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!

Apple Day - extra fruit!

Some extra photos of Apple Day excitements at the Dove Valley Centre, with thanks to Sue Blatherwick

Big Draw in Buxton Museum!

Revealing the world through drawing

Wednesday 31st October

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

10 am - 12 noon

1pm - 3pm

Shells, fossils, wonders and marvels: join artist and storyteller Gordon MacLellan and make your own collection of drawings and prints using tiny treasures, wonderful artefacts and fabulous fabrics from around the world

This is a Big Draw event: part of the world's biggest celebration of drawing. Buxton saw a colourful draw on Saturday 13th in Pavilion Gardens. For our next pencil-driven adventure, come to the Museum on 31st and enjoy the latest exhibitions as well as our event. Look, peer, handle and maybe even sniff objects to handle: from African masks to ancient fossils, Australian seed pods to deep sea shells: a chance to draw, sketch and scribble your own set of pictures of a fascinating world. 

Can you draw your way around the world in 10 pictures? 
Or span the history of the Earth in 20? 
Or why not just pause in a busy day, take up a pencil and relax for a few minutes!

No booking needed: just drop in (but give yourself 30 minutes to work in so don't arrive right at the end of a session!)
Children under 8 years old need to bring a grown-up with them!

Free: materials supplies

Where: Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Terrace Rd, Buxton, SK17 6DA

This isn't an "Exploring" event as such but it is the same team involved and we thought you might like to join in!

Family events in August

EVENTS FOR AUGUST

a sample folded puppet theatre.....

August has begun with some exciting activities. We were at the National PlayDay celebrations in Leek (well done, Erica and the Staffordshire Moorlands team!). Making little folded puppet theatres and new stories to tell in these, we worked with more than 100 people over the day. Today, (Thursday 2nd) I worked with visitors to SureStart centres in Buxton, using similar activities and rummaging around in flowerbeds to find bits and things to help us tell stories which ended up with sneezing heroes, a flying carpet, a knight looking for flowers and a hero who had a quiet and peaceful time in the woods!

Knights, monsters and encampments hidden in the woods....

Mums and Dads made their own theatres and stories

a fairy and her palace

1. Tuesday  28th August 2012

Away with the Faeries, Goblins and Trolls

Where: Padley Gorge on the National Trust's Longshaw 

Estate near Hathersage

Meet at the Granby Barn Interpretation Centre on the B6521

Times: 11 am - 1pm or 2pm - 4pm

Costs: no cost for activities, car parking charges may apply

No booking is needed: just turn up and join in

What is happening: we'll explore the atmospheric landscapes of Padley gorge, looking for secret places, troll baths and goblin houses. We'll make puppets, build faerie homes and monster lairs and invent stories to tell each other

who knows what we'll find in the woods

2. Wednesday 29th August 2012

Into the woods

Where: Buxton Country Park, Poole's Cavern, Green Lane, Buxton SK17 9DH

Times: 10.30 - 12.30, 1.30 - 3.30

Costs: no cost for activities, car parking charges may apply

What is happening: as explorers, naturalists and storytellers, we'll explore the woods: identifying trees, finding the animals that live there, using art and science and stories to understand the secret lives of trees

3. Friday 31st August 2012

Run Away To Adventure

Where: Buxton Country Park, Poole's Cavern, Green Lane, Buxton, SK17 9DH

Times: morning  and afternoon sessions

Costs: no cost for activities, car parking charges may apply

What is happening: making dens deep in the woods! Stranded on a desert island? Lost in the forest? Cast away…we'll make the dens we'd like to surivive in - woodland shelters, hidden dens, foraging, planning and telling the dreadful tales of how we got stranded here

Places are limited on "Run Away to Adventure" and need to be booked: call 07791 096857 or email stoneandwater@btinternet.com,  to reserve a place and receive further details

Pirates!

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

Tiny! Faeries, goblins and trolls

We are having a bit of a month of faerie-tales this July.  Stone and Water have just finished two damp days as part of the Buxton Festival Fringe making Tiny! Faerie Tale characters

Thanks to everyone who braved the drizzle and squelched in to join us!

sheltering under our familiar, friendly oak tree - the scene of all our Tiny! adventures!

a cheerful, Tiny! person

a Tiny! pirate ship

The Golden Wizard

The Wicked Witch of the Water

Lives under a Willow Tree

And spends each day

Wishing she was beside the sea

The Witch dances