The Ragged Optimist 17
The Ragged Optimist is writing a book...
I know what I want to do. Finally worked it out, and now I’m saying it out loud. Amidst the chaos of evictions and the problems of being neurodivergent, Working Class and self-employed in the arts, I know what I want to do. I want to explore the culture of seaside towns, what it’s really like to live in them, why as a country we’re so in love with them, and write a book that explores all of that - history and future together. Arts Council England won’t fund it, so I have decided to just try writing the thing and seeing what happens. I’m about 10,000 words in. If anybody has any good ideas for where to go with this, get in touch!
I have been working on a seaside version of the Agora workshop, which brings together a small group of people to explore the place they live and the problems it faces - and, in true Ragged Optimist spirit - find the hope and optimism in the group. This also didn’t get funding! Suitable for festivals, conferences, or just a stand-alone event. Get in touch if you want to book it!
As always, hope you enjoy this little dose of scruffy-round-the-edges hope and optimism, and do tell your friends. Thankyou.
The Tidal Pool on Margate Main Sands has been listed. The man-made pool fills naturally as the tide comes in and was originally designed to give the public easier access to seawater swimming, as at low tide the shoreline can be more than 200 metres away. The council claim you can't swim in it, but you can, quite safely - when I lived by the beach, I had a neighbour walked over for a few lengths every morning, and he’d leave a trail of wet footsteps up the stairs in Arlington House. Living opposite the pool, I became really interested in how, when the sea is far out, the pool held the light, and in the reflections it carried of another out-of-focus Margate.
English Heritage release a report tomorrow (Tuesday) that says wherever heritage and cultural history are linked to the work of new artistic and scientific communities, greater economic productivity and business growth are the result. They could just have read Stewart Brand's book How Buildings Learn, published in 1994. It's a brilliant and fascinating read. Or to put it another way, ‘Only a fool will build in defiance of the past. What is new and significant always must be grafted on to old roots, the truly vital roots that are chosen with great care from the ones that merely survive’ (Béla Bartók, 1962, quoted in Basil Spence’s Phoenix At Coventry)
As a folk music fan, and as it's Broadstairs Folk Week, I love this sew-on woven patch from alt-folk duo Lunatraktors. Went down to Folk Week yesterday (Sunday) to catch goth-morris side Black Swan Border Morris, who were out in force - you don’t often see a Morris team that’s twenty-strong.
Butterflies, bees and bats are among the wildlife being boosted by England’s nature-friendly farming schemes, new government research has found.
"The evidence in the Natural England report confirms what many nature-friendly farmers are finding: delivering good-quality habitats, supported by public money, is helping to stop nature’s decline or even reverse it."
In April, the Kent Downs Heritage Ponds Project started mapping all pre-1900 dew and sole ponds. 40 volunteers are now mapping their chosen parishes. They've already documented around 100 old ponds, including 'ghost ponds' that have disappeared over time, on the Kent LiDAR portal.
This project isn't just about mapping history - they aim to enrich the Kent County Council’s Heritage Environment Record and restore some of these ponds to benefit wildlife, creating breeding hotspots for Turtle Doves and Great Crested Newts.
The Cairngorms has its first wild-born beavers since the animals died out in Scotland more than 400 years ago.
A team at Northwestern University has come up with synthetic nanofibers which have the potential to quicken the regeneration of cartilage damage, beyond what the body is capable of.
Meanwhile, Dot Inc have developed a range of tactile digital devices for blind people, and have just added a braille smartwatch to their range.
Up to 4000 tonnes of Printed Circuit Boards will be processed by The Royal Mint at a new factory in South Wales every year, to extract the gold used on them. The aim is to reduce the dependence on traditional mining and encourage more sustainable practices (they’re also introducing a new international standard for recycled gold), but it’s also an attempt by the Mint to diversify its business as nobody’s using coins any more.
Connor said, 'Did you get the carrier bags on beach stat in the last newsletter?' I didn't. The number of plastic bags found on UK beaches is down 80% since charge introduced. Thanks for the reminder, Connor.
PS Do you prefer a few images in line with stories, or the gallery at the start that I’ve done previously? Let me know.
Dan this is great. A flat out YES. I am writing a book, too, and mine too is about the seaside. Seaside motherhood and madness. In order to do this, I need to hurricane a whole through the centre of the nuclear family. Whatever gets in your way, be more hurricane, Dan.
I like the book idea A LOT!