Winter stories 2

Continuing the adventures revealed in Winter Stories 1, here are some more images from our event in Buxton Museum on Tuesday 19th

The adventures began with our sample pieces - pop-up cards and these circular story-lanterns. As a company we talked about our favourite wintry tales and then simply plunged in.....So take a deep breath and jump into our snow-drifts of stories

WINTER BOOKS TO RECOMMEND
The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper
Weirdstone of Brisngamen, Alan Garner
The Snow Elephant, Penny Dale,
The Snowbears, Martin Waddell and Sarah Fox-Davies
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
The Snow Queen, Hans Christian Anderson
Winter Woolies (this is a book one young reader loves from his school book box...we're not sure who the author might be!)
Moominland in Midwinter, Tove Jansson
The Arctic Adventure, Skye Waters
Carrie, the Snow-cap Fairy, Daisy Meadows and George Ripper

what would you add to this list?

Ella's story

Ella's story:

Once there was a girl called Ella. Ella wanted a doll for Christmas. It was Christmas Eve and the family had put out milk and mince pies and a carrot. That evening when they came home, Santa came and ate and drank. When he had done that he put the presents out. Ella got a doll. Then she played with it and had a lovely day.

I love the golden tree and its shadow in this one

outside...

...inside!

another outside, inside pair

the snowman lives in a world where colour belongs to the trees....

Winter, Wildlife and Water Week

Winter, Wildlife and Water Week

 a few extra project events in a week of public events celebrating this cold season, the birds of the high hills and deep dales and the ancient springs and wells of the Peak District

Winter Stories

Tuesday 19th February

Capturing the cold with children's stories and traditional tales and turning the best bits of those or your favourite wintry scenes into pop-up story cards and paper sculptures

        

Where? Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Terrace Road, Buxton, SK17 6DA

When? 10 - 12 and 1 - 3, free, open public sessions for all the family (children under 8 need to bring a grown-up) no booking needed, just drop by and join in!

Raven Day

Friday 22nd February

Celebrating the crows, ravens - and other birds - of the Peaks - making bird mask, fluttering birds on sticks and even origami birds to sit on fingers or shoulders

Where? Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Terrace Road, Buxton, SK17 6DA

When? 2 sessions, 10 - 12 and 1 - 3, free, open public sessions for all the family (children under 8 need to bring a grown-up) no booking needed, just drop by and join in!

Singing the Wells

Saturday 23rd February

A chance to enjoy playing with voices, stories, ideas and instruments.  Celebrating our ancient wells by singing stories, places, landscapes and water - to sing the Holy Wells of the Hills. No experience needed - just bring a sense of adventure and the readiness to join in! Led by musician and singer Jos Razzell

The end of this workshop will coincide with the Raven Walk so that we can join the procession and visit St Anne's Well

Where: Green Man Gallery, 55 High St, Buxton, SK17 6HB

When: 1.30 - 4pm. The workshop is free but places are limited: please email or phone to reserve a place: stoneandwater@btinternet.com, 07791 096857

The Raven Walk

Saturday 23rd February

4.30 - 5.30pm, meeting at Bath Road entrance to Pavilion Gardens

Join the Stone and Water crew at the end of this week of Winter, Wildlife and Water for a walk round Pavilion Gardens. Bring Friday's Ravens or flags, hats or masks and we will salute the rich and ancient waters of the hills and  the wild and wonderful birds of our wild and wonderful winds!

if you are under 12, bring a grown-up with you so they can join in too!

Meeting points; Green Man Gallery and then the Bath Rd entrance to Pavilion Gardens, 4.30

Duration: 1 hour maybe?

celebrate the cheerful birds of the Peak District skies...

...the fiercer ones can be celebrated, too!

Boggarts at Longshaw!

A Day of Boggarts

What day? Sunday February 17th 2013

When?

Session 1: 10.30 - 12.30 (needs booking - meeting at the Moorland Discovery Centre, Longshaw) 

Session 2: 1.30 - 3.30pm (no booking needed - meet at the Visitor Centre)

Where? Longshaw Estate, National Trust

Getting there: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/longshaw/

Useful link: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/longshaw/things-to-see-and-do/events/

Cost and booking

morning: price: Adult £8, Child £5 cost includes activities, soup & a roll. Booking Essential (through the Trust - use the link above)

afternoon: activities are free but car parking charges may apply (no booking needed)

Exploring with Stories here will join the bigger event at Longshaw marking the opening of their Boggart* Play Trail. Exploring with Stories will be on hand to tell some Boggart Tales and do a bit of Boggartt detecting - looking for signs of boggart life, adventures and mishaps….

In the morning workshop there will be Boggart stories, Boggart building and other twitchy activities

* Boggarts? if you're not sure then a word of explanation might help…Boggarts are the awkward cousins of the fairies. You'll have read Fairy Stories, we are sure and you will know that Fairies are often beautiful. Boggarts aren't. And that fairies are sometimes kind. Boggarts aren't. And that fairies sometimes grant wishes. Boggarts? Not a hope!

But Boggarts are exciting, naughty, lumpy, bumpy, hairy and stary….Boggarts are fun

Festive Explorings!

Christmas at Ilam Park

not many dragons in Ilam these days
but we can story a few....

Exploring will be at this weekend event on Sunday 9th December when we'll be telling stories, making little story sculptures and generally adding to the festive atmosphere

General details:
Dates and times: 8th and 9th December, 11am - 4.30pm

Venue: National Trust, Ilam Park

What else is happening:
local food, craft and gift stalls. Family activities and woodland grotto. British Christmas tree and log sales. Carol singing. Linches in the Manifold TTea Rood and BBQ

Cost: entry is free (car parking charges may apply?)

Further details: National Trust: 01335 350503

Link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/peakdistrict

Apple Day, 2012

the day began beautifully...

...and held beautiful all day

A bright, beautiful autumn day with clear skies and hogweed seedheads

Activities: tiny clay apples

tables of clay and treasure chests

dookin' for apples

A day of apple tasting and orchard walks, fruity stories, orchard treasure chests and apple cakes to taste. We made small apple books, and clay apples, apple trees, orchard fairies and even a monster to fit sneakily into a treasure chest

Artists involved:
Gordon MacLellan - Creeping Toad
Sue Blatherwick
Dove Valley Centre

The apples are coming!

APPLE DAY

Sunday 7th October, 2012

relax and wait while the wildlife watches you

Dove Valley at sunset

celebrate autumn's richness with orchard investigations, apple recipes and fruit-creature-puppets stories and laughter

The last of our Exploring with Stories public events for now, Apple Day is a celebration that has become well established in the alst few years after an initial launch by Common Ground

This event offers a chance to look at orchards, to think and find out more about your own fruit trees, to taste apples and autumn recipes, to listen to some tree, wood and wildness stories and generally be creative

Where: Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle, nr Longnor, SK17 0PR

Link: www.dovevalleycentre.co.uk

Time: 11am - 3.30pm

The event is FREE

telling stories at the Dove Valley Centre

Once there was a girl who...

We are in the middle of a number of workshops for small groups, rather than our big public events now. Today, I was in Buxton Library making up stories with visitors. Together we designed our a hero, sent her off through our town and up the hill towards Solomon's Temple. There our ideas diverged and people went off to find clues as to just what might have happened....The notes that follow came from just a few of our new tales
Gordon, Creeping Toad - storyteller for the session

A girl went for a walk on a sunny summer afternoon. She had rolled her trousers up to her knees and was wearing a wide-brimmed sunhat, sandals, and a T-shirt. She had binoculars round her neck, a basket in one hand, a fishing net in the other and a rucsac on her back.

As she walked up the hill to Solomon's Temple……

the woods on Grin Low

Story 1:            she saw a giant standing in the trees in front of her. She was so terrified she couldn't move and the giant reached out a huge hand to grab her. Then Sarah swung her fist and hit the giant in the face so hard his head fell off!  She picked up the head to put in her basket and take it home. But realised that the giant wasn't dead and was very scared because his head and body weren't joined together any more.  Sarah helped the giant put his head back on his shoulders. It was very wobbly so she got lots of sticks and stuck them in round the join so that the giant's head didn't wobble any more. Then she discovered that this was a very important giant because every day he took one of the shining golden yellow flowers that grew on the bushes along the path and threw it high into the sky. The flowers would stick to the sky and shine down on everyone all day, but by the evening the flower would have shrivelled up and night would swallow the world. Sarah became the only person who knows the secret of sunshine and the only friend the Sunshine Giant every had

a flower of the sun

Story 2            she met a witch looking for the last ingredient for the most difficult potion she had ever made. The girl offered to help and learned that the missing ingredient was a lock of hair from an adventurer's head. She offered some of her own hair but wasn't sure if she was adventurous enough. The witch stirred the girl's hair into the potion and they both waited to see what would happen. Nothing changed. The girl took a sip of the potion and at once disappeared from the Grin Low woods. She found herself far from home, in the middle of a jungle and felt the power of the potion inside her and knew that she could wish herself home again any time she wanted. She was an adventurer after all!

Story 3            she slipped in some mud, fell in a stream and rolled all the way down the stream, down a river, out to sea where a boat rescued her. But a storm came and waves as big as mountains threw the boat all over the place and the girl fell out and into the shark-filled sea. At once the sharks started chasing her and the girl swam away. She swam so fast her shoes slipped off (and the sharks munched them up). She swam so fast her hat flew off (and the sharks munched it up). She swam as fast as a dolphin (shark teeth were snapping), as fast as barracuda (shark jaws were open wide) but the sharks got closer and closer with their sharp, snapping teeth. But just as they were going to pounce, a wonderful golden fish slipped through the waves beside the girl and grabbing hold of its fins, she was pulled through the water and away to safety. They left the sharks far behind and beautiful green turtles kept them company until they reached the river. Then the fish swam the girl up the river, up the stream and flicked her back onto the mud where her adventure started. She went home, covered with mud and no-one ever believed her!

Then there were

 the girl who found a mouse's party bits all wrapped up in a leaf

the girl who just went for a lovely walk, finding beautiful flowers on the way

the girl who found a wild horse on the hills

and of course

the boy who eaten by the sharks and came home as a ghost and never had to go to school again

Grin Low woods and Solomon's Temple are great places for adventures!

Thanks to storytellers Andrew, Holly, Angus and Iona

(these aren't our own photos, so apologies to people who've posted these images on the web and thanks for putting these images out there where the rest of us can appreciate them!)

Away with the Faeries!

and we were! on a hot, steamy day in the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton, there were visitors everywhere. Picnics were eaten, streams splashed in. Dogs chased balls and balls chased ducks and ducks chased anyone who might have bread concealed about their persons

you never know just who might be watching

or what something might do with your hat! a troll picnic

and among all this bedlam, who would have thought that there were still small quiet corners where the watchful watched.....

Our intrepid goblin-hinters, faerie followers and troll-huggers (more than a hundred in the day), peered and pried and found clues (tiny witch's broomsticks, stray goblin ears and troll eyebrows and even scales from a mermaid's tail!)

Under the bridge,
An old troll sits,
Fishing in the river for shoes

The wicked witch of the waters
Lives in a willow tree
Watching the water and wishing she was by the sea

Faerie team in determined action

Our discoveries gave us new stories, new friends to meet. Natalie always brings chips when she comes to the Gardens so she can share fish and chips with a troll. Unfortunately, Adam realised that a lot of the ducks (see above) are actually faeries, transformed by some cheating goblins who then had a party, got drunk and fell over. The fountain is, of course, a faerie bath and when the faeries are bathing, the ducks flee because a) who would want to see a naked faerie? and b) short-sighted faeries have been known to use ducks instead of sponges

musicians of all ages helped charm the monsters from our imaginations

by the end of it all, it felt hard to tell the difference between human and non-human.....

BOOKLOG
References used:
The Fairies (poem) by William Allingham
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony Di Terlizzi and Holly Black
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
one of our hunters brought Natalie, the Christmas Fairy with her as a book to recommend

Away with the faeries, goblins and trolls!

Away with the faeries, goblins and trolls

magical storywalks through Buxton's Pavilion Gardens

join the Stone and Water storytellers and artists to look for the secret people of the Gardens. We'll listen to stories and look for the place where the troll sits fishing for shoes, look for faerie palaces and goblin holes, find clues and tell tall and terrible tales

And if we don't find anything, then we'll just invent it!

Tuesday 24th July

2 sessions: 10.30 - 12.30 and 1.30 - 3.30 (you only need to come to one of them!)

Meet by the Bandstand in front of the Pavilion, Buxton  (SK17 6BE)

Activities are free and any materials needed will be provided

Can young goblin hunters and troll-seekers (under 10) bring a grown-up with them (as bait?)

For more information, contact stoneandwater@btinternet.com

Or call 01298 77964

Tiny! Goblins, Trolls and Faeries!

These workshops are not part of the Exploring sequence but is another Stone and Water event you might enjoy!

2012 will be the third year our local community group, Stone and Water has held some Tiny! adventures in Pavilion Gardens in Buxton as part of the Buxton Festival Fringe. After Tiny! The smallest lantern procession in the festival in 2010, we moved on to Tiny! A Pirate Adventure last year. This year we will take people on a strange exploration of the Gardens and make some of the Tiny! Goblins, Trolls and Faeries who may (or may not) live here

The Tiny! workshops have been delightfully silly and very popular. Everything works here in miniature. We make figures about 10 cm tall, adding tiny ships made round plastic bottle tops, tiny birds, lanterns, flowers, anything that takes our very small imaginations, really. Unusually for the Festival, no tickets are needed - you just turn up and join in and there is no cost (although this year we'll have some of our wonderful Exploring with Stories postcards to sell (for a small consideration)

Why not join us for a Tiny adventure?

Event details

Tiny! Goblins, Trolls and Faeries

Monday 9th

Tuesday 10th July

workshop 3 - 5.30pm

Meet by the Bandstand outside the Pavilion

make your own miniature puppets, enchanted castles and wizardly dens

and then join us in telling the terrible tales of the characters we made that afternoon!

FREE: no booking needed, just turn up and join in

Materials and storytelling provided

fb group: Stone and Water

Call: 07825 177355

Under 10s need to bring an adult with them to teach grown-ups about goblins