Welcome to these special snack sized episodes of the D Tour, designed to help you make the most from being outdoors.

Harriet reflects on how connection often shows up in quiet, unexpected ways, like a chance meeting or a shared story on a bench. She’s joined by Anna, Carl Case, Peter Berry & Deb Bunt, and Lovemore Munowenyu, each offering their take on belonging, dignity, and human connection. From building cultural bridges with a suitcase of memories to laughing in the face of dementia, their stories show how presence matters most. Gordon Malcolm wraps up with simple ways to create picnic spaces that feel safe, familiar, and kind.

The D Tour Snack Size is proudly sponsored by Right At Home

Right at Home, is committed to helping people live independently and happily in their own homes and communities - making them the ideal partner for this celebration of nature, community, and connection.

Along the way, I met some incredible people and had the chance to share stories, swap experiences and learn more about how being outdoors can really lift your spirits, especially if you're living with dementia or supporting someone who is. I'm also a singer and songwriter, so you might hear a few musical threads running through these episodes too.

These little episodes are a way to pass that all on. Think of them as a flask of tea and a piece of cake on a picnic blanket, short, sweet and full of the good stuff.

Whether you're planning your own big green picnic or just looking for simple ways to connect with nature and to each other, I hope this gives you a few ideas and sparks some lovely moments.

Our sponsor, Right at Home, is committed to helping people live independently and happily in their own homes and communities, making them the ideal partner for this celebration of nature, community and connection. So grab a cuppa, settle in, and let's discover together how small moments outdoors can make a big difference.

We don't always remember what was packed in the picnic basket, but we do remember who we were with. A picnic is about presence.

It's about making space to be with someone fully, gently, a flask of tea, a listening ear, that quiet feeling of belonging. On my walk, those moments often came unexpectedly. A chat with a stranger on a bench, a companion who showed up just when I needed a boost.

This episode is about those kinds of connections, the ones that remind us we're not alone. Today we're reflecting on companionship, connection and belonging, themes at the very heart of any picnic.

You'll hear from people I met along the way, guests who understand what it means to be truly seen, and of course, from Gordon, who brings practical ideas to for bringing people together. Because when we sit down together in nature, we make room not just for food and music, but for each other.

One of the joys of walking solo is how open you become to meeting others.

So I've nearly finished my walk.

I was just walking from Widdicombe Bay to Bude and I was just walking up on the path and suddenly someone was waving at me. And I looked behind me because I was like, who's waving at me? I don't know anyone here? And then a voice was like, Harriet, Harriet.

And it was a lovely girl called Anna who is over here from Germany and is doing a cycle tour of Cornwall. And I met her on my very first night here.

We camped next door to each other on the campsite and what a complete coincidence to have met her sitting on a bench overlooking the bay at Widdicombe.

And so we've just had a lovely conversation for about an hour or so about this and that, what it's like traveling and the thoughts you have and the good bits, the bad bits and all that sort of stuff. And I'm just so happy to have seen her.

It reminded me how a shared moment, even with a stranger, can change your whole day.

Carl Case's story begins with his mother in law and a deep desire to bridge cultural memory gaps in dementia care. His tools, postcards, soap, cedar wood and a suitcase of sensory treasures.

Here's Carl explaining how these simple objects became a bridge between past and present.

We as a family were in exactly the same situation as the majority of families who knew very little about dementia. And we're on a very steep learning curve in getting guidance, advice, finding out about the next stages.

But what differed between our family and the vast majority of families in the UK was that we're African, Caribbean, we're Jamaicans.

And what we found was that some of the care provision and one of the day centres which she went to, one of the workers there was absolutely excellent, absolutely excellent when it comes to person centered care, engaging with her, the two of them having a laugh together.

However, what we realized was that there's a big gap, a cultural gap, because she wasn't able to trigger any of Mar's earlier memories and engage with her in those earlier memories. Mars part of the Windrush generation. And she came over here in her early 20s.

That meant that she was born in Jamaica, had a childhood back home, had her adolescence and early adulthood back home, and Helena wasn't able to trigger any of those memories and as a result none of those conversations.

So I had, I've got albums of vintage postcards, many of them from the Caribbean, many from Africa, because at the time when I was younger, we never used to see any positive images of the Caribbean in books or on the tv and I used to have a whole heap of them from these postcards.

So I remember one day taking out one of these albums and was sitting with Ma and just going through them and all of a sudden she was elevated back to the pedestal of Storyteller with each photograph Each image, each postcard, she was able to tell me stories relating to them, relating to where they were and stories of her background and her early childhood were coming back up, etc.

And she was able to return to the pedestal at the later stages of dementia when she reached a situation where she couldn't recognise or didn't recognize some of her grandchildren. So I thought, well, if this can work for ma, this can work for other people as well.

Not just the postcards, but I gathered together a lot of different artifacts which developed into the African and African Caribbean Dementia Toolkit.

When Deb moved to Suffolk, she didn't expect to meet a lifelong friend. But a random visit to a cycle shop introduced her to Peter Berry, a man navigating young onset dementia with resilience and humour.

Their friendship, as you'll hear, is rooted in trust, laughter and presence.

I moved up from London to sunny Suffolk and he was one of the first people that I came across. And a friendship from sort of early, tentative steps grew quite quickly and to where we are today. So six years, Peter, six long years.

Long, long years. And how I've suffered. Oh, all in a very good way. No, it's, it's great there.

It's a, it's a, I wouldn't say a weird friendship, a different friendship, strange friendship. It's as though I've known Debs, I suppose, for my entire life.

She knows a lot more about me than I know about her, but I suppose the friendship for me is based on a feeling as opposed to knowledge, if that makes sense. I feel that she's a good friend and, wow, she's just. Oh, she's become, she's become like a, like a sister to me. Absolutely brilliant.

I think the friendship, given what Peter has just said, is based on the here and now. So it doesn't matter. He knows little about me. The friendship is almost like how Peter experiences life just in the moment.

So it doesn't matter that he doesn't know much about my past, he knows who I am now in this moment. And we have a banter, we have a laugh and that's, that's all that matters.

And I also think that because friends like Deb are not, as, shall we say, attached to somebody with memory issues.

So for argument's sake, they can be with somebody, they can repeat themselves a few times, they can fill in the gaps, they can be their external memory, stick their plug in and save for X amount of hours and then they can leave it and go to their partners and whatever, so they can then I suppose remove themselves away from it. Whereas people who live with people with memory problems all the while, it's a different frustration. I suppose.

Debs walks beside this condition, whereas as my wife walks hand in hand with it, if that makes sense, she's my friend. That's it. It's so much more. So much more of a colourful place.

And also it makes my condition a lot more bearable to have somebody who I think understands it and has learnt about memory very quickly, I think, as fair to say.

And I would also add, it's not just about the friendship being supportive. To Peter, the friendship has created a whole new life for me, a whole new. A whole new me.

This is a much better version of who I used to be and what Peter has.

Peter's friendship has enabled me to do is to have the books published to overcome my nerves about talking in public, about having belief in myself, about having my own sense of purpose. That's what the friendship has provided. And it's a journey that I never thought I'd be going on either.

Their bond reminds us that even chance meetings can evolve into life, shaping companionships. We all deserve friendships that meet us in the now.

Lovemore Munawenyu works in community mental health and advocates powerfully for inclusion and connection, especially for people living with dementia. He explains why human connection is essential, not optional.

Human beings, we were made to make connections. We need to make connections. We need to make connections outside of ourselves, we need to make connections outside of our families.

That's how we become better in ourselves. So I think making connections is very, very important and maintaining those connections.

So sometimes it's easy to make a connection with someone and then it dies down. It's about making connection and maintaining a connection with outside world, with outside environment or outside yourself.

I think the trick for us as a service or as a community is to try to adjust ourselves to a point whereby we are very inclusive and not necessarily in the physical sense, as in trying to make sure that we got wheelchair access and things like that, but culturally, are we culturally inclusive?

I'm Gordon from Dementia Adventure and here are my tips to help make your picnic a real success. Connection doesn't have to be grand or carefully planned. Sometimes it's simple, just making space for a chat, a shared biscuit or a quiet moment.

It's the little things, a kind word, sharing a funny story, just being fully present and really listening to someone's experiences that remind us we really matter. Being outdoors helps with that. The fresh air, the stillness, it gives us room to breathe. To be ourselves.

And often that's when the most meaningful conversations unfold.

Unhurried, unforced, Enjoying and appreciating Being in the Moment when planning a picnic, think about how you can make it comfortable for the person you're caring for.

It might be bringing a blanket or foldable chair that feels familiar to them, choosing food that will be easy to eat in a picnic setting, or even down to considering the type of plate or cup that the person would feel more comfortable with.

You can stimulate conversations by bringing along photos of picnics or picnic destinations, postcards of local beauty spots, or share a song together. It's also important to ask simple questions like can you tell me more about this?

Whether it's one to one or part of a group, being present is what creates that sense of belonging.

Thanks for joining me on this final episode in our five part snack size series of the D Tour.

I hope these short walks through sound and story have given you fresh ideas and inspiration for your own big green picnic or just time outdoors with someone special. If you haven't already, do have a listen to the full original D Tour podcast series.

You'll find deeper conversations, rich stories from the road, and more beautiful moments from the people I met along the way from Land's end to John O' Groats. You can find the full series at dtour.uk that's d t o u r.uk.uk until next time, take care and happy picnicking.