Fun-a-Day 2026 in Higher Cemetery: what happened?
I asked 28 questions; I received 182 responses. I am so utterly grateful to every person who stepped close to the strange white boards that surfaced in a different place each day, and took a moment to answer. I learned so much about our shared love of Higher Cemetery but more than anything, I enjoyed the humour, thoughtfulness and creativity of your answers.
Thank you for your time and support – it meant a lot, to lift my head up, reach out … and receive an answer!
Placed on the ‘Climbing Tree’ at the very beginning of the month, I knew this would catch the eye of families on the way to school. But not only families … hidden in this list of names is such magic! Montemorency and Twist and Margaret. And ‘Six Fingers’ has made me look again and again at the tree, to notice its shape and form and yes, the six main limbs …
Ten days into February and the ritual was embedded: choosing a question; preparing the string and pencils; scouring the Cemetery for a suitable tree in a different area to yesterday.
It was gently interactive, peaceful, and I never stopped learning, often the most random things…
– how wide a trunk I can reasonably attach a sign to
– the surprisingly short fibres of jute string
– how many trees are rendered unsuitable by daffodils, and their shoots
– the quality of shelter from rain offered by different trees
But also
– people know nature better than I give them credit for. (Or, the people who respond are nature lovers!)
– people tend to shy away from more personal questions
And
– people are good, funny, kind, interesting … and there is NOTHING like the rush of joy and delight when you discover that someone has responded to your question!
Some days it’s just me there, me and the dog walkers. And as it rained, and rained and rained, I felt our shared perseverance, trudging through the damp, noticing that despite the rain, spring was on its way.
The days trickled by and we muddled through school holidays, my daughter often joining me on the journey.
Then, everything clicked in the last week: the sun came out, and so did the people.
I asked, ‘What is your favourite season to be here?’ and you filled the board. Laurence-the-Limpet visited the Cemetery for some adventures with Sonia and a day or two later someone else came hunting, found a Limpet and left her story across the question board.
This question opened a fizzle of connections and mysteries. I know the man on the unicycle. And my children were responsible for the playmobile. Somebody else suspects they know who jogs backwards. But who is the reader? And I would love to find the gravestone engraved with a packet of cigarettes and mobile phone.
As they surfaced again and again on the question boards, I wondered more each day, who the Reader is, how we’ve never crossed paths, what they read, and whether we might one day, sit side by side and read.
And when I came to collect the last board, there was an envelope: ‘Megan – your turn.’ And inside, a board and a pencil, and a question that took me back through my month …
I brought all the questions together for the community Fun-a-Day exhibition at Positive Light Projects: an exuberant celebration of human creativity, as everybody – children and adults, chefs, grandparents, students, IT specialists and dog walkers alike – shared their own Fun-a-Day projects. This exhibition is important in its equality and freedom from judgement and I love it.
I painted round each answer with Red Cabbage dye … I wanted to celebrate and highlight each answer, but also to record for myself the answers which happened during this month, because perhaps with time, more answers will surface and the conversation will continue. Painting each board was a lovely way to digest each answer and reflect on the exchange.
But now it’s time for the questions (and their answers) to return to Higher Cemetery. So many people have mentioned the questions they found, or exploded with the mystery of looking every day and somehow NEVER finding a question. Together, these boards offer a reflection of the collective experience of a place where many of us go to rest, amble and connect with the natural world. It’s time to mirror these thoughts back to the people who shared them and, who knows, perhaps to continue the conversation …
The Nature Doodles Project 
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