A vision for another way
This picture has lived quietly in the roots of Hazelnut since the early days — not a blueprint or a five-year plan, but something more like a dream carried in our hearts and holding us on course.
It comes from a book by Ray Simpson called High Street Monasteries, and it’s stayed with us because it speaks of another way. It imagines a community where prayer and play, growing and gathering, healing and learning all share the same space. Where the sacred and the everyday aren’t kept apart. A place where gardens and chapels share space with workshops and skate parks, where people are nourished in body and spirit, between neighbours, generations, the sacred and everyday life.
It’s a messy, hopeful, stitched-together kind of vision not polished or perfect, but full of life.
We’ve never tried to “build” it. But it’s helped us keep dreaming, even while planting broad beans in the drizzle or putting the kettle on for a neighbour. It reminds us that another way of living is possible — one rooted in care, creativity, hospitality, and the rhythms of the land.
Maybe it’s just a dream. But maybe that’s where all good things begin.
Does it stir anything in you?
— Image from High Street Monasteries by Ray Simpson
And in a small, hopeful way, we’re beginning to create glimpses of this at Landscapes our gathering this autumn for those longing to explore faith, land, and community in deeper ways. There are around 20 tickets left, and we’d love to see you there. It’s a chance to walk the land together, share stories, and continue the conversation about what kind of future we’re planting — and how we might grow it, together.
