[UK Islands Project] Don't be Scilly

The sand bar between St.Agnes and Gugh. The place on the island that I kept returning to

I've gotten the bug. The Isles of Scilly Bug

My short visit to St.Agnes last month has developed into a slight obsession with all things Scilly.

I stayed only three nights on St.Agnes and yet this Island trip felt as if I'd been away for months - such was the 'magic' of the place. 

It was all a bit hit and miss if I'd even get there as a number of flights had been cancelled that week due to the weather. I drove down to Cornwall the night before I was due to fly and there was hail and rain on a rather epic scale.

Wednesday dawned and so did the blue skies and the sunshine.

I knew then, in that instant that it was all going to be grand. Just grand

And it was. On so many levels

The people I met

The beauty of the place - the light, the colours the wildness

The tranquility

I loved it

With all the notes and photos I'm taking, boiling it all down to one blog post just isn't happening (as you may have noticed!) and I think this is, I expect, influenced by the fact that I am going to be writing all these Islands explorations into a book.

Seeing that my posts are random I've just added an Instragram feed to my blog as that's where I'm sharing more 'live' moments from these island adventures, so if you'd like a more interactive part in this project - instagram is the best place to follow me @morwhennawoolcock Do come and say hi! 

The next Island I'm visiting is Lundy. Would you like to receive a special art postcard from Lundy Island? Click here

Hanging out with The Old Man of Gugh. Going 'Off-peak' meant I had the whole Island to myself

Up your courage

Have you done anything recently that you’d considered had ‘upped your courage?’

Or is there something you are thinking about doing that requires you to ‘up your courage?’

Do tell

I’d been thinking about how I could up my own courage recently and the thought came to me about giving talks, like, in public.

This is something that gives me the heebie-jeebies.

I really don’t relish the idea of being up there on a stage in front of people all looking at me.

However,

I know that if I want to move forward with my ideas and plans for my Creative Adventures and to encourage others to either join me on mine or help them in creating their own, this is something I feel I need/and actually want to do.

Once I’d kind of decided this was something I was going to explore further a curious thing happened - An opportunity plopped right into my lap – almost the next day.

The charity, Creativity Works, who I work part-time for, have been in conversation with Bath Spa University and Dr Samantha Walton, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, about her current research programme on Nature and Wellbeing and this interested me greatly (as you can imagine).

I decided I also wanted to attend the event but with my ‘Creative Adventurer Hat on’ and so emailed Dr. Sam to ask if I could. I briefly explained my interest in the subject and pressed send.

Her reply was along the lines of ‘would you like to contribute to the talks? These can be between 5-15 minutes and involve an introduction to your work and interest in the theme.’

First reaction was - YES!
then - ah but I'm not an expert or a professor or such
then - hmmm how will I be perceived by others there
then - what if I make a twit of myself
then - AGHHH I need to do this

Come on now I said to myself (and after sharing my fear in the mentoring group I’m in)

didn’t I ask for this?

So I replied

‘Yes Please – I’d love to do this, thank you for asking!’

Once I’d sent this reply I thought – YES! This is going to be great! Also feeling pleased that I'd 'felt the fear and done it anyway' (Not before having a slight panic that it was going to be in a massive lecture theatre with 100s of people staring at me) I checked and it will be a group of around 35, in a semi-circle and there will be cake.

Well I thought – If there is going to be cake – it’s all fine!

The event is taking place on the 8^th May and there will be some very interesting speakers there. If you’d like to know more about it please follow this link: Cultures of Nature and Wellbeing

So do tell me about your own courage upping that you’ve been doing – or that you want to – maybe I can help you to take that next step?