What does a full moon mean to you? Have you ever slept out under one and watched it rise? Storyteller Michael Loader has done just that. During the year of 2021, he spent one night a month sleeping out in a bivvi bag under the full moon and each experience inspired him to create a unique piece of writing. On each full moon during 2022, we will release that story. Produced by Pommy Harmar Photo by Alex Andrews from www.pexels.com
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Michael Loader Podcasts
Welcome to the last episode of Sleeping with the Moon and thank you for listening throughout the year. The December story is called 'The Moon is Cold’. … 'The harsh rule of Sun has blistered the land and burnt many lives. Packs of wild dogs hunt without mercy through the long claws of night. Many have been forced to flee and now it is time for us t…
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Welcome to the latest episode of Sleeping with the Moon a rich mix of sound and words, exploration and worlds. Watching the light draining from the November forest of last year drew me into the question of when do I cease differentiating colour and ultimately seeing colour, so I thought having an artist as the protagonist would be appropriate. Rese…
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October’s full moon was called the Hunters Moon by the first Nations and peoples of northern Europe, as it was a time when animals were fattening for the lean winter months and therefore a good time for hunting. This month’s story takes its inspiration from last year’s sleep out, a recent autumnal walk along the Wye Valley, the observation of raven…
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Welcome to the ninth episode from September’s full moon sleep out of last year when Michael made the journey to Devon to meet a friend and then step along the Tarka Trail alongside the full Torridge flow. "The sum of our labours is borne, Reaping the sowing through the knowing of timely planting and nurtured growing Now’s the season to pick and sav…
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Welcome to the eighth episode of Sleeping with the Moon charting the 12 encounters and adventures Michael Loader had in 2021 with the twelve full moons. On August 22 the night of a Blue Moon Michael drove just beyond Porlock in West Somerset before walking to The Valley of Rocks near Lynton North Devon. With references to Coleridge and Wordsworth; …
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In July 2021 I made my way to the shores of the Severn estuary at Littleton on Severn and Whale Wharf intrigued by the story of the whale that came ashore in 1885. Inspired by the tale and its location, the tragedy that it stirred and the experiences encountered on a brooding moonless night set the scene for July’s episode of ‘Sleeping with the Moo…
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At the end of June 2021 I took off with my friend Mark to West Somerset to walk through the night along the Quantock spine - I felt challenged. Meeting, eating, planning and a pint put us in the mood to trek. Here is the result with the help of many moon serenading poets, atmospheric music and for the first time a story that took off into the realm…
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Welcome to Sleeping with the Moon charting my 12 full moon sleepovers of 2021. Last May I climbed in the evening's dying light onto Cadbury Iron Age hillfort in North Somerset on the eve of our daughter’s birth 22 years ago to the day. The moon rose Jaffa-ripe in the east as the sun sank below the western horizon towards the sea’s high tide range. …
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Welcome to Michael Loader’s monthly episodes of full moon sleepovers from 2021. In April last year he climbed the heights of Brockley Combe in North Somerset, in the footsteps of Samuel Taylor Coleridge to meet the ‘Pink Moon’ – a super moon in full glow. … “Since becoming a selenophile, a lover of the moon named after Selene the ancient Greek moon…
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Welcome to the third episode of ’Sleeping with the Moon’ a month by month exploration into the dark, meeting new encounters to inspire fresh enquiry and writing - from my twelve 2021 nightly visitations. Native American Indians called the March Moon the Worm Moon for this was the time when worm casts first appeared after winter’s frozen grip. Last …
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… "Climbing higher I search for the moon, yearning for its quenching glow, and with cyclopic torch upon my head lighting ground, bush and branch, pronounce that this man with ‘Lanthorn, dog and bush of thorn presenteth Moonshine, for I am the Man I’ th’ Moon’ searching this Athenian wood eager for the reacquaintance of love that slumbers beyond the…
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We trained the wolf to be our companion, we replaced him to make way for a new best friend and now we fight him through persecution towards extinction or support him with rewilding absolution. So, who’s in control and who owns who? Where is the wild and where is the free? Who has been tamed and who owes who? And who will be free howling when the Fu…
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