The Ragged Optimist 16
Hope, optimism, joy, and Richard Digance
Well, last week was a week when we needed hope and optimism, wasn’t it? The UK seems to have got itself into a pickle, but we’ll get out of it. We’re here, it’s Monday, so let’s get on with making good things happen. It’s going to be a good week. Can I suggest being extra kind to people this week - pay compliments, don’t moan about little things, send a postcard, forward this email to share the good news?
I’m in one of those self-employed slumps at the moment, with less work than usual, and lots of waiting on things. I’ve been turned down twice for funding in the last week or so, but it’s only got me fired up - I’ll be applying for even more things (starting today) and yesterday, I started writing the book I really want to write and got 3000 words in. I need the funding I’d applied for to do it properly, but have decided to start writing and use that to find the funding as I go. Wish me luck!
Last week, to distract myself from the funding news, I organised the monthly First Friday at Marine Studios, and I made a giant game around Rosa Rankin Gee’s book Dreamland. Thanks to everyone who came out on a very hot evening. We’ll be getting the game out again, as it was very popular.
My book, by the way, is a book about seaside towns, which has inspired this week’s photo gallery. All the photos I use are from my Flickr, if you ever want to see more.
"Tackle the housing crisis and improve public transport." Nish Kumar, when asked how to rescue the arts. Yes! Good foundations.
On that subject, Chowdhury Walk by architects Al-Jawad Pike is up for the Stirling Prize. It won't win, because there are big regeneration projects - the whole of King's Cross, the complete length of the Elizabeth Line - on the shortlist, and architectural panels like big things. But Chowdhury Walk is delicious, eleven homes of which seven are social housing. What struck me, though, is how much they look like post-Second World War housing - and the things that The Guardian says make Chowdhury Walk too expensive to replicate were just standard quality back then.
Also on the list is Wraxall Yard, a once-derelict dairy farm converted into holiday homes. They have considered accessibility at the start, not as an add-on, which means that everyone gets a better place to stay. Access for all is good for everyone. There’s a free handbook to help design access into arts and community projects here, by the way.
My only hope for a home is to win the pools. 'I'll just sit back and dream, forget the 'ouses in between, and be a Working Class millionaire...'
He Whakaputanga Moana, a treaty that translates as the ocean declaration of Māori, recognises whales and dolphins as “legal persons”. It's part of the work of Conservation International Aotearoa, together with Indigenous Māori, in the Pacific.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens has agreed to transfer ownership of 10 objects to the Warumungu community, of Northern Territory, Australia.
"1 want to thank them [Horniman Museum] for sending those things back to us. They’ve made a choice to send them back to where they belong. It wasn’t them who collected it, it was their ancestors, so I want to thank them," said Mr Michael Jones Jampijinpa, Senior Warumungu Man. I love his grace.
Kelp forests are incredibly good for the climate (I've previously mentioned the one off Worthing), and now it turns out, sea otters encourage kelp forests to thrive. Restore one thing, others follow. As well as being great at carbon capture, sea forests absorb the power of stormy seas and protect shores from erosion.
Harold's Park in Essex is going to be rewilded. It's currently used to graze ponies and grow Christmas trees. Interestingly, it's a commercial project: somebody has worked out that if housing developers can't provide for wildlife in their developments, they can offset it with rewilding elsewhere. Is this entirely a good thing? Not sure, but does mean we're going to see some big rewilding sites.
Beavers are being (re)introduced to the Nene Wetlands nature reserve, near Rushden in Northamptonshire - they’ve been missing for 400 years.
And finally, an artificial heart which has taken two decades to design has been successfully implanted in a human for the first time. It’s worth searching for medical news - it doesn’t always make headlines, but we’re making incredible progress.