Author

Lydia

A pre-schooler sits in the centre of the frame, looking to the side, holding hands with a baby who is laid to her right, and with one hand resting on a black dog which disappears out of the frame to the her left.
Crowditch

Poor, Misunderstood Fog

by Lydia

Well, spring has sprung. I had grand plans* to manage to do a handful of Things every day of this delicious season. Needless to say, the first hurdle was not cleared yesterday. Them’s the family breaks.

But it was a glorious day first thing for those precious moments when the rest of the house was peacefully sleeping. Then the fog rolled in, and then came the rain. Am I the only one who finds fog beautiful? At least, the fog that we get here, rolling in from the woods. People often (rightly) talk about delicate, gentle mist – but surely fog is just mist which has properly committed to the task in hand, and gone that step further?

*Not grand at all. Modest plans, hardly-anything-really plans. But, nevertheless, plans that my wonderful, marvellous little family still managed to send flying sidewards.

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A smiling child in her bedroom dressed as a pirate, holding a copy of the book "Pirate Stew".
Crowditch

World Book Day 2023

by Lydia

For World Book Day this year, Auri decided to go to nursery dressed as a pirate (wearing one of her current favourite outfits). Last year, they all went in their pyjamas with their favourite books. The year before, she went in a dressing gown, as Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I’m not sure she really understood at that point, but Euan had that planned for nearly a year.

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QuotesThoughts

Back to Front

by Lydia

There is also a curious aspect I hadn’t thought of – that of writing facing the front of the house again. Our bedroom faces south, to the back garden – I am now adjacent to the north-facing window looking out onto the front garden. And, suddenly, there is a strange mental shift to being part of our village facing the front rather than the back.

Notebook, Lydia Crow, 7th January 2023
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A close-up of wych elm branch in leaf.
CrowditchResearch

Treescapes Fellowship

by Lydia

It has now been announced that Euan has been awarded one of the fellowships attached to the Future of UK Treescapes programme, focussing on the wych elm and Dutch Elm Disease.

The Wych Elm is the only native elm species in the UK and, much like the English Elm or clone of the Field elm, millions of trees have been infected and killed by Dutch elm disease (DED) leaving eerie standing skeletons across the landscape. However, even in the most infected areas, individual trees still survive, indicating that resilience to DED exists.

Future of UK Treescapes Fellowship: Dr Euan Bowditch
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A child's bedroom with a series of shelves against one wall. One of the shelves is empty, and a pile of books lies strewn across the carpet.
Crowditch

An Avalanche of Stories

by Lydia

I am resurfacing from a busy few days, including hosting a party for about eighteen children to celebrate Auri’s fourth birthday. Well, I say hosting – Euan actually organised the whole thing. Apart from a few on-the-day things, my sole contribution was sorting the party bags. Even at the party, I mostly looked after Elfi who, mercifully, slept peacefully until the cake was brought out (and even then fed quietly without fuss).

And don’t even ask me how Auri is four already.

Auri is an avid reader. She loves being read to, and she loves reading on her own. Almost every night without fail, you can guarantee she’ll get out of bed after we’ve wished her goodnight to keep choosing more and more books. By this time, Euan will already have read her several stories (every night when I’m feeding Elfi, I hear Auri make promises that the next book will be the last one, only for cries of “but only one mooooooooore!” when that book is finished).

When we kitted out her room with new furniture a year or two ago, I made sure that Auri could access her books easily, as that was one thing that was always so important to me growing up. Of course, it does mean that occasionally you enter the bedroom – at any time of day – to find an avalanche of stories has descended upon the carpet.

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Quotes

To Be An Artist

by Lydia

No longer producing work that might suggest an alternative to established tradition, it is at this point that their work is no longer art and they no longer artists. There might be a great degree of craft involved, a great degree of skill involved, but craft, skill, and art are not one and the same. To be an artist is to be revolutionary.

Ganzeer, 22nd December 2022
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