GIVING AWAY BOOKS....

Clearing bookshelves

Hallo, everyone out there!
I’m trying to shuffle through my bookshelves and have the first of (hopefully) several batches of books up for grabs if anyone wants any of them!

There are two main sets of books here...
folktales and environmental education and art activity books
magical books

These are free to anyone although I would appreciate it if we could sort for you to pay postage!


Just let me know if any of the attached interest you. I’ll do it on a first come-first served basis

Either pm me or drop me an email: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

Best wishes
Gordon

MAGICAL BOOKS: ALL THIS SET OF MAGICAL BOOKS HAVE GONE TO NEW HOMES....MORE COMING ON LINE IN A DAY OR SO!

Ref	Author	Title	Publisher	ISBN
25	Baker Douglas M	Astral projection	Aquarian 1977	0-85030-141-6
6	Brennan, JH	Reincarnation	Aquarian 1981	0 85030 275 7
3	Butler, WE	How to develop Psychometry	Aquarian 1983	0 85030 180 7
3	Butler, WE	How to develop Psychometry (2 copies)	Aquarian 1983	0 85030 180 7
28	Butler, WE	The Aura	Aquarian 1979	0 85030 179 3
9	Cavendish, R	The Black Arts	Pan, 1967	0 330 02223 7
8	Clough, Nigel	Magic Mirros	Aquarian 1977	0 85030 129 7
15	Conway, D	MAgic, an occult primter	Mayflower 1972	582 12179 9
7	Crow WB	Occult Properties of herbs & plants	Aquarian 1980	0 85030 196 3
16	Daniken	Miracles of the gods	Corgi 1981	0 552 10371 3
35	Drury, Neville	The occult experience	Hale, 1987	0 7090 2961 6
24	Fenton, Sash	Fortune telling by tarot cards	Aquarian 1985	0-85030-369-9
17	Hansen, C	Witchcraft at Salem	Arrow 1971	0 09 003910 6
20	Hirsch, P	Supernatural	Pyramid 1968	0 511 01833 060
36	Hope, Murry	Practical Greek Magiic	Aquarian 1985	0 85030 430X
2	Howard, Michael	Candle Burning	Aquarian 1977	0 85030 122X
2	Howard, Michael	Candle Burning ( 2 copies)	Aquarian 1977	0 85030 122X
4	Howard, Michael	The magic of the runes	Aquarian 1980	0 85030 233 1
1	Hunt, Douglas	Exploring the Occult	Pan, 1971	0 330 02648 8
22	Lee, D	Understanding the occult	Paperback Library 1969
23	Line, D & J	Fortune telling by runes	Aquarian 1984	0-85030-367-2
13	Maple, E	The Domain of Devils	Pan, 1966	0 330 02231 8
27	Markham, Ursula	Fortune telling by crystals	Aquarian 1987	0 85030 510 1
11	McCormick	White magic for lovers	Fontana 1973	0 00613351 7
12	Michelet, Jules	Satanism and Witchcraft	Tandem 1970	0 4260 4204 2
29	Montalban, MAdeline	The Tarot	Javelin 1986	0 7137 1784 x
18	Moss & Keeton	Encounters with the past (hypnotic regression)	Penguin 1981	0 1400 5587 8
26	Neilsen & Polansky	Pendulum Power	Excalibur 1984	0-85454-077-6
34	Norvell	Mystical Power of pyramid astrology	A Thomas 1978	0 85454 091 1
14	Pauwels & Bergier	The morning of the magician	Mayflower 1972	583 11970 0
5	Rendel, Peter	Introduction to the Chakras	Aquarian 1979	0 85030 161 0
19	Seth, R	Witches and their craft	Tandem 1967	0 4260 4968 3
21	Seth, R	In the name of the devil	Arrow 1970	09 003040 0
33	Walters, Derek	Your future revealed by the Mah Jongg	Aquarian 1982	0 85030 290 0
30	Weaver, Graham	A to Z of the occult	Everest 1975	0 903925 29 3

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND STORYTELLING

Ref	Author	Title	Public	ISBN
102	Barber, Chris	Ghosts of Wales	John Jones, 1979
117	Barker, Clive	Theatre Games	Methuen, 1977	0-413-45380-4
124	Bennett and Taylor	Living Planet	TickTock 2006	1-86007572-X
123	Dearling & Armstrong	New Youth Arts & Crafts Book	RHP1996	1-898924-75-9
110	Dearling, alan et al	Youth Action and the Envrionment	Russell House Publishing, 1997	1-898924-07-4
127	DfEE	All Our Futures, creativity, culture & education	Crown copyright 1999	1-84185 034 9
103	Dunne, John J	Irish Ghosts	Appletree, 1999
114	Finnigan	The complete juggler	Jugglebug, 1991	0-9615521-0-7
106	Grubb, et al	Earth Summit agreements (Rio, 1992)	Earthscan, 1993	1-85383-176-X
107	Hough, Richard	You Can Save the Planet	A & C Black, 2007 (for The Guardian)	978-0-7136-8688-3
105	Howat, Polly	Tales of Old Cambridgeshire	Countryside, 1999
101	James, Henry	The Aspern Papers	Penguin Classics, 1994	0-14-062097-4
109	Johnson, W.H.	Kent Stories of the Supernatural	Countryside, 2000
100	LENIHAN, EDDY	IN SEARCH OF BIDDY EARLY	Mercier, 1987
122	Lynas, Mark	Carbon counter - calculate your carbon footprint	Collins Gem, 2007	978-0-00-724812-4
126	CEE Youth Unit	Go For It Pack	1980s?
115	Mabey, Richard	The Unofficial Countryside	Sphere, 1978	0-7221-5709-6
118	Maine, Sandy	The Soap Book, simple herbal recipes	Interweave, 1995	1-883010-14-4
119	Morrison, Blake	songs of sacred places, children’s poetry in the year 2000	Sacred Land, 2000
126	Pike & Selby	Reconnecting from National to Global Curriculum	WWF 1995	0-947613-70-6
104	Pugh, Jane	Welsh ghosts and phantoms	Emeralda, 1979
116	Russell, James	How to turn your parents green	Tangent, 2007	978-0-9553520-9-6
108	Rutherford, Leo	Book of games and warm-ups for group leaders	Gale Centre Publications, 1994	1-870258-30-4
111	Sinclair, David	Shades of Green, myth and muddle in the countryside	Paladin, 1991	0-586-08708-7
121	Stott, Robin	The Ecology of Health, Schumacher briefings	Green Books, 2,000	1-870098-80-3
112	Timberlake and Thomas	When the bough breaks: our children, our environment	Earthscan, 1990	1-85383-082-8
125	Walker & Shioman	The Wisdom of Bones (in search of human origins)	TSP1996	0 297 81670 5
120	Wood, B	Our world, God’s world: reflections for Advent and the Christmas Season on the environment	Bible Reading fellowship, 1986	0-900164-69-7
113	Wyland, Creech & Balogh	Hold your water! 68 things you need to know to keep our planet blue	Andrews McMeel, 2006	0-7407-5682-6

A fingerful of animals

A Fingerful of Animals

making a fingerpuppet garden of creatures 

As the spring unfolds and we can’t get out and play as much as we might like….why not make a handful of animals to infest your garden with or set up strange ecosystems in a bedroom

You will need:

• A sheet of card (mostly A5 (about 15cm x 20cm) will do, some puppets might need A4 (about 20cm x 30 cm) small insects could work on A6 (15cm x 10cm) Cereal packet card works well instead
• Sharp scissors
• Pencil
• Coloured pencils or felt pens
• Small stapler
• Glue stick

Useful techniques

Before we deal with the main activity, you might like to experiment with

·      fold - keep the crease sharp

·      fold-back – practise folding a strip of card in half then folding it back on itself to make a sort of folded zig-zag: good for necks and arthropod legs

·      curl – draw a thin strip of card between your thumb and the hard edge of say a ruler or the back of scissors

·      internal cuts: sharp scissors or a knife to cut a V in your card: lift this to make spikes or feathers

Start making

1. As folded shapes, this activity works best for symmetrical animals - snails and wriggly ones (worms, centipedes) are probably better just drawn and cut out – then jump to stage 6

2. Think about your animal and fold your card in half- which way depends on the length of your animal

3. Use the fold as the middle or backbone of your animal and draw one half of it on the card: keep the drawing as large as you can while still fitting on the card. Keep the shape simple and keep limbs thick (you’ll need to cut them out)

4. Cut through both sides of the card (AND NOT ALONG THE FOLD!)

5. Open out. We hope you have an animal! Draw in the detail on the other side of the body. Colour or decorate the whole creature

6. Scrap (or extra card) gave a finger strip: 1cm wide and about 10cm long: roll into a ring, staple then staple into the underside of the fold

Extra touches:

Scrap card: thin strips were curled gave us antennae on the crayfish

People: you can make a few human-type puppets in just the same way. This fine fellow uses my fingers as legs. If you don’t want animals you could always make a football team for your family (5-a-sides maybe?)

Necks, ears and antlers:

If you draw a neck at least twice as long as it should be, that will give you card to fold-back and make your animal more animated – look at the mouse and the swan

Ears and antlers: draw these in even if the angle feels odd, cut out and then fold up – see the deer

As a group:

You could plan your animals together and make a food chain, adding some scenery on a table top and acting out “the adventures of a mouse”, or “the hungry fox”, or “the watchful owl”…..

Our puppets

We drew our puppets with thick black pen so they would show up as we worked. If you work in pencil, it is easier to make changes if a line goes wrong!

Crayfish: not very common but a useful animal for showing lots of different techniques

Mouse: this method gives you a mouse with 2 tails! Trim one carefully to give your mouse a neat bottom! Look at the folded ears and fold-back on the neck

Deer: look at the fold-back neck and fold-up antlers

Swan: as a simple flying bird shape, this is a quick animal to make and the same idea would work well with other birds, bats, butterflies and bees. A swimming swan takes the same shape and folds it a bit. A flying bat can have its wings folded back on themselves to give someone sleepier. Try for yourself

 An earlier version of this activity was 

published by Wildlife Watch in 2017

write, scribble, sketch, glue...start a journal

build the spring into your notebook

a pencil and a notebook

Give a gift that endures

How are you planning these next few weeks?

If you are one of our essential workers, thank you. I hope you find time to rest and recover between shifts and I hope the rest of us are supporting you in any way we can

If, like the rest of us, you are in a splendid isolation, then I hope we might be able to offer some ideas to keep you going

Creeping Toad along with Stone and Water, the BabblingVagabonds and the Green Man Gallery in Buxton are going to start posting activities. For Creeping Toad, these will often be the things we would have made/done in sessions at Buxton Museum or in the library. We’ll take it in turns to post and between us offer activities that will cover a variety of ages, abilities and interests (we hope!)

We would love people to come back to us with the results of these activities; the triumphs, the disasters and the complete detours you went on. We can’t promise to post everything but we will share what we can and keep our creative community communicating!

Email: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

Facebook: Creeping Toad or Stone and Water

A starting point: but now, why not start by giving something to someone else? I like journals. A mix of diary, sketchbook, scrapbook and scribbling pad, my journals generally make very little sense to anyone else but are important to me. Why not start your own? Or better still, take a moment to order a notebook and a lovely pen or some coloured pencils to send to someone else. Smart notebooks are good, something classy, or just different (black paper always feels like a treat until you loves your silver pen!)

Then use your journal as a personal routine: first thing, last thing, somewhen. Stop. 10 minutes will do (it will almost certainly grow)….Me being me, my journals are about the world around me: looking, listening, feeling the weather, the plants, the animals, history, dreams and wonders. We'll come back to nature journals over the next few weeks. I make no apology for this: your journal should go in a direction that works for you. Nothing big or profound needed: just stop and make marks on a page: words, sentences, emojis, drawings or a carefully dated blank page

leaf print

When I look at useful journal sites or books (a couple of links below) they talk casually about sketching and seem to produce wonderful art just like that. I don’t.

This is yours. Your book. Share if you want to. And do not be ashamed of the mess you make. Writing, or drawing, practice helps. If something doesn’t work. Try it again. Try something else…..

When I am making books in workshops (building little books is a different activity and also lots of fun: concertina, 1-page folds, al good fun, for another day maybe) we have a working list of “things I could do”

• Write
• Draw
• Scribble (very useful)
• Sketch
• Stick (magazines!)
• Make pockets
• Patch (coloured, patterned paper to write on)
• Cut windows
• Make pop-ups
• Add maps
• Add fold out pages
• Do rubbings
• Print (remember potato printing? Or leaves,,, more printing will follow, hang onto your Styrofoam pizza bases)
• Paint
• Stick
• Enjoy

we always bring too much stuff

Enough to get started?

Go for it….

....and persist. It takes time for this to get going. Journals can become a place for you to have a conversation with yourself or with the world or just to pause and reflect but sometimes that takes time.

Journals:

What to choose

Personally I use softbacked sketchbooks from Ryman. (no, I don't get any product placement allowance!) If I buy spiralbound notebooks I always manage to dismantle them. You could visit Papersmiths for some lovely small notebooks and beautiful fountain pens! Mayfly notebooks are just lovely but their journals are sold out just now (so many brilliant minds sharing the same idea?)...go window shopping online for lovely notebooks for someone else. Then get one for yourself! No money? Start working on scrap paper and we'll build books in a week or two....

Ideas for journal processes….

Try these sites for ideas - there are lots out there but don't spend so long looking at other sites that you don't have time for your own notebook!

Lily and Thistle

Nature Mentor

Whatever you do, no matter how beautifully or how trollish (I go for a certain boggart style myself) , your journals are your own and are wonderful for that!

Boggarts often influence my drawing and writing...untidiness accepted

Save the Frogs Day!

Save the Frogs Day

event in Buxton

"Come, hop into the garden, Maud"

Sunday 26th April*

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

1.30 – 3.30

SORRY EVERYONE BUT THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED. BUXTON MUSEUM IS CLOSED AND ALL EVENTS ARE CANCELLED - WE DON'T KNOW HOW LONG FOR
I'M LEAVING THE CONTENT OF THE BLOG UP AS THE POINTS IT MAKES STILL STAND. FOR THIS AND OTHER CREEPING TOAD EVENTS DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS, I'LL POST A SIMILAR ACTIVITY ON LINE AT THE TIME WHEN WE WOULD HAVE DONE THE ACTIVITY - SPO KEEP AN EYE ON THIS BLOG FOR THINGS TO DO!

part of an international weekend of action on behalf of amphibians everywhere. Using information about fabulous frogs from around the world, draw your own giant frog or make a model pond to hang on your wall complete with tiny tadpole puppets! Or crocodiles - even though they're reptiles....
(*most events are taking place on Saturday 25th but our frogs are waking a bit later....) 

Find us: we'll be at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Terrace Rd, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6DA. follow the link for more information and directions
Details: this event is free (any donations will be hopped over to Save the Frogs)
Materials and vaguely artistic direction supplied
Tickets: no booking or tickets needed, just drop by and join in. Give yourself at least 30 minutes to make or draw something

Leptopelis, Malawi

From purple frogs to palm frogs, tinker frogs to sharp-snouted day frogs, ghost frogs, painted frogs, redbelly egg frogs, frogs are in danger across the world (not to mention toads, newts, salamanders and caecilians). Amphibians are important. They are the hunters of the slugs who eat your lettuces and the beetles that nibble your lilies. Their tadpoles feed just about everything else in the ponds where they live. More than that, they are delicate barometers of the state of an ecosystem: amphibian populations respond to water quality, air quality, even soil pollutions quickly and the health of their populations can be a call for help

Save the Frogs is an international campaign promoting greater understanding of amphibians. With projects ranging from Ghana to Nepal to Argentina, their work spreads a deeper appreciation of these wonderful creatures.

Save the Frogs Day in UK sets out to raise awareness of our resident amphibians and the delights they offer and the threats they face and give visitors to an event the chance to find out a bit more about some of the fascinating amphibians in other part so the world….

Common Frog on North Uist

At our Save the Frogs Day event in Buxton, we’ll have information about some of those strangely exotic amphibians from around the world (how can you not be fascinated by a Togo Slippery Frog or a Bornean Flat-headed Frog?), someone to talk to (mostly me: as Creeping Toad I am also a zoologist, a trustee for Froglife and a bit of an amphibian obsessive) and things to make and do: inspired by a frog you might like to draw one as big as you are. Or exercise your construction skills and make a pond of folded card and glue, with recycled plastic water ad plants and maybe the questing toes of a paddling child dipping into the “water” from above…..

This event is also part of the Celebration:Earth! project: encouraging people to stop, feel, think and reflect about the world around them: what have you done that you are proud of to help the Earth, what would you like to do next? Who could help you do that?

Useful links:

Save the Frogs:

Celebration:Earth! 

Froglife

Edge

Artists:

main painting: c/o the wonderful Ruth Evans

Small Leptopelis: me from about 30 years ago!

North Uist frog: me

Toad's eye: Kenny Taylor

Water lilies: me 

Celebration:Earth!

there is delight in everyday places.....

CELEBRATION: EARTH!

Taking time to pause: to reflect upon the world we live as part of, the world we are all working in different ways to protect and cherish. Celebration:Earth! sets out to invite people, to challenge groups, to reflect, share, celebrate their activity and to find new partners in environment, community creative and faith groups for the next steps they would like to take

From flowers for butterflies to solar panels, from a new pond to toad crossings, from a campaign to declare a climate emergency to convincing your neighbours to compost….

Is there an environmental success you would share?

From an atheist’s conviction, to an agnostic’s interest, a priest’s belief to a poet’s reflection

Is there a point of inspiration you act from?

Sunrise shining white through the mist that fills the dales, moonshine through clouds. Snowdrops. *

Is there a wonder that gives you strength?

Celebration:Earth! is a project based on hope and optimism. In these times of environmental despair and political melodrama, this project feels it is really important to remind ourselves of wonder. The anger and desperation that often marks environmental action might be great for immediate activity but to be lasting, sustainable and to empower its actions, we feel that environmental determination needs to come from a place of wonder and joy. We need to remind ourselves that this world is a wonderful place. Despite everything we are doing, despite the mess, it is still full of beauty and determination and life that just will not stop, and that can be what keeps us going

Supported by the Worldwide Fund for Nature, UK, and drawing together groups from across society, CE! is building a new network of partnerships of information and support, encouraging environment, community, art and faith groups to all find ways of working together. The “faith” element is important as when we draw on religious institutions or movements or eclectic anarchist networks, we can work with people whose motivations run deep, who can share a different set of perspectives from some of the familiar environmental ones, who care for spaces from small graveyards to tracts of open space and who are often already engaged in powerful environmental missions that the rest of us just don’t hear about

That’s what CE! comes down to: listening to each other: finding ways for groups to meet, to share successes and to find information or partners who might help them take their next steps, reach their next goals

village ponds hold treasures and wodners.....

Over the next few months we are finding people, challenging groups and inviting anyone to join in, building to a weekend gathering at St Albans Cathedral 18 – 20 September 2020 (see the website) but more than that, to connect, to share successes, to remind ourselves that there are good things happening. There is more action that is needed but there aren’t instant solutions and when we are shouting “we need X00 trees” we tend to miss the Y00 that are already being planted…..So how about stopping shouting and starting sharing.

and how can we not marvel at toads...

I am here as an artist – where art can be the vehicle that tells stories and that gives groups and individuals ways of expressing and sharing feelings

– as a pagan, because for me life in all its forms is sacred and I will (try to) work with anyone who comes to us open handed a

and I am here an environmentalist who can’t separate faith from science from creativity….

Within CE!, I am coordinating arts and education development and always looking for projects to share, people to talk to, connections to make

So how about it….

• Join the growing network
• Join us at St Albans (you’ll need to register)
• Tell us what you are up to
• Or just declare your own Earth Celebration event and find a way of sharing what you are doing with other people….they might come and help you or maybe you will inspire them to go and do something for themselves

determination in short grass

I don’t really care if people say this is too idealist to work (a recent criticism). We will only change the world for the better if we find ways of working together, if we learn to live and to think and to feel ecologically (experience the world as networks of connectedness) and I believe we need to remember that we live in a world that is worthy of celebration……

Rant over!

Visit the Celebration:Earth! website, or our facebook page (CelebrationEarth), or follow us on twitter (CelebrationEarth!)

Or keep an eye on things here…the CE! blog should be active soon as well

 

* I chose moments from this morning

 Photos: by me other than Toad's Eye: Kenny Taylor, and small toad in grass - Ian MacLellan - with thanks!