A Wilder Life
Perfect for Hen Parties
It's easy to feel disconnected from our natural world - we spend a lot of time in indoor environments that encourage us to accidentally forget about what’s happening in nature. The less we interact with the natural world - the more detached we can feel.
Living a little more seasonally, rediscovering outdoor skills and tuning in to the folklore and stories of our plants, trees and creatures, can offer us an opportunity to rekindle that relationship with nature. And that's exactly what my 'Wilder Life' workshops are all about!
Living in a way that is consciously connected to the seasons teaches us to appreciate and embrace the natural rhythms and changes in nature, and in ourselves. Here at Cwmffrwd Farm in the Welsh Black Mountains, it’s important to know what is happening in the natural world around us so the wildflower meadows are grazed, the new hedgerows are tended, the crops are planted and the wild plants harvested, at just the right times. Different points of the year are particularly significant for us and we mark and celebrate these moments with creative practices that bring us all together - the old stories and folklore guiding and inspiring us along the way.
We invite you to join us for one of our 'Wilder Life' workshops at the farm. Spend time with us as we share seasonal practices that range from the companiable gathering of wild food to creative crafting with foraged materials. During the day, we'll also take a moment to mark the seasonal change, share outdoor skills that include making and cooking on fire and the use of sharp-edged tools, and weave a web of fascinating folklore and stories around everything we do to help you remember it all!
These workshops are designed to boost your confidence outdoors and deepen your understanding of how folk before us connected with the natural world. They invite you to make that world a much bigger part if your life - offering not just a chance to relax, rewild and rejuvenate yourself and develop a new set of outdoor skills, but also the opportunity to feel much better connected with the natural world forever after!
"I have been enthusing for the past 48 hours about how brilliant the
session was... my dad was trained as a woodwork teacher back in the day and he was extremely impressed to see the woodcraft skills... I am very proud of my butter knife & already ordered a whittling book! - Julie, 2022
Thank you so much. What a wonderful way to spend a day. Your knowledge is awesome! I wish I had the power of memory to match it. - Jamie 2022
Thank you once again for a truly memorable day! Pridie is a master facilitator and a wondrous storyteller. The whole thing just exceeded my expectations and hopes! - Sally, 2022
Folklore, Foraging & Story Walks
Open group bookings & private available
If you are looking for an unique way to experience the great outdoors, why not join me for a story walk around my home Cwmffrwd Farm in the beautiful Brecon Beacons? The walk is an hour long, through wildflower meadows and up to The Valley of the Streams for which our farm is named, before venturing out onto the open access mountain that reigns above. You'll meet Ash, Alder, Hawthorn and Hazel; explore the haunts of hares and foxes, and venture - if you are brave enough - into the secret hidden places of the fairy folk. While we wander I'll share folklore and stories connected to all the trees, plants and creatures we encounter along the way and tell some beautiful folktales that are specially selected to relax, inspire and empower.
(You can also expect an exciting assortment of practical bushcraft tips and weird and wacky facts about such things as ancient remedies, plant magic and animal spirit medicine)!
"I think your walks should be on the national curriculum and everyone should do at least one in their lifetime." - Matthew, 2022
Family Bushcraft Experience
Children aged 6+
Cwmffrwd Farm's family bushcraft experiences are the perfect way to spend an morning outdoors together. It's less about hardcore survival skills and more about exploring the outdoors in ways that help us reset, rewild and re-energise ourselves - kids and adults alike - and you'll even leave with several new skills to share when you next go camping!
Our summer workshops will introduce you to some exciting methods of making fire, cooking on fire, using sharp tools whittling, crafting, creating art and making medicine, all accompanied throughout with handy tips for identifying our trees and plenty of nature-based storytelling that has you remembering the morning long after you've left the farm!
This experience is perfect for families with children aged 6+. It is designed to provide you and your family with skills and stories that boost your confidence outdoors and definitely deepen your understanding of how folk before us connected with the natural world. No previous experience necessary!
We believe that today’s children need more opportunities to develop a love of nature and outdoor living, and enjoying bushcraft is a the perfect way to do just that. Brilliantly, it also helps kids develop the skill to manage their own risk, be responsible for their own safety and have an awareness of their impact on the environment.
"What a beautiful way to spend a morning with my eldest daughter. I honestly can't think of anything better than doing what we've just done. Thank you" - Maria, 2022
"Wow! I would never have thought my kids capable of such concentration outdoors but they wanted to hear every single thing you had to say and I couldn't tear them away from the farm at the end of the day!" - James, 2022
Storytelling Workshops for
Education & Business
Team Training Days
As a communication tool, storytelling reigns supreme. It's engaging, it's inspiring and it's capable of moving people to make very positive decisions and take constructive action. It's also a wonderful experience for everyone involved - touching us in ways that that other communications can't, and reaching deep into our hearts and minds. Stories are, as Tahir Shah reminds us in Arabian Nights, the "communal currency of humanity", and are definitely one of the most powerful ways to put ideas into the world today.
Contact Pridie to find out more about her Storytelling Workshops for Education & Business - a unique journey into the world of folk and fairytale that explores the way our brains work when engaged in the 'storying' process and examines how this influences our behaviour in the modern world. Sessions include a performance storytelling, an introduction to the science behind storytelling, and support developing effective narratives within the workplace.
"We all absolutely loved your workshop. All feedback was brilliant, you really captured everyone's imagination, got our neurons firing and stoked the fires of existential dread. I can't think of a better Wednesday!" - Harriet, Mr B & Friends, 2021
"Such a great day, you gave such an inspiring workshop - it definitely had the team buzzing afterwards!" - Penny, The Woodland Trust, 2021
"It was an amazing morning – I even tried out a new approach on the call to a CEO of a company I have never met before and uncovered a lot about his passion for trees that meant I could offer him a few appealing ways to engage the rest of his board! Thank you so much. I am very excited by the reading list and think I may need to start a team library to get through all these! - Pip, The Woodland Trust, 2021
