Note: this is the third in a series of three blog posts (see parts one and two). Please note I’m not repeating the critiques of XR arrest strategy or approach to the police from a social justice perspective, much as I agree with them, since these are already well-known and have been well-made by voices…
Prophetic Climate Movement (2) Apocalypse When?
Note: this is the second in a series of posts. The first part can be read here and the second part here. In Apocalypse Now and Then (1996), Catherine Keller traces ‘an apocalypse pattern’ throughout the history of culture dominated by Christianity, starting with the Revelation of John of Patmos. I’m interested in thinking about…
Reflections on a Healthy Prophetic Climate Movement (1)
Note: This is the first in a series of three blog posts (part two here and part three here), from a lecture I gave last week at the wonderful Centre for the Study of Theology and Health at Holy Rood House. Very grateful to Rev Dr Elizabeth Baxter for inviting me–writing this showed me that…
Knitting, Spirituality, and Mindfulness
Another long academic essay for you – on the links between crafting for wellbeing and holistic spirituality. Note: A couple of years ago I decided to stop trying to pursue a career in academia. This decision, and the fact that I just wasn’t writing anyway, led me to cancel a contract I had with an…
Knitting, (Grand)Mothers, Mourning, & Memory
Here is a long essay exploring how the craft of knitting is used in mourning and memorialization—including in ‘continuing bonds’ with the dead and recovering connections with maternal ancestors. Drawing on qualitative interviews with knitters and my own life-writing, I discuss how knitted items are used to honour heritage, make space for reflection in grieving,…
Some news!
My craft practice has been hibernating over the winter ever since I got involved in Extinction Rebellion Scotland back in November. BUT now the spring equinox has come, the daffodils in my garden are starting to open, it’s time to start making again, and talking with others about my work is the best way to…
August Garden Colour
When I started out natural dyeing, I depended on dyestuffs that I’d foraged from my local surroundings, or else ordered online. But in the last two years I’ve become increasingly able to grow plants that will yield colour in my own garden. And this last month I’ve achieved a satisfying array of colours from plant…
Produce, Production, and Productivity
The summer months are bit of a funny time for an academic. With the respite from the demands of teaching-related duties also comes conference season and the sense that these weeks are the chance to get done the writing and research you’ve not had time for since September. But summers–especially hot, sunny summers like the…
Cuckoos and Owls
I write this while seated in my garden on a sunny late May morning. I’ve been eating my breakfast and drinking tea while watching the birds go about their business in the ash trees and holly bushes. Blue tits and great tits are darting about between the branches; magpies, rooks and woodpigeons having various minor…
Spring, finally!
Well it’s been an extremely long winter. Lennoxtown was cited as an example of snowed-in communities in the ‘red zone’ of central Scotland during the snowstorms of early March, and I had certainly never seen anything like that amount of snow in all my life. The dogs enjoyed it rather more than the hens did….
Winter Visitors
Over the last couple of days we’ve been visited by several inches of snow, which for someone who grew up on the coast of south east England is pretty exciting. The hens aren’t too impressed, however. But this blog post is titled after two other winter visitors. At the end of October, I glanced out…
Pinks & Purples from Lichen, Wood and Woad
At different times of the year there are certain visual motifs in nature that I get obsessed with trying to represent in coloured wool. In winter, the silhouettes of bare trees against the milky light of the sky; in spring, the bright yellow of daffodils; in autumn the oranges and golds of the leaves. This…
Anna Fisk 