I love the winter and Christmas time, and because I start getting festive in November, by the time we get past the actual holiday I am raring to go with the new year. I will be spending Betwixtmas filling in my 2024 diary and doing some housekeeping on my website. I will be upgrading and revamping the artwork side of this site, as this is my space to promote my artwork: I listened to a great podcast the other day on marketing artwork so I will be making that area more descriptive and appealing as I would like to be able to sell more of my prints and originals.
I have decided to start a Substack for my Charleston info, drawings, photos and experiences, primarily so that I have a record, but also to stop the website losing its focus. If you want to follow my journey with volunteering, I would love you to subscribe over there.
I have an exciting birdwatching logbook project coming up in the new year with a rewilding organisation in America. We are currently in discussions over the birds that need to be included and the main design but that will be great.
I have bought some paint for my bathroom – just a tester pot but ever since I moved in I have wanted a dark purple bathroom, and I hope I have found just the colour.
I start back teaching at Wilderness Wood at the end of January when the wood reopens, so I have a little break from that but I will carry on with my weekly sessions at Charleston. I am hoping that logbook sales will pick up next year and the orders through Gardners will continue beyond the stocking-filler season. My Country Living article has been a great help in promoting my little books but I would love to take on some more bespoke projects with a view to providing some genuine engagement rather than simply a gift. I have a few ideas of who I can contact for that, and some potential new stockists who are interested in taking the logbooks once they start up in the spring. My stalwart stockists such as Seven Sisters National Park and Rye Harbour Discovery Centre are still stocking the books but I have lost a number of the homewares and gift stores so perhaps the logbooks have had their moment. If I’m honest, much as I respect the fact that the books are seen as cute and fun, they do have a serious message behind them, namely to encourage an awareness and engagement with our local birds, or record what we see on a special holiday or walk. The need to build up our relationship with nature is becoming more pressing and I really hope that even some of the people who receive them as stroking fillers decide to take their books out and see what they can spot. That for me is my greatest wish for this season.
