Philosophy/reflective Episodes

The hedges are ablaze with colour and they call to us of lessons that we have long forgotten. Journal entry: 2nd September, Saturday “At the edgings of the day. A delinquent V of geese Transect a sinking sun. As they reappear Another flight has joined them. They continue in a loose straggle North. A cool whisper of air As we round the base of the hill. Distant voices float across the water. As the sun sinks below the west The chant of jackdaws.” Episode Information: In this episode ...

A warm dry week has ended with chasing shadows and showers. It looks like a dampish Bank Holiday! Therefore, this might be a good time to consider more deeply on the quality that rain has to touch us both physically and emotionally. Thomas Merton and Tristan Gooley are two very different people, but they both offer insights into the language of rain and what we can learn through listening to it. Journal entry: 24th August, Thursday "We drop down the hill To field-edge and thistledown sm...

It’s a wild and wet July night of wind and rain. So why not step aboard for a while as we meander down some fox trails and contemplate the pleasure of sunshine and dark skies. Journal entry: 11th July, Tuesday “A quarter to midnight. Lying in bed and listening To the drum of rain On the cabin roof. All day I have watched the dark Clouds boil in the cauldron Of the west. Storm heads tower In castle greys. Maggie and I stood On the hill with no name Watching the ragged veils Of clou...

Join us tonight on a hot sticky night of lingering light and stubborn twilight. With the summer’s tilt shifting wider and deeper changes are felt. "Life is a motion. Life is growth. It is never static," says the corner of a field. Journal entry: 4th July, Tuesday "Goldfinch carnival Among the teasel heads And early sun. Dark clouds to the west Bringing rain. Spindrift of fine drizzle Freewheels on the breeze. The cows are in no hurry Neither am I." Episode Information: The e...

Watching the sun sink below the horizon, particularly after long sunny days such as these, can evoke a mass of mental and emotional responses that seem to tap into something deep within us. Join us this week as week count down a setting sun and reflect on the rich culture it created. Journal entry: 23rd June, Friday. “The alder saplings are growing thick at the water’s edge Vying with the green spears of teasel And purple knapweed plumes. This time last year Some of them were forming...

Come with me for a walk by the canal and I will show you something wonderful! This week we explore how names and memories have the power to root and reinforce our connections with home and tell us something very important about ourselves. Journal entry: 27th May, Saturday “Late afternoon sun slants into The tobacco-coloured waters. Fifteen or more carp weightless Among the cow pastures of weed-drift. With a flick of a tail, they all glide as one In a lithe piscine murmuration Look! T...

After a blustery week of wild, mad, March weather, why not join us tonight as we enjoy a sunny moment beside the canal and contemplate on the powerful word-play of some very old Celtic bards. Journal entry: 17th March, Friday “The sun is warm To the west the clouds are Prussian blue Like mountains of the imagination. A woodpecker laughs From somewhere across the fields Which fill with lambs And the sound of young Calling to old. A branch hangs whose scars are unhidden.” Episode Infor...

Blustery late winter nights are perfect for retelling old stories. Tonight we listen again with new ears to the ancient story told in the 'hymn of the pearl' and explore how old myths and folktales can weave such powerful tales if we just allow them tell their own stories. Journal entry: 15th February, Wednesday “An old moon leans back against the dawn. Gulls scythe and cry Between street lamps and traffic noise. Chaos above and chaos below. But between the concrete There is green.” ...

Any boater who is faced with the prospect of numerous locks ahead will know how wonderful it is to find someone who is prepared to take on ‘lock-wheeling’ duties. This episode takes some time out to reflect on the podcast as well as explore the many listeners who have become tireless lock-wheelers for it. Journal entry: 10th February, Friday “Ice skates lines across the water. A thin brittle veneer that cannot hold The oak’s reflection. The morning sun sets fire to the reeds. I am da...

Rain and mud are all around us at the moment, but there is wonder there too. The ancient myth of ‘The Voyage of Bran’ helps us to find the extraordinary within the ordinary and (with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel) the beauty of Tuesday Morning, 5.30am. Journal entry: 13th January, Friday “Boggy ground, although I am high on the hill. Standing in the cluster of four oaks waiting. Waiting for I don’t know what. I turn, and behind me, the sunrises in red and gold Through the dense br...

Happy New Year! New Years can be exciting times, marking new beginnings, a clean page, awakening dormant dreams and ambitions. However, sometimes it is not always like that. This year, in particular, many face the new year with trepidation, filled with anxieties, a sense of being overwhelmed and unable to cope. What do we do when the future looks dark? *Please note that this episode candidly discusses issues of mental health* Journal entry: 4th January, Wednesday. "Silver light on Cotsw...

“Those eyes of old look at me and, through the haze of your futures, I look back at you…” On this freezing December night, snuggle closer to the stove as I reflect on the strangeness of coming across an old photograph of me as a small child as well as the adventures of the Archdeacon on ice. Journal entry: 9th December, Friday “The scent of wood smoke and cold air. The warm, dry sound of someone splitting firewood. Each teasel head is framed in a perfect halo of sunlight. Today, at l...

This week saw the return of the cormorant which prompts a visit to Ernest Ingersoll to find out why they have no voice. A fairly severe reaction to the Covid jab meant that I missed attending this year’s graduation ceremony so join me as I think about past ceremonies and reflect on the journey of those passaging from graduand to graduate. Journal entry: 9th November, Wednesday “Here they come’ Like a stream in spate, Rolling black pebbles in its wake. Half a dozen tree-fulls of rooks...

This weekend the clocks change (in the UK). These small markers in our calendars can touch us in deep ways. Join me tonight as we stop the clock, step out of time, and savour together the unspent, untouched hour as the world around us sleeps on. Journal entry: 28th October, Friday “Wild winds race ragged As starlings sport and shoal. Golden leaves, sherry warm, Stream head height across the canal. A flash of brave blue. A kingfisher Swims the leafy cataracts of air.” Episode In...

The colours of autumn this year promise to be spectacular and the towpaths are being transformed by the brush of autumn’s artistry. Join us tonight as we drink in some of the sights and ponder why this season can evoke such a mixture of emotions within us. Journal entry: 11th October, Tuesday “A wash of gold afternoon light That fresh clean scent of damp earth And falling water The sluices are full and running, Laced with curtains of pearl and crystal. A yearling ewe, with her for...

For many, these are not easy days in which to live and our futures can appear so uncertain. How do we live through such times? Join us tonight as we listen to some deeper wisdom offered by a magpie and an alder tree. Journal entry: 7th October, Friday “Day off. First a few jobs around the boat in the gold of autumn sunshine. The alders are beginning to drop their leaves I kick them up as I walk through them Their sound reminds me of when I was young Conker hunting By the A41 In huge dri...

This week much of the country fell silent for a while and that stillness was the occasion for a chance encounter and finding within the silence the music of bells among crow song. Join us aboard the Erica tonight as we are touched by the enigmatic qualities of bells and stillness. Journal entry: 21st September, Wednesday Dew, the smell of sheep and wet grass. Rooks jostle the lightening sky. The company of ducks hunched at the water’s edge Shake themselves awake And drop into the pool o...

There’s a warm welcome awaiting you under the heavy night skies of summer’s hinterlands. Tonight we meet a very special person with a lop-sided smile and who might be able to teach us to walk with elephants. Journal entry: 30th August, Tuesday. “Day’s end. I stand up here and try to see what is Infront of me. But the future is just a confused blur of uncertainty. When I look back, I can so easily draw-out the most intricate constellations that map the chaos of my footsteps of the paths ...

Join me this week as we moor on a still August night, under a proud stand of poplars studded with starlight and moonlight. Tonight, we explore the evocative power of scents and smells. Journal entry: 6th August, Saturday. "The sun is three fingers above the horizon and washes the bankside reeds with golden fire. Three ducks cast perfect wakes of Vs Slowly, swimming the channel of molten bronze. There is something ethereal about this light Like stepping from one world into another....

There is a spot of ground that is special to me. Perhaps you have one too. They often are not particularly attractive, but somehow they are places we can go to find quietness. Join me to tonight when we visit one of my special places as we go down to the cattle pond with the help of Wendell Berry. Journal entry: 27th July, Wednesday “Drifts of mist rise and ghost upon the water In the pre-dawn light. The air is deliciously cool. The heron is in the cow-splash down by the oaks I climb...

The forecast hot weather has come and gone, but its psychological, as much as physical, effects feel a bit harder to shift. So join with me tonight as we gaze deeply into the mirrored dome of the night sky and its web of starlight, to discover what stories they tell and their challenge for us to begin to create newer ones. Journal entry: 22nd July, Friday “Every day shakes the kaleidoscope. Lift it to your eye. Twist the base and look. Today, three young jackdaws chase each other Thr...

Old stories can lift an unfamiliar mirror up to our lives so that we see ourselves anew and as we really are. Tonight, I will tell you an old story. It’s a story about a silvery day of sea fret (mist), rolling ocean waves, empty fishing nets, and a solitary herring. Journal entry: 6th July, Wednesday “I sit on the bank, one leg hanging down. A drake mallard in eclipse, treads water, with slow, lazy strokes of his feet. He watches me. I watch him. We are both waiting for something... ...

With apologies for sounding like an asthmatic badger, tonight we explore the special qualities of an unremarkable dusk and why we can feel so at peace with it and the darkness it can bring. Journal entry: 28th June, Tuesday. “I stop work to breathe in the storm-wind And bathe in the whirlpool of its noise. My shoulders feel heavy As If I alone am holding up the blanket clouds That sag grey above my head. The water hose, snakes and hisses around my feet. Head upright, neck relax...

I want to describe to you what I saw today, but I can't. We have so many words to describe and represent the most complex of concepts. Why then is it almost impossible to describe something so simple and ordinary as the colour of the water earlier today? Kathleen Jamie and Thomas Merton (with a little excursive with Hana Videen) help us to find some answers. Journal entry: 17th May, Tuesday "The hills are painted a dusty grey and the world is filled with the quietness of sheep, the cry ...