A long overdue reflection on the wonderful three weekends we had getting to know our neighbours in a slightly different way from meeting you on a dog walk or chatting as we pass.
We borrowed the lovely old grain store by the Gutty for our community café, opening the big blue doors to offer warm drinks, bites to eat and a real curiosity about how you see the Gourdon of the future. We heard stories from lifelong residents as well as those who were literally just moving in as we were meeting them. There was a shared sense of love for the community with its past heritage, future potential – and a recognition of its present-day quirks! – as well as an exciting sense of eagerness for creative activities.
Gourdon as a working village is facing some deep challenges and big changes in the near future and it’s clear from our chats that creating a stronger, more connected community is going to be important if we’re going to adapt to those changes in a creative, imaginative, self-reliant way.
Our workshops were a small step in that direction: they were simply about exploring beneath the surface of our village and were a lot of fun, with the first weekend being spent quietly tilting our ears towards the sounds we could hear around us (when the wind took a break). The second and third saw us dreaming of life around the harbour in bygone eras then adding some of our own temporary landmarks to those that already exist in the village (perhaps without us noticing them).
So, what's next? Well, we took a wee break to reflect and think about what we could get up to -- something as simple as a walking group or gardening club, to bigger ideas like an active space to share with the community – where we could tap into the creativity that already exists in Gourdon as well as encouraging new collaborations.
We are working on setting up some of our own infrastructure so that we can better support the ambitious plans we want to develop with all of you. We will undoubtedly be back with ideas in short order and will share them out with you both through this site, and postcards through the letter slots.
Thank you to absolutely everyone who came out to have a chat or a wander, and we look forward to meeting and being with many more of you soon—
Eve, Mara, Tyler, Neil
