Boggarts at Longshaw!

A Day of Boggarts

What day? Sunday February 17th 2013

When?

Session 1: 10.30 - 12.30 (needs booking - meeting at the Moorland Discovery Centre, Longshaw) 

Session 2: 1.30 - 3.30pm (no booking needed - meet at the Visitor Centre)

Where? Longshaw Estate, National Trust

Getting there: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/longshaw/

Useful link: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/longshaw/things-to-see-and-do/events/

Cost and booking

morning: price: Adult £8, Child £5 cost includes activities, soup & a roll. Booking Essential (through the Trust - use the link above)

afternoon: activities are free but car parking charges may apply (no booking needed)

Exploring with Stories here will join the bigger event at Longshaw marking the opening of their Boggart* Play Trail. Exploring with Stories will be on hand to tell some Boggart Tales and do a bit of Boggartt detecting - looking for signs of boggart life, adventures and mishaps….

In the morning workshop there will be Boggart stories, Boggart building and other twitchy activities

* Boggarts? if you're not sure then a word of explanation might help…Boggarts are the awkward cousins of the fairies. You'll have read Fairy Stories, we are sure and you will know that Fairies are often beautiful. Boggarts aren't. And that fairies are sometimes kind. Boggarts aren't. And that fairies sometimes grant wishes. Boggarts? Not a hope!

But Boggarts are exciting, naughty, lumpy, bumpy, hairy and stary….Boggarts are fun

Festive Explorings!

Christmas at Ilam Park

not many dragons in Ilam these days
but we can story a few....

Exploring will be at this weekend event on Sunday 9th December when we'll be telling stories, making little story sculptures and generally adding to the festive atmosphere

General details:
Dates and times: 8th and 9th December, 11am - 4.30pm

Venue: National Trust, Ilam Park

What else is happening:
local food, craft and gift stalls. Family activities and woodland grotto. British Christmas tree and log sales. Carol singing. Linches in the Manifold TTea Rood and BBQ

Cost: entry is free (car parking charges may apply?)

Further details: National Trust: 01335 350503

Link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/peakdistrict

Apple Day - extra fruit!

Some extra photos of Apple Day excitements at the Dove Valley Centre, with thanks to Sue Blatherwick

Big Draw in Buxton Museum!

Revealing the world through drawing

Wednesday 31st October

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

10 am - 12 noon

1pm - 3pm

Shells, fossils, wonders and marvels: join artist and storyteller Gordon MacLellan and make your own collection of drawings and prints using tiny treasures, wonderful artefacts and fabulous fabrics from around the world

This is a Big Draw event: part of the world's biggest celebration of drawing. Buxton saw a colourful draw on Saturday 13th in Pavilion Gardens. For our next pencil-driven adventure, come to the Museum on 31st and enjoy the latest exhibitions as well as our event. Look, peer, handle and maybe even sniff objects to handle: from African masks to ancient fossils, Australian seed pods to deep sea shells: a chance to draw, sketch and scribble your own set of pictures of a fascinating world. 

Can you draw your way around the world in 10 pictures? 
Or span the history of the Earth in 20? 
Or why not just pause in a busy day, take up a pencil and relax for a few minutes!

No booking needed: just drop in (but give yourself 30 minutes to work in so don't arrive right at the end of a session!)
Children under 8 years old need to bring a grown-up with them!

Free: materials supplies

Where: Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Terrace Rd, Buxton, SK17 6DA

This isn't an "Exploring" event as such but it is the same team involved and we thought you might like to join in!

Big Drawings!

autumn leaves and big pictures!

autumn colours might get those fingers drawing!

Saturday October 13th

11am - 2pm

meet by the Bandstand 

in Pavilion Gardens, Buxton, SK17 6BE

Free

Materials provided

October is the month of the Big Draw so why not warm up your pencil fingers, wriggle those painting hands and give your art legs a shake down and join us for a Big Draw in the Pavilion Gardens

Inspired by the colours and patterns of autumn in the Gardens, we'll do a big picture in front of the Pavilion working on a long roll of paper with chalks and oil pastels

Everyone is welcome - you don't need to be "an artist" - enjoying autumn is enough for us to get you drawing!

Wet weather? we'll still work together but indoors and on a smaller scale - find us in the Conservatory!

Artists: Sarah Males and Gordon MacLellan are two of the leading artists from Exploring with Stories. Based in Buxton they both work to find ways of celebrating the places where people live, work and play.

early morning dew might inspire a scribble

Apple Day, 2012

the day began beautifully...

...and held beautiful all day

A bright, beautiful autumn day with clear skies and hogweed seedheads

Activities: tiny clay apples

tables of clay and treasure chests

dookin' for apples

A day of apple tasting and orchard walks, fruity stories, orchard treasure chests and apple cakes to taste. We made small apple books, and clay apples, apple trees, orchard fairies and even a monster to fit sneakily into a treasure chest

Artists involved:
Gordon MacLellan - Creeping Toad
Sue Blatherwick
Dove Valley Centre

The apples are coming!

APPLE DAY

Sunday 7th October, 2012

relax and wait while the wildlife watches you

Dove Valley at sunset

celebrate autumn's richness with orchard investigations, apple recipes and fruit-creature-puppets stories and laughter

The last of our Exploring with Stories public events for now, Apple Day is a celebration that has become well established in the alst few years after an initial launch by Common Ground

This event offers a chance to look at orchards, to think and find out more about your own fruit trees, to taste apples and autumn recipes, to listen to some tree, wood and wildness stories and generally be creative

Where: Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle, nr Longnor, SK17 0PR

Link: www.dovevalleycentre.co.uk

Time: 11am - 3.30pm

The event is FREE

telling stories at the Dove Valley Centre

Running towards more adventures!

Run Away To Adventure

Sunday 30th September 2012

We have another of our wildly delightful "adventure" events next Sunday

What is happening: making dens deep in the woods! Stranded on a desert island? Lost in the forest? Cast away after storms at sea or on the local duckpond...we'll make the dens we'd like to survive in - woodland shelters, hidden dens, foraging, planning and telling the dreadful tales of how we got stranded here

Where: National Trust, Longshaw Estate nr Hathersage

(meeting: Moorland Discovery Centre, Longshaw Estate, 
Sheffield, Derbyshire, S11 7TZ)

Times: places can be booked on either the morning  or afternoon session

Costs: no cost for activities, car parking charges may apply

What will we do? You'll be working with three of our workshop leaders to:

         tell the story of our adventure: did we run away to live in the woods, were we shipwrecked on a desert island, did pirates abandon us to guard their treasure?

         build our own shelters: using ropes and mats, nets and what we can find in the woods, we'll make our own shelters and weave our first useful tools to help us survive in this new adventure

         record our stories: by the end of our workshop, we'll sit down in our shelters and tell the terrible tales of the adventures that brought us to this place. We might take these tales away with us written on paper, as tiny woven baskets or as postcards….

Places are limited on "Run Away to Adventure" and need to be booked: call 07825 177355 or email stoneandwater@btinternet.com,  to reserve a place and receive further details

Running towards adventures

adventurers gather by the fire

 A week of activity! We had planned a lively week to coincide with National Family Week - but then that was cancelled but our events went ahead anyway!

In the last few days, we've had swarms of people out looking for Faeries, Trolls and Goblins in Padley Gorge near Hathersage. That was such a magical and perilous time that photos will follow later when we have determined that they are safe from spells and that to look at them will not risk enchantment and having all of you turned into frogs (not necessarily a bad thing, I hasten to say, but we have to observe some proprieties)

a fire for burning biscuits

making baskets

Wednesday was flooded. The woods where we hoped to go Into the Woods were waterfalls, and rivulets and our heroic artists dripped within minutes. Visitors had more sense and stayed at home. We surrendered the day to the rain and its thunder

cooperation helps when
building dens

But to-day people gathered to Run Away to Adventure and in Grinlow Woods we heard the tale of the dragon who, after killing the crabs, chased the girls who had been looking in rockpools off the beach  and into the woods where they built a den that was so well-hidden no dragon could see it.

a tiny lamp lights a small corner

Then there were the family who were on a holiday sailing down the Nile when their boat was overturned and abandoned by search parties, they made a camp on the banks of the river. Braving crocodiles and hippos, they caught fish in the river and made friends with local people

moss for pillows

The stories span on, watchtowers on the heights, the nutriritonal value of toasted biscuits, a branch polished smooth and pale that looked suspiciously like a giant's thigh-bone, baskets to collect fruit in, the best ways of cooking rabbits (especially oens made of moss and bark!), wet clay lamps to light the dark, wild nights, the relative merits of logs and bracken as bedding,…….

all modern conveniences,
even a basin for washing....

on the banks of the Nile (use your imagination!)

Books we used

Places we went to for ideas in planning these sessions

Into the Woods:

TH White, The Sword in the Stone

East, Maddern & Marks, The Spirit of the Forest

Julia Donaldson, The Gruffalo

Jane Gifford, The Wisdom of Trees

JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

Dragon Girl tells her tale

Run Away To Adventure

BB, Brendon Chase

JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit

Michael Morpurgo, Kensuke's Kingdom

Ray Mears, Essential Bushcraft

Scott O'Dell, Island of the Blue Dolphins

Swiss Family Robinson

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

watchers on the hilltop

Family events in August

EVENTS FOR AUGUST

a sample folded puppet theatre.....

August has begun with some exciting activities. We were at the National PlayDay celebrations in Leek (well done, Erica and the Staffordshire Moorlands team!). Making little folded puppet theatres and new stories to tell in these, we worked with more than 100 people over the day. Today, (Thursday 2nd) I worked with visitors to SureStart centres in Buxton, using similar activities and rummaging around in flowerbeds to find bits and things to help us tell stories which ended up with sneezing heroes, a flying carpet, a knight looking for flowers and a hero who had a quiet and peaceful time in the woods!

Knights, monsters and encampments hidden in the woods....

Mums and Dads made their own theatres and stories

a fairy and her palace

1. Tuesday  28th August 2012

Away with the Faeries, Goblins and Trolls

Where: Padley Gorge on the National Trust's Longshaw 

Estate near Hathersage

Meet at the Granby Barn Interpretation Centre on the B6521

Times: 11 am - 1pm or 2pm - 4pm

Costs: no cost for activities, car parking charges may apply

No booking is needed: just turn up and join in

What is happening: we'll explore the atmospheric landscapes of Padley gorge, looking for secret places, troll baths and goblin houses. We'll make puppets, build faerie homes and monster lairs and invent stories to tell each other

who knows what we'll find in the woods

2. Wednesday 29th August 2012

Into the woods

Where: Buxton Country Park, Poole's Cavern, Green Lane, Buxton SK17 9DH

Times: 10.30 - 12.30, 1.30 - 3.30

Costs: no cost for activities, car parking charges may apply

What is happening: as explorers, naturalists and storytellers, we'll explore the woods: identifying trees, finding the animals that live there, using art and science and stories to understand the secret lives of trees

3. Friday 31st August 2012

Run Away To Adventure

Where: Buxton Country Park, Poole's Cavern, Green Lane, Buxton, SK17 9DH

Times: morning  and afternoon sessions

Costs: no cost for activities, car parking charges may apply

What is happening: making dens deep in the woods! Stranded on a desert island? Lost in the forest? Cast away…we'll make the dens we'd like to surivive in - woodland shelters, hidden dens, foraging, planning and telling the dreadful tales of how we got stranded here

Places are limited on "Run Away to Adventure" and need to be booked: call 07791 096857 or email stoneandwater@btinternet.com,  to reserve a place and receive further details

Pirates!