Rabbits, giants and printed leaves

Rabbits, giants and printed leaves

week 2 in the Highlands 

waiting for the audience

The second week of Scottish storytelling went well. or, at least, I enjoyed it and swarms of enthusiastic children seemed to as well (another 5 schools and another 500 children more or less).

 Responses

picturing a story

 “You’re my very best creeping toad friend” (was delivered without any irony over the numbers of other amphibian friends the young man in question might have)
and listening to the teacher of a P6 (or maybe P7) class enthuse about language, getting her pupils to talk about the images used in my stories and discuss how these made a difference to the stories

mapping a story with visuals

“I like words now.”

One bee was flying, visiting flowers,
Under the eyes of a bird flying in the sky,
While two little trees were growing in a planter,
And three little rabbits were running for the woods,
While feet tramped over the ground,
Past a single bunch of daffodils,
A peony with nine flowers,
And a tiny ladybird with black spots.
There were three stones on a wooden post to point the way,
And five fingers ready to write a story.
(using counting to set a story in motion, St Clements School)

And we shaped a story through a Fox’s creepy woods and through Eagle’s giant mountains. We threaded through haunted spider woods and ended with a return by butterfly to the garden where the adventure began.

extending a story

Activities during the week, beyond just telling stories and listening to them, included drawng stories to help retelling, adding treasures to the drawings to extend a tale, making pop-ups to hold brand new tales, exploring shcool grounds for inspiration for stories and art work. Overall,we did a lot of work seeing stories as patterns that could be recorded as words or as a sculpture (pop-ups), as story maps or as long unrolled story-sheets where puppets, drawing, words and printing could all be added and we could cooperate to build adventures as a group. This week, my visits included two lovely schools for chidlren with additional educational needs. For someone who works with words as much as I do, it is always a concern to approach groups where words are not always that effective and attention can wander very quickly, so it was wonderful to slip into those classes and find new friends waiting and hands, minds and stories ready for new adventures

dramatic puppet and pop-up

Now, I’m off to Orkney, but as the saying goes, that is another story….

with many thanks to all the enthusiastic pupils and staff i met at Kirkhill, St Duthus, St Clements, Kirkhill and Muirtown Schools

some maps are easier to read than others

 

Two seagulls in a bright sky

Two seagulls in a bright sky

inspirational seaweed, Cromarty

First week in of this current northern tour. I’ve covered some 900 miles, worked in 6 different schools, with some 450 young people. We’ve been telling stories, listening to stories, making up stories. We’ve found dead seagulls and a beautiful skull, we buried some children under a playing field*, realised that The Old School still holds the ghosts of the Victorian children That Teacher locked in a cupboard and forgot about

We discovered how the lion got his mane and where the witch lives in the woods. We built ourselves adventures, pooling lines and images

 

the last sabretooths in Scotland

A Spean Bridge Adventure
Our journey took us,
Between the road and the river,
And over the hill with the peat-scented bogs,
We crept down through the woods where the wolves used to run,
Down to the river but the arch of the old highbridge was broken
And we squeezed between the sodden rock faces, dripping water like blood,
And carefully, so carefully, we balanced from stone to stone,
Across the fast flowing river where the water trolls wait,
Wait for you, for me, for anyone with warm blood in frightened veins.
And at last,
Behind the big mossy, dark, barky trees, reaching up to the clouds
We rested in the shade of a massive tree, its branches towering over us.

But when we stepped out into the sunshine of the heather fields where the fairies play,
Behind one girl stood a tall shadow that didn’t belong to her.

bear and badger story taking shape

With many thanks to all the brave and imaginative children, teachers, parents and things I’ve met so far (you can decide which you are) from
Dunblane High School, and the Primary Schools:  Spean Bridge, Raigmore, Daviot, Cromarty, Kinlochbervie, Scourie and Durness
* I am a storyteller, believe as much as is safe for yourself

Dunbane High brought some elegant buildings

A crocodile of words

A crocodile of words  

and the 

spinning plate of death

a moment of peace at Chanonry Point

there were bits...

Following on from a woodful of stories, last week dropped me into a whirlpool of schools and groups, classes and bits. Bits and bits and more bits.There were witches and monsters, tales out of old Scotland and relics of Robert the Bruce’s last meal. I have roamed from Auldearn to Strontian with Inverness in-between and have ended up in Dollar.

Inspired by Krindlekrax, in one class we created a crocodile of words:
Midnight and thunder and lightning,
A pebble-dashed log,

A creeping camera flash,
Spiky.
Pointed as needles,
Waiting like a cave.

We got the words down first as the scales then swallowed excitement in colour and shape and set one little group off creating their own crocodile….

We told stories of Old Scotland and made new Lost Tales of Old Scotland with the old woman who defended herself with a plate, with this very plate here, spinning it like a frisbee to slice the heads off her attackers. There were enchanted frogs, wonderful treasures, mysterious rooms and dangerous children…there were even a few aliens who came down and spirited away a whole class

And finally, I spent a day at the Three Lochs Book and Arts Festival in Strontian where stories unfolded between the mountains and the lochs

Thanks and delights to the artists and storymakers of Auldearn Primary, Dalneigh Primary, Balloch Primary, and the Ardnamurchan schools

precision drawing

Woods, frogs and owls

Haunted woods, enchanted frogs 

and a flapping owl

visiting Highland Schools, 2016, part 2

There was one dead lamb rotting behind a wall,

And two crows sitting on a branch watching,

Three children leaning over the wall.

But four stumps waited for bottoms to sit on them

And five tall trees guarded the playground

Where six children ran across the ground

To the seven stumps in front of the

One grandfather tree.

Eight steps would take them over the wall,

Nine steps would take them to the middle of the field

And with ten jumps they would be up in the sky flying like the crows….

("counting a story" ideas from Mulbuie)

 

Invergarry's Owl

surprise!

We grew stories. In school playgrounds (Mulbuie), with piles of odd bits of stuff, with wooden bowls and golden goblets (Tarradale) and an enchanted pink frog princess (looking always for her prince, when she found him they would kiss. And he would become a frog too!)

  

We recognised that stories can grow out of anything and everything so at Mulbuie we heard the story of the Green Leaf Children who live in the tallest trees and come down to the ground in the night to play football with their friends, the Twig Children. They play their games with little balls of scrunched up paper which is the only trace we might find the next day, blown by the wind across the playground when we come to school….

Tarradale

And at Invergarry, my stories inspired new ones and Vikings took shape, and a Highland Cow and a Loch Ness Monster, a cat, and some stranger creatures. Shadows shaped up too and by the end of the day we heard stories of the lost girl, we met the hedgehog and the tortoise, a brave samurai, a dragon and an owl who could flap her wings in surprise….

A week of delights – at least for me! – and there will be more in September. I have perhaps one day still available for a Highland school if anyone is interested (follow the link for more information)

Tarradale

Invergarry dragon

 

Mulbuie

 With many thanks to the staff, storytellers, artists and enthusiasts of

 Mulbuie and Ferintosh Primary Schools,

 Tarradale Primary School, and 

Invergarry Primary School

A Feast for Lost Travellers

A feast for lost travellers

 on tour in northern Scotland, April 2016

snow on the mountains

It is always tricky during workshops to catch the moments I treasure as photos. My camera tends to get left in corners or daubed in glue or lost in a pile of cloth. Wherever it lurks, it is rarely to hand on those critical moments when….

across the whirling, weird, wonderful waterfall
where the freaky, fabulous, flying fish
feast on lost travellers 

 (poem by Daviot School's storytellers)

drawing and story notes, Daviot

So I often feel slightly off-kilter when I’m trying to report back on the latest adventures as the images I’ve got do not do credit to the excitement of activities. (So come on, last week’s schools! All photos gratefully received - especially ones I can post here!)

I am working up in the north of Scotland just now…2 weeks of wildness from the beautiful woods of Middle and led more and a day for the Woodland Trust with alternating sunshine, rain and occasional hail. The weather then rather set the standard for the rest of the week,working indoors as the clouds variously added rain to puddles, hail to drifting lines across playgrounds or even snow in squelchy moments while it gathered in more dramatic sweeps across the mountains

A return to Daviot on Monday warned of the risks of wandering across the hills, let alone venturing boldly into any ruined buildings you might stumble across. But beyond the hills and the trees, the sea is always waiting….

a smooth sea on a sunny summer’s day,
darting dolphins dancing in the dark waves,
the voice of the sea invites us to dance with the dolphins

storybox theatre in action

We were making story boxes there and it was a delight to see people turning storybooks into instant puppet theatres….

exploring the haunted house while lightning hovers overhead,
climbing carefully through the crumbling windows,
into the echoing corridors,
following the sound of flapping wings to the room
of the rattling bones and chattering skulls

a castle from Culbokie

and a mysterious door from Kiltearn

fine details in Kiltearn

cheerful adventures in Strathdearn

Other hosts during the week were Culbokie (tales of old Scotland and heroes for adventures), Strathdearn ( exciting story landscapes) and Kiltearn (some very carefully precise artwork there, picking out the stones in old walls and enthusing about……..

Now it is May Day and the world turns towards summer (at least in theory). i was woken, to my delight, this morning at 5.30 by ravens having a loud discussions in the trees at the end of the garden and yesterday spent a sunny afternoon (hoorah!) watching the racing waters of Rogie Falls

Next week is fully booked but I am due back in Scotland in September if anyone out there reads this and would like to plan a session…

With many thanks to the lovely pupils and 

welcoming staff, 

our storytellers, artists and inventors of adventurers at 

Culbokie Primary
Daviot Primary
Kiltearn Primary School
Strathdearn Primary School

and with the Woodland Trust

a ruined castle from Kiltearn

and an adventure involving bats, caves and a bridge from Strathdearn

Wild tales and woody stories

Creeping Toad on tour

August 2015

 
 

days begin with beautiful sunrises

the Newtonmore Goblins

a tropical sea, a lost treasure and a desert island:  perfect ingredients for an adventure

I’m not going to try to tell the stories behind these pictures - decide for yourself what is going on if you feel so inclined. That way if you get a horrible fright, you’ll have no-one to blame but yourself!

At Ledmore and Migdale on Saturday with the Woodland Trust, we braved midges and ticks to reveal the hitherto unknown tales of the Migdale Worm and the Spinningdale Ghost Train. There was the Caterpillar Fairy, issues about tooth-fairies for trolls, friendships between kelpies and wolves and a few stray zombies. One of my toad cousins wandered through for a visit and various beetles dropped in and trundled through…..

 

a fairy and her caterpillers

caterpiller closeup

fairy-teller in action

James Bond in Spinningdale

not quite sure who this is.....

Thanks to the audiences and story makers of my first schools on this autumn tour!
Auldearn Primary School
Dalneigh Primary School
Newtonmore Primary School
the lovely puppeteers and story makers of Ledmore and Migdale Woods

the midges are coming!

 

a bold storyteller in action!