What are we planning next?

In our project, we hope to explore perceptions of woodlands in the UK by bringing different people together with various expertise and ideas. This will include perspectives from art, science, archaeology and literature. Importantly, we also hope to include people who live and work locally to woodlands, and integrate their viewpoints in the project.

Our initial online conversations have been really useful so far, so thanks to everybody who has been joining in, either in response to these email updates or via the twitter account @imagwoods. We are currently collating your responses about the difference between Forests and Woodlands, and will post these in the next couple of weeks.

We also plan to organise events in woodlands around the country, and we are currently making funding applications in order to do this.

Meanwhile, we will be posting short introductions to the people who are currently involved in Imagining Woodlands, with insight into their practice. They are a fascinating bunch!

If you have anything to share relating to woodlands, we welcome contributions, so do send it to us to keep the conversation going! You can email us at imagwoods@virginmedia.com

So in the spirit of sharing, here's a seasonal tree tradition from Medievalist Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford):

"On Palm Sunday eve, people went 'palming' to collect willow, box or yew branches - originally to be blessed at church, later just for fun."

and here's the extract from Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain by Ronald Hutton that describes this practice:



This post was originally posted as a newsletter on 9 April 2017.