Do you like your medicine wild?

Then join us for a Wild Medicine Workshop with herbalist Jessie Martelhof on Sunday 22nd August at Saddlescombe Farm.

Jessie will be leading us on a gentle ramble around the hedgerows to learn about the medicinal properties of some of our native late summer plants such as Elderberries, Hawthorn berries and Nettle seeds. You will learn how you can safely identify and harvest these plants sustainably and you will get to make your own herbal remedy to take home.

Jessie is a qualified Medical Herbalist with a passion for native wild plant medicines that are available to everyone for free! She has a degree in Herbal medicine, she co-runs the Brighton Apothecary and offers health consultations in Fiveways. Website: www.gentle-medicine.co.uk

Booking is essential. Tickets cost £35 full price and £25 concessions and are available by clicking here

All profits go to supporting our charitable work.

Celebrate Solstice with Grow

We’re so delighted to announce that as things slowly come back to life, we’ll be restarting our popular monthly Natural Wellbeing days from June. And to kick things off in celebratory style we’ll be gathering together at Saddlescombe Farm for Summer Solstice - the time of year when we count our blessings, celebrate our achievements and each other - seems very apt for this year!

If you’d like to know more or to book then click here Natural Wellbeing — Growing wellbeing and see details of this and other events planned for this year.

Can’t wait to see you back out on the hills

Practice: Making magical memories

Hello everyone :-) This week we will be exploring how to make magical, multisensory memories of your favourite places. We all know how special it is to have even one place where we feel we can relax and just enjoy being there.

Where do you like to be?

For me, it’s a little patch of woodland on the Downs. I like sitting on the musky, soft ground or against a tree, feeling the coolness of the air and the shelter of the leaves above me. I can get lost in listening to the dancing of the raindrops on the canopy when the skies begin to open. The smell of the earth is grounding, somehow. This place helps me to feel held.

By taking the time to sit and really soak in all the different sensations and impressions of a place, you can begin to paint a vivid memory that lives inside you wherever you go. This memory becomes like a friend that you can bring back whenever you need to comfort and delight yourself.

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How to make your memory

Below are some simple invitations and questions to help you to experience all the richness of your place and build your memory. So have a play and see what finds its way into your magical memory:

What can you see?

Take in the whole picture – what view do you have? What things make up the view? What can you see close up? What shapes and colours can you see? What are the plants and animals that live here? What can you see that you like?

What can you hear?

Close your eyes and explore the sounds around you. Which direction does a sound come from and how far or near is it, do you think? Do you know what makes each sound? Which sounds do you like?

What can you touch?

What can your hands touch? Spend time exploring the different textures and shapes – rough or smooth, soft or firm, wet or dry.

What does your body feel like?

Feel your feet, or bottom, or back on the ground. Can you become aware of your whole body? Can you feel the air on your body?

What can you smell?

Reach around yourself and explore the different smells in your place. Try smelling the air, plants and trees, the ground, yourself.

What can you taste?

This is a tricky one! Be adventurous, be safe.

How does it feel to be here?

What emotions do you have? What thoughts come up while you are here? Is there anything you want to try to remember? Any words of wisdom for yourself?

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Caring for your memory

Visiting your place to make your memory is like planting a tiny seed in your mind or heart. With regular watering, the seed can grow into a beautiful flower.

So explore ways of caring for your memory. Perhaps you’d like to journal about all the sensations you experienced, either after the practice or in the evening before you go to bed? Or perhaps you can bring the richness of the memory back creatively — by writing a poem about your place, making a drawing, or crafting little objects from your place out of coloured paper or other materials.

All of these ways of caring help to foster a special connection with your place. With regular care, the memory can stay alive in your heart and mind, like a friend you can call on when you need them to remind you of the beauty in the world.

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How was it for you?

That’s all for this week, but we’d love to find out how you found this practice. Please share your stories, photos, creative inspirations and joys with us! Take care and enjoy building some beautiful memories.

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Practice: Touch and texture

For this week’s practice, we’re going to get a feel for nature — literally! We’re inviting you to explore all the different textures and sensations around you as a way to start waking up to nature with fresh eyes (well, fingers).

So we’re going to keep it pretty simple this week and offer you a game to play by yourself or with a friend :-).

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Nature texture treasure hunt

The game involves hunting for different textures in nature. Below is a list of texture words and your task is to find and experience as many of the textures as possible:

Here are some step-by-step instructions to play the game:

• Copy down some or all of the texture words from above, or print the image off to take with you when you go outside. Make your way to your preferred green space.

• Take a few minutes to sit down, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and tune into your sense of touch when you arrive. Feel your feet on the ground, the air on your skin, and the texture of your clothes.

• Open your eyes and pick a texture word from the list. Go explore and see what you can find!

• Once you’ve found a good example of the texture, take time to close your eyes and really feel it. What does it feel like on your hand or in your fingers right now? Really tune into the sensations and be curious. Do other words come to mind to describe the sensations as well?

• Create some keepsakes of your experience — maybe noting down some words or reflections, gathering objects, making drawings, or taking photos.

• Continue looking for other textures using the steps above for as long as you like. Pick a more unusual word for a challenge! Enjoy your treasure hunt.

Alternatively, you might like to pick a single word and use it as inspiration for a creative project — collecting only “spiky” objects, for example, and crafting with them; or taking photos of “rough” objects and making a collage.

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Share your experiences with us

Enjoy getting tactile with nature and don’t forget to share any stories, photos, or other creative inspirations that come out of this practice! Happy exploring...

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Practice: Finding a spot to sit and enjoy nature

Where do you like to go to enjoy nature? Where is that special place for you?

In your garden perhaps, or on your balcony? Or maybe down by the seafront, on the Downs, or in the woods?

Practice for this week: Sit spot

This week we invite you to explore the practice of connecting with nature at your favourite “sit spot”. And if you don’t have one yet, then don’t worry, there is plenty of time to try out alternatives and choose one!

“...when we ‘lose our mind’ and ‘come to our senses’ in the fullest possible way, the chattering, texting, e-mailing, twittering mind will eventually quiet down and almost silence itself. This is a sacred and connected silence... It's like a deep, still pond reflecting the stars of the night sky.”

Jon Young in “What the Robin Knows”

A sit spot is a place we can go to just to look, listen, sense and feel the natural rhythms of nature. Tuning into these rhythms can be a great way to relax our body and mind, and open ourselves to all the surprises and treasures that nature offers.

Choosing a sit spot

How do you find a sit spot? A sit spot is somewhere you feel comfortable, where you can be relatively undisturbed, and where you can watch nature unfold. This could be your garden, the beach, a bench in the park, or a chair by your window with a view of the trees and birds — or many other places besides. Feel free to explore different spots if you want to before choosing one.

Choosing a sit spot that is easy and quick to get to (ideally within 5–10 minutes of your house) is very helpful for when you want to revisit the same spot. The sit spot is somewhere you are invited to return to regularly as a place to connect to nature and drop any worries and business for a little while.

How to practice with a sit spot

So how do you practice with a sit spot? Here is some guidance:

• Go to your sit spot — aim to spend 5–10 minutes there at first. Once you feel more comfortable, you can try longer, but there’s no rush. Set a timer if you like so you can offer your full attention to what is here in front of you.

• Make yourself comfortable, and put your phone on silent or turn it off if you can

• Check in with yourself — How does your body feel? What emotions are you feeling? How is your mind right now? Just take a moment to say hello to yourself — no need to change anything.

• Tune into your senses. Close your eyes to begin. Feel the weight of your body on the seat or ground, and the air on your skin. Listen to the sounds around you — the rustling of the leaves in the trees, the birds chirping, the waves rolling in and out. What can you can smell? — the musty earth, the salty air, or wood smoke perhaps? Now open your eyes and explore the colours and forms around you — take in the tiny details right next to you, and then the sights far away.

• Get curious about the world around you. What can you see? What can you hear? What is making that sound? Are there any birds? Is the wind blowing? Where is the sun? Take time to recognise the plants, the animals, the rhythms, the movements of the world around you.

• Towards the end of your time, take a moment to feel into what you have received. You might like to draw, write a poem, or gather a few eye-catching objects to deepen your connection to your sit spot and to give you a reminder of your experience to take home.

• Finally, acknowledge and thank your sit spot — by pausing to enjoy it for a few more moments, by offering water to a plant or tree, or leaving a bit of food for the animals — whatever feels right to you.

We wish you many delightful and healing moments at your sit spot!

You might also find it helpful to listen to this podcast by the Inner Pathways to Sustainability project, which explains the sit spot practice and includes a guided practice that you can listen to when you’re there.

Don’t forget to share your experience with a friend or with the Grow community online on Facebook or Instagram — post your drawing, poem, a photo, or simply a few words about your sit spot experience! We would love to hear how it was for you.