I’ve not added to this blog for a while, not because I’ve lost interest but because there’s been so much going on in some many different aspects of life.

Of course some of this has been family stuff, and then there’s the run-up to the Uk elections – with a real chance that we may be able to elect a Green MP and a Green councillor for the part of Bristol where I live. There’s been a lot of different kinds of work – a book chapter to finish and an article for the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies (CJIS) to proof, some interesting mentoring with an artist called Sarah Rhys who is doing a residency at in Ystradgynlais in Wales, and lots of talking with various artists. I have also been working with an old friend who has created the very real possibility of an interesting long-term project for a couple of young artists on Exmoor. And I’m waiting for some formalities to be sorted out so that I can help with what looks like a very interesting PhD in South Africa, which will bring my total of current supervisions back up to seven.

The article for CJIS – ‘Incorrigibly plural’? Rural lifeworlds between concept and experience – should be out soon and represents one part of a body of thinking and writing that I’ve done over the past couple of years, focusing specifically on Ireland. (The book chapter and a related article currently with referees for the Journal of Arts and Communities locate the same concerns more widely, with particular reference to the doctoral work of a farmer, academic, and performance artist Ffion Jones).

When that and the book chapter are sorted I need to try to do some physical making again – always assuming our attempts to move house (now a year old) haven’t come to a head. If that happens I’ll be up to my eyes in moving house and DIY!