Eve and I get to know each other by email first. She contacts me to know all about walking around England. I’ve done it you see, and she’s about to.
I walked to hear and share stories of people and communities who were starting to do things differently, to make a difference; people learning how to waste less resources, how to grow and share food, live more sustainably. I walked for 2000 miles in an old pair of red flip flops, taking the tales I collected from place to place, retelling them as the folk tales of today’s heroes.
Eve, it turns out, wants to walk for bees. Not just for bees, but to raise awareness of all of the factors that are making life increasingly difficult for bees, and will for all of us, in the end. The changes in climate, heavy use of chemicals, mono crops, lack of awareness of the interconnectedness of everything we do.
We had interviewed one another before we met. I am inspired by the collaborative vision Eve has for her walk, and intrigued to follow her progress as she makes use of the things I have shared with her about what I have learnt. I begin to wish I had had her to project manage me when I set out to walk.
By the time Eve had turned up to stay with me before journeying across our green and pleasant land, her walk already had a brand; the Buzz Tour, with its very own website, Facebook page and even bright yellow business cards.
I had written a couple of press releases about the walk, which is to leave from Totnes, home of the Transition Movement, as mine did, exactly 4 years earlier, and arranged a slot in the local library for us. As bees on the Buzz Tour the idea is to wear yellow and black as much as possible and Eve sports a stripy tank top for her debut appearance.
Everyone who stops to talk to Eve in the library is inspired by her enthusiasm, her knowledge and her confidence. This is a woman with a mission and her passion is palpable, as is her compassion and love for those she meets. Eve plans to video all the inspirational people she meets along the way.
Buzz tour 