A warm thank you - and a gentle invitation.

Time flies, and we’re already nearing the longest day. This coming Friday’s Digest will be all about the light, with an insight into a very special building set atop a Roman villa. A building that was photographed using Member Powered Photography.

Here's a brief glimpse of a paragraph from the draft text I'm working on for this Friday's Digest:

Whilst I stood and waited for its return, I conjured up notions of time loosening its grip - of fog as a veil not just over landscape, but over centuries. Out here, in this liminal hour, the mist behaved like memory: shifting, partial, and full of suggestion. It felt possible - just for a moment - to step through it and arrive somewhere else entirely. The church became not just a building but a tether - holding one end of the thread while the rest spooled off through the lumps and bumps of a deserted medieval village into the Windrush.

During these longer days, I find myself thinking about time, attention, and the Genius Loci Digest itself – its meaning and its impact.

The Digest began as something fragile – a way of coping, documenting, and re-rooting myself after a breakdown. It was never meant to be a grand gesture. Just small steps. Camera in hand. Words on a page. A way to recover curiosity and meaning by noticing the places others pass by.

And then something unexpected happened.

This Digest, which once felt like a private act, became something shared – part protest, part offering. A quiet stand against disconnection. A weekly rhythm of seeing and feeling.

“The Digest revels in the in-between... in the presence of absence. It’s a counter-narrative to our distracted world – a focus on slow time, relevance, and continuity.”

And so now, amidst the hum and brightness of midsummer, I’m asking if you might consider supporting the Digest and the work I do?

Setting up a paid membership was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Every instinct told me not to ask. Not to presume. But slowly – with your encouragement – I did. And what I’ve found is something far more human than transactional: a caring circle that keeps me going – not just financially, but emotionally too.

Andy your work is becoming wonderful, remarkable. A so-called breakdown has been milled into its constituent parts, becoming profound construction: through perception, architecture, the lens and the pen. In your Repton crypt essay a deep description of our social anxiety - and our reason to be.... ( email from a subscriber)

The honest truth is that, since lockdown and throughout the cost of living crisis, your membership support has helped keep me afloat. It keeps Woody on the road. It makes this work possible. And through our Member Powered Photography programme, we’ve now completed over ten free professional photo shoots for historic buildings and craft practitioners.

Some photos taken at Member Powered Photography Shoots.

Lauren Marshall - Museum Director Merchant Adventurers' Hall

I would like to thank the Digest Members for supporting you and in turn supporting buildings like ours. They are the cheerleaders for our built heritage – large and small - and they should be applauded!

With just four more members, we’ll unlock the next free heritage or art shoot.

If now’s not the right time to become a paying member, that’s absolutely fine.

The Digest will always remain free to read. And if you’d love access to the members-only content but can’t afford it right now, I’ve set aside a few no-cost places – just reply to this email and I’ll quietly sort one out, no fuss. Many people use the Digest for Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and the extra member’s content provides a wealth of information. So, if it might help you this way, shout out - get access.

That said, if the Digest has ever brought you a moment of calm, sparked a memory, or helped you see a little differently – and you feel able – I’d love to welcome you as a member.

I’m currently offering 20% off the most popular tier – The Parlour.

The Parlour tier includes:
– Monthly access to Patina, where I share early drafts from the book I’m writing on recovery and rebuilding
– Extra photography, members-only content, and reflections
– Invitations to help shape future projects
– And the knowledge that you’re helping keep this road-worn work alive

If you feel able to support – thank you.