The Ragged Optimist 80
Beavers, lost buildings, and Bere Regis
The Ragged Optimist has now served you over 800 good things - stories of hope, rewilding, culture, optimism, and renewal. Some as big as an ocean, some as small as a spider. A large are number about the size of a beaver, oddly.
The point of all this is — in a world where it seems like everything is going wrong, it’s worth looking at the things that are going right. They might help us to see the way out of this mess. And collectively, they give us the hope and optimism we need to believe that we can make a difference. Because, dear reader, we really can.
So, do pen The Ragged Optimist a letter (or, just post a comment, if you’re out of ink) and tell us what you’re up to. And - as always - please pass this newsletter onto a friend. Just think, if you did, we might have twice as many readers this time next week.
PS Thanks to everyone who sent stuff in this week - if you spot something that should be in here, get in touch.
Billie Eilish, while receiving the Music Innovator Award, revealed that her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour helped raise more than $11.5 million in donations for The Changemaker Program. The program supports organizations around the world working to combat food insecurity and the climate crisis.
Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve in Powys has received planning permission to build a new beaver observatory. See, we told you there were often beaver stories.
They’ve been releasing beavers in Scotland, too - with a release at Glen Affric last week, after releases at other locations through the year.
The Land Settlement Association (LSA) was designed to resettle unemployed men and their families from the industrial North onto smallholdings in the South and East of England (which had suffered rural poverty), where they could work the land, produce food, and build a new life. The Weald & Downland Museum (mentioned by The Ragged Optimist only last week) are planning to rebuild one of the LSA’s buildings.
There’s lots more that sort of thing in Utopia Britannica and Communes Britannica. Both books are good reminders that, housing wise, things don’t have to be this way.
Three otter cubs were found after a tree fell in parkland in Warwickshire and exposed their hidden den. Art gallery and park Compton Verney said it contacted the UK Wild Otter Trust charity, which rescued the five-week-old otters.
Academics have found the lost grave of Olaudah Equiano’s daughter. Well, they haven’t. An A-level student called Cathy did, in 1977, but academics ignored her - but have now discovered her work.
An expandable greenhouse clad in polycarbonate panels that hinge open creates a space for sharing food and knowledge about urban farming in Guangzhou, China.
At Wild Woodbury nature reserve near Bere Regis, a wetland restoration project will benefit wildlife locally and improve water quality downstream in Poole Harbour. As part of the wider project they’re adding car parking, dog waste bins and walking paths through open glades and emerging woodland to increase public access to the land.
I'm so glad there are yet more beaver stories this week. It warms the cockles, it does! Thanks again for a bunch of optimism!