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Use password Chwyn2026

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The Padlet is divided into sections (each one below the other):

The first set are for documenting results of live offers - please add your thoughts/images etc:

Bywyd Pwll - Pond Life

A year...

Weeding Wales

Gifts from the Pond

The next sections are more of an archive of:

Offers - add your offers, no matter how sketchy (or detailed)! These will create our ecosystem!

Meeting recordings and notes

How the Experimental School might work

Ideas to explore - what can we learn with weeds

Ideas to explore - Noticing

Ideas to explore - Mapping

Ideas to explore - Other

You can comment on someone's post by clicking on the speech bubble to the bottom right of each post

You can add a post by clicking on the plus sign next to a section heading

----->Use the grey bar at the bottom of each section to scroll right!

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Sarah Pogoda's weeding scores!

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Noticing - Somewhere to record photos of ‘unseen beneath our feet’ weeds/plants in cracks

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Noticing - Somewhere to record photos of ‘unseen beneath our feet’ weeds/plants in cracks

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Introduction to this Chwyn - Weeds Utopias Bach experiment

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Introduction to this Chwyn - Weeds Utopias Bach experiment

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Click on the image above to go to the webpage on the Utopias Bach website.

Back in December 2024, we held a collaboratory about whether we'd like to set up some kind of co-learning/experimental school about Learning with Weeds.

With Sarah Pogoda, we tried to get funding for this and failed. So we needed to regroup and consider what might we do without funding: trying to find an approach where we all contribute something and get something back...something that would feed our practices.

So in September 2025 we developed and broadened the focus to consider Place Based Research, mapping plants and weeds.

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In this Utopias Bach experiment (name to be decided), we want to explore different approaches to getting to know place, through mapping, learning from and with plants and weeds and others at the margins.

It is currently in development by the Collaboratory. We are creating a co-learning programme, of unknown duration, shaped by the offers and interests of those taking part.

As well as exploring how the Experimental School might work, inspired by plants and weeds, as a self-organising, self-seeding ecosystem, sprouting and growing in unexpected places, we are considering:

Noticing - what do we notice, when we pay close attention? How does this change our perception and our actions and connection? Michael Jepson has started an online Padlet where you can add photos and texts: noticing plants and weeds in cracks and surprising places

Mapping - exploring different types of mapping, long term mapping of individual gardens, pots and places, how we make decisions, what we include and don't include

How and what can we learn with weeds? Weeds are a complex, contested and contextual subject. Often 'othered', or labelled as 'invasive', weeds survive in the margins, in the cracks and boundaries, they have a will to life and an unruly quality, the first life on disturbed ground. Could they be allies/teachers for social cohesion, well-being and inclusivity of our communities?

While we develop this experiment, we have an "Ysgol Chwyn - Weeds School Padlet", open to all to contribute to help develop this experiment.
Please register your interest in being part of the Weeds School below
We will add more here as this experiment evolves, or see our events page for the latest events

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Ysgol Chwyn: Weeds School - Utopias Bach - Revolution in Miniature

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In this Utopias Bach experiment (name to be decided), we want to explore different approaches to getting to know place, through mapping, learning from and with plants and weeds and others at the margins. It is currently in development by the Collaboratory.

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Weed definitions – Chwyn (singular!)

‘A weed is a plant that is wild, prolific and adaptable’.
– Anna Chapman Parker, Understory - a Year Among Weeds

‘Plants become weeds when they obstruct our plans’
– Richard Mabey

‘Weeds can become extinct through attitude change:
If you do want it, then it is no longer a weed’

– Emily Meilleur/Angharad Owen

‘Although whether a plant is a weed depends on context, plants commonly defined as weeds broadly share biological characteristics that allow them to thrive in disturbed environments and to be particularly difficult to destroy or eradicate. In particular, weeds are adapted to thrive under human management in the same way as intentionally grown plants’
- Wikipedia

What is a weed? The usual definitions tend to say more about the speaker than their object. Though efforts have been made over the centuries to categorise their weeds by their behaviours, weeds don’t exist as any kind of botanical group. A weed is much more of an opinion, a reflection of social and cultural behaviour than a vegetal type. The English word is derived from the Old Saxon wiod, itself related to the Old High German wiota meaning fern, a plant that is wild and prolific. These two adjectives describe the essential characteristics of weeds as most of us would understand them: they are plants that come up without being cultivated, and that multiply abundantly, often in a way that’s not easy to control. Their proliferation, which often leads to the epithet ‘invasive’, is explained by another quality of weeds: their ability to grow in many different habitats. A weed is a plant that is wild, prolific and adaptable.
– Anna Chapman Parker, Understory - a Year Among Weeds

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Thank you Steph for passing Sylvia on to me 💚

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People as a positive part of ecosystem rather than ‘rewilding’ vs humans 

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People as a positive part of ecosystem rather than ‘rewilding’ vs humans 

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Mapping - exploring different approaches (mapping as process)

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Mapping - exploring different approaches (mapping as process)

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I found a note on my phone notes app just now, called “weeds”. It says it is from 2021, it must have been a message I was sending to my future self :

Wild plants are often reduced to use-value - for example, as useful food or medicine plants, or more often perhaps as pests. What we can learn from them. This is fine. But actually sometimes I just like to get to know them, just pure accompaniment, fellow-being. Witness maybe? Its not like I'd think of my friends in terms of use -value. Or I hope I wouldn't.

I have often thought of doing a wild plant project - starting from the back door and moving outwards in circles, mapping - maybe working with the plants, or more likely drawings or writings about them. Its a bit daunting though - even by about three feet there are an awful lot of different kinds of wild plants, and that's just the paved bit where Ditz parks his car...

An alphabetical list - ten very common wild plants that I love, but also treat as weeds, and pull out in armfuls:

All the grasses

Brambles which can cross the fence from next door and grow six feet in just a few days, crossing the path - making new roots on the ends of their stems

Dandelions. Always always always I love these plants

Forget-me-not (I won't ever)

Foxgloves, I can't resist leaving them to grow where they choose

Horsetail will never leave. I have picked up fossils out the back of giant horsetails, stems the size of my arm, my leg. Millions of years ago there were horsetails here, before here was even here.

Nettles are nettles

Purple Vetch comes as a surprise every time with its beautiful flowers and hard black seed pods

Bindweed.

Wild Strawberries, which are just a pure blessing

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Why does climate change matter? If not for the living things, all connected up in ways we only partly understand. I am imagining a birds eye. Tiny weed/flower that loses its head if you pick it. Imagine if it was bigger. Bigger than your head, a cardboard hat. Imagine a sea of weed hats seen from above. Imagine a strip of

grass.

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Perhaps the weeds are all that would survive.

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Perhaps the weeds are all that would survive.

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(“C. bursa-pastoris is the second-most prolific wild plant in the world, and is common on cultivated ground and waysides and meadows,”Wikipedia)

You root

through cracked concrete

with a mound of moss,

a little grass.

You stand

with your being

wide open to sky,

exercising your freedom

to abide in the abundance.

There is almost nothing to you:

bunched white flowers,

a gift of heart-shaped seeds,

and then you are gone.

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Daisy chains, blowaclocks, she loves me she loves me not, Do you like butter, looking for 4 leaf clovers, grass whistles, sticky buds, catch a fairy, make a wish.

Would be good for both adults and children to reconnect with theses games. The woulds cheapest country fair. Does anybody know any more garden games involving wild plants?

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Would this capture movement?

Sorry if I'm over sharing

Also interesting fact on ribwort plantain, common name, know in other parts of the world as which man's footprint as it hitched a ride on grain brought by settlers useing sticky membrain. This membrain also helps the plant seed using its own water film coating to grow in dry soil. Resourceful. I'm shore each each plant has a compelling story. Regarding commen names, welsh names, regional names and lattin names, the Latin names are a universal language of plants and ofter quite disciptive but not all that entering. Common names make us love them. Not many people who are not horticuluralist know the Latin names. Because I did not know until a minute ago that butter cup in Latin means bitter little frog I could not relate to the name. That's quite endering.

"Names: Ranunculus acris is in Ranunculus Sect. Ranunculus. The generic name Ranunculus, is from two Latin words, 'rana' meaning ' frog' and 'unculus' meaning 'little' and together they refer to a group of plants, many of which grow in moist places - like little frogs. The species, acris, is from the Latin for 'sharp tasting' and probably was used to describe this species as it is one of the most acrid of the genus. See notes below. The family name of Buttercup, used to be "Crowfoot', hence the continuation of the old name in many of the species common names."

https://www.friendsofeloisebutler.org/pages/plants/tallbuttercup.html#:~:text=Names:%20Ranunculus%20acris%20is%20in,of%20the%20species%20common%20names.

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summary of collaboratory discussion next steps 22.9.25

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summary of collaboratory discussion next steps 22.9.25

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Next steps

1. Have a think about what you might want to do/offer/any insights or questions

2. Put these on the section below under 'offers' or 'ideas'. Also any images of weeds or noticings on Michael's padlet (link https://padlet.com/michaeljepson/place-based-research-mapping-plants-a1sorx77dkv7jqsh)

3. Use October collaboratory to continue to co-develop the experiment

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Mapping our own spaces - could be overwhelming? small not big? Noticing vs surveying

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Mapping our own spaces - could be overwhelming? small not big? Noticing vs surveying

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Collaboratory discussion 11.12.24 - use password UtopiasBach2024 to watch

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Collaboratory discussion 11.12.24 - use password UtopiasBach2024 to watch

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Weed School/ Ysgol Chwyn: Lots more suggestions if you click on the comment icon!

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Utopias Bach projects

Mostyn residency, ‘how might we create radical alliances with plants' - https://www.utopiasbach.org/preswyl-oriel-mostyn-residency

Scores - https://www.utopiasbach.org/scores

Noticing - https://www.utopiasbach.org/found-utopias-bach

Tree school - each cylch had an invitation, we could use these types of invitation formats again eg https://www.utopiasbach.org/cylch-1-egino

Other inspirations

eg

https://www.foodartresearch.network/project/follow-the-plants/

https://www.naturambyth.cymru/en/our-work/arts-engagement/martha-orbach/

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Quiet observation in our own locality and noticing change - not having judgement/editing

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Quiet observation in our own locality and noticing change - not having judgement/editing

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Gardens - trend towards wild gardens…challenging the concept of ‘best kept' 

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Gardens - trend towards wild gardens…challenging the concept of ‘best kept' 

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Create a map of where we all are (so we get a sense of where we are in relation to each other)

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Create a map of where we all are (so we get a sense of where we are in relation to each other)

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Not to be too overwhelming - can connect to big issues/state of the world but also for joy and staying small

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Not to be too overwhelming - can connect to big issues/state of the world but also for joy and staying small

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People to be able to take part at their own speed

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People to be able to take part at their own speed

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Ongoing gathering of questions as 'seed bank'

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Ongoing gathering of questions as 'seed bank'

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It could be structured with offers of activities/explorations/invitations (eg) each month led by different person/people eg Lisa and Iain offered a session exploring mapping

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It could be structured with offers of activities/explorations/invitations (eg) each month led by different person/people eg Lisa and Iain offered a session exploring mapping

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Like weeds, we’ll take over the collaboratory! Monthly collaborators could be used to review where we are at (or every few months)

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Like weeds, we’ll take over the collaboratory! Monthly collaborators could be used to review where we are at (or every few months)

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Set up local groups/buddying system so we work together in smaller groups in localities

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Set up local groups/buddying system so we work together in smaller groups in localities

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Activities at home, in our local groups, whole group (online/hybrid/physical space)

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Activities at home, in our local groups, whole group (online/hybrid/physical space)

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Keeper of Seeds - Gaia

Reflectors - Steph, Wanda

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10:57:29 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	Welcome to the chat!
10:57:40 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	Croeso I chat!
11:02:11 From Lindsey Colbourne to Everyone:
	Chwyn/Weeds collaboratory 11.12.24
	Â 
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  10 mins: Welcome, intro etc
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  10 mins: Bond with your weed
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  20 mins: Share what we have in common
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  20 mins: Definition of a weed
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  30 mins: University/Hedge school of weeds in 2025? 
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  End 12.30
11:05:35 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	I love your weed photo Sarah!
11:06:31 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	May I please remind everyone to double-check that your notifications on your computer or your phone are turned off, that you turned off your phoneâs sound, chosen the âfocusâ setting on your apple devices - so that unexpected sound disruptions are put to a minimum.
11:07:36 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	If you feel you need help with it, let me know and we can go into one of the breakout rooms to sort things out. As a precautious action you can mute yourself for the time you donât speak.
11:08:26 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Still, if it happens that a sound pops up through your zoom mic, donât worry, it happens to all of us. (It just happened to me 20 minutes ago, as I forgot to turn off the alarm I set up for not missing our meeting).
11:09:22 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Replying to "IMG_20241211_102040_115.jpg"
	
	Is this Sauerampfer?
11:16:52 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Replying to "IMG_20241211_102040_115(1).jpg"
	
	Was this sorrel? Sorry, I didnât quite hear its name?
11:17:14 From Gaia Redgrave (Earthsong) to Everyone:
	Replying to "IMG_20241211_102040_115(1).jpg"
	
	Evening Primrose :-)
11:20:18 From kar to Everyone:
	I would love a cobble tunnel like yours Gaia â¤ï¸
11:21:51 From Gaia Redgrave (Earthsong) to Everyone:
	Reacted to "I would love a cobbl..." with â¤ï¸
11:22:23 From Gaia Redgrave (Earthsong) to Everyone:
	Replying to "I would love a cobbl..."
	
	It's octagonal and lovely but in not very productive at the moment.
11:26:22 From kar to Everyone:
	Replying to "I would love a cobbl..."
	
	Time for gentle rest and recuperation maybe ð
11:27:04 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	My landlord pointed out to me that my tenant agreement states a responsibility of me to take care of my garden. I think he wants me to weed particularly the front garden, however with what El and also Sian said, how come that âa responsibility towards the gardenâ does not imply taking care of weeds in a nourishing and appreciation of weeds?
11:27:14 From Gaia Redgrave (Earthsong) to Everyone:
	Replying to "I would love a cobbl..."
	
	Absolutelyâ¤ï¸
11:27:25 From Angharad Owen to Everyone:
	Reacted to My landlord pointed ... with "â¤ï¸"
11:27:26 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Reacted to "It's octagonal and l..." with â¤ï¸
11:27:36 From Gaia Redgrave (Earthsong) to Everyone:
	Reacted to "My landlord pointed ..." with â¤ï¸
11:27:52 From Lindsey Colbourne to Everyone:
	hwyn/Weeds collaboratory 11.12.24
	Â 
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  10 mins: Welcome, intro etc
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  10 mins: Bond with your weed
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  20 mins: Share what we have in common
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  20 mins: Definition of a weed
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  30 mins: University/Hedge school of weeds in 2025? 
	-Â Â Â Â Â Â  End 12.30
11:28:05 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	You are at the end of my images Anna! XXX
11:30:43 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	How joyous talking about weeds with you is! I canât wait to bond! Yay!
11:39:13 From Lindsey Colbourne to Everyone:
	Weed definitions â Chwyn (singular!)
	Â 
	âA weed is a plant that is wild, prolific and adaptableâ. 
	â Anna Chapman Parker, Understory - a Year Among Weeds
	Â 
	âPlants become weeds when they obstruct our plansâ 
	â Richard Mabey
	Â 
	âWeeds can become extinct through attitude change: 
	If you do want it, then it is no longer a weedâ 
	â Emily Meilleur/Angharad Owen
11:42:48 From Gaia Redgrave (Earthsong) to Everyone:
	From evening primrose: Daily life is a task to be considered with the thought and process of the sun, the moon and the joy of the finding of nourishment. We the peoples (plant & human) of this earth and ether sing together in an embrace of one place, one space, one hope, one dream.
11:45:21 From Lindsey Colbourne to Everyone:
	Reacted to "From evening primros..." with â¤ï¸
11:46:32 From Ellen/El/she/her to Everyone:
	2 secs will be back
11:51:47 From sarahholyfield to Everyone:
	Wanda can you write the name of that book?
11:52:37 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	https://aihr.uva.nl/content/news/2024/04/new-book-daniel-loick.html
11:52:52 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Replying to "https://aihr.uva.nl/..."
	
	Sometimes it is a strength to be in the wrong place
11:53:14 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Replying to "https://aihr.uva.nl/..."
	
	I reccomend this recent publication slightly related to this question (though not considering plant communities)
11:53:41 From Angharad Owen to Everyone:
	Reacted to Weed definitions â C... with "â¤ï¸"
11:53:58 From Felicity Parker to Everyone:
	Reacted to "Sometimes it is a st..." with ð
11:54:22 From kar to Everyone:
	Reacted to "Sometimes it is a st..." with â¤ï¸
11:54:39 From kar to Everyone:
	Reacted to "From evening primros..." with â¤ï¸
11:54:40 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	It is a polarity! Welcoming and weeding!
11:55:19 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Allowing things to be ugly
11:57:46 From kar to Everyone:
	I remember walking in the woods with my grandad, he rubbed a dock leaf on my leg when I was stung by a nettle and it was so soothing. Nostalgia makes me sad at the moment
11:58:38 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Replying to "I remember walking i..."
	
	Yes, nostalgia in the winter season is feels more like farewell than welcoming back, doesnât it?
12:00:46 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	Car I am giving your legs a virtual soothing rub! With my Hypericum (forgotten how to spell it) leaves. XX
12:01:09 From kar to Everyone:
	Replying to "I remember walking i..."
	
	very much so
12:02:48 From kar to Everyone:
	Replying to "Car I am giving your..."
	
	somehow I always feel soothed by you even when you are being feisty
12:03:27 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	It is interesting how many weeds have medicinal properties.
12:04:03 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	I canât see the quotes
12:04:10 From Lindsey Colbourne to Everyone:
	Weed definitions â Chwyn (singular!)
	Â 
	âA weed is a plant that is wild, prolific and adaptableâ. 
	â Anna Chapman Parker, Understory - a Year Among Weeds
	Â 
	âPlants become weeds when they obstruct our plansâ 
	â Richard Mabey
	Â 
	âWeeds can become extinct through attitude change: 
	If you do want it, then it is no longer a weedâ 
	â Emily Meilleur/Angharad Owen
12:04:30 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	Women and other Monsters Sarah.
12:05:23 From Lindsey Colbourne to Everyone:
	Matter out of place - sarah jackson?
12:05:48 From Lindsey Colbourne to Everyone:
	Being in the wrong place, independently arriving, not planted
12:06:06 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Sounds out of place is perceived as noise, isnât it (El)
12:06:31 From Lindsey Colbourne to Everyone:
	What is a weed? The usual definitions tend to say more about the speaker than their object. Though efforts have been made over the centuries to categorise their weeds by their behaviours, weeds donât exist as any kind of botanical group. A weed is much more of an opinion, a reflection of social and cultural behaviour than a vegetal type. The English word is derived from the Old Saxon wiod, itself related to the Old High German wiota meaning fern, a plant that is wild and prolific. These two adjectives describe the essential characteristics of weeds as most of us would understand them: they are plants that come up without being cultivated, and that multiply abundantly, often in a way thatâs not easy to control. Their proliferation, which often leads to the epithet âinvasiveâ, is explained by another quality of weeds: their ability to grow in many different habitats. A weed is a plant that is wild, prolific and adaptable. â Anna Chapman Parker, Understory - a Year Among Weeds
12:07:28 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	So, makeing a plant a weed is a decision, so when considering weed and reconstruction/reflection on what we want to perceive at weed and what we want to perceive as plant is a process of decision making.
12:07:40 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	Another property seems related to the difficulty of removing them, thousands of seeds, deep and tenacious roots, strangling and dominating behaviour (ooops, lots of properties(.
12:07:41 From Sian Barlow to Everyone:
	I have a poem here about Ivy by Denise Levertov, she says "it does not require appreciation". Which I like. Also "I am not its steward." and "the ivy meets its obligation by pure undoubtable being."
12:07:42 From kar to Everyone:
	remembering again, I loved Bill and Ben The Flowerpot Men when I was little and Little Weed was my favourite character
12:08:15 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Complex systems and agency .-9
12:08:29 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Reacted to "remembering again, I..." with â¤ï¸
12:09:00 From kar to Everyone:
	Replying to "remembering again, I..."
	
	this was in the 60s
12:09:13 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Replying to "I have a poem here a..."
	
	Mhm, not sure whether I agree - ivy not require appreciation suggest a plant that is full of itself - I think its a harsh judgement
12:10:55 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Yes, the element of play!
12:11:41 From Sian Barlow to Everyone:
	it has something to do with use value - as a way that we people have of narrowing down what we are seeing,
12:12:04 From Angharad Owen to Everyone:
	Reacted to it has something to ... with "ð"
12:12:21 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	And working towards  climate action
12:13:39 From Sian Barlow to Everyone:
	Replying to "I have a poem here a..."
	
	it doesn't say you can't appreciate it, only that it doesn't require it
12:15:32 From kar to Everyone:
	I love this idea and am very happy to join the gathering in a non academic way
12:15:45 From Angharad Owen to Everyone:
	In case of interest:
	Claire Mace (storyteller & herbalist) will be holding workshops on plants as medicine, at Uned 8, Caban Cafe on 24th Jan and  7th &  21st Feb... ð¿
	Basically drinking tea & exploring plants ð
12:16:30 From kar to Everyone:
	Reacted to "In case of interest:..." with ð
12:20:14 From IRENE to Everyone:
	Reacted to "In case of interest:..." with ð
12:20:50 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	We started as the ryzomatic wild strawberry plant, and now more windburn dandelions!
12:21:33 From IRENE to Everyone:
	Reacted to "We started as the ry..." with â¤ï¸
12:21:59 From Angharad Owen to Everyone:
	Reacted to In case of interest:... with "ð"
12:22:01 From Angharad Owen to Everyone:
	Removed a ð reaction from "In case of interest:..."
12:22:07 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	Weedchildren Ellie!
12:22:32 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Reacted to "Weedchildren Ellie!" with â¤ï¸
12:23:01 From kar to Everyone:
	Reacted to "Weedchildren Ellie!" with â¤ï¸
12:28:49 From Lindsey Colbourne to Everyone:
	plant people that donât have or rarely have a voice
12:29:46 From Wanda Zyborska to Everyone:
	I love the word marginalised in this context. Another way of being liminal, in the cracks, in between, or outsider.
12:29:55 From Sian Barlow to Everyone:
	i think they have a vioice i just think we're not very good at listening to it?
12:31:48 From Ellen/El/she/her to Everyone:
	mapping weeds
12:32:24 From Sian Barlow to Everyone:
	canllaw i flodau gwyllt the no-mow wildflower guide
12:34:16 From Gaia Redgrave (Earthsong) to Everyone:
	Reacted to "i think they have a ..." with â¤ï¸
12:34:33 From Gaia Redgrave (Earthsong) to Everyone:
	Replying to "i think they have a ..."
	
	yes agreed
12:36:20 From Angharad Owen to Everyone:
	Yes I have some thoughts on that Sara! ð
12:37:06 From Felicity Parker to Everyone:
	I think it's a really good idea to encourage as many people as possible to develop a knowledge about plants (weeds or not)! Practical knowledge linked with play would be good :-)
12:37:29 From Gaia Redgrave (Earthsong) to Everyone:
	Brilliant @Wanda Zyborska
12:37:30 From Angharad Owen to Everyone:
	Reacted to I think it's a reall... with "â¤ï¸"
12:38:07 From kar to Everyone:
	Reacted to "I think it's a reall..." with ð
12:38:17 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	https://ecologicalcitizens.co.uk/funding
12:38:43 From kar to Everyone:
	sorry I have to go, thanks for the lifeline xxx
12:38:49 From Sarah Pogoda to Everyone:
	Reacted to "sorry I have to go, ..." with â¤ï¸

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What learning from Ysgol Arbrofol Dod at Ein Coed - TreeSense Experimental school do we want to bring to this?

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What learning from Ysgol Arbrofol Dod at Ein Coed - TreeSense Experimental school do we want to bring to this?

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Noticing what gets left/what is removed / how we make decisions about that

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Noticing what gets left/what is removed / how we make decisions about that

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Incremental loss to development (large and small)

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Incremental loss to development (large and small)

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Plants in their own right // plants (and our attitude towards them) as metaphor - diversity, strength etc

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Plants in their own right // plants (and our attitude towards them) as metaphor - diversity, strength etc

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Gardens as mozaic communities (each with its own unique mix)

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Gardens as mozaic communities (each with its own unique mix)

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Briefing for Collaboratory 22.9.25: learning led by plants and weeds

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Collaboratory discussion 22.9.25 use password Chwyn to watch

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Collaboratory discussion 22.9.25 use password Chwyn to watch

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I will be finding a weed - or two - to record at winter solstice December 21st at 3.03 p.m. and will follow them through the year until winter solstice December 21st 2026 at 3.53 p.m - please join me?

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This is a summary of the application we made for a 'weeds school'. It includes a possible structure and ideas for sessions

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Ysgol Chwyn - Bywyd Pwll / Pond Life - an Invitation

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Ysgol Chwyn - Bywyd Pwll / Pond Life - an Invitation

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My Invitation is to create an Ysgol Chwyn Pwll / Weed School Pond from our creative means and energy.

My idea is that we exchange by snail mail, any thought, word, image, feeling, sense, drawing, seed or packet; painting, cutting, weed, stone, poem in any language, plant, curiosity or ponderance - arising from Bywyd Pwll / Pond Life.

Diolch o galon. Steph

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Weeding cares! Diological Weeding - Map o Gymru, Llyn Alaw, Ynys Môn. Saturday 25th October 10 - 3

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Weeding cares! Diological Weeding - Map o Gymru, Llyn Alaw, Ynys Môn. Saturday 25th October 10 - 3

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From Sarah Pogoda:

Now that we have been clearing and weeding this massive earth work for more three seasonal cycles, this year's volunteering event will offer a more creative variation that emerges from previous experiences and an ongoing questioning of our weeding practice. The scores invite you to engage in weeding as a form of care for semi-permanance, as a reviewing of the site's mythological traces, or gardening as a social practice.

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Dialogical weeding - Map o Gymru, Llyn Alaw — Utopias Bach - Revolution in Miniature

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Weeding cares! Diological Weeding - Map o Gymru, Llyn Alaw, Ynys Môn an invitation from Sarah Pogoda Time: 10-3pm (you can drop in and out at any time) Llyn Alaw location:   Google Maps / What3words app:  lluosrif.amgylchedd.undonog . We are arranging lifts from Me

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I’d be more than happy to welcome people to Cae Coch as part of our ongoing exploration!

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I’d be more than happy to welcome people to Cae Coch as part of our ongoing exploration!

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From Elinor Gwyn

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Iain, Lisa, Angharad

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Ysgol Chwyn - Bywyd Pwll / Pond Life - an Invitation

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Ysgol Chwyn - Bywyd Pwll / Pond Life - an Invitation

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My pond is small and sits in a corner of my small garden.  I've planted a few marginals and odd plants around it. The water is clear with recent rain.  Last month the glorious, fallen acer leaves floated on its surface, face up or down.  I loved the colours then.  Inside my pond there are some plants, stepping stones and shells.

I don't know much more about ponds; the First Book of pond life has alarmed me with huge images of rather scary-looking creatures.  This website is more enlightening.  I've dipped in and out of it.

So my Invitation is to create an Ysgol Chwyn Pwll / Weed School Pond from our creative means and energy.

My idea is that we exchange by snail mail, any thought, word, image, feeling, sense, drawing, seed or packet; painting, cutting, weed, stone, poem in any language, plant, curiosity or ponderance - arising from Bywyd Pwll / Pond Life.

The gift prompts a return offering, either to the same recipient or another interested in Bywyd Pwll who is willing to share their address on request from the wonderful map Lisa has created.

We ask for care before sending anything that might disturb or affect adversely a site, pond, garden, plant or local wild life. Any other cautions or comments are welcome. This is as far as I've got - shall we see how far it grows?  More to follow.

Here is one image of my pond.  There will be more in Michel's Padlet - Utopias Bach Plants within Cracks.

Diolch o galon. Steph

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In connection with the idea of running a session (or sessions) around mapping – and possibly some other events - I just wondered whether it would be worth thinking about making use of the Gateway Arts Centre in Shrewsbury. They have spaces to hire, a nice café, it’s pretty equidistant (around 2-2.5 hours?) for many of us by road or rail, and perhaps easily accessible to Iain and also to others from the SW England group if they wished to join at some point.  The cost of room hire used to be pretty reasonable – I haven’t used the space for a while – and perhaps if this cost was shared between everyone attending it would work out ok.

from Elinor Gwyn

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Maybe relevant to our attitude to land abandoned to weeds?

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Maybe relevant to our attitude to land abandoned to weeds?

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Sian wrote to me recently that: “for myself I am totally obsessed with the mine sites and mineral railway, here in the valley, and learning to pay attention to what lives in those places, especially plants, also fungi and insects, birds, animals. Wild beings - because these are abandoned post-industrial places”. That very much spoke to my sense of the area in the North Pennines my wife’s maternal family came from, where we spend time every year. It used to be called: “an area of outstanding natural beauty”, which was nonsense since it’s one massive post-industrial landscape shaped by lead mining and quarrying, then planned with commercial forestry that’s clear- felled, leaving acres of stumps and rose-bay willow herb. Sometimes beautiful, in its own strange way, but also bleak, denuded, terribly scarred. But then I came across this in Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger. Klein is describing a conversation with a First Nations writer in Canada.

She was talking about living in a part of Ontario that has been a site of intense industrial pollution, and the draw to move to more ‘pristine’ wilderness.

“But, she said, “when I think of the land as my mother or if I think of it as a familial relationship, I don’t hate my mother because she’s sick, or because she’s been abused. I don’t stop visiting her because she’s been in an abusive relationship, and she has scars and bruises. If anything, you need to intensify that relationship".

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I can only think to offer the opportunity to come to my house and dip into my supplies of different papers and pens, some home-made. We could find some plants/weeds and observe them more closely by drawing them. You don't need any skill in this, the simplest depiction on scraps of paper is enough to start the process. I am sure even in winter there is no shortage of weeds/plants around my house! Coffee/tea and cake could be provided! I live near Llansadwrn, Ynys Môn.

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Hi all. It would be great to host a future event at Plas Bodfa if you'd like...it would be great to bring some Utopias energies back to Bodfa. We have just finished renovations on the final section of the greenhouse. Its has turned out to be a lovely, small, multi-purpose space. Huge long workbench good for messy projects of all kinds. Fully accessible now thanks to the funding for the Community Observatory project.

And you all know the possibilities of the grounds :)
Happy to discuss and brainstorm.

From Julie Upmeyer

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I would love to contribute with a movement dialogue

From Irene Gonzalez

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Ysgol Arbrofol Chwyn Utopias Bach Experimental Weeds School

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uMap lets you create maps with OpenStreetMap layers in a minute and embed them in your site.

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Available for over a year

Several contributors make compelling listening this week.

The Library of Lost Maps by James Cheshire, Professor of Geographic Information and Cartography, tells the story of the discovery of a treasure-trove at the heart of University College London. In a long-forgotten room James found thousands of maps and atlases. This abandoned archive reveals how maps have traced the contours of the world, inspiring some of the greatest scientific discoveries, as well as leading to terrible atrocities and power grabs.

listen more ...

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Start the Week - Maps – lost, secret and revealing - BBC Sounds

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James Cheshire, Jerry Brotton and Jenny Uglow, with Tom Sutcliffe.

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Buddleia - an invasive species and regarded as a weed by some but loved by others!

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Buddleia - an invasive species and regarded as a weed by some but loved by others!

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Sorry, this is probably in the wrong place.

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At the ysgol arbrofol dod at ein coed - Tree sense experimental school, we shared a briefing for people to try at home as well as at Pontio. Attached is an example (in English - there was also a fersiwn Cymraeg) - it's long and detailed and of course it doesn't have to be like this!

Elinor suggested the idea of having 'seed packets' for each of our offerings, perhaps with invitations to do at home, online / in person/exchanges...whatever suits your offer.

i'd be happy to help with this if anyone would like

Love from

Lindsey

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At this collaboratory we make the Ysgol Chwyn - Weed school live, talk about offers and how we can organise in a non-hierarchical, anarchic, unexpected way, learning from plants and weeds!

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I have been noticing a lot of no human construnction towns and citys similar to sandcastle worms on the beach, or multiple holes in a muddy bank made possibly by insect. Thought it might be interesting to maps not human towns.Do they and we serve a greater purpose which we are not aware of in the wider picture? Is a forest a community of trees, do all species colenise? What effect does each colleny have on its neighbers?

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I have been noticing a lot of no human construnction towns and citys similar to sandcastle worms on the beach, or multiple holes in a muddy bank made possibly by insect. Thought it might be interesting to maps not human towns.Do they and we serve a greater purpose which we are not aware of in the wider picture? Is a forest a community of trees, do all species colenise? What effect does each colleny have on its neighbers?

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Big question, I know , might start a wondering with some gentle looking. Noticing if new habitat is created by clusters of one species or if the community is serving a purpose like decomposition

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I invite you all to join me on a walk along the costal path on the promenade of colwyn bay beach. We will meet in the middle by the peer and walk where the beach appears widest and observe the changes of perspective of the land from our view piont. This will act as a metaphor for our personal view point. I would also request that if it is possible for you, please arrive by public tran

sport, be a passenger and ponder the landscape and plants you meet while waiting. As and example of changing perspectives I am adding an interesting artical I just read about changing attitudes towards the sycamore tree whose leaves I have been working with. Recently considered a weed by conservation growns it has now changed it status. 200 years after being naturalised it has finally become exepted.

Britain’s complex relationship with the sycamore tree – Unlocking Landscapes https://share.google/LqNF0FXIFy4sNRIs5

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I will be finding a weed - or two - to record at winter solstice December 21st at 3.03 p.m and will follow them for a year until winter solstice December 21st 2026 at 3.53 p.m - please join me!

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Carline Thistle-gold glow of tiny suns defy the dark of the year

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This may be of interest, given the relationship between insects and all plants, weeds included of course.

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Charlotte Dorn (MW 18) — Livingmaps Network

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Livingmaps is a network of researchers, community activists and others with a common interest in the use of mapping for social change, public engagement and community campaigning

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There were loads of wall flowers growing over this bridge until recently. The must have caught someone's eye coz they all got weed killered. This baby fennel however is invincible.

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cynghrair radical chwyn - a radical alliance with a weed

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cynghrair radical chwyn - a radical alliance with a weed

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Here are some invitations that might fit with 'a year...' from Sarah Holyfield. It is based on what we did with trees, but adapted for weeds! Lindsey xx

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This a link to the separate Padlet where you can upload your found weed images

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Peryglus! Pond Weed-not-a-Weed Score

1. Study and commune with your gifts.

2. Consider if WANTED / UNWANTED à NURTURE / DESTROY /RETURN

3. Seek advice where necessary
(eg from a passing expert bird/pond/tadpole)

4. Notice your decision process and implications, and document

5. Share with Ysgol Chwyn Weeds School
(eg padlet, return mail)

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Cut up Poem from Uncertain Gifts replies

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Cut up Poem from Uncertain Gifts replies

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Happy aspirational Drop drifted, doomed Feather

and the garden looking on, pulled

plastic possibilities from School Weed:

Gifts of bottom tadpoles checking supper.

Leftover questions Wort from Tubular thought.

The answer began detours that the roots extended:

speak upside the locked surface

The weedy Wort evidence declared weed.

Baddy, happy to be marginal?