Following is an excerpt from a poem by current student Jason Nicholas: 

Because humankind (mankind, womankind, people, the products
      Of flesh and blood, the subjects of love and hate, the caring
      Components of careful plans, the surprise results of impromptu
      Intercourse, the discarded unwanted remnants of the same,
      The inert and the charged, the important and the impotent, the
      Living and the lifeless ends of grey society...)
Because all these have the ability and responsibility
      For healing
            —The blessing of another
                    Is the means to end violence
The expression of goodwill
      The substantial words lived out.
As a society built upon fear
      Feeds itself with fear;
An individual composed of well-being
Grows and spreads that energy
            —We are an infectious breed
The mindset, the purposed thought, from one healing—the healing
      Of society follows. 

The rest of the poem can be found on Jason's weblog, Edge of Somewhere.

After studying part-time since Autumn 2005, nine students have submitted their MSc theses: Ewen Hardie, Charles Hutchinson, Hannah Judge-Brown, Spencer Lloyd Pack, Iain MacKinnon, Jenny Patient, Carolina Salazar, Jonny Say, Robert Swinfen. Many congratulations and best of luck to them!

Try and say “Hello Criggy Haas, Humber and Wolds Rural Community Council” fast ten times. Not easy. Now try and say it with a New Zealand accent, and try to be understood in the heart of Yorkshire. Nay impossible. And yet this is what I have been doing since graduating from the CHE Masters a little over 18 months ago.

I have been a village hall adviser for the Humber and Wolds Rural Community Council (HWRCC), working on its “Village Halls Sustainability Project.” HWRCC works in the the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire, which includes around 260 Rural Community Buildings (RCBs).

The Radical Faeries are a network of queer men and allies, formed in the United States in the 1970s, whose integrated political, cultural, and spiritual philosophies reject mainstream norms defining human experience. CHE graduate Mark Tully explores the Radical Faeries’ history, links with Native American third-gender traditions, alliances with other radical political movements, and struggle to become more racially and culturally diverse in the 21^st century.

Nadia Johanisova, a 2003 diploma graduate from the Czech Republic, has recently completed her PhD dissertation: “A Comparison of Rural Social Enterprises in Britain and the Czech Republic.”

On one level, it is a “remake” of her 2005 book, Living in the Cracks (published by Feasta and the New Economics Foundation). It examines a number of questions: What is a (green, rural) social enterprise in Britain and the Czech Republic today? How does it work in practice? What are the constraints and how do today’s social enterprises survive in an uncongenial “globalised” environment? The answers are collated from interviews with 72 social enterprises in both countries (in Britain these include the Phone Co-op, West Dorset Food and Land Trust, Port Appin Community Co-operative and many others).

CHE graduate and environmental lawyer Jamie Whittle has recently released White River, published by Sandstone Press. With its beginnings in Jamie's MSc thesis, the book explores his foot journey to the source of the River Findhorn and his canoe trip back to its estuary, interwoven with reflections of environmental, social, and spiritual significance. It includes a foreword by Alastair McIntosh and illustrations by Jo Darling. The book is now available in bookshops and on amazon.

More information can be found on the Sandstone Press website: www.sandstonepress.com/whiteriver.php.

Channel 4’s River Cottage food guru Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall gives the UK’s first organic carp the thumbs up as a tasty sustainable alternative. The farm is run by CHE graduate Jimmie Hepburn and his partner Penny.

In the last of three progammes on fish: ‘Gone Fishing’ (Channel 4, 8pm 22nd November 2007) Hugh visits a pioneering carp farm in Devon which has grown its fish almost entirely on locally sourced organic feeds. This is in stark contrast to virtually all other fish farms in the UK. These farms use highly processed fish pellets that contain a significant proportion of wild caught fish originating from many areas of sea where fish stocks are seriously threatened. Also in the programme, Hugh cooks the carp for an invited taste panel which rates the fish very highly and also explores the idea of growing carp in your own pond for your table!

Falkland Centre for Stewardship commissioned graduate and fellow Nick Wilding to design and direct their inaugural Rural Leadership Programme (RLP) from September, 2006 until November, 2007.

Nick writes: The collaborative story of our journey through the year was published 11 December. Working closely with RLP co-ordinator [and CHE graduate], Sibongile Pradhan, and many of the programme participants, we’ve sought to colourfully communicate our story around key learnings, outcomes and insights into what it takes to run a successful programme.