Hello Poddies!

I’ve been discussing integrity this week on Walk the Pod. It’s been a tricky subject to pin down. We’ve discussed whether it is to do with being complete, or whole, and whether it has to do with doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.

I’d like to take a moment to consider artistic integrity now, in anticipation of further discussion next week. I read John Steinbeck’s Working Days: The Journal of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ a while ago. It is a diary of writing a novel, The Grapes of Wrath, which I could never get into.

But the diary is wonderful. In it, Steinbeck discusses that before he was famous, he couldn’t get a word published, and now that he’s famous, folk want to read absolutely everything he can think of.

Consequently, there is not so much scrutiny of the quality of his work. He is acutely aware that this means he can write poor quality prose, and get away with it.

He thanks the trees around his home in Monte Sereno, California, for keeping him honest.

We come now to the dangerous part. Whereas a few years ago I could not sell my work—now it is so in demand that anything with my name on it would be snapped up. And that is the worst thing of all. That is the goodness of this ranch. Here I can lose the fanfare. Here I become the little creature I really am. One cannot impress our forest.

John steinbeck, working days: the journals of the grapes of wrath

Video blog posts on Patreon

If you’re a follower of my blog here on WordPress, I have some exciting news. I’ve been dabbling with video blog posts over on Patreon, and have now published 7 videos on the platform.

It’s a little like podcasting, only, with pictures! Will it catch on? It’s been a bit of a learning curve for me as I work out which way up to hold my iPhone, where the camera I’m supposed to be looking at is, and got over the slightly weird feeling of seeing myself talking as I walk along.

Walk the Pod Series 38: Integrity

I’m recording my podcast, Walk the Pod, every day, and thoroughly enjoying it. The Walk the Pod lunchtime walk club voted overwhelmingly to discuss integrity this series, and I’m keen to find out what it means to listeners, and members of the walking club.

What does it mean to you? Some of my listeners around the world are kind enough to leave me a voice note (59 seconds of their beautiful voice!) and if you’d like to do the same, I’d appreciate it. The more angles on integrity we have, the more thoroughly we can flesh out our topic this month.

Looking for frogs

Earlier this year, I walked over to Derwent Floodwash, my nearest local nature reserve, to see if I could see anything interesting in what seems at first glance just to be a large, meadowy field. Sam (my lovely girlfriend) pointed out a heap of frogspawn in a small pond in one corner, under a small willow tree.

We’ve been tracking the tadpoles since they hatched, excited at the possibility that there might be frogs in the pond before too long.

I’m sad to report that on visiting yesterday, the entire flood wash is dry as a bone. The pond itself has evaporated, and there’s no sign of the frogs I was hoping to see.

I hope that they have all hopped off to the local Pyl Brook, and are happily floating about down there, thinking about raising new families next Spring. But I don’t know where to start looking for them. Any herpetologist readers out there? Do tell me where to look for frogs near a brook!

There’s lots more content over on Spotify for Podcasters and Patreon, and I hope you’ll follow me into these new platforms. I’ll try to do a few more regular updates here as well.