Testimonials & Participants Page

This page is for the testimonials and the writings of participants in the woodland project. Where requested, names have been omitted when requested to protect peoples privacy.

Testimonial 1:

• I am a late-diagnosed autistic person

• I have enjoyed the experiences of being involved with the woodland: 

  • Doing things with other autistic people

  • New experiences within a woodland setting

    • helping with maintenance

    • helping to return non-native growth to native woodland

    • path construction

    • hedge planting

    • just being in a woodland; compared to previous outdoor experiences of going for walks

  • Being able to use my experience of practical construction and maintenance for a worthwhile project planned to invite other autistic people into the space

Testimonial 2:

This woodland project is a rare place for autistic people to find peace of mind, companionship, solitude also a variety of activities. It is ONLY for autistic people, so you need never fear the usual anxieties for example being misunderstood. Whether you want to wander alone in a quiet, beautiful natural setting, help with ongoing work to restore and improve this ancient woodland, join other autistics for picnics and meet new friends, do come along! If you are hesitant about coming unaccompanied, or female and would like another female to accompany you, contact Richard. I have been many times and would thoroughly recommend the wood! Marianne

Rain, sweet rain and silent night myths: a seasonal prose. By Spyrys

Promptly at five pm, as dusk falls I begin to wend my leaf-strewn muddy way from the higher slope of the wood: the slope where the deer come down, the slope - I am becoming familiar with her dips and slippy places, her holly and her beech brazen glow in the surprising way she lights the generalised dusk-grey cloak and candles little moments of rusty-orange highlight. That slope, the first owl speaks out in her imitation of the boys whom she may be mistaken for. No boys are here yelping or hooting in the wood. Owl is owl this time, and is answered by owl and owl and maybe yet owl over the river. Promptly at 5 pm each evening, regular-like, and so time to head for the little stove, a hot soup, the soggy rain-drenched outer garments peeled off and the discovery of how far through this layer the rain has penetrated, many layers and thick socks to replace with dry ones, a fire to be lit, and potterings and plannings which seem to take time that did not exist and turn it into the night, the night where the moon should rise and await the parting of cloud, the little spits or sploshes of drizzle or storm, the music of the night - a fresh arrangement with no knowing when the highlights are sounded or the rising note of moon will lend her inspiration. The mystery of it all, and all the while the tall trees flickering her clear light with circles of colour surrounding her glow. 

On another eve, the wetness of the sky pausing for breath, a moonlit path taken to the village above, the track muddy and kind, picked out by tyre tracks, moon bejewelling wet leaves and showing the way clearly enough, if one takes the time and allows the track to take one rather than insisting on full control of the wood herself. 

And here in this peace and very far from 'solitude' the life of the wood speaks and sings 'take your time with me, we are in no hurry for anything of you humans - but you may join us if you like, if you listen, if you learn some of our ways'. 

Some have a very different way of 'spending' their 'Christmas'. But time is not here to be 'spent' and the tall tree does not invest in spending her time, nor is this 'spending' related to the season. And many babies are born, and all of them are the 'little children' that Yeshua allegedly advised all folk to be as, and their birth-days are not all so celebrated. And thus the quietest day of the year found this soul in the domain of the people of the wood, the tall green people, the four-legged shy people of the night, the fluffy-winged people, and the robin. And others who dwell there needing us not, and yet whose domain we are lucky enough to enter and find peace and space and a place to be without mask, without such effort as might otherwise be demanded in a socialised world rather unlike our nature. And this little piece of words, is writ by a woodlander now returned to a more disagreeable 'life' in the life they call 'civilisation'. But this woodlander knows full well were life is to be found, and has writ of a little of the sense of it here. And the robin who liked the pumpkin seeds put out nightly in the moonlight and gone by morn, this robin appears in mind in the words that write themselves to confirm of it so. 

Testimonial 3

A couple of us from AutAngel visited the Autism Woodland Project.  We were very impressed. Richard and helpers were so welcoming and ready to explain everything and show us around. As well as enjoying the natural environment we loved Richard’s commitment to nature and to supporting autistic people.  This project is a real gem.