Pondfield Sundays

The Living Projects is delighted to launch ‘Pondfield Sundays’ with generous support from the National Lottery.

We invite you on a 10-part journey, learning from local community organisers, craft-makers, ecologists, faith-leaders, artists and activists to deepen our connection to the land & explore ideas around belonging and home.

The sessions will be connected by shared threads of connection to land, belonging & change-making for a more beautiful world but the sessions are stand-alone and you can join for one or all!

These events are offered for free to ensure they can be accessed by all but if you are able, a donation of £5-£10 per session would be most appreciated. Sign up is essential as places are limited.

Short session details below and see furthur down for bio's of the workshop holders.

Please note, some of these sessions are NOT on Sunday!!! We are trialling week day evenings as we know summertime weekends can be very busy.

Session 6: Tuesday 23rd June, 6-8:30pm, Story, Play & Presence with Mica Sinclair of Winds of the Moon

Join us on Tuesday evening to explore connection, creativity, and the aliveness of being. Through story, play, movement, song, vocal expression and exercises that connect we will create a space to slow down, open up, laugh and meet each other in the deeper places too. There will be space for silliness and spontaneity as well as moments of reflection, connection and celebration. Leaving with more trust. More love. More awe for life. With a spring In our step closer to living a life we love.

Session 7: SESSION POSTPONED UNTIL AUTUMN '26 Healing relationship with land through herbalism with Mariam of Radical Plant Folk

Herbal medicine is an ancient and ancestral land-based practice. Herbal medicine has not only sustained life but also been apart of the fabric of how we live on this earth since the beginning of time. Legacies of colonialism and capitalism has ruptured that fabric, and learning about our local medicinal plants, how to gather, grow, harvest and make them, is a powerful way of re-membering and healing our relationship with the land. In this workshop we will explore how we can heal and restore this relationship by connecting to the land as a source of medicine and reciprocal healing. We will do this by journeying with two summer plants, yarrow and lavender. Through intuitive and sensory herbal practices we will learn how to build relationship with the plants, learn about their seasonal energetics and their medicine, and learn how to make a healing remedy by combining oil with local beeswax to make a soothing balm.

Session 8: Tuesday 14th July, 6-8:30pm, Writing with the More-than-Human at Pondfield with Anna Selby

How might a creative practice help us build a deeper relationship with the places we inhabit and the more-than-human world? In this intimate session, writer, naturalist, and researcher Anna Selby invites us to slow down, pay attention and engage with Pondfield through observation, reflection, and creative inquiry. Drawing on her work at the intersection of ecology, writing, and embodied attention, Anna will explore how practices such as field notes, poetry, and close observation can help us notice more, connect more deeply, and develop a richer sense of place. Expect conversation, inspiration, and gentle invitations to engage with the land through fresh eyes.

Session 9: Monday 20th July, 6-8:30pm, Cultivating an earth-based art practice with Ione Maria Rojas 

In this session we’ll look at pigments made from the earth underneath our feet, with Ione sharing some simple recipes she uses in her studio. She’ll also share some of the ways she uses these colours to connect with the more-than-human, and invite you into an intuitive drawing practice to discover your own earthling creatures.

Session 10: Sunday 26th July, 2-5pm, The Fabric of Life with Ava Osbiston

Bring along a garment that could benefit from a patch- either one with a hole or one that you would like to embellish and learn from Ava Osbiston of Well Woo Textiles about her approach to making and mending as an act of reverence and respect. Learn practical ways to mend your own clothes alongside an approach to sewing that honours legacy, self expression and traditional skills at the same time as challenging fast fashion and over consumption. No previous sewing experience necessary. Come away with a freshly patched item. 

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All sessions will be held at Pondfield, The Living Projects, Dartington You can book for each session individually and/or join for the whole programme!

If you book but are unable to come, please let us know as soon as you can so we can pass your place to someone else.

These events are offered for a small charge but no one turned away for lack of funds - please just let us know if you need a free spot. 

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About us: The Living Projects is a 4-acre community land project on the edge of Dartington that facilitates pioneering initiatives coming from our local area to tackle systemic issues around climate change, purposeful work, social infrastructure, rural youth opportunities and nature connection. Founded in 2014, our aim is create thriving local communities through reciprocal and regenerative relationships, centering, supporting and empowering younger generations within an intergenerational container.

The Living Projects works on a community membership system, and your monthly donations enable us to keep doing what we do. As a member of The Living Projects you can also hire the space (including wood-fired sauna) for your own events and gatherings. You can learn more and sign up as a member here.

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Presenter Bio's

Mica Sinclair  

We are a storytelling collective sharing the joy of story with the world. We devise and deliver story-circles, performances, and workshops in schools, community centres and stages that inspire reflection and connection through creative expression. Collectively we have 20 years of experience offering transformative spaces for people of a diverse range of ages and backgrounds. We know that story is a powerful way to forge connection and grow community and that is why we gather people together to share stories, play and sing. 

Ione Maria Rojas

Ione Maria Rojas is a material-led artist, colourmaker, landworker and facilitator working with natural pigments, drawing, writing and communities to explore how relationships with the more-than-human world reveal what it means to be human.
Using colours gathered from specific landscapes, her work celebrates overlooked or undervalued species, calling them in as companions and teachers in transformation, liminal identity and finding one’s place in a weird world.
instagram.com/ionemariarojas

Radical Plant Folk//Mariam Mohamed

Mariam Mohamed is a community herbalist, ethnobotanist, trainee medical herbalist, community gardener and founder of Radical Plant Folk. Mariam is passionate about bringing accessible herbalism into our communities. She is co-founder and director of Radical Plant Folk C.I.C, a community garden project based in Dartington, sharing practical plant knowledge, herbal medicine, and seasonal land-based skills. Alongside running community herbalism workshops,
she organises wellbeing spaces in nature for black, mixed heritage and people of colour, often exploring themes around identity, belonging and healing with the land. A lover of plants, Mariam believes everyone should have access to the traditional knowledge of plant medicine. If you would like to get involved in our community herb garden project, take part in our funded community garden days or learn more about herbs and herbal medicine, head to our website
here - radicalplantfolk.com/

Anna Selby

Anna Selby is a writer, researcher, editor, and naturalist whose work explores the intersections of ecology, creativity, and attention. She was a lecturer on the Engaged Ecology and Regenerative Economics Master's programmes at Schumacher College, editor of Hazel Press, and has just completed a practice-led PhD on empathy, ecology, and plein-air poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her acclaimed chapbook Field Notes was featured on BBC Radio 4, named an Irish Times Book of the Year, and became a long-running bestseller at the London Review of Books Bookshop. Anna has been Writer-in-Residence at organisations including Cambridge Conservation Initiative and The Wordsworth Trust, and collaborates across poetry, dance, conservation, and multidisciplinary arts projects. Her work often focuses on cultivating deeper relationships with the living world through close observation and creative practice. Insta: @thenaturetable X / Twitter (@Anna_Selby)

Ava Osbiston

Ava is a South Devon–based textiles artist, creating textile artworks alongside working with clothing and fabric through commissions, mending, repairs and alterations, as well as collaborative workshops. Her work is rooted in an interest in how we live with fabric, as clothing and in our homes. Holding both the joy of self-expression through style and the impact of overconsumption in the fashion and textiles industry. Rather than seeing fabric as disposable, she's interested in how it can be cared for, repaired and reimagined over time; allowing ourselves to develop connection and give meaning to textiles. With a background in environmental sciences, Ava's practice is shaped by an awareness of the ecological and social systems that we are part of and she sees creativity as a vital part of how we respond to the challenges of our time. Since 2015, she's also been part of the core team behind Dark Mountain Project, contributing to its exploration of the cultural stories shaping modern life and its unravelling.