Mischief and a bit of naughtiness

Terrible naughtiness

Making mischievious mischief makers

Who would you make?

What mischief would you brew?

What terrible tale would you tell?

Would it be true?

Summer holiday events with

 Leicestershire Libraries 

 

ancient mischief was often caused by crows and ravens

Cobweb, who dribbles...

From tying shoelaces together to inviting trolls to live in the ‘fridge

This stick down your back might be a scorpion….

Shampooing with glue

Haunting a wardrobe

Or leaving clockwork teeth under the bed

…there’s always a monster under the bed, can’t you hear its teeth chattering?

Who would you make?

What would they do?

In August, I am doing sessions in 9 Leicestershire libraries, taking Reading Challenge ideas and helping people create their own mischief makers. You might make a puppet of your favourite naughty character from a book, or you might invent a whole new someone...or something...no-one else has met before. 

"Hallo, I'm really very nice. Sometimes..."

Join me for sessions of storytelling naughtiness. We’ll share wild ideas and terrible people and then make them as quick puppets and perofrm their mischief in instant, improvised puppet shows

The crow who would, the rook who could, the raven who wouldn't, the magpie who DID!

This year’s Summer Reading Challenge celebrates the 80^th anniversary of The Beano with its famous mischief makers Dennis, Gnasher and their friends. Follow the link to find out more about the Challenge and sign up at your own library to become part of a nation of mischief-makers!

Leicestershire Libraries: all events need booking. Call the relevant library to book a place or visit the Leicestershire Libraries page on facebook

Date, August	Library		Tel number to book a place	Time
Friday  3rd	Broughton Astley		Main Street, Broughton Astley, Leics, LE9 6RD 0116 3053553	10.30-12.00
Tuesday 7th	Birstall		Wanlip Ln, Birstall, Leicester LE4 4JU 0116 305 8756	10.30-12.00
	Syston	Upper Church St, Syston LE7 1HR 0116 305 3500		2.00-3.30pm
Thursday 9th	Shepshed		Hall Croft, Shepshed LE12 9AN 0116 305 3678	10.30-12.00
	Ashby		Ashby-de-la-Zouch LE65 1HU 0116 305 5917	2-3.30pm
Friday 10th	Glenfield		Sandown Court, Station Rd, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8BT 0116 305 3591	10.30am-12.00
	Blaby		Lutterworth Rd, Blaby LE8 4DW 0116 305 3516	2.00pm-3.30pm
Monday 13th	Earl shilton		Wood St, Earl Shilton, Leicester LE9 7NE Tel 0116 305 8392	2.00-3.30pm
	Lutterworth		George St, Lutterworth LE17 4ED 0116 305 3619	10.30-12.00

Leek: once, now and next

LEEK: once, now and next

very little of the original Dieulacres is left....

 Free public activities celebrating the richness of Leek's heritage, the excitement of the town now and dreams for its future

Using the 800th anniversary of the founding of the now vanished Dieulacres Abbey to get ideas going, Leek: once, now and next sets out to encourage the people of Leek and the Staffordshire Moorlands to celebrate the richness of their heritage. I'm involved in this as one of the artists - so join us for some wild times, big drawings, fascinating talks and occasional silliness!

With a grant from Awards for All, the project offers free activities for families, youth and community groups, clubs and the general public involving everything from "design your own abbey" pop-up landscapes, to "once and future" lanterns, and a "Leek Now" Big Draw frieze. In the middle of the project there will be a "Birthday Party for a Lost Abbey" featuring Abbey Lanterns from local youth groups, music, storytelling and a giant Abbey Birthday Cake

The Lost Abbey: running through all our events is the thread of Dieulacres: Leek's Lost Abbey. For a few hundred years Dieulacres was one of the richest and most important Cistercian Abbey's in the county but with its Dissolution in the reformation almost all traces of it disappeared. A few carvings and other stoneworks  survive in the buildings of Abbey Farm, but that is all. 2014 would have been the Abbey's 800 birthday…

Organisers

Buxton-based community arts group, Stone and Water find innovative ways of celebrating the richness of the people, wildlife and landscapes of the Peak District. Recent project have included crocheting a prehistoric seabed fro the ancient seas that gave us the limestone of the White Peak and adventurous activities designed to encourage people to go "exploring with stories"

Borderland Voices aims to promote mental health through the arts and to raise public awareness and understanding of mental health issues by delivering accessible arts projects and offering creative space for self-expression within a mutually supportive community.

Public events

all events are free and no booking is required

Sunday 12th: Apple Day, visit this farm in the Upper Dove Valley for an autumn day of orchards, fruit recipes, art and stories and a chance to explore this beautiful landscape, its animals and plants

Time: 11am - 3.30pm

Where: Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle, between Sheen and Longnor

Friday 17th: Stitching time: join our artists and add your own panel to the new Cope for the Lost Abbey. Images of ancient saints and modern heroes lie side-by-side on this community cloak. With fabric and felt, wool, silk, thread, beads and sequins: no experience is needed!

Time: 1 - 3pm

Where: Silverdale Library, Newcastle: High St, Silverdale, Newcastle ST5 6LY, 01782 297444

 

illumination workshops have been
capturing Moorlands moments

Saturday 18th: Old stories, new adventures! Join our storyteller to listen to old tales of the Moorlands: of giants and mermaids and magic and monsters! Create your own stories about life and adventures in Leek

Time 10am - 12noon

Where: Leek Library, Nicholson Institute Stockwell Street Leek. ST13 6DW

Saturday 18th: unrolling Leek! a Big Draw event, we'll be drawing all your favourite places in Leek on one huge piece of paper: from Brough Park to the Foxlowe, from William Plummer's anchor memorial to your own back garden, everywhere works!

Time: 2 - 4pm

Where: Foxlowe Art Centre, Market Place, Leek, Staffordshire ST13 6AD

Thursday  23rd, Ladydale Well, the Leek Ladder and other marvels: a talk by  archaeologist Mark Olly. A chance to meet the more mysterious side of the town, join us to think, wonder and speculate

Time: 7.30 (finishing about 9 - 9.30), refreshments provided

Where: Quaker Meeting House, Overton Bank

Leek ST13 5ES

Saturday 25th, Birthday Party for a Lost Abbey! make a small monk puppet, write a poem, listen to stories, wonder at the Abbey Lanterns, add your own visions for the future of Leek - an afternoon of activities and creativity will lead to the unveiling of the Cope and the formal cutting of the Abbey Birthday Cake

Time: 2 - 6pm

Where Foxlowe Art Centre, Market Place, Leek, Staffordshire ST13 6AD

Tuesday 28th, Ancient Adventures: To celebrate Leek's ancient history: come along and make your own medieval castle or pop up abbey – and add some tiny puppets to tell some ancient tales!

Time 10am - 12noon, 1.30 - 3pm: drop in, allow yourself 45 minutes to make something!

Where: Leek Library, Nicholson Institute Stockwell Street Leek. ST13 6DW

Wednesday 29th, Dieulacres Abbey - Leek's vanishing heritage. A talk by local historian Michael Fisher: find out about the history of Leek's lost abbey!

Time: 7.30 - 9

Where: Foxlowe Arts Centre, Market Place, Leek, Staffordshire ST13 6AD

Thursday 30th: Ancient tales, modern adventures: storytelling, story making, art: what adventures can we invent for the trees, animals and children of Brough Park?

Times: 10 -12, 1 - 3

Where: Brough Park: Vicarage Road Car Park or walk in and find us under a tree in the middle of the Park!

For more information, contact 01298 77964

Thunder-graves

This is a post from a sister-blog of a project I am working on. Derbyshire Myths and Legends has been running as an enrichment of the Summer Reading Challenge in Derbyshire (surprisingly enough!). By the end of the project I'll have done workshops in 20 libraries which have been wonderfully delightful and potty. Even by the slightly sideways standards of the stories we've been creating, the Storm Story with the Burned Girl that evolved all of a sudden in Creswell Library last week was exceptional. So without further comment, I'm going to post that story and some of its associated images. Follow the link above to see the rest of the project blogs and more pictures

Creswell Library

Thursday 28th August 2014

A Thunder-grave in the dark woods

“Walking with an umbrella during a tornado is not a god idea”*

But the girl went walking with her beautiful blue umbrella, anyway

She is buried in a thunder-grave,

Deep in the woods.

A lonely grave,

A single grave,

And there she brings

Thunder, lightning and storms inside the wood

But the edges of the wood are peaceful

And guard the world from her anger.

But one wild tornado escapes

And collects a bus full of panicking school children,

Spinning them round,

Ready to do them to death.

But the bus sprouts wings and 

As an aerobus with rocket boosters

Sails through the storm

To safety.

But the lightning strikes

A goblin house in the Old Widow’s Tree

And the goblin and the two fairies who live in a hole flee

don't trust the Burned Girl!

The storm chases them,

Winds to blow them, rain to beat them,

Even their strongest spell doesn’t help,

And they run and run,

Too wet to fly, too scared to hide.

Down to the lake

Where a girl sails her boat through the storm,

Over a lake horrible with giant waves.

She carries them through the wind and the waves and the rain to...

Who lives in the old cottage behind the gray fence?

There is a bridge there, too,

Over a river behind the house,

A bridge to an island where a rock hides caves.

And might offer a new home to the lost goblin and his fairy friends

“Beware of the person who lives in the house behind the grey fence.”*

* “The things my Mum used to tell me”, numbers 25 and 32

a brave girl who could sail a boat through a storm

By the end of the story, all the characters had taken cover in Creswell Library where they live to this day, hiding in the bookshelves

even the Burned Girl enjoys a good read

with many thanks to all the storymakers, artists and puppeteers of Creswell!

Faces from Mansfield

Summer Reading Challenge

Mansfield Library

13th August

maze making in full swing!

following on from Maze-Makers 2, 

here are some more pictures from Mansfield Library

planning our giant maze

collective drawing

from communal, we went to individual and people chose
and developed their own mazes

glue, sticks and tiny puppets...

our communal mazes on display

Maze-makers, 2

more Nottinghamshire Mazes

August 2014

Over the bridge,

Over the lake,

Over the crocodiles

Into the maze.

Here, a silent cat leaps over a fence,

A frog hops into the middle of a pond,

A rainbow unicorn opens the gate.

Follow the tunnel, twisting and turning, up and down

Thread the maze,

As quiet as an owl,

Spider-climbing the webs on the walls,

As silent as a moth flutters,

As fast as a cheetah, 

As brave as a lion prowling through the night,

Slither like a snake, like slugs on slime,

Sly as a fox 

Be ready, 

Angry tiger fighting, 

Jaguar swift, cheetah fast

Frog-hop, leap the fence,

Over lava, over water, 

Stepping-stone the lily pads

The King’s Crown waits in his treasury in the heart of the maze

Thread the maze and in your heart,

Be bold, be bold and

Don’t be ready to die!

Have the mind of a mad scientist

And the memory of an elephant.

Remember your family,

Their faces will bring you home.

Look, look, some people forget to look!

Keep looking right to the very end!

A whole family of bears live in this maze,

And a yellow yawning dragon that falls asleep and gets in your way,

Perfect pink; blue bone-seeking; grumpy green,

The dragons.

A vampire with teeth as sharp as knives and needles.

An invisible snake with poison in every tooth and every scale of its body.

A monster with 10 million eyes and 10 million hands and 10 million feet.

This maze moves with monsters!

The Maze-poem has tangled itself together out of ideas from various libraries and I think there is another set of images to come, but this posting celebrates the delightful ideas of Maze-makers from

Mansfield, Worksop, Stapleford and West Bridgford libraries. There are other events happening during the holidays at Nottinghamshire libraries - follow the link above to find out 

what's happening at libraries near you!

Well done, all you Nottinghamshire Makers of Mazes! It has been 

a joy and a delight to work with you!

in navigating mazes, maps sometimes help. But not often.