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Rachel Summers

@curiouswilds.bsky.social

1K followers 600 following 540 posts

Often muddy, kind, chaotic, finds the world endlessly interesting. Ordained pioneer, married to a lovely man with many hats. Mum to five awesome kids. Loves London, the forest, swimming in the sea, arguing for a kinder system for SEND kids.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Aug 5

I'm looking forward to speaking about 'Mud and Wonder: how we can explore our spirituality in nature', at this conference run by my friends as Grund School, Oradea, Romania, focussed on outdoor education and pedagogy. Booking link here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Aug 3

Looking forward to @greenbeltfestival.bsky.social 🙌

If you're coming, pop these two things in your diary. Come and make kites with me as an act of worship, and listen to stories about hosting refugees with @refugeesathome.bsky.social

Winds of Hope
Greenbelt is a place where, like it or not, we are much more aware of the weather than usual. Join Rachel Summers to explore what God has to say about the wind, to play and create together as we make and fly kites as an act of worship.
Sun 12.30 Shelter

The Hosts with the Most
Join our partners Refugees at Home to hear stories from hosts who've volunteered with them to offer short-term stays for refugees.

Fri 6.30 Hot House

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 31

I couldn't run my usual family retreat week this year, coz appendicitis 😭. My lovely friends all pitched in and got it done 🥰

Would just like to note that 1 Rachel carries the force of five people. ADHD ftw 💪

Message reads, 'we all missed you. We're shattered and that's between 5 of us running it between us'

Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 31

Huge thanks to Allan for writing the background stories to my childhood and my children's childhoods.

My favourites to read to my children were Peepo, which is a work of warm human genius, and Each Peach Pear Plum where the rhyme gallops along to a satisfying plum pie finale.

Allan Ahlberg, celebrated children's author, dies aged 87

He wrote more than 150 books, including The Jolly Postman and Each Peach Pear Plum.

www.bbc.co.uk

Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 29

Build tiny house out of books?

Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 28

There may well be reasons someone is overweight. Multiple ACEs show a 46% increase in adult obesity. Recovering from surgery is not the place to have this conversation 😂

Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 28

📢 Would also once again like to remind health professionals that yes, I have eyes and know I'm overweight. Yes, I have a brain and know how to eat healthily. My weight didn't cause my appendicitis so we do not need to discuss it.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 28

Spent my weekend having appendicitis. 💯 do not recommend.

It's good to be home, hoping for a boring and uneventful recovery.

Feet back home in a comfortable bed with the forest outside the window.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 24

Meanwhile in the Church of England...

(Full time is one day off a week. In my diocese we're encouraged to take *two days* off once a month 🙌)

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 23

It's blackberry time!

Blackberries growing on a bush. Just a couple are ripe.

Woman priest and teen boy helper pick blackberries in the forest.

Glossy blackberries scattered in a dish with green and white slices of apple, bright yellow apricots, and red and yellow plums.

Crumble in a dish with jammy blackberry juice edges. It sits on a wooden table. There are shiny silver spoons, the spout of a teapot, and a glass of purple dahlias.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 21

Beautiful London 🌳💚

Woman stands in damp forest. She wears a blue dress with orange patterns on.

Summer pond, very little water but what there is reflects a stunning cloudy sky. Pond plants grow bright green.

Bright green bracken under oak and hornbeam trees.

Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 20

Fruit of the earth and work of human hands (our hands, we collected grains of wheat from ears of corn, threshed them, ground them, made dough and cooked it).

Fruit of the vine and work of human feet (we stomped on grapes in a ziplock and added to wine).

Blessed be God for ever!

Chalice with wine and paten with very rustic flat bread!

Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 19

Have I told you you are wonderfully made?

Enjoying Waltham Forest Pride with local inclusive churches.

Hand holding a postcard with pride flag and words 'You are wonderfully made'.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 17

Was just sitting drinking my cocoa when Daphne jumped up on my lap for a cuddle 🐔

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 16

Found a beautiful friend.

Red admiral butterfly on my hand. Gorgeous red and white bars on the black, as well as shining blue at the base of the wings.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 15

My kid picked Swithun as his confirmation name 🕊️ 🌧️

Reposted by Rachel Summers

Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · Jul 10

Look, when it comes to reducing channel crossings you have two main options:
1) Invent a time machine and stop Britain colonising half the world so that people do not have strong ties to the country
2) Provide safer and simpler options to seek asylum without having to use irregular routes. #r4today

Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · Jul 8

The problem with soundbite anti-asylum policies and three word slogans is that, while they may grab headlines, more often than not they turn out to be counterproductive, and actively harmful, and this is a perfect example from Starmer. 1/ #r4today

Keir Starmer to push Macron for last-minute migrant return deal

If signed, it would allow Britain to return small boat migrants to France in exchange for asylum seekers with a UK family connection

Matt Dathan, Home Affairs Editor |

Steven Swinford, Political Editor

Monday July 07 2025, 9.00pm, The Times

Sir Keir Starmer will urge President Macron to agree a "one in, one out" migrant returns deal on Tuesday, despite warnings that announcing it before it is ready will lead to a surge in crossings.

The prime minister is pressing for the deal as the centrepiece of a new agreement between Britain and France that the two leaders will sign at an Anglo-French summit on Thursday.

The arrangement would allow Britain to return small boat migrants to France in exchange for accepting asylum seekers with a family connection in the UK.

However, British and French officials are yet to finalise the details as the French president's three-day state visit begins on Tuesday.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 8

I'm so excited about this.
✝️⚓

St Peter in the Forest, E17. @stpeterintheforest.bsky.social · Jul 8

If you feel your soul might benefit from an hour of peace and stillness, candles and incense, some chanting, meditation and breathwork, and anointing with oil for healing and wholeness, Threshold may be for you.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 6

Great for @stpeterintheforest.bsky.social to be able to host a screening of The Nettle Dress and nettle themed activities thanks to the London Forest School Association.

What a varied day- I started with an 8am BCP communion service!

Backs of heads in a church, film on a screen.

Collage of photos of activities with nettles

Collage of photos of nettle based food items!

Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 5

They just mean, tell me a thing. Mindblown. 🤯

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 5

Oh and you probably know this but just in case- when NTs say 'tell me the most/best/worst', they don't literally mean the actual most/best/worst 🤷, you don't have to rank all your experiences ever and make sure you haven't lied by sharing what might have been the second or third ;)

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 5

I think this is something that NT folk manage naturally- they'll reveal the relevant bits of themselves in each situation. But I needed it spelling out.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 5

Not a snack, but a friend told me when I went to mine- everyone always says be yourself. You can't always do that. Just don't be someone you're not. As a ND person, I found this really clarifying- it's fine to only show parts of myself some of the time, I don't have to be entirely exposed.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jul 5

A pack of those almonds in dark chocolate. And Urban Fruit mango and pineapple. I always take snacks to things as sometimes when meals aren't when I'm hungry I get ravenous late at night, plus all that peopleing makes me hungry.

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Rachel Summers @curiouswilds.bsky.social · Jun 29

In one of those strange quirks of life, last night I picked up E, my equivalent baby's small sibling, from that no-longer-small sibling's party. They'd befriended each other entirely outside of their parental influence.

Isn't that a bit nuts? And more than a bit cool?