Virtual Fellowships, Sustainable Dyes and Growing Care Farming

Since the start of the pandemic new online events, courses and conferences seem to have sprung up everywhere and given us opportunities to meet up virtually, share information and practices and learn new things. One of the benefits has been the opportunity to participate in sessions in other parts of the country or even the wider world that you wouldn't normally be able to attend.

This week was one such week and on Thursday I attended three completely different events, spending a virtual breakfast in Australia, mid-morning in Cornwall and the afternoon in Yorkshire, Suffolk and Leicestershire!

Regular readers of my blog will be aware that since being awarded my Churchill Fellowship I've been unable to travel to Europe due to the travel restrictions in place as a result of COVID. So when I received an invitation from Winston Churchill Trust Australia to an event on Virtual Fellowships I wanted to know more. Jackie Charles 2019 Fellow gave an inspirational talk on how, after having her planned travel to Singapore, Canada, USA and the UK cancelled at the last minute, she went back to the drawing board and decided to pioneer Virtual Fellowships. She gave plenty of food for thought and I look forward to hearing more from her over the coming months.

Mid-morning and in the words of Monty Python "And now for something completely different" a practical workshop in Sustainable Dyeing. Now I'm the first to admit that I know very little about natural dyes, so when the invitation to the workshop landed in my inbox I was intrigued to find out more.  The University of Exeter 'Circular Textiles' initiative meets once a month and offers events that champion textiles and support sustainable and product development across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 

The March Workshop in Sustainable Dyeing with Caroline Bawn gave an overview of the history of dyes before demonstrating two methods of dyeing. A week before the event a goodie box arrived in the post, thanks to Gorgeous Yarns Helston, containing all the ingredients needed to allow me join in with dyeing yarns at home. If you are interested in future events then you might want to contact  Circular Textiles directly.

For the last event of the day I joined the Social Farms and Gardens Growing Care Farm Conference 2021. This year the Conference looked at progress made so far with increasing the number of care farms in the UK as well as the impacts of COVID on the work going forwards. While we may not know yet quite what 2021 will hold, it was good to hear that strategies are being developed to support care farmers both in person or online.