Roisin Markham

Another week gone in a flash, as the days get darker towards the end of the year does time move faster?

Welcome to my weekly studio notes where I reflect on the week gone by, look for insights, ask you a question, share some resources and look to the week ahead.

I write these notes without the use of AI. They began as a way to practice my business writing and have evolved to be more like life notes.

Let’s jump in!

Reflection

Last week was a big week

• Our team finished collating, writing and editing the Social Farmers Ireland research on the wellbeing, health and safety of social farmers in Ireland. It’s a strong piece of work. As a qualitative researcher I leant into quantitive data, put my writing and synthesis to the test. I even excelled in editing strengthening strong story telling.
• the Irish Leaving Certificate Economics Curriculum is open for submissions, I’ve been working with Jennifer Brandsberg-Englemann to produce a submission for the curriculum to broaden out how it teaches economics. We finalised the submission document and talking points. Jennifer and I are connected through DEAL & Doughnut Economics. The deadline is the 12 November – if you are interested in doing a submission ping me and I’ll send you the talking points. Every submission counts.
• I also started getting paid for work completed which is great. Sounds mad to say it but when you are selfemployed a % of time goes into the administration of ensuring you get paid. Looking forward to paying my bills now.
• Some other good news is filtering through more on that soon, or maybe not let’s see where it goes.

It was a grey week with a lot of rain. I found solace in my sit spot.

Our pocket forest is a kaleidoscope of fallen leaves. The colours bring me great joy. This sit spot is one of my favourites in our garden beneath the Crann FIA Úll, crab apple tree. The week finishes off with the ground saturated.

This week I headed to Dublin to meet-up with a small group of Mums I knew from Rathfarnham Educate Together community. Our kids started school together, 4 out of 5 of us moved out of Dublin between 2004-2006. We kept in touch for a while but inevitably we were in touch less and some fell out of touch – distance, life, being Mums, work, extra life, a pandemic, grief and loss. It was a wonderful and strange thing to see them all and catch up. Where do you start? What do you share and not share when you’ve not seen some of these amazing women in a decade. There could never be enough time in two hours to catch up, it was wonderful.

This poem reminded me of that time as a Mama, our lads are all in their 20’s. The eldest will be 28 next week, I have been a mother for 28 years. That’s an amazing thing I don’t think or give credit too. Fair play to me as John Spillane would say.

Wildlings…
to the mamas
raising the wild ones
you are
star gatherers
moon catchers
dream shapers
and you are exhausted
but shaping starlight
into human form
was always going to be
tough, and so are you

Donna Ashworth
‘joy chose you

Insights

I realise not everyone works with methodologies or to the standards I’ve learned to deliver too. Because I’ve worked across sectors, I bring a service delivery level that sets a high bar.

I have to remind myself that sometimes it’s good to check the level of delivery required. But I do find it hard to step back the quality of my delivery despite variables like hours and cost. I know that’s nuts and ‘not strictly good business’ if you have a way to manage that let me know.

This week as November got fully underway I began listening to a meditation on insight timer every morning, one of the short ones. So it’s added to my morning practices. I added a second new practice this week – nuts to add two new things it’s not a good way to make something sticky.

So for the rest of November everyday I am going to reach out to someone I have n’t spoken to or connected with in a while. Some professional, some from random places across my life, like the girl I met when we were stranded off a bus in Derry on the way to Letterkenny. That was during a time in the north where two young wans from Dublin randomly on the wrong side of Derry was risky.

It’s pushing me outside my comfort zone and is a fun expansive practice. I will continue till the end of the month and then we shall see. I also realise it may end up in the other persons spam, ignored or delivered to an old email no longer in use.

One of the Mums I meet up with told me she learns a new language every 2-3 years. I think that’s amazing.

A question for you?

What kind of things do you do regularly or practice?

Resources

Wonderful to see the launch of The Indigenous Systems Knowledge Collective.

I’m following Dark Matter’s Labs Beyond the Rules with interest.

Ecologies of Collective Imagination Glăveanu, V., Hay, P., McDowall, H., Doust, T., Welles, S., Chaudhuri, G., Pender, A., & Hurley, M. (2025). Ecologies of Collective Imagination. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 44(2), 494-508

Interesting article based on some recently published research – What if the path to ending fossil fuels looked like the fight to end slavery? I wonder about the privilege this is written with but I share it here because I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and in this vein: “It shows that historical precedent matters. Looking at what worked in the past can help us imagine what might work now. Massive moral change really has happened before, even despite entrenched interests working against it. As such, the example of the abolition of slavery offers hope.”

I came across this poem and it seemed very apt

A view to the week ahead

Next week brings two facilitations one with Context Studio in the IPA on Public Innovation Award Winners and the other with Eimear McNally and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Arts Office. I am excited about both John from Context is a long time collaborator and Eimear I’ve worked on a number of things with her also.

It is also the last week of preparation before the TCD and ISSN event.

Along with that I have an interview presentation to complete and a tender I spied that I’ve asked some good folk to think about it with me.

It’s November I am open to opportunities and something unexpected happening. My diary is open from the 24th of November.