5.3a Eleanor Cheetham: 'Weaving Words and Spinning Tales'

Prompted by Nature

Welcome to series 5, episode 3 of the Prompted by Nature podcast.

Action point: Contact your MP about standing up for nature, whether that be asking them to speak out against fracking, reading the state of nature report and asking them what they’re doing to support the transition to renewable energy, or the move away from fossil fuels. Here in the UK you can contact you MP or local councillor through the website www.writetothem.com .

Onto today’s episode…

Today you’ll hear my conversation with the wonderful Eleanor Cheetham.

Eleanor is a writer, editor, mentor and teacher, intrinsically connected with the land, inspired by ancient British folklore and stories, and the soulful relationships that our ancestors had with the more-than-human world. She believes that words and stories are medicine for our mind and food for our soul, and that we are all storytellers. You'll find her at Creative Countryside, an independent publishing press, Wild Writers, a sacred space for soulful words, and The Wild Academy, a home for untamed learning.

In this episode we discuss:

• What the concept of creative spirit means to Eleanor
• Her creative practice and how she removed the pressure
• The importance of following our own creative flow
• Finding our ‘tilt’
• Creating an intentional creative practice
• Eleanor’s journey of creativity
• The problem with permission slips
• How Creative Countryside and the Wild Academy about
• Intentional, sustainable publishing
• How Eleanor overcomes creative blocks

A little note before we start that I seemed to have had microphone issues in this conversation, which I didn't realise until after we had recorded. Hopefully it's not too distracting and Eleanor's is fine so I don't think it detracts from the chat.

You can find Eleanor on her websites www.creativecountryside.com and www.thewildacademy.co.uk and on Instagram @creativecountryside

Episodes that would accompanying this on well are:

1.8a Ian Solomon-Kawall - Biodiversity, Creativity and Safe Space in Urban Settings (composting words)

1.13b Dawn Nelson - Rewilding the Self through Story-telling

2.10a Marchelle Farrell - My Garden, My Story

3.2a Stella Tomlinson - Priestesshood and Earth-Based Spirituality

As always, I'm www.promptedbynature.co.uk or on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and Twitter @promptedxnature

Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/promptedbynature