What does it hope to achieve?

Nature isn’t just sunsets and nightingales; it’s trees, bees, our gut flora, us.  Being alive to this living world has so many benefits:-

wonder; alertness; a sense of belonging; reaffirming our agency in a culture that often makes us feel powerless; the creativity and impetus that these feelings give us. Above all, it reassures us of the true basic context in which we live.

CTW is about our own daily experience, so it doesn’t propose macro-solutions, though they might be seeded there. Like everything in nature, it starts small, addressing us firstly as individuals who, in turn, can grow relationships, communities, societies, a world based on how things really are, not just what we see on screens.

It’ll support some of the brilliant community initiatives already existing in the town, and to enhance that work, especially in bringing an awareness of nature to schools and care homes.

 

Who is organising it?

Consider the Wondrous is set up by Gareth Howell-Jones, an author, garden designer and bookseller living in mid-Wales. His books Do Not Call the Tortoise and Your Lowly Hedgehog Knows explore a nature-based perspective on the world very different from the media version, while his other work as bookseller for the Hay Festival has shown him the power of bringing readers and writers together. 

Our co-director is Tina Gaisford-Waller, manager of Winstone’s Hunting Raven Books in Cheap St, who are our bookshop partners. We’re also very lucky to have attracted a host of brilliant, kind volunteers both based in Frome and elsewhere, brought together by belief in the project, love of Frome and the expectation of some fun.

 

How is it funded?

Consider the Wondrous is a CiC funded by local sponsorship, crowdfunding and grants. 

It is not primarily commercial, though ticket and book sales will help fund the festival and, we hope, sustain it for another year. Recognising the pressures on any new enterprise, the organisers themselves will take no remuneration except travel expenses. 

There will be a commercial benefit for the town from an influx of visitors in a vibrantly positive mood, but the wider benefit will be the spreading of that mood (already the core of the Frome Festival in July and the Kindness Festival in March). 

 

How can I support it?

Best of all, by telling your friends, coming along, enjoying yourself, reading the books and considering the wondrous. We have a GoFundMe site and would be very grateful for your contributions. 

 

Why is it in Frome?

Frome is beautiful and always unexpected. It has a long and well-deserved reputation as ‘different’, with a rare sense of community, thanks to the work of the Town Council, many other year-round initiatives undertaken by groups with public funding as well as simply the spirit of the people living there. Crysse Morrison’s history identifies the core of Frome’s identity as ‘creativity and dissent’ – that’s the heart of Consider the Wondrous too.

 

Why is it called Consider the Wondrous?

The name actually comes from a Biblical quote – ‘Stand still and consider the wondrous things of God.’ (Job 37:14) Whether we attribute their creation to God, the random actions of particles or anything else, we can’t dispute the wondrousness of our natural world. The Festival shows what an extraordinary difference it can make in our lives when we stop, look, recognise this and accept that we’re an integral part of it.