The Monthly Salon: February

Plus some news and events

February is the grimmest month, at least around these parts. Sometimes it is hard to keep your spirits up, especially when the sun doesn’t show its face for over ten days, but the rain shows up every five minutes. In an attempt to give myself something useful to do this week, I went out with my chainsaw to cut down some trees. We run a coppice cycle on our land. The idea is that we plant enough trees to feed our fire all winter, then replant them when we cut them down, turn them into logs and season them in the shed. We don’t get enough wood yet to feed the fire all year, but we’re getting there.

The trees we planted six or seven years ago - birch and poplar mainly, with a bit of fast-growing willow - are big enough to take down now, so my newly sharpened two-stroke-fuelled chainsaw made its annual appearance. I don’t really like power tools - the noise, the stink, the danger of losing some bodily extremity - but I still find that when I get going with them they take control of me. My son was out with me, helping to make sure the trees fell in the right direction, and he noticed it as I stalked about wondering which trees to take down and which ones to leave. ‘Since you got that saw out’, he said, protesting at one of my choices, ‘you’ve wanted to cut everything down!’ He was right, too. It’s a great example of how we are changed by our technologies. When you have a chainsaw, everything looks like firewood.

Well, we are approaching the Lenten season in New Calendar Orthodoxy, so soon enough I’ll be too weak to cut down any trees anyway. Either that or I’ll be newly spiritually energised, and one step closer to sainthood. Perhaps you could pray, readers, that it will be the latter not the former this time around.

Anyway, enough about me - this is the Monthly Salon, and it’s all about you. You can introduce any subject you like here, and discuss it with each other. I especially encourage readers who haven’t commented before to say their piece. Don’t be shy: I’ve banned all the meanies already!

Before we get going, here are a few quick notifications from me:

• I recently had a conversation with Russell Brand on his new Christian-themed podcast. It got quite interesting as we went along, and we tackled all sorts of aspects of life and the faith and how they intersect. My miniature bantams also made a surprise appearance. You can watch it here, though you’ll have to pay to watch the second half.

• Next month I’ll be speaking at the Temenos Academy in London about how the Orthodox Christian tradition views nature, and what that might mean for us in Times Like These. You can find out more and buy a ticket here.

• Speaking of videos, my friend Martin Shaw has launched his own YouTube series, which he is calling Jawbone. His most recent episode is entitled ‘Wild Christ’, which I obviously approve of. Martin is always worth listening to: tune in.

• Finally, I’ve revamped my personal website in preparation for the arrival of my book on the Machine at the end of the summer. Have a browse.

With that - please fire away.