Talking Trees at Number 57

It's late we know, but we didn't want the year to end without mention of a rather understated, but really rather wonderful evening hosted by our friend Mary McGeown, the owner of Number 57 on Loampit Hill. 

On Sunday 30th October, a group of us gathered in the beautiful space shared with L'Oculto Wine & Tapas Bar (who provided us with delicious plates of tapas, and a glass of wine, included in the ticket price) to hear spontaneous, unscripted, real-life 5 minute stories about trees, and the myriad and mysterious ways that they inspire us. 

The occasion was also an opportunity for artist Isobel Kimberly to display a selection of drawings featuring trees, one of which featured on our flier:

The stories ranged from dark encounters with wild beasts in Kentish woods, to the blazingly bright memories of thorn trees from a childhood in South Africa, to wistful and poetic musings on family trees and waxing and waning relationships ... And as if that wasn't enough, the assembled throng helped swell our coffers by nearly £300! 

Our grateful thanks to Mary, the team at L'Oculto, Isobel, and all our contributors; it was a night to remember. 

Mary gets the evening underway

Stanley Silva - our brilliant compere

Ana and Teresa from L'Oculto

India shows us how it's done!

Well, here's an end of year good news story (and my word, do we need more of them!) ...

In Uttar Pradesh, India, activists have planted almost 50 million trees in just 24 hours! We thought this was some sort of crazed exaggeration when we first read it, but no — it happened on July 11 and took 800,000 people. It was part of a pledge the country made at the 2015 climate change summit in Paris to increase its forest cover by 235m acres by 2030. 

The Indian government has put aside £5bn to plant trees all over India to combat air pollution.

For full story, go here.