June Inspiration

The Cheviot Hills, Northumberland

I am thrilled to be running a guest wild swimming session at Deer Shed Festival this year alongside Rowan Clarke from Outdoor Swimmer magazine, Johnny Hartnell (Wild Swimming Yorkshireman), H2O’s Fenwick Ridley and Thao Do from Wonderful Wild Woman. You can read the piece in Outdoor swimmer magazine here.

For anyone who swims in the sea this important article about the RNLI’s Float to Live campaign is worth a read.

The Ryedale Film & Photo Fest 2026 begins this month. Some of my favourite photographers, including Tessa Bunney, Carolyn Mendelshon and Rachel Rimmel, are displaying their work at the Parish Project, Spital Street, Malton YO17 7JW from June 20th to August (open Fri-Sun 10.30-4pm)

If you enjoy camping, I can recommend a couple of sites where I recently stayed - Sunniside House Camping, a lovely small, family-run campsite near Hexham and Ford Bridge Campsite in North Northumberland.

While in Northumberland, I called in for a chat with artist Mary Ann Rogers who I had heard was a keen wild swimmer. Her beautiful light-filled studio is surrounded by the wild hills of Northumberland with guinea fowl and hens strutting around the garden. I recommend a visit if you are up that way.

I have just finished reading Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Essentially a love story set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program, it is a real page turner and kept me hooked (and close to tears) to the very end.