Lisa Horner Writer & Artist

  I had a really great chat with Rachel Sprunt and Cherry McKean from Eco Colnes and Halstead and Incredible Edible Earls Colne .  They have an amazing green message that needs to spread far and wide and influence and inspire more people to take similar steps.  Although we do a certain amount of things to be eco-friendly I'm now inspired to do more.  I also intend to go to charity shops, that is something I've held back on, it's a great way to recycle clothes and support a charity, and as Rachel and Cherry said they need the financial input more than ever after the pandemic! I've also recently listened to David Attenborough's audio book, 'A Life on Our Planet' and know from this that changes must be made.  When we watch the news and see the damage that we've done to the planet we have to take responsibility but I also think we have been learning so that we have to have a little compassion for ourselves, I say a little because now we must do all we can ...

I was fortunate enough to find Geraldine Evans on social media when I was researching for my book, Lost Basildon.  What a lady!  With some really amazing stories about The Barge and Vange's history.  Her family had ran the pub which has also been known as The Old Barge Inn for seventy years!  It all started when her paternal aunt wanted to escape London to the then countryside of Vange and on the 20th May 1937 she paid £2,643.06 for the lease of the pub and its surrounding land.  I contributed four pages to The Barge and also a couple of pages to Geraldine as the Pitsea and Vange Carnival Queen of 1967 in the entertainment section.  She also let me have a copy of a picture of Doughy Saunders on horseback heading up the Vange Carnival procession dressed as John Bull. After meeting Geraldine with her treasure of stories I knew that there was more that could be done so as I was on a writing course for The Writers Bureau and I needed to write an article I ju...

Spinning has been part of James Perry's life for 17 years now.  This progressed onto dyeing and weaving.  Internationally published in two magazines and he has also written many articles for UK magazines on this subject that he has become an expert on.  He also teaches workshops in the UK and when possible he would like to teach them abroad too.  S1 E14  https://www.facebook.com/Longdrawjames-spindles-and-fiber-arts-101377348460863/ https://instagram.com/longdrawjames?utm_medium=copy_link https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Ashenflock

  At the moment I am reading Tom King's Thames Estuary Trail , the original version and peeking into Sylvia Kent's Folklore of Essex, that will be my next read.  I've also got Jim Reeves book, Memories of Basildon lined up for after Sylvia's book.  As well as this, whenever I get the chance I am listening to A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough on Audible.  He narrates it, which makes it very real and sometimes it really gets to me how our planet has gone downhill in his lifetime.  I think reading Tom King's witty, laugh-out-loud book that has inspired the Estuary Festival creates a good balance and stops me getting too down.  The second edition can be purchased here .  By the way I noticed that fellow history author, Sylvia Kent has reached her 400,000th viewer of her blog that has been going since 2005/6 which is amazing!  She wrote a post about it, I would too!  If you're wondering, this blog has had 15,569 viewers and has been goin...