Rebecca Trevalyan

Last year I often had this feeling, as I moved between cramped cottage and boxy office and many hours on screens, that I was living alongside Devon, not out there in it. I wanted to feel more alive. So I decided to sign up for @the_old_way_ . And on most days of the programme (4 week-long campouts across 4 seasons in Devon’s woods, rivers, coast and moor), I found myself belly laughing or uncontrollably weeping - or a mix of textures and feelings in between: 🌰 the delight at gathering basketloads of delicious food, which was all around us once we knew where to look: nettles, hogweed, thistle, burdock root, berries, acorns, hazelnuts, sweet chestnuts, rosehips, mushrooms, seaweed, oysters, crabs, mussels, limpets, winkles… 🦌 the knowing of my fingertips as they parted flesh from the bone of the deer we were skinning and preparing - I’d never done this before, and yet I’d done this thousands of times 🌕 the amazement watching an enormous orange moon rise out of the sea, lighting up the bay- and learning that it was catching the sun’s rays from the other side of the globe 🌊 the joy of luxuriating naked in the sea in a forest of kelp and other velvety fronds 🎣 both sadness & gratitude at taking the life of other creatures, and feeling part of the food chain 🪶 the anticipation of waiting for the first note of a chilly Spring dawn chorus 🔥 the pleasure of countless songs and stories around a fire (and the humility of realising how little we can do when fire is our only light source) 🌱 the grief of realising that all I was yearning for was just outside my door - and yet how hard it seems to access it and be present with it So The Old Way made me feel alive. But it gave me something else. Belonging. I’d started to move into loving relationship with the plants, trees, animals, fungi and folk of Devon. And honestly, I had the strongest feeling that the trees (and everyone else) loved me too. #natureconnection #wilding #rewilding #threadsofconnection #indigeny #belonging

Today we launched @platformplaces - a social enterprise with a mission to unlock town centre buildings for amazing ideas that help us live affordably, sustainably and together. . This all started with a blog I published two years ago in lockdown. I wrote that, for @library.of.things & many of our peers, one of the biggest barriers to starting & growing was the lack of access to affordable, secure & long-term space. We had the ideas & skills, but couldn’t get into the land & buildings to make the good stuff happen - whether arts & music venues, reuse & repair hubs, community kitchens, urban farms, youth & sports clubs, local markets, or genuinely affordable housing. . In 2020, I realised that many town centre landlords weren’t having the best time either. As one said to me, ‘we used to rent our shops to Topshop, but we can’t do that anymore’. Some were genuinely passionate about using their spaces to create social value. But they didn’t know where to find or how to work with the community enterprises I was talking about. . So, with the help of founding partners High Streets Task Force, British Property Federation, Power to Change, a law firm, a think tank & a local government network, I convened 25 leaders from national corporate landlords, councils & community enterprises to delve into the problem and shine a light on what was already working. We met on Zoom every month for a year - and honestly, apart from one or two tense moments where the old landlord vs. tenant divide reared its head, it’s been an incredibly regenerative, collaborative & joyful space. . Now we’re starting to convene councils, community leaders & landlords in town centres around the country, to seed ‘Local Property Partnerships’. Gradually weaving trust, relationships & long-term stewardship around the land & buildings that make up our neighbourhoods, and that shape how we can belong. Check out platformplaces.com to read more & to nominate your neighbourhood ✨ #highstreets #towncentres #communitydevelopment #landuse #stewardship #goodgovernance #smallbusiness #socialenterprise #communitybusiness

It’s Pride Month and I’m celebrating expressing all of ourselves, even if that’s different to what feels ‘normal’ in our social circles 🙃 The last few years have been an adventure for me in different approaches to love & sex. I’d always had a kinda strained relationship with monogamy. Square peg round hole yknow. I ended up hurting other people, hurting myself, losing confidence. I turned away from dating for a while- started dating my work instead 🙈 And then I met someone who shared my love of adventures, courage & curiosity. He encouraged me to explore my bisexuality. Having canned our initially monogamous relationship, we spent a few months designing what we wanted our non-monogamous partnership to look like. What were our shared values? How & when should we spend quality time together? What did we want to do & learn together? And separately? And how would it work seeing other lovers - who could & couldn’t we see? Where, when & how could & couldn’t we see them? We wrote it all down in a relationship agreement. We signed it in a little ceremony for ourselves in the mountains. We were proud of it! 📜 And then the hard work began. We started to live it, feeling the difference between theory and reality, going through highs and lows- especially that first year. But there was also an aliveness, a closeness, a vulnerability and trust, a new way of communicating - ‘wait, I can state what I want & need at any given moment (reassurance, clarity, affection, space, whatever) and 9 times out of 10 you’ll meet me there?!’ Sweet relief. I’m proud of our respective lovers too- the amazing humans sharing with us this adventure in courage, compassion, clarity, consent, trust & freedom. (PS nobody that chooses monogamy was judged in the writing of this post! 100% celebrating everyone’s choice to love who & how they want 😘) #pride #pridemonth #polyamory #nonmonogamy #bisexual #consent #adventure #🌈

Oh hi! I’m back posting after a hiatus because 1️⃣ these photos are cute amirite . 2️⃣ you should all be your own superhero . 3️⃣ @library.of.things has just launched in its 7️⃣th London neighbourhood - in partnership with the incredible women-led @greenerandcleaneruk in a climate action hub in a Bromley shopping centre! . And 4️⃣, if you haven’t heard, @library.of.things is crowdfunding to work with lots more communities around London/ the country - so we can all help reduce waste and save money and learn skills 💪 Link in bio for video & deets for how you can invest & become a co-owner - alongside scallywags like moi, @embl_embl & @sophia0wyatt 🎉 Get involved! (Heads up: minimum investment amount is £118 = 1 share in Library of Things) #crowdfunding #shareoffer #futureofbusiness #futureofhighstreets #communityled #socialenterprise #borrowdontbuy #circulareconomy

On wild swimming, rum & small acts of kindness. This morning I jogged down to a popular swimming spot by the river in Totnes (current home). I arrived to find 2 very effusive locals pulling off their wetsuits, proclaiming to me ‘oh the water’s delicious, honestly beautiful’. One of them, this jovial older chap called Warner, had this 👆set up in front of him. He does this every morning that he swims- screws a piece of wood to the fence to act as a bar, then arranges his collection of rums from around the world- a little post-dip pick-me-up. After my spell in the 8 degree water 🥶, he brings over a shot of his finest Filipino dark rum (keeping his distance, obvs), and his friend Jenny arrives with homemade flapjacks. She tells me she often brings cakes for other swimmers. We stand there shivering, chatting about Warner’s bridge tournaments in Texas and sipping rum. This is all before 8.30am. #wildswimming #rumforbreakfast #onlyintotnes #smallactsofkindness

Man stands artistically in Corsican streets 💙 #cargese #corte #corsica #posing

The GR20. A 180km trail across the mountainous spine of Corsica. Wild, beautiful, and really blimmin difficult! Day 1 for example: 37 degrees and a 1600m ascent 😓😓 This was achievable only with copious quantities of trailmix. And with the company of some inspiring trail mates, with whom we shared rocky ascents/ blisters/ dreams of non-campstove food.. There was the badass Norwegian mother and her 12 year-old daughter, casually carrying 20 kilo packs and still racing up ridgelines. And Anu, the solo Indian woman who became something of a trail celebrity. She’d never hiked before and walked SO slowly, but had this amazing capacity to just keep on trucking 💪🏽 Disclaimer: we only walked half the trail cause that’s all we had time for (and Mediterranean beaches beckoned 🤷🏼‍♀️)- but I’m pretty sure these gems will have made it to the finish line! We’ll be back for part 2 soon. #gr20 #corsica #heatwave #merde #hiking #mountains #owwww #sweaty

Coast to coast capers with @isorees 🌊🚴🏼‍♀️🏕🌊 After a run-in with a grumpy train manager (only 4 bike spaces for a train of hundreds of people, sorry what!), we made it to North Devon & picked up the beautiful #c2c route south towards Plymouth. 99 miles of car-free tracks through woods, along estuaries & past a fine selection of pubs - plus art and clear signposting along the way, cyclist’s dream 😍(hats off @sustrans 👏🏼👏🏼) On Day 2 we realised we had some spare time, so decided to take a diversion across Dartmoor via a personal Mecca of mine- Totnes. Then Puncture #1 happened on top of a mega hill, but this was okay because local female cyclist Claire stopped to help, fed us flapjacks and even offered us beds and warm showers at her place 😇 Undeterred, we trucked on across the moors, picking up a bottle of rough scotch to keep us toasty whilst camping through a storm up in the hills (warm showers, who needs those 🥶) Puncture #3 happened just outside Totnes, so we abandoned the idea of making it to Plymouth and instead spent a few happy hours sampling the all-local, vegan, people-powered delights of Totnes high street (hats off @transition_town_totnes 👏🏼🌱) All to be found on or near National Cycle Route 27, should you happen to have a spare weekend 😉 #c2c #devon #ireallylovecycling #bikepacking #dartmoor #totnes #getoutdoors

Last October, @candyflosscurls and I were inspired watching oceans plastics activists at @oceanfilmfestuk & said to each other, ‘why don’t we organise a kayaking & beach clean trip with the @library.of.things team next year’. Fast forward 6 months and here we are on the beautiful Dorset coastline doing our bit - and having a sweeeet time in the big outdoors. I’ve never felt more connected to this lovely loony bunch. We might just have started an annual tradition 🌊☀️🌍🌱🏕🥰 #jurassiccoast #adventures #getoutdoors #beachcleanup #plasticfreeoceans #plasticfreeplanet #staycation #teamlove

I spent most of my childhood in Lancashire- but until this weekend never appreciated how big, diverse and beautiful it is. Without even knowing it, I‘d been carrying around these mental images formed as a spotty 16 yr old- so the whole coast is basically Blackpool, the towns are sad and the shops are closed cos everyone goes to Middlebrook instead, and the countryside is mostly sheep and big bald hills... Granted, 12 years later my priorities are different, it was a sunny 26 degrees, plus I had a visitor with a book called ‘Lancashire Rock (climbing)’- but whatever I fell in love with it look at it!☀️🐝🐿🌳🧗‍♀️😍 #lancashirelife #chorleytillidie #climbing #beach #countryside #getoutdoors

This evening I set off on a casual evening jog with my mate Ollie 🏃🏼‍♀️ We started at Greenwich and agreed we’d follow the river until the first of Tower Bridge or tired legs. Within 5 minutes, we found ourselves sauntering along a ‘beach’ by the Thames, got distracted by the assortment of rusting trolleys, bicycles, old cigarette holders and other abandoned treasures, hit a dead-end and turned back - only to realise we’d been marooned by the rising tide. Drats. . So Ollie nips up this handy ladder ^ but then calls down to me, ‘err do you reckon you can jump over an 8-foot tall iron fence? It has spikes on top..’ Keen not to spend the night in the Thames or impaled on a fence, we found another route out pronto. We climbed up some slippery, algae-strewn stone steps, somehow navigated more angry spikes and very narrow ledges next to 30-foot drops, and vaulted some steel bars to our freedom 🕺🏼 Two local guys were standing nearby, watching us open-mouthed - ‘what the..? Sorry how..?’ . We jogged along next to the river all pleased with ourselves for not being in it, and reached another obstacle - this time a glass tunnel stretching across a body of murky water connecting 2 different buildings- this tunnel seemed to be for residents only. Muttering about the privatisation of riverfronts, I followed Ollie who was crab-walking precariously along a 3-inch ledge on the outside of the tunnel. Dangling over the water. Halfway across, the ledge stopped, so we inched our way back again - only to notice back on solid ground that a perfectly usable footpath led straight across the water, just slightly tucked out of sight 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏻‍♂️ . The rest of the run passed mostly without incident, except an unintended meander around a Hilton Hotel and a close encounter with a pro runner coming the other direction, a cobbled street and a blind corner. It’s amazing what adventures you can find on your doorstep . #londonrunners #obstaclecourse #microadventures #thames #treasure #getoutdoors #stayingalive

Weekend of mountain-biking with @clatherines . We spent more time wheeling the bikes along next to us than actually cycling (some of dem rocky slopes were steep AF), but we gave it a good crack! #mtb #bikepacking #faceyourfears #bucketlist #getoutdoors