Hello and welcome to this, my first go at a public journal entry.

One of the intentions I’m carrying into 2026 is to write more — as a personal practice, and also for work — and I’m using this new website as a container for channeling that intention.

With these monthly journal posts I’ll share updates about where I am, what I’m up to, what I’ve got planned. This is partly for my own benefit, to have more of a regular cadence and commitment to write.

It will also be a way for others to follow my wanderings and my work if they’re interested to do so. (You can subscribe here, if you’d like.)

Writing this first entry, which is intentionally and unapologetically rough, I’m finding it’s helped me to tease out the threads which are running through my work, and to notice the thoughts and pieces which seem to be calling for further development. That’s already been valuable in itself.

So. With that preamble out of the way, hope you enjoy!

At the end of last year I soft-launched a new creative studio called Ways with Words.

Going forwards, I’ll be developing this as the main vehicle for my writing and freelance work: for undertaking adventures in communication, collaboration, and regenerative culture.

I’ll be endeavouring to connect more with the many wonderful people and organisations in my network — spanning design, futures, funding, academia, architecture, activism, horticulture and more — and exploring how words can help shape regenerative cultures across different media and contexts.

What this might look like is still emerging, but some of the shapes it may take include:

Last year, I wrote a piece called ‘Back to the Garden: On Culture and Cultivation’ for the first issue of Meander Magazine.

(I’ve made it available to read on my site, here — but I would encourage you to get your hands on a copy of the magazine, if you’re able. The whole issue is well-worth reading, and beautifully printed.)

It was the first long-form article I’ve produced for quite a while, and the first I’ve had published in print. It reminded me how much I enjoy the work of writing, and the positive feedback I’ve had from people has encouraged me to seek further commissions this year.

So — I’ll be pitching to and exploring possibilities with aligned publications and organisations, particularly those looking for:

If you / your organisation have a project you might like to explore with me, I’d love to hear from you. Just drop me an email: [email protected]

In terms of what I’ve got planned 'in-house’, I’m keen to start running sessions exploring collective approaches to both reading and writing.

Back in December, I organised and hosted a reading group in collaboration with Gemma Lannon, at Treo House (which has recently become the semi-permanent home of my personal library — but more on that another time).

Having curated a selection of passages for the group to read together, in silence, on the night, we then explored and discussed the following questions:

It seemed to go down well, and so I’m planning to run more of these in-person sessions in Barcelona (in the spring) and London (in the summer).

I may also resume hosting a weekly online writing cohort; something I initially piloted back in 2024 and which I would like to pick up again.

All of these will be on the Ways with Words events calendar, which you can find and subscribe to here if you might be interested to get involved.

Having by now had more than my fill of the UK’s famously pleasant winter weather, I’m migrating southwards for Spring.

I’ll be travelling overland as I’m trying to avoid flying where feasible. I’ve got a train booked on the 11th February to Paris, where I’m hoping to spend a few nights before heading down to Barcelona on an overnight coach.

(On the topic of minimising carbon footprints, if anyone has any connections or suggestions that might help me organise an Atlantic crossing in November / December, I’d love to hear from you. Drop me an email: [email protected]

My partner is from Brazil, and we’re hoping to spend Christmas and New Year with her family this year. If I can arrive there by way of wind-power rather than fossil-fuel power, that would be amazing.)

As I was considering where to organise my next Collaborative Residency — and where would be a good place to help incubate the project more generally — I kept circling back to Barcelona.

Not only because I seem to already be connected with a bunch of interesting people there via LinkedIn, but also on account of the city’s struggle against over-tourism, and its history of radicalism and resistance more generally.

I’m curious how the Collaborative Residency model might potentially land in / serve this context; I have a sense there will be lots of potential for rich learnings and exchanges.

I’ve written more about this, and what I’m hoping for from the trip, here.

It’s been too long since I’ve been on what I would call a ‘proper walk’.

Having started writing this part of the post, I’ve realised I’ve probably got an essay’s-worth of things to say about my relationship with walking, and the significance it holds for me as a practice and a way of travelling. I’ll put that aside for another time.

For now, I’ll simply share that I’ve been missing the meditative solitude it brings, and so I’m intending to undertake a walk of at least a week — perhaps longer — upon first arriving in Spain mid-February. Either near Barcelona, or perhaps down in Andalucia.

I will almost certainly end up writing notes along the way. However, I’ll be trying to approach both the walk and the writing as ends in themselves — as forms of contemplative practice — rather than as a means for either extracting or producing something else.

Often easier said than done, given how deep neoliberal conditioning runs…

Having allowed ourselves some fallow-time over the winter, my collaborators (Heather, Ally) and I will be meeting towards the end of the month to explore how the project will continue to evolve in 2026.

We may have a re-design and re-release of the cards in the works, as well as piloting some workshops and other containers for a community of practice.

If you’re not already subscribed, you can do so over on the Tending to Endings website.

Until next time,

Will