on-one over Zoom. There is no set structure, meetings are highly tailored to your needs and prior experience, and can be just a one off session or a series of sessions spread out over a prolonged period of time.
I am also launching an essay/article editing service. This is for folk who would appreciate an extra pair of eyes to look over your work, offer critical comments and feedback, provide suggestions for further research and some relevant sources/bibliography, and a general proofread. I am available to edit essays/articles on the themes of agrarianism, nature and ecology, agriculture, and rural culture.
Both these services are available for all subscribers (both paid and non paid) to Over the Field. Substantial discounts on rates are available for all paid subscribers as one of my paid subscriber benefits.
More information can be found by clicking on the link below:
Another project I started at the beginning of the year was a secondary publication called The Village Green. I wanted to write articles showcasing the beauty of British rural life and heritage but figured that this did not exactly tie in with what I was doing here on Over the Field. Thus, I set up a separate publication that you can subscribe to. It is also where my nature writing and poetry is going to be published going forward.
So far, I have published articles on exploring old churches, parish folk art, a Yorkshire Dales village, Wainwright and the Lake District, and the importance of village greens. Come and have a look by clicking on the link below:
Writing, with on Substack and for publication is my full-time vocation and I am heavily reliant on the support of my paid subscribers here. If that is you, thank you so much for supporting me. It means so much and your investment in my writing makes all my work here possible.
If you would like to become a paid subscriber to Over the Field — which will give you access to the two Wendell Berry reading groups I run, access to paywalled articles and reflections and discounts on buy mentoring scheme — then please use the link below. For those on low incomes or who want to pay a little bit less, then you can use the discount code for 20% off:
That is enough about me. Now on to some other worthy writers…
Links to Great Writing
This piece by Matt Millar over at
is superbly helpful for any fellow agrarians who write on the land and place. The seventeen theses Matt has devised are both enlightening and convicting. For sure I am going to use Matt’s wisdom to help shape my own writing and reflections on the Yorkshire Dales.Here are a few of Matt’s theses to whet your appetite:
“Places can fail people, but far more frequently the failure goes the other way around. When a place fails to meet our needs, it is often because someone first failed to concern themselves with the needs of the place.”
“Paying attention to something is an act of self-denial that leads to love.”
“The difference isn't between place writing and non-place writing, but between writing that knows it arises from a particular place and writing that doesn't.”
At the core of Andrew’s piece is the need to notice and pay attention to the beauty that surrounds us. Learning once again to name creation is a fundamental means of doing so.
And if I were to highlight just one sentence from his article, it would be this: “The baptised gnosticism that finds itself impatient with the tangible, the touchable, the inherently physical realities of the world we inhabit is impoverished aesthetically, but it is also dramatically unsound theologically.”
Have a read and reform your relationship to the wonders of creation:
Finally, this is an exceptionally beautiful and peaceful piece from
, about contentedly enjoying the simple things of life at a human pace. It is a piece whose message can help one to both refresh and rest their harried attention in a world which tells you to always grasp for more.
Thank you all for reading Over the Field thus far! I look forward to sharing some more essays with you soon.
Warmly,
Hadden
I could be up for one of your advice sessions. Tell me more!
Beautiful words, photos , deep appreciation for your posts.