My review against plan for December:

  • In a nutshell – Most significantly, I took a week off and was fierce with myself about having a break from writing and spending time in nature just for fun, including taking part in the New Year Plant Hunt. I found this gorgeous Small-flowered Cranesbill and another 31 plants in flower on the Southwark Thames Path. Going forward I’m moving to quarterly plans and reviews.
  • Books – Follow up possible homes for book one and draft chapters 4 and 5 of book two. Nothing to update about book one at the mo but chapter 4 of book two is drafted and I’m still working on chapter 5.
  • Articles – At least two new pitches to magazines and deliver the article which has been commissioned by the end of the month. I delivered my commission and also a book review which I was commissioned to write out of the blue. I didn’t send off new pitches but I have started developing four possibilities & sourcing experts with the aim of getting some of these off before the end of Jan.
  • Learning – work on my bird identification skills especially winter gulls and waders. I set off for Rainham Marshes on new years eve but did very little productive birding because it was very busy in all the hides and I was distracted by soaking up a rare glimpse of sun.
  • Writing residency – deliver our December workshop and plan the January online reading event. The December workshop was my most popular one to date with over 100 people registering and 53 joining the workshop on the day. My co-host Rebecca Gibson as fabulous of course. Plans are well underway for an online reading event on 29 Jan and I’ve recruited some lovely folk – El Rhodes, Vanessa Wright and Jane Adams – to contribute. I finally got my Youtube channel sorted and uploaded videos of all the workshops to date.
  • Regulars – weekly blog and newsletter. I more or less blogged weekly and the Dec newsletter went out as planned. I had fund tweeting a pavement plant advent calendar of plants flowering in December.

My plan for January to March 2022:

  • Books – I plan to finish drafting the first half of book two.
  • Articles – I’ll pitch at least eight article ideas over the quarter.
  • Learning – I’m going to focus on learning/revising the identification of plants and birds found within the M25, particularly south of the Thames to start off with.
  • Writing residency – In the last three months of my nature-writing residency in the Great North Wood, I’ll:
    • deliver an online reading event;
    • co-host my final funded online nature-writing workshop;
    • explore opportunities for getting Thumbnail Nature published;
    • draft an end project report;
    • submit an application for a writing grant for financial year 2022-23.
  • Regulars – blogging and newsletters I’ll blog regularly – aiming for weekly – and collate nature-writing newsletters for January, February and March.