In Conversation with Annette Vaucanson Kelly

“There is so much here for smart, creative women from this smart, creative woman, plus I have only just discovered Lindsay reading extracts from her powerful memoir – I am already hooked (and now a complete fan of her work).”

anna wharton, Sunday Times bestseller, The Orwell Prize longlisted writer and writer of The Spectator’s Book of the Year 2023

Hi friends,

If you’re new here (hi!) then why not head over to my Welcome post for a flavour of what you’ll find as a free or paid subscriber?

---

I’ve been sitting with this conversation in my list of scheduled posts for weeks now, itching to share it with you because I just know how much the words of

Annette Vaucanson Kelly

will resonate.

If you’re not yet familiar with Annette’s work here on

Substack

then let me introduce you…

Photo credit: Seastudio.ie

Just look at that blissful photo for a minute, won’t you?

Now, I’ll hand over to Annette to tell you about her, in her own words:

I’m a mother of four, French-born and Irish-based.

I’m a writer, a wild swimmer, a reformed climate activist.

I write about sea swimming in cold Irish waters all year round.

I write about nature, feminism, eco-activism.

I write to find a way through these chaotic time we live in and to dare to imagine a future more beautiful.

I write to change the story of who we are on this achingly beautiful planet, our only home.

Loch Garten, Cairngorms, June 10th 2021

You can read some of Annette’s recent words on her publication, Another World is Possible, right here:

One Month A Swim – February

We spoke in mid-February having never before met online, yet there was an instant connection over our experiences and thoughts on what it means to be bringing up tweens and teens in a hyper-consumerist society, knowing how very hard it is for them to resist the pull of it, no matter (it seems) how we attempted to steer them as younger children.

We also thought about what it means to bring those children up in a country and within a culture and language system that is not your own, considering both the limitations and the freedom of doing so. We came at language from differing perspectives, which was so interesting to me as an adult learner of Scottish Gaelic, which I started learning a decade ago to support my kids through their immersive Gaelic Medium Education (much to their eternal chagrin).

I loved what Annette explained about her gentle climate activism on the wild Irish coast, and the way sea swimming has become a surprise way of reconnecting with herself creatively. Annette only learned to swim in recent times, which made me so interested in her journey into the wild waters of the Irish Sea.

“Swimming is my wayfinding. It’s like the deeper current, really. The thing that supports everything else. And if I don’t get it, I dry out. I need it to support the mothering; the caring… Everything I do, really.”

We’d love to talk more in the comments on what resonates with you, maybe in relation to caregiving as a climate-conscious person, and how you navigate parenting of older children within that. Or maybe you, too, have a creative relationship to the water?

In the meantime ENJOY watching or listening.

Lindsay and Annette x

---

Seasonal Session next Thursday

I’ll be hosting another of my Seasonal Sessions for Members on Thursday 4th April 8-9pm BST on Zoom. Upgrade to the Membership for the Zoom link for an hour of gentle guided journaling which invites us to look closely at our natural world through the lens of the 72 micro seasons, inspired by the Japanese tradition. By then we’ll have moved into British Summer Time and I can't wait to see what will be blossoming. As always, we'll open the session by pulling a card from the Earth Alchemy Oracle deck and reflect, too, on the moon phase.

After hellos, these are always mics-off-and-cameras-optional sessions so come in your comfy gear and arm yourself with a hot drink, your favourite writing implement, some paper and a candle if you like.

There will be no free post next weekend while I take a break from my weekly words. For those of you up-to-date with my memoir, Held in Mind, you can expect a fresh episode as usual each Wednesday.

---

ICYMI…

My conversation on early parenthood with

Lyndsay Kaldor

:

And my conversation on creativity and the life of a parent-carer with

Caro Giles

:

Lindsay x