Staying human [529]

Greetings from The Borders...

Jun 27, 2025

I’m Christian Payne, a photographer and writer. In this weekly dispatch, I share what I’m learning, consuming and explore the connections between people, place and nature. Thanks for reading.

#TheAction

Not really stopped this week. On top of the usual chores around the steading, me and the family headed to the Pride festival in Edinburgh at the weekend. That was a great day out. Especially as Edinburgh is now a short train ride away.

Pride was a blast. Just as I'd expected. Music, people and solidarity. A vibrant, joyful celebration of love, identity and community.

But alongside the positive energy, people from all walks of life not only embraced unity and inclusivity, they were also defiant, protesting oppression, war and hatred. It was quite the experience.

We walked the whole march, listened to some music at the end and then accidentally spent £60 on burritos.

Then midweek I had a 700mile round trip to Orwell’s grave.

I decided to head down the night before and stealth camp in the van next to the graveyard. After a drink in the pub (The George and highly recommended) I slept pretty well and was once again first at the graveside.

It was another beautiful day and although many of the regulars were busy on different adventures, a gathering occurred and conversation flowed.

As is often the way with the #1984Symposium much of the chat was only for that time and place. I was so preoccupied with catching up with friends and making some new ones that I hardly took any photos. In fact this might be the least documented get together for years. I did manage to rest my phone on a gravestone and record a little intro talk though…

1×

0:00

-2:56

Hopefully for the uninitiated that should give you a glimpse of the day. And for those who keep saying ‘“…maybe next year…” get it in the diary now. Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the 1984 symposium and if i’m doing a 700 mile round trip to get there, you have no excuse.

Plus it will be great to see you. :-)

#ThePictures

A few more photos from the Pride festival.

When I can, I’ll post a load more to my accounts on Flickr and the app Foto.

This image was sent to me from my friend Gordon and might give you a hint as to why a change of lifestyle for me and the family was very welcome. We are just outside Berwick-Upon-Tweed and there are loads of quality affordable house around here if you’d like to ‘get away from it all’.

It’s purely coincidence that we are growing veg, storing water and generating our own electricity.

#TheWords

“In some circles, you’d think the highest good is not to have any impact at all. A good life is then primarily defined by what you don’t do. Don’t fly. Don’t eat meat. Don’t have kids…the aim is to have the smallest footprint possible, with your little vegetable garden and your tiny house. Best-case scenario? Your impact on the planet is so negligible, you could just as well not have existed. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a fine idea to align even your smallest deeds with your biggest values. But surely a good life consists of more than what you don’t do? One would hope that on your deathbed, you can chalk up your life’s work to more than simply all the harm you didn’t cause?” — Rutger Bregman

Here is a book recommendation from David Charles. it’s Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman. And if you listen to the audio below you will hear more…

#TheSound

Just before heading home from Eric Arthur Blair’s graveside I got to chat to David Charles the Expeditions manager for the British Exploring Society. He talks about his new personal project called Night Shift.

1×

0:00

-6:47

Please listen to this to hear his passion plus an outline on the book he his holding up in the photo above. There is more information in his own writings at

David Charles

Here are my AudioMo posts from the last week including a storm and an incident with a chainsaw…

Day twenty one / Day twenty two / Day twenty three / Day twenty four / Day twenty five / Day twenty six

#TheConsumed

This week I tasted some hot liquid ceremonial grade cacao and now I really want some more. Am I already addicted? I don’t even have any ceremonies planned.

I have visited all the hibiscus flower fed yak-wool jumper and health food outlets in Berwick-Upon-Tweed but no one has it. It’s not even in their under-the-counter catalogues. Even though ceremonial cacao is infinitely better for you than the normal processed stuff. It also has some longer lasting stimulant-type effects. If you have a dealer or local store wo can get the ‘good stuff’ please let me know.

#TheThings

At Orwell’s grave I made my breakfast and coffee on the Alpkit Brukit

I paid £50 for this and it’s a great little cooker. The gas packs inside with everything else and there is a built in handle and piezo starter to light the flame. I have no affiliation with Alpkit but have shopped with them ALOT (love my Sonder Camino).

A friend of mine who has recently heard more and more talk about preparedness, asked what kind of radio he should get for emergency communication. The world of radio comms is vast and to be honest, very difficult to navigate without an amateur radio licence. I would certainly recommend getting licensed through somewhere like Essexham.co.uk or your nearest club before you go about buying a transceiver. Or even walkie-talkies from the middle isle of Lidl.

But I can instead recommend a decent SW multi-band radio, Some of which you can listen to all analogue radio stations as well as ham radio chit chat. Apologies for linking to Amazon with the next items but they are hard to find elsewhere. I have bought both this compact SW radio for £25 (which I have owned for 8yrs and it also records) and this more highly spec’ed radio for £80 that I have owned for 5yrs. The latter does not record but will listen to far more frequencies including ham radio.

As they don’t rely on complicated infrastructure, any shortwave radio can be a backup communication tool, especially if power, internet or mobile networks go down. They can receive local and long-distance broadcasts, including emergency bulletins. You can find battery-powered, solar, or hand-crank models but as most are now usb charged, I'd recommend charging your portable battery packs with a small solar panel like this. I have two of these as well as some much larger systems. These get used at festivals, picnics, travelling and a multitude of other places.

I also bought one of these retractable clip on antennas to extend the receiving range. They are not just for end-of-the-world scenarios. I also found them great for listening to local pirate radio stations in Paris.

Right that’s enough links to Bezos’ empire. I’m off to flagellate myself with a willow branch.

#TheThanks

More often than not I forget that there are thousands of you reading this. According to the stats anyway. When I remember, and have something a little more personal to share I put it behind the paywall. Otherwise I endeavour to keep all these posts free for all and hope you can find some inspiration in them.

I’d like to give huge thanks to all those who continue to support this dispatch and the adventures/experiments that make it. You know who you are. ♥️

I’d especially like to personally thank two people who have gone above and beyond with their support. Brian Rendel who took out a founding subscription and can now book into our spare room… and HedgeWytch who is also always welcome as in internet years we’ve been friends for ever.

Should you be in the position to know how, or have the ability to dig or build survival bunkers to house all the people who support this publication get in touch.

Till then… If all you do is value these words, ideas and curation, please consider an upgrade to paid…

Upgrade to paid

Or if you prefer a random hat tip you can do that via this button

Pay what you like via PayPal

If there ever is a bunker, I’ll call/radio supporters first.

Either way… Thank you for reading, sharing, liking and supporting a human doing manual work with their brain.

#TheWeb

More empty narratives from Meta.
Brian, Thank you for adding yourself to the Documentally community map. Take care over there. I’ll not overlay that nuclear strike map over this map as it looks lovely as it is.
My copy of Byline Times arrived in the post today. It has this article in it about how our politicians created an island of strangers so they don’t have to make our lives any better.
Dark times as judge rejects claim that forcing Openai to keep Chatgpt logs is mass surveillance.
I’m pretty sure that the new Mi6 chief had a background check.
Great explanation as to why we should not allow embedded AI agents into our devices.
Some of my other places include these… And supporting subscribers also get access to a Discord server. Message me for a link. 👍🏽
In honour of Owell and his wife Eileen, Orwell’s first reader, editor, and confidante, here is an Orwell special.

#TheEnd

Thanks for reading, but more importantly I hope you took the time to listen to the two pieces of audio embedded above. The intro to the 1984Symposium (I hope to see you next year on the 25th) and the chat with David Charles.

This week is wide open, but you can be sure that if something interesting happens you will get to know about it. Love to you and yours. Have a great week!