Dear friends, supporters and colleagues, As I write, the woods around Chatham Green are starting to turn. The mornings are cooler, the light comes low through the trees in the afternoon, and there is that unmistakable smell of damp leaves. Autumn is a season of gathering in, and it feels like the right time [...]
Dear Friends, This is my final post as CEO of the Wilderness Foundation, as I prepare to hand over the role to James Davey towards the end of June. After a long search, I feel deeply grateful that we have found someone who I truly believe will take the Foundation into its next chapter [...]
Dear Friends, supporters and colleagues, I am just in from a walk in our wonderful woods surrounding us in our village in Essex. I felt uplifted and grateful not just for sun coming out but by the season itself. With the first warmth of spring stretching gently into early summer, there’s a quiet but unmistakable [...]
Dear Friends, This is a special time of year to sit back and reflect on the past 12 months and to look forward to the New Year with all its promise. If we didn’t have beginnings and endings such as the calendar month, things would just plod along with the danger of becoming stale [...]
Dear Friends,Seasons come and go, and we live within the passages of time. It has always been thus, and now autumn is upon us. I love the cooling of air in the late afternoon and evening – that chill on my cheeks, a change in the light, and the sense of quietness and slowness that [...]
Dear Friends, Welcome to our Summer Newsletter. A small black ball of fluff – so tiny that it was hard to see effectively – was making its way across one of the roads I take home at the end of the day. Traffic was coming from both sides, and I just wonder if this [...]
Dear Friends, It’s that time.. Spring is in the air! Welcome to our Spring Newsletter, in which we celebrate the seasons changing from winter to spring. A time when we can look back at the darker, colder, winter and look forward with hopefulness, optimism and the scent of new beginnings as the sunshine lengthens [...]
Wilderness Foundation UK's Mental Health Programme for Young People Recognised with High Sheriff’s Shield The Wilderness Foundation in Chatham Green has been honoured with the prestigious High Sheriff's Shield at the annual Essex High Sheriff's Awards. This recognition is part of a broader award of funding where £162,000 was awarded to 30 charities across [...]
Dear Friends, Thank you all so much for your support over the year. There are so many of you who step up in a myriad of ways from sharing our social media posts to fundraising support, volunteering and just being alongside us. Thanks for taking the time to care for wilderness and wildness. Writing [...]
Dear Friends, Earth Day - 22nd April – is a time for celebration, reflection and forward thinking about the beautiful planet we exist on. For those of us here in the northern hemisphere – spring has definitely sprung – and although still cold at times – I am uplifted by the beauty and promise of [...]
Dear Friends, Autumn and early winter have to be my favourite times of year. As a South African we never had dramatic seasons although we had a lot of heat and sun. There is something about autumn colours, crunching leaves underfoot, leaves dancing in the wind, and the views that open up through thinning [...]
Dear Friends, Last night I met with a friend who talked about her love of rain and the nourishment it brings to life around where she lives. She welcomes its gifts and potential to allow growth and abundance. I was struck by this lovely thought process and the connection she has to the trees [...]
Dear Friends, One night this week was one of those incredible moments in life as five planets lined up in the sky. Jupiter, Mars and Venus could be seen with the naked eye, but Uranus and Mercury needed a telescope. I caught some of the spectacle in the early evening, having just finished supporting [...]
Hello from our Down to Earth Community Allotment! We have started 2023 with much needed hands-on repairs. January and February are the physical months of the gardening year leaving all things green to rest for a bit longer until early spring. As such, we shifted many barrows of woodchip, compost and manure and have [...]
The Wilderness Foundation’s Education Team are delighted to say that our Wild Schools Climate Action programme has gone from strength to strength in 2022! For those that haven’t heard about it before this is an 8-week programme taught in schools to students in Year 5 & 6. The first four weeks are interactive presentations [...]