Field work doesn't begin until May. Bhavani is recovering from surgery, and the project is patient enough to wait for her. She is not an add-on to this work. She is half of it.
What the next six weeks look like, then, is this: outreach across all eight regions simultaneously. Seventy-four contacts drafted and ready to send. The Keepers gateway channels - CAMRA, the dioceses, ACRE - opened in parallel rather than in sequence. The Makers outreach led by the Heritage Crafts Red List, because urgency has to drive the order.
Stan Lawler at BABA replied within the week. An introduction to the National School of Blacksmithing is on the table, and a slot in their newsletter. That one response opened more than it might seem. Networks in the craft world are built on trust extended from person to person, and a warm introduction from Stan is worth a year of cold approaches.
Confirmed & date-locked events - Year One
The CIC registration is in. The England Archive CIC - pending approval, with "England" flagged as a sensitive word by Companies House, as expected. The fallback names are ready if needed. This is procedural, not existential.
What I am paying close attention to, in this waiting period, is which subjects require the longest lead time. The Padstow Obby Oss community is a year-two subject at the earliest - the tradition is community-closed, and any access conversation before six months of trust-building would end the relationship before it started. That contact begins now, not in 2027.