the journal of small work*

like active hope , this small work touches the bleakness of our deep concern and the terminal prognosis of the state we are in, but moves forward into looking at what's possible from a perspective that takes into account the deep capacities of our greater system for healing and regeneration. with gratitude to suzanne simard's work with the mother tree and robin wall kimmerer's braiding sweetgrass,...

read the piece here, and subscribe to receive the weeklyish letters. thanks for listening! Get full access to appleturnover at appleturnover.substack.com/subscribe

how will we find our way to the future we want to see? this small work is remix of a piece written in a few years ago in the spring in answer to that question, with the chartreuse zinging outside the writing desk window like it is today. the colour shocks my sleepy winter mind into new possibilities. i wish that the energetic questions it generates in me might be answered in you. to read, watch an...

sometimes the skills we already have just need to be translated into the context of meeting our greater challenges. this small work looks at ways to respond when we feel anxious that we don’t belong, that we don’t have what it takes, that our problems are insoluble. it is an act of reassurance that we are already fluent, and can begin with what we know. thanks for listening, thanks for sharing, th...

we can be gardeners in service of biodiversity, of local food security, of life itself. this small work looks at how we can propagate many new plants quickly, to create food forests that feed us all, right where we live. practicing, in a word, regeneration. find the written piece, with images, right here , and watch the one minute short on propagation over here in the notes feed on substack, where...

this small work looks to natural patterns, as illustrated by the geese in the snow, for how to reckon with these times and find a way forward. you might like to see the images included with the written piece on appleturnover . i’d love to hear how you have shifted toward a symbiotic pattern in your days, lately. this small work was originally written in a snowstorm last year, for the founding memb...

becoming fluent in interdependence, and the multiple, humble acts that revive the commons that connect us, and move us toward positive futures. this small work* is a piece collected into volume two of the journal of small work book which comes with your paid subscription. subscribe to follow more small works and short films at http://appleturnover.substack.com. Get full access to appleturnover at...

the most restorative act of the day – thinks aloud about writing as a tool for orienting ourselves to the future that we are co-creating with our daily actions. clarifying where we have been and preparing for where we may be going, reimagining possible futures while managing all that is within our tending, this is the work of our time. i wanted to send you this, the most restorative act of the day...

in living without owning a car these seven years, what our normal has shifted to, the questions we asked ourselves, and how we think about it all now, running a little subsistence farm, unschooling, living simply in community on a small island. this small work exists thanks to the appleturnover supporters. you smooth the path beneath my bicycle. thank you for taking a chance on another way of bein...

this small work looks at the habits that yield creativity and at accepting that we might need structures to support those habits. "rhythm, ritual, routine and the reinvention of our patterns for living that emerge from its steadiness is both the stuff of the upcoming season of my series, the journal of small work* , and how i find time to make it at all." watch the first season of the films on app...

this small work looks at what change we really need to make, how change happens, and how we begin right now, to co-create the future we want to see. find it in text and image form over on appleturnover.substack.com. this work might like to play something of an anchoring role in the upcoming fourth volume of the journal of small work , of which volumes i, ii and iii are yours with a paid subscripti...

this small work was written for earth days gone by, but it also feels januaryish so i offer it to you now. look for it in the next volume of the journal of small work . so, so much appreciation for subscribing, listening, sharing and responding. it all means a great deal. to follow the films and writing, visit http://appleturnover.substack.com. Subscribe Get full access to appleturnover at appletu...

when the world seems lost in darkness , i turn my attention to the life-affirming actions within my grasp. thankfully, these are numberless. and after all, winter’s darkness yields the finest moment for regeneration. life is only dormant, and it is in this window that we can propagate more life. welcome to episode two of season four of the journal of small work podcast. read the full text here. th...

the state of the world is unnerving , but it’s no accident that what actually nourishes and restores our nervous systems are the same practices that restore the state of the world. welcome to season four of the journal of small work. this small work was released in written form to patrons (thank you!) a year ago, though that first line has been hovering in the background for some time, things bein...

this small work looks at the fundamental patterns that need to shift within so that a world in crisis can regenerate. this piece was also filmed, right here. read the whole piece on appleturniver.substack.com Get full access to appleturnover at appleturnover.substack.com/subscribe

this small work looks at how we might overcome the obstacles to taking small steps that reverberate out into big, lasting, profound and urgently needed change. this episode is from season three of the readings from the journal of small work*. this small work was originally released in 2023 and is collected into the journal of small work *. thank you to the founding patrons who first supported this...

picturing possible, compelling futures. this small work is a moment spent in seeing where we are now, how we are transfigured by recent years, acknowledging the profound change that is happening and connecting to each other and the greater world to begin to live in a way that is remarkably different. ‘it’s as if we all have culture shock – ‘ is a friend and relation of the journal of small work fi...

finding our way into good-enough action, this small work* looks at some ways that we can counter, within ourselves, the pattern of perfectionism that shows up in a world stuck in procrastination on the kind of cultural transformation that can move us into ecological, economic balance. it's a companion piece to the journal of small work* film, ' coldframe '. if you find these ideas useful, you migh...

on habitat as a pattern for possible futures. this small work* is a companion piece to our first film, ' deep litter ' which looked at the practices we follow to create a safe, healthy habitat for our food-forest-ranging flocks, that is in every aspect mutually supportive. designing to meet our intrinsic needs, with contentment and flourishing as its priority, is a way forward that we can draw on...

on what is necessary, what is sufficient. this small work* is a friend and relation of my short film, *pulley airer*, which looks at appropriate technology and downshifting. in a word, simplicity. what if the future was not deprived, but simply reduced to the essentials? what of community-sufficiency for altering our requirements? micropodcasts like this one are small works of community-supported...

this micro-episode looks at how we see the earth in crisis and how we might culture a way of living that collaborates with the healing-responses of life itself. like season one before it, this new season of companion pieces to the journal of small work* film series seeks answers to the question, how can we transform how we live, so that the way we live regenerates life? this audience-supported pro...

this small work* is a radio companion to my film ' coldframe ', which looks at adaptation and relocalisation as frameworks for a future we want to live in. living on a smallholding like this one - paints a picture of some of the old fashioned, even quaint skills and practices that step into their own when an energy-hungry, climate-damaging existence begins to collapse. how can we adapt? here are s...

essential tools in the farmhouse kitchen, essential tools in the community for a homebased, needs-based, just economy of good, relocalised, food for all. these are the concerns of this small work. find appleturnover films like 'grain mill' and the journal of small work ‘pulley airer’ on appropriate technology + downshifting, over at appleturnover , and you can follow this work and if you like, sup...

this small work* is a radio companion to the fourth of the journal of small work* films . it concerns itself with the aspects of living that have not connected me to life, and what an embodied connection could be like. paid subscribers receive the collected writings in the journal of small work book-in-progress . thanks for listening. follow appleturnover on substack for more. Get full access to a...

this small work, becoming fixated on the weather is perhaps inevitable - is a radio companion to the journal of small work* films . it looks at the pendulum of extreme weather that is palpably moving us through the stages of grief to a place of radical acceptance of responsibility. it asks, as do the films, what it could be like to move into acceptance, and through it, into action. come over to su...