Over the last few weeks, I’ve been chatting to local people who have unrealised dreams - things they want to do which have not yet seen the light of day. Start a business, gather a group, campaign for something. Almost always there is a roadblock or hurdle they feel they cannot get over.

I try and help them think through what might be the next small step finding them the support and encouragement they need to take the leap of faith it will require to start.

It is hugely energising and makes me realise quite how much dormant potential there is lying un-tapped in the ordinary people around us.

Without support these dreamers die but with it, I believe, they can fly!

I’m in the middle of helping 3 very different people write, or finish their books.

Rather than asking them to sit in a garden shed for weeks on end, tapping it out on a keyboard, I do it all as a series of audio recordings over Zoom. Then it all gets auto-transcribed so it can be edited.

Before it goes to print we send it out to some ‘raw readers’ who comment and make suggestions - deliberately involving them in the creative process.

If you’d be up for being a raw reader, please get in touch.

15 years ago some fields at the back of our house came up for sale.

We were pretty broke at the time but we borrowed the money and bought the land.

Its beautiful but there are always things that need doing.

At the moment I’m making post-and-branch hedging - in essence using cut branches to create a boundary fence. Its fiddly and I keep getting spiked by blackthorn but its very satisfying.

We’ve learned to start work early in the year so we can be ready for our summer camp.

www.highamfamilycamp.com

Get in touch if you’d like to come.