Endings and Beginnings

This weekend feels like the end of things, and the beginning of new ones.

The leaves are turning. Our final harvests are gathered. The hearths are lit.

We celebrated a Samhain dinner yesterday, welcoming and thanking our ancestors. This reminded me of an intimate and powerful Día de Muertos ceremony I took part in, in Nairobi a few years ago.

We are also saying goodbye to previous volunteers and residents at Braziers Park, and welcoming new ones as well. I am particularly pleased with two recent rounds of hiring. This is a community which is changing and growing.

I need some time to process and absorb. I hope to be able to do so over the coming winter months. It's a natural time of renewal.

I'm also about to finish working on the proof-of-concept transport model I started many years ago. This has been extremely challenging, but I think it's close to a working prototype, which will help create new conversations and opportunities.

This simple model isn't really to show what a new vehicle would look like, but rather how expensive, unsafe and restricted our current infrastructure paradigm is. I started to question this many years ago, living in London. My concerns only expanded living in different parts of Africa.

Now I'm back in the UK, the closest main road to where I live has been called Britain's deadliest road:

There is work I want to finish related to transport, urbanisation and economics.

A local newsletter, the Oxford Clarion, recently published an article I wrote about Braziers Park. I'll leave you with this today:

Behind the scenes at Braziers Park – October 26th, 2026