Strange towers and creepy houses

Thomas' frightening castle!

Shhh! tiptoe up the stairs!

the door creaks open....

The floorboards groan under tentative toes...

The swamp heaves and waits. Wetly.

In a dark castle beyond the mountains...

Castle's were popular subjects....

we even got Mums and Dads
to make their own story-cards!

A Summer Reading Challenge workshop for Nottinghamshire Libraries. In magnificent West Bridgford Library (well done, West B for making sure this was built! What a place!), an intrepid company gathered to turn their own ideas about spooky houses and sinister settings into pop-up cards

We gathered our first ideas into a collective poem

Crescent moon, full moon, no moon at all! 

The ghost train will bring you 

Along the haunted line,

Past golden palaces and beautiful gardens

To the Creepy House.
Full of bats and spiders,
Cobwebs and ghosties
Watching from windows.

monkeys rather than crows, but still watchful!

Crows sitting on treetops
Spy on everything
And bats flap
Through the woods.
A strange dark figures
Walks silently down the long path
Through the wood of dead trees.

Graveyards and tombstones
A witch fies across the moon
Creepers that catch you
Vampires that follow you

Milly's House

Milly* told us a story of
a girl who went on adventure with a pocketful of apples. She bravely walked up to the front of the spooky house and knocked on the door....
"What would you taste like?", 
"Squashed slugs!" she said. 
"I like slugs" said he. 
"But i am as tough as an old tree", said she
"If you bite me, your teeth will break!" 
He smiles and there are no teeth left in his mouth....

Fintan went for swamps

while Tristan preferred the beach

There was a terrible news about Tristan's beach pop-up because just after he made it, he disappeared from his bedroom. But a small boy's face could be seen looking out of one of the windows in the huts. The face wasn't there before...

...but almost anything is better than disappearing
 in the swamp in Rowan's story

Charlotte sent divers deep under the sea

I love the detail here!

a dragon in a cave!

(* my apologies to anyone whose name I've got wrong! Let me know and I'll correct them)

Wandering in the West

Out in the west of ireland now for a few days (thank you Grundtvig funding!) to attend the Burrenbeo Land-based Learning conference and meet a couple of other organisations.

Too much travelling today! But travelling into such an exciting landscape

In Caherconnel ringfort, I got very distracted by their stone walls....

Beautiful ferns tucked into the cracks in the limestone pavements (are they still called grikes in ireland?)

 Hanging over a wall, failing to photograph tadpoles in a cattle-trough!

And this lovely piece of writing:
This barony affordeth not a piece of timber sufficient to hang a man, water in any one place to drown a man or earth enough in any place to bury him. This consists of one entire rock with here and there a little surface of earth, which raiseth earlier Beef and Mutton, though they allow no hay, than any land in this Kingdome, & much sweeter by reason of the sweet herbs intermixed and distributed everywhere...

The Journal of Thomas Dineley, 1681

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Fanfares Of Trumpets And Galloping Knights!

Our "Gawain" project moved into performance today! It was magnificent and I'll post more photos and comments over the next few days but just now I wanted to share some images of the site and words form the final performance....

Setting the scene:

After "Gawain and the Green Knight", came "Five Children"......

 Here are just a few extracts from the main poem...our heroes are Five Children, on a quest through the Perilous Forest to find their parents frozen by the Witch Victoria

Then, dripping mud,

Cold and wet and miserable

The children stood

On the edge of a stream

Where one long stone crossed the river

One long rock over

A waterfall like a mountain

Deep, dirty and dark

Dashing down into danger

out into the dark woods

Later, the adventurers arrive at the Palace of the Woodland Queen, Quire ( the willow tunnel and sculptures are by Jeff and Heather Allen)

Deep in the woods,

There is a wonderful palace.

A wild, woven willow hall

With windows looking out onto the world,

Decorated with jewels and gems,

Beside a swamp where

The tadpoles wriggle and spotted frogs jump.

There is a magical throne there

Where the King and Queen of the Forest sit.

After various adventures, they reach the Witch's home, hidden in the ruins

Carefully creeping, up precarious stairs,

Sneaking slowly past

Giant cobwebs and giant spiders,

And through

Smells of rotten eggs and old fish,

Blood and death

It is cold.

Cold as ice on an Arctic winter's day,

The children's breath steams in misty clouds

In the final showdown....

There are pots and pans and pennies,

Bottles for potions and lotions and poisons,

Skulls on shelves and bones in the biscuit tin,

A red pot for mixing blood drinks.

There is a copper kettle for carrot tea

And bowls of dead fish,

And pine cone toothbrushes,

And a stone bottle with stone water

There is a horn that blows silently and summons bats,

Ice diamonds, spelling crystals to freeze thieves,

A golden bracelet for trapping arms, squeezing tight, crushing bones.

Gathering anger,

Gathering spells,

Fingers flexing and filling with fierceness,

Victoria the Witch stands up,

Enchantments crackling and sparking

From hair and nose and fingertips.

But as to what happens in the very end - you'll have to wait and see"

(a beautiful Lady Toad who started the day for me)

Summer events, 2013

Stone and Water, the community group I am deeply involved with here in Buxton are lining up some summer holiday events as part of our ongoing Ancient Landscapes project

They are all designed as lively family events but stray grown-ups are welcomed in their own right too! So why not come along and enjoy a fossil and a bit ofcreativity for your own sake!

The Ancient Landscapes Project is supported by the Peak District National Park's Sustainable Development Fund

Event summaries: details follow

All events are free (car parking charges may apply in some places). Family events suitable for children from 4 years and over

1. Tuesday 30th July: Life in ancient seas, at the Moorland Discovery centre, National Trust Longshaw nr Hathersage

- make your own prehistoric rockpool model! Sessions 11 - 1 and 2 -4, no booking needed

2. Thursday 1st August: Monsters from the Limestone, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery: SK17 6DA, making large puppet fossil animals from the depths of the ancient Peak District seas!, 10-30 -12.30, 1.30 - 3.30

3. Tuesday 6th August: Winnat's Pass Walk: exploring the millstone grits of the Dark Peak. Meet: Castleton Visitor Centre Car Park, S33 8WP, at 2pm. Walk 2 - 4pm, some steep slopes and off paved footpaths

4. Wednesday 7th August: Life in Ancient Seas at Leek PlayDay

Brough Park, Leek, 11 - 3: meet the Ancient Landscape team and make your own finger-puppet fossils or ancient seascape

Events in detail

I found this image on line
 - apologies to original artist!

1. Life in ancient seas

Date: Tuesday 30th July 2013

Venue: Moorland Discovery Centre, National Trust Longshaw, nr Hathersage

Times: 11 - 1 and 2 - 4

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed)- car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

Come and paddle in a prehistoric sea! Explore life in the Carboniferous Seas of 300 million years ago that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll look at fossils to understand the animals of the times, draw those animals and the corals and seaweeds they lived in. Then visitors can make their own model rockpool as a piece of ancient seaside to take home

2. Monsters from the Limestone

Date: Thursday 1st August 2013

Venue: Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, terrace Rd, Buxton SK17 6DA

Times: 10.30 - 12.30 and 1.30 - 3.30

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

Exploring life in the Carboniferous Seas that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll look at fossils to understand the animals of those times, and build our own limestone creatures as puppets and masks - make a pet trilobite, wear a giant brachiopod, or have a tame crinoid or nautiloid to ripple home with you….

Basic activity is straightforward with lots of options for people to experiment with

we cna only hope the Pass will
be this bright in August -
it was blocked with snow in March!

3. Winnat's Pass Walk

Date: Tuesday 6th August 2013

Meeting point: Castleton Visitor Centre Car Park, Castleton, Hope Valley S33 8WP

Times: 2 - 4pm

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

With National Trust Rangers, we will explore the geology of this dramatic gorge, meeting the millstone grit that eventually covered the limestone of the White Peak. A Stone and Water will help the group explore creatively: drawing rocks and shapes, composing instant poems, making up wild stories about the cliffs and caves of the Pass.

This walk will last 2 hours, has some steep slopes and will not remain on paved surfaces. Strong footwear essential and clothing to suit the weather

4. Life in Ancient Seas at Leek PlayDay

Date: Wednesday 7th  August 2013

Venue: Brough Park, Leek (beside the Leek Leisure Centre)

Times: 11 - 3

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

Come and paddle in a prehistoric sea! Explore life in the Carboniferous Seas of 300 million years ago that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll be making personal finger-puppet trilobites and pet ammonites and models of ancient seasides…

DNA in flower petals!

Couldn't resist this - a well-dressing in Buxton Market Place, July 2013....made in flower petals pressed into clay are a very distinctive Peak District summer celebration of the waters of the Peak. A survival from older times, the first documented dressings were in Tissington in 1300s. Then in the mid 1800s the tradition started spreading through the villages, waxing and waning like a tide of its own until just now that tide is running fairly full and deep. This year's well dressings can be found at this Welldressing calendar

And this year in Buxton Market Place, the well dressing (no well there any more!) celebrates the work of Watson, Crick, Franklin and Wilkins

Gawain, 2013: the adventure begins

and Gawain has probably been sidelined already...he has had adventures, we haven't!

An exciting and damp day at Wycoller Country Park has given our "narrative poem"project a big boost with ideas about places where adventures might happen, characters we might use and encounters that might befall our heroes. Our aim is to create a story-poem whose process has encouraged children to extend their vocabulary, to enjoy poetry with rhythm and alliteration but not worrying about rhyme, and to meet other ways of structuring stories. While our story develops a musician (Hannah Kidd) and Ruth Evans, a textile artist, will both work with the groups to take the story into othe rmedia. In a couple of weeks we'll go back to Wycoller Country Park and tell the story in public for the very first time....

Everything is still open, but we thought you might enjoy some of our first images and ideas....

We scribbled ideas onto sheets and had a washing line of pages that we could move around which was fine as long as it was sunny! Our aim is to write a collective adventure poem, set in  roughly medieval world and using the places we visit, the things we find and our own wild imaginations...

The beginning of the adventure, maybe?

BEGINNING

A cloudy, rainy, stormy day

When only ducks and slugs are out

Dripping rain, dripping children

Soaking through their shoes

But a day hoping for rainbows

Characters we might use

MEN-AT-ARMS

Knucklehead knights,

Strong and brave with sword and spear and shield

Mighty, magnificent men-at-arms

With mace and mail and morning star

Monkeys or mammoths on their shields.

Quiet as moths and mice and mean as midges

They serve the King and Queen of the Woods

And are not very bright

The Wycoller landscape gave us settings...

RUINS

The rugged rocky ruins,

Old, ancient and rough

Thin windows, huge fireplace

that will hold

A whole company warm

Or roasting

TREES

Tall trees grow in those woods

Towering, toppling, tumbling trees

A tangle of leaves and branches and bark

Old, old trees and new saplings,

A world of green and brown

There are children in the trees

They hid in the leaves

Under the leaves

For so long, for too long

And they became green and 

As secret and silent as the trees themselves

Partners in the adventure:

Roughlee Primary School

Whitefield Infant and Nursery School

Mid-Pennine Arts

Wycoller Country Park

with funding from the Clore Duffield Foundation

Hathersage, 2

our story corner in the schools's wildlife area

Little John? Highwaymen in my house that used to be a pub? Us!...people in Hathersage who could be in an adventure!

iris by the pond, newts in the water!

As tall as as a tree
as loud as thunder
Nettle-sharp eyes and
Sword-teeth
The giant climbs over the wall
And stamps across the field

His eyes are knots in trees,
Under eyebrows as wild as moss,
His teeth are sharp thorns,
His bushy hair is sticky weeds
His ears are big, round shells
And his voice is as loud as church bells

small story moments turned up everywhere

two hedgehogs went adventuring - and built themselves a campfire!

pirates were popular heroes, here with a feast

Year 1 sent themselves out into the wild and
built themselves (very small) shelters

young pirate and friend with treasure-sniffing dog 

pirate with fishing net by her shelter