Woodland Tuesdays: holiday events for families

Woodland Tuesdays

free art events in Buxton woods in the summer holidays

From puppets to treasure chests, pompom monsters to creatures on your fingers, we’re bringing free creative sessions to the woods of Buxton. We will be running Woodland Tuesday art sessions in different woods on most Tuesdays through the school summer holidays

These sessions will be open for people to simply drop by and join in (but the situation might change so keep an eye on things at the links below and there are slots you can book on the Eventbrite pages). Sessions are free and aim to run from 10.30am to 1pm – the activity itself will probably take about 45 minutes. Activities will be aimed at families with children between maybe 3 and 12 years of age

FLAGS, WHAT 3 WORDS AND NOT GETTING LOST

Because we may be delivering these sessions in the middle of some of our woods we thought adding some What3Words locations might help. From a named entry point (eg Corbar Woods entry Corbar Rd), we will also mark the route to where the action is with flags and event arrows

Keep an eye on the links below for final details as they are confirmed:

Stronger Roots:  https://buxtoncivicassociation.org.uk/stronger-roots/

Stronger Roots events page: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/buxton-civic-association-limited-10198190093

Facebook: @Creeping Toad

Website: creepingtoad.blogspot.com

July 27^th: Twig people and Stick Monsters 

at Buxton Country Park (Grinlow Woods). A handful of twigs, twist of cloth, a smiling face and we’ll make the hidden people of the woods

Finding us: follow flags into the woods from the Buxton Country Park car park, Green Lane, Buxton. SK17 9DH

Eventbrite link for this event: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/woodland-tuesdays-twig-people-and-stick-monsters-tickets-163774139861

August 3^rd: Treasure Chests and pirate maps 

What is the lost treasure of the Gadley Pirates? Decorate your own treasure chest, create your own tiny pirate and send them away with a terrible treasure map

Finding us: we’ll be beside the pond in the middle of Gadley Woods (W3W: oatmeal.shelter.flickers): 

lots of routes in:

• from Gadley Lane, 
• over the golf course, 
• Gadley Lane from Watford Rd
• Gadley Lane then through the housing development and the footpath and gate into the woods: What3Words: shackles.fuss.racked

Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/woodland-tuesdays-treasure-chests-and-pirate-maps-tickets-163775247173

August 17^th: Pompom monsters 

Unexpected fluffy creatures lurking in the undergrowth – help us make a forest full of pom-pom birds, beasts and bizarre creatures! (we’ll have pompom makers with us but bring your own if you want to)

Finding us: Corbar Woods: follow the flags into the woods from the Corbar Rd entrance

W3W: pill-friends.snooping

Eventbrite link: Pompom monsters

August 24^th: Fingersful of creatures

Make animal puppets for your fingers: create your own adventures, rabbits, spiders, badgers and bumblebees 

Finding us: follow flags into the woods from the Buxton Country Park car park, Green Lane, Buxton. SK17 9DH

Eventbrite link:

Eventbrite: Fingersful It helps us a bit if you book places but plese do drop in anyway: we'll lways tr toa ccommodate anyone who turns up!

 

August 31^st: Woodland Treasure Chests

The pirates are back! This time from the Good Ship Corbar, hiding their treasure in Sherbrook Woods: decorate your own treasure chest, make a pirate to find some natural treasures

Finding us: Corbar Woods: follow the flags into the woods from the Corbar Rd entrance

W3W: pill-friends.snooping

Eventbrite: Eventbrite: treasure chests

For all sessions: 

Times: 10.30am – 1pmThese are free events and materials are provided 

Tickets: no booking needed just drop by and join in, allow 45 minutes for the activity. You can book a slot through the relevant Eventbrite link if you want to but you can also just drop in

Covid-19 guidance: at the moment we can run these as open events but if restrictions change we might need to limit numbers in any session. Please check on the Stronger Roots Eventbrite page or Creeping Toad facebook pages before the event you want to come along to

Pencils, papers and tree shadows

A tall shape, a bushiness of leaves, 

a broomfull of twigs

the Sketching Trees workshop

Buxton Country Park, July 10th 2021

The elegance of beech trees, the strength of ash, the grace of birch and the richness of hazel: our woods are full of wonders and in this event, we invited visitors to take a bit more time to really look, to get to know our trees. We joined Geoff Chilton, a resident artist from the Green Man Gallery in Buxton who took us through a systematic approach to simplifying the drawing of a tree

The world around us is often inspiring and people often say “O, I wish I could draw/paint/write/whatever, but...”. This workshop, part of the BCA’s Stronger Roots Project, gave people some tools to challenge those “I’m not very good at…” statements.

Geoff encouraged people to look, to look more carefully, not to be swamped by the sheer mass of details in a woodland, but to turn to an individual tree. He introduced us to a language of mark-making, our own language: looking for shapes, shadows, creating suggestions of detail, and that nothing you try is wrong...

(This workshop took place at Buxton Country Park with the trees featured growing in Grin Low Woods that you can walk into from the car park at the Park, while you could also plunge into the subterranean cold of the spectacular Poole's Cavern there)

We wandered into the woods….. and the rest of this post is comments from participants:

Very grounding and enjoyable

Loving the time I spent in the woods

A delightful – all the more so because impromptu and spontaneous activity - providing a rest from physical and mental exertion and an opportunity to sit, observe and enjoy the beauty of trees

I’ve enjoyed very much the idea/the guidance/doing the sketching 

I’m taking away “permission” to sketch for myself

I feel peaceful, connected, happy, relaxed, aware

I now feel more confident to sit and sketch in the woods anytime

I’ve discovered a new area I’d return to visit

Thanks to all our Sketching Trees participants and to Geoff for leading the event so gently

Our next “yes, you can do this!” workshop is on Sunday 18^th, finding inspiration for stories among the trees with award winning playwriter Rob Young: A Blockbuster with Trees

A full list of upcoming Stronger Roots events cna be found on the project's eventbrite page

For families, look out for Woodland Tuesdays that will be running through the summer holidays

Beech glade in Grin Low Woods

The town beneath the sea

 

Stories under the Sea

Littleborough Arts Festival

Sunday 27^th June

 

100 years from now, or 200, or 500. The Ice Caps have melted and the rising seas swallowed Liverpool, and Manchester, and Preston, Blackburn and Rochdale. People fled from the remorseless sea, finding crowded refuge in the hills of Lancashire and Derbyshire and the mountains of North Wales. But when the waves came to Littleborough, the people there found that they loved their homes, their towns, their families and their friends too much to leave. They stayed. They adapted. They changed…

 

 

This was where we started. Encouraging people to think about how the world changes, about climate change and consequences, we’ve been collecting the Stories Under The Sea as part of this year’s Littleborough Arts Festival. More events will follow but last Sunday saw the first stories from beside the waves take shape. We heard of shoppingtrolley submarines and mermaids on motorbikes. There were starfish and crabs and lobsters. In these distant days, seagulls nest in the spires of the churches and seaweed replaces grass in underwater gardens. There are new pets: dogfish, catfish and rabbitfish. There were seal-pigs and cow-sharks. People built double-decker-bus boats and dining-table rafts. As the generations move on, we find mermaids and fin-boys. At last, the Monster of Hollingworth Lake can wake and stretch and swim free again. Littleborough changes but its people remain and its story continues

 

 

 

Over the next few weeks those stories will be worked over and shaken about a bit so that when we all meet again in august – where there will be a trail of watery art-pieces through Hare Hill Park, the stories that I tell will include stories washed in by the tides of June

 

Make your own undersea book

On Sunday, we were making concertina books: these are very easy to make and just need a sheet of A4 paper, a piece of card for a cover and bits and pieces you’ve probably got at home. You can find instructions for making one here: Concertina book

 

You can download the book cover and useful pictures we were using here. These lovely pictures are by Alice Smith

Next events: follow the Festival on facebook: @littleboroughartsfestival  or on twitter - @boroartsfest to keep track of the next time the tide runs in.....

 

and just who is the Octopus Diver and what is her, his or its name?

 

 

A wonder of woodlands

A wonder of woodlands

free public events in Buxton, Derbyshire

July 2021

As part of the Buxton Civic Association’s Stronger Roots project, I’m coordinating an arts engagement programme of public events. The next wave of these starts with July…why not come and join us if you are in Buxton or thereabouts?

Art in the woods

During Buxton Wild Week and the Buxton Fringe there will be a number of art sessions in the woods of the town. You might like to hone your identification skills and make your own tree book, you might like to sketch, to be creative in Gadley or Corbar or Sherbrook woods or wander through the stories the trees tell us in Grin Low. Or exercise your imagination and shape a new story

IN THE FACE OF A SUDDEN SURGE IN COVID INFECTIONS IN BUXTON, BUXTON WILD WEEK EVENTS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED 

The post below holds links and details for all these events but to try to summarise….

 

Wednesday 7^th

10.30 - 12.30:   The woods of Grinlow

 

Thursday 8^th

10.30 - 12.30: Tales of the wild woods, Buxton Country Park

1.30 -2.30: Art in the woods (BWW), Corbar Wood

5 – 6: Art in the Woods, after school session (BWW), Gadley Wood

6.30 – 7.30: Art in the Woods (BWW), Gadley Wood

IN THE FACE OF A SUDDEN SURGE IN COVID INFECTIONS IN BUXTON, BUXTON WILD WEEK EVENTS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED 

Friday 9^th

1.30 – 2.30:Art in the Woods (BWW), Sherbrook Wood

4.30 – 6: Art in the Woods, after school session (BWW), Grin Low Wood

6 – 7.30: Art in the Woods (BWW),  Grin Low Wood

IN THE FACE OF A SUDDEN SURGE IN COVID INFECTIONS IN BUXTON, BUXTON WILD WEEK EVENTS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED  

 

Saturday 10^th

11am - 1pm: Sketching Trees with Geoff Chilton,  Buxton Country Park

 Sunday 18^th  

11am - 1pm: A Blockbuster with trees with RobYoung,  Buxton Country Park

Wednesday 7^th July

The Woods of Grinlow

Make your own tree book!

Combining finding out about the trees in Grinlow Woods with art, this workshop will take us through tree identification to printing, rubbing, drawing and writing to help us remember those trees. We’ll build our own books, lacing together pages, pictures and discoveries to make Tree Books to keep memories fresh and to add to as the leaves lengthen and ash-keys grow

Venue: Grinlow Woods, meet in Poole’s Cavern Car Park, event accessible for wheelchairs

Artist: Gordon MacLellan of Creeping Toad 

Time: 10.30 – 12.30

Materials are provided (but you are welcome to bring your own!)

Booking: this event is free but places need to be booked: The Woods of Grinlow Tickets, Wed 7 Jul 2021 at 10:30 | Eventbrite

Thursday 8^th July  

(4 events)

Tales of the Wild Woods

There are stories to be told in these woods, mysteries waiting to be unfolded. Join storyteller Gordon MacLellan from Creeping Toad for a storywalk through the woods, with stories to tell and new tales to grow. Gordon will share some of the storytellers art: encouraging visitors to create their own stories. Spinning wonders out of fluttering leaves and bird calls

Venue: Grinlow Woods, meet in Poole’s Cavern Car Park, gentle walk. 

Artist: Gordon MacLellan of Creeping Toad 

Time: 10.30 – 12.30

Materials are provided 

Booking: this event is free but places need to be booked: Tales of the Wild Woods Tickets, Thu 8 Jul 2021 at 10:30 | Eventbrite

Buxton Festival Fringe

10^th July

Sketching Trees with Geoff Chilton

The elegance of beech trees, the strength of ash, the grace of birch and the richness of hazel: our woods are full of wonders and in this event, we invite you to take a bit more time to really look, to get to know our trees. Join Geoff Chilton, a resident artist from the Green Man Gallery in Buxton and learn to sketch the trees of Grinlow Woods. Geoff will take you through a systematic approach to simplifying the drawing of a subject that can at first seem daunting

Venue: Grinlow Woods, meet in Poole’s Cavern Car Park, gentle walk. 

Artist: Geoff Chilton, https://earthpigpottery.com/

Times: 11am- 1pm

Materials are provided (but you are welcome to bring your own!)

Booking: this event is free but places need to be booked: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sketching-trees-tickets-161001839837?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

18^th July

A Blockbuster With Trees? 

Do you write? Do you want to write? Have you written before? Or not at all? Turn our woodland wonders into drama, action, adventure, romance, comedy…horror? Would you like to write a movie with award-winning writer and former BAFTA screenplay judge, Rob Young? Warm, witty and welcoming this workshop will play with laughter, delight and wild ideas….create a hero and walk them through a film, transform a painting into a movie, see a woodland glade as a dramatic set: it’s film-school in a forest!

Venue: Grinlow Woods, meet in Poole’s Cavern Car Park 

Artist: Rob Young, https://robyoung.info/art/

Times: 11am – 1pm

Materials are provided 

Booking: this event is free but places need to be booked: A Blockbuster With Trees? Tickets, Sun 18 Jul 2021 at 11:00 | Eventbrite

Tall Tree Tales

Tales of Tall Trees

or maybe tall tales of trees

~ the Stronger Roots Project ~

The shadow of a tree falls over the path, over your path, over your shoulder. The shadow of a tree falls over your heart with joy and delight. Or wariness, perhaps, as the branches sway while the wind is still, as the trunks creaks and leaves sigh.

Turning, we see the whisper of a tree-promise, floating away down the path, a leaf of opportunity to chase, to catch, to treasure….

We were talking about trees. Telling stories about trees. Listening to personal tales of trees: the best woods for den-building, the best trees for rope swings, the places where you would be disturbed (by interrupting adults), the places where you wouldn’t. Glades for picnics. Where there were rabbits. A stream to splash in. Children whose year of interrupted education had given them time to really get to know the woods of their town

During Buxton Wild Week, I was telling stories in two of our local schools: Buxton Juniors and Burbage Primary. I was there as part of Buxton Civic Association’s Stronger Roots project. Coordinating the Arts Engagement Programme within the wider project, we’re holding all sorts of events through the town over the next few months. 

We have made books among the bluebells. This weekend we made puppets inspired by the woods around us. We’ll be using tree identification to inspire printing and personal tree-books in early July (Buxton Wild Week, 2). There will be a sketching workshop and a film-story-be-inspired session as part of Buxton Festival Fringe later in July. 

Through August there will be Woodland Tuesday workshops: free, small, creative, and possibly quite frivolous, activities every Tuesday through the holidays. I’ll post details as plans finalise, or you can find more here

At Burbage, as well as stories, we had time to draw. They didn’t set out to be tree shadow pictures: we were looking at scribbling techniques and using that process to draw quickly and confidently, but when I came to look at the results, they felt like the shadows of trees falling over our lives.

All of this makes me think of workshops  our local community group Stone and Water ran last summer. Out of these sessions came various collective poems….one of which ends:

We are the people 

Who made the swings,

Who built tree houses,

Who fought with sticks,

Who made the bows,

Who fired the arrows,

Who fought the dragons,

Who camped in the shade,

And toasted marshmallows (on an ashwood fire.)

with many thanks to the pupils, teachers and attentive ears 

of Buxton Juniors and Burbage Primary Schools