in living without owning a car these seven years, what our normal has shifted to, the questions we asked ourselves, and how we think about it all now, running a little subsistence farm, unschooling, living simply in community on a small island.

this small work exists thanks to the appleturnover supporters. you smooth the path beneath my bicycle. thank you for taking a chance on another way of being. i’d love to hear how you’re shifting your sense of normal these days. read the whole illustrated piece over here.

thanks for sharing, thanks for your kind (5 star!) reviews, it makes such a difference ☆彡

this small work looks at the habits that yield creativity and at accepting that we might need structures to support those habits.

"rhythm, ritual, routine and the reinvention of our patterns for living that emerge from its steadiness is both the stuff of the upcoming season of my series, the journal of small work*, and how i find time to make it at all."

watch the first season of the films on appleturnover.tv and follow along for more written and audio companion pieces like this one. get the book-in-the-works and other good things with your paid subscription.

this small work looks at what change we really need to make, how change happens, and how we begin right now, to co-create the future we want to see. find it in text and image form over on appleturnover.substack.com.

this work might like to play something of an anchoring role in the upcoming fourth volume of the journal of small work, of which volumes i, ii and iii are yours with a paid subscription that keeps me in pen & ink and for which i am deeply grateful.

this small work was written for earth days gone by, but it also feels januaryish so i offer it to you now. look for it in the next volume of the journal of small work.

so, so much appreciation for subscribing, listening, sharing and responding. it all means a great deal. to follow the films and writing, visit http://appleturnover.substack.com.

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when the world seems lost in darkness, i turn my attention to the life-affirming actions within my grasp. thankfully, these are numberless. and after all, winter’s darkness yields the finest moment for regeneration. life is only dormant, and it is in this window that we can propagate more life.

welcome to episode two of season four of the journal of small work podcast. read the full text here.

this small work exists thanks to patrons of appleturnover, it was released in written form a year ago and is bound for the next volume of the journal of small work. get it when it’s out with a paid subscription.

paid subscribers might also like to watch february’s farm tour which focused on pruning for new growth and starting new life from cuttings.

also check out this minute-long short on propagation!

i hope that if you find your own grief for the world threatening to overwhelm, that some small work, perhaps of swapping seeds or taking cuttings, can help to revive you.

now the farm stays here are at appleturnover are booking if you want to vividly, palpably experience what the future could look like when we tend to it with our own hands, in our own communities. it would be my pleasure to have you here and see you off with fresh energy and ideas. that is the heart of new life too, collaboration. i am excited for what light may emerge from even the darkest moments. what new life are you preparing for?

the state of the world is unnerving, but it’s no accident that what actually nourishes and restores our nervous systems are the same practices that restore the state of the world.

welcome to season four of the journal of small work. this small work was released in written form to patrons (thank you!) a year ago, though that first line has been hovering in the background for some time, things being really rather spectacularly unnerving. it is under consideration for the upcoming fourth volume of the journal of small work, yes, no, yes?

if this work calls you to gift a subscription to someone who needs it, know that your gift is a drop that splashes resoundingly in this humble bucket. thank you ♡

good solstice and happy new year to you and yours, from ‘obody’ here on appleturnover farm ☆彡

x elisa

read the full text here:

this small work looks at how we might overcome the obstacles to taking small steps that reverberate out into big, lasting, profound and urgently needed change.

this episode is from season three of the readings from the journal of small work*.

this small work was originally released in 2023 and is collected into the journal of small work*. thank you to the founding patrons who first supported this work into being.

thank you for listening to my small writings and, for those of you with the capacity to offer paid support, it all means the world, and helps me to help build the world i’d love to live in with you.

a paid substack subscription includes a monthly behind-the-scenes farm tour, originally filmed starting in 2023 at appleturnover farm + farmhouse thanks to founding patron support; and a download of the collected small works in three volumes, the journal of small work*; as well as your name in the credits of future films and books. thank you ever so much.

find the full text here https://appleturnover.substack.com/p/the-critical-work-of-our-time

picturing possible, compelling futures. this small work is a moment spent in seeing where we are now, how we are transfigured by recent years, acknowledging the profound change that is happening and connecting to each other and the greater world to begin to live in a way that is remarkably different.

‘it’s as if we all have culture shock – ‘ is a friend and relation of the journal of small work films. if these small works resonate with you, please consider leaving five stars and speeding its quiet reach by word-of-mouth. find out more about the films, podcast and the new small works at appleturnover.substack.com. thank you to our devoted patrons who support and shape the show.