Another Branching Out programme over, here is a gorgeous poem one of the participants wrote capturing beautifully what it is all about:

Branched Out, by Luke

Good for the soul,
The natural environment,
Like-minded individuals to experience the same,
From different places her to become one group,

Taking the blade and the saw to create something new,
The rain chased away the sun,
For the sun to chase once more,
Under the tarp we sat having a brew and a chit,
What lay beneath the bark?
an object seen in the mind.

Non-stop rain and disturbance of wasps,
Shifting camp to tell penny tales,
From spark to ash,
The fire grew and extinguished,
Sharpening the steel to preserve its use,

The company we keep becoming more attune,
Nerves I still tackle, feeling worthless,
Non existent belief in self,

A guided journey from the physical,
moving but not so,
In the same space panic filled my heart, anxiety taking over,
some monster within that I cannot face,
There is no calm here for me today,
Open to try and face my fear,

After a low weekend, the atmosphere I did bring, unwillingly,
It is good to be back in nature on such a beautiful day
Even if the anxiety is high,
Art, three-dimensional,
barge of the dead,
it still stands for the moment,

The hide of the cow, I did cut,
To form a pouch, recycle,
The antler I saw and drill, a new life of toggle,
A life anew,
The pouch is formed,
from old.

Waves of wind through the trees, bringing the cold from the seas,
A new season is on the way,
Devastation left by the loggers,
Shifting our camp closer,
Breaking the wind with a tarp,
Apple in the lentil soup,
Good to be out again,

To stool or not to stool?
After weeks of anticipation, I finally got it done.

Sounds of the birds,
The hum of traffic,
The calm, lending itself to the day, windless.
All these and more, when I finally sit,
Give peace inside,
Autumnal colours are quite apparent,
Branch not fern moving on this calm day,
Penultimate week, before the end,

How has this changed me? Time will tell.
An unlikely group of friends, bonding and helping one another, leaving our differences behind.

I'm grateful for the time spent here in these woods, the only quarrel in name and within myself,
I have branched out, the better for it.
Thank you for your time and effort to those who made this happen.

A fun spooncarving morning with folks at Erskine Veterans Charity in Forres. In under three hours, people had picked up the process and skills brilliantly 😁👌

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