An atmospheric walk with Tamsin Abbott and Jackie Morris...
Earlier this month we had the most fabulous, wet wet walk in the rain making plans for the launch event and exhibition of Wild Folk that we are to host in the summer of 2025. I wanted to show Tamsin Abbott and Jackie Morris the standing stone on our dear friend Jilly's farm as I felt it to be a fitting location for a reading and summer event to celebrate this exciting collaboration.
We had gathered at Northmoor House once again, and it was such a joy to return, to be where Wild Folk was conceived a year earlier. To mark the anniversary, Unbound broadcast a live zoom from 'the kitchen' at Seven Fables with John Mitchinson, Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott in conversation, sharing the writing and illustrating process as they work towards publishing Wild Folk. The conversation was filmed with plans to make it available to Wild Folk supporters who were unable to tune in live. Do visit the Unbound website to discover more, the funding tipped at 200% that week which was also cause for celebration!
Suffice to say, Jackie and Tamsin of course appreciated the setting, even the weather, with Jackie leaving the gift of a gilded labyrinth. The standing stone is quite unique for Exmoor due to its height, as many in the moorland landscape are so low lying, they can barely be spotted above the cotton grass.
Despite the rain creatures were abound as we walked the landscape, a hare leapt from its warm form, a heron rose above the river, a fox crept along the tree line while in the distance a stag bellowed revealing himself on the horizon, all called by a little summoning perhaps?
On our return to the farmhouse we warmed ourselves in Jilly's kitchen with delicious hot soup and chocolate cake before heading 'home' to Northmoor House via Tarr Steps, which I feel is always best visited on a rainy day.
Jackie and Tamsin were thrilled with our proposed event and Seven Fables' newsletter subscribers will of course be the first to be notified of our plans for June 2025, and when tickets are made available, there is of course still much to pull together at this midpoint of the project.
Thank you, Jilly, for making us all so welcome, we look forward to returning, and just to let you all know we did get a little sunshine during our stay at Northmoor!
