Counting Down to Timber Festival

The sun is out at last, and Timber Festival is nearly here.

We've been and bought some new camping beds, we spent Saturday (hottest day of the year so far!) checking that we remembered how to put up the tent, and I even made some bunting!









Now it's time for the serious planning.
Day splits have been released, and as I'm attending as part of the 'press' (how cool is that?) I already have a programme.
So, highlighter pens at the ready, I'm flipping through the pages, backwards and forwards, forwards and backwards, marking the musicians I really want to see perform, the discussions I want to hear, the activities I want to take part it.
It's supposed to be a laid-back non-stressful festival, one to re-awaken you to the healing affects of nature in general and woodland in particular, but unfortunately, probably like so many others, I'm still stuck in my day-to-day approach to life, thinking 'Can I dash from a meditation class to the discussion on Slow Living?' which is frankly ridiculous. I need to stop and slow down BEFORE I arrive at Timber.

So, instead of my usual style of planning which tries to fill every second of the day, I'm going to be more relaxed, prepared to adapt my plans, and not stress about seeing/doing everything.
Having said that, I DO have a list of things I would most like to see/hear/do.


First up has to be Extinction Rebellion. They've been in the press a lot recently, and I certainly believe we should stop hiding our heads in the sand, and face up to the facts about climate change while it can be slowed down. Hopefully their message won't be all doom and gloom.
The Rewilding Panel promises to challenge everything we thought about conservation and ecosystem management. I'm hoping to hear more about projects such as the reintroduction of beavers and, more controversially, wolves to wild areas of Scotland. While over at the Slow Living Panel I want to discover what's behind the concept of living slowly and seasonally. With home grown vegetables from our allotment and garden, I think we may be further on this path than some but I would hardly describe my life as 'slow'.

One of the highlights of last year's festival was Seek, Find, Speak - a dramatisation of the Robert Macfarlane/Jackie Morris book The Lost Words, this year Forest of Dreams offers a reworking of Red Riding Hood described as a "fabulous feast of wonder and terror, darkness and light", and The Baron in the Trees promises aerial acrobatics as Italo Calvino's novel is brought to life in the tress of Fearnedock.

There's music of one sort or another on almost continuously throughout the weekend but the artists I most want to catch are Stealing Sheep, Sheelanagig, Thyla, Gwenno, The Trials of Cato, Another Sky, Thom Ashworth, Magpahi, and Hannah Peel and Will Burns. At night, while the music continues on the big stage, elsewhere there'll be campfire bands and story-telling, enchanted woodland puppets, and outdoor cinema (including The Blair Witch Project! My husband claims to have never seen this so what better location for a first viewing than in a dark forest?)

I want to find my way out of the maze, try forest bathing, laughing yoga, forest meditation, a mindful drawing workshop, and a flatfooting dance workshop. In separate events I could improve my identification of birds, trees and moths. And ... and ... and ...  I'm ending up with just too many plans; some may have to be abandoned.

For personal reasons I want this weekend to be about switching off from everyday life, and finding a quiet space within me. So no rushing, no manic chasing from one event to the next. It's time to slow down, and learn how to Think Like a Tree.