Tiny! Treasure Hunters

Treasure Hunters

a Tiny! workshop

Sunday 12th July

1 – 4pm

Pavilion Gardens, Buxton

a Gryphon, hereditary guardian of treasure

What treasures would you hoard? Where would you keep them? Who would keep them safe?

Join us for this year’s Tiny! activity.

Decorate your own treasure box!

Find some natural treasures!

Mermaid, monster, pirate or dragon, who will guard your treasure?

 

Another summer, another Buxton Festival Fringe, another Tiny! day in the Pavilion Gardens. Tiny! workshops have been running for about 10 years now, inviting people to pause, sit down, chat to a stranger and make something small, no bigger than your hand (more or less), and generally relax in our beautiful Gardens

Finding us: in the Gardens, we’ll be on the grass between the young chidlren’s playground and the miniature railway’s station

At the moment we are planning for this event to happen. The final decision will depend upon government and local authority guidance on public events at that time. If you would like to attend, please bring a blanket to sit on and we’ll position blankets to maintain social distancing. For latest news check the Stone and Water facebook page and on this blog

• This event is FREE
• No tickets or booking are needed, just drop by and join in
• Children should bring a grown up with them (and make sure the adult behaves)

• 

  we can’t promise golden stones, you might have to find your own!

 

Midwinter decorations event

Midwinter Decorations

Green Man Gallery, Buxton

Sunday 1st December

12 – 4pm

 

Glittery pom-poms, beautiful boxes, ribbon pom-poms, Stocking Snaffler, Mince-pie Muncher, Present Peeker, frilly pom-poms.

 

a cluster of chilly pom-poms

From naughty Yulelad decorations for a branch to pom-poms for trees, windows, noses, ears and anywhere you like, join the Stone and Water team to make some lively and unusual festive decorations! We will be recycling old cards into lovely boxes (bring some of yours if you have old cards)  and turning stray ends of wool, ribbon and thin fabric (again bring some if you have any – but not if you are wearing it!).

 

In Iceland, there are stories of the children of the trolls Grylla and Leppaludi who come to town over the Christmas season looking for badly-behaved children. The stories started there but the Yule Lads have become a bit gentler and maybe a bit less fearsome and a bit more tricksy over the years. A long way from Iceland, we still reckon there could be some Yule Lads and Yule Lasses causing a bit of mischief in the houses of Buxton over the next next few weeks. We’ll be making our own Yule-kids to hang in the branches of our trees. Who would you add? Stocking Snaffler? Cracker Cruncher? Help us design our own Yule trouble-makers!

Join the Stone and Water team to make your own personal and distinctive decorations for this festive season

Stocking Snaffler in action

Time: 12 – 4pm

Place: Green Man Gallery (main gallery), HArdwick Hall, Hardwick Square South, Buxton, SK17 6PY

Cost: nothing! The event is free, materials, help and extra laughter re provided

Booking: no tickets or bookings are needed, just drop by and join in. Allow 30 minutes to make a couple of things

Children: please bring a grown-up with you

The Gallery: the Green Man Gallery’s Winter exhibition will be in full blizzard by this time so do bring some pennies and maybe some pounds with you and perhaps you will find that unique present for a special person!

 

This event is one of the Year In Our Town events organised by Stone and Water

 

 

 

 

 

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Gawain

November 2018

a dragon waits…

There was a long dark forest,

wicked woods, wild, wind-blown and whistling woods,

Where twirling leaves trembled on tall, terrifying trees,

With treacherous twigs to tempt you to a terrible fate

We are having a wintry Gawain and the Green Knight season this month

wooden spoon royalty

a new friend, or a new foe?

The Sir Gawain project saw a lively and successful weekend. There was painting, a new artwork from Sue Prince (with mass community participation, paintbrushes and pennies), walks, talks and excitements from Clive Foden, and  some 40 people, and more, joining us (Stone and Water, Creeping Toad, and Sarah Males) on Saturday to make a cast of medieval characters on wooden spoons at the Foxlowe Arts Centre in Leek

I am also working with the children of St Bartholomew’s C of E Primary School, Longnor, and Manifold C of E Academy, Warslow, to write the further adventures of Gawain. These are taking shape in exciting and unpredictable ways and now we are making puppets to animate our narrative poems….

But the long road home was waiting

A perilous path through the wild wastes

Where a wild wood grew over the hilltops

Through the dales

There were terribly twisty trees

Where owls rested on the branches

And wary wolves watched from the shade 

 

There were robbers in those woods

But fighting fierce foxes and

Struggling bravely to battle big, bad badgers

Gawain finally made it through the fierce forest

(Manifold)

enchanted forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through the woods in safety

Gawain stopped by a cool, relaxing pool,

The home,

But he did not know it

Of mysterious mermaids,

secretive mermaids

Who can sing, or scream, as loud as trumpets

Mean as monsters

Swift as snakes,

With claws as sharp as sharks’ teeth

They would drag you down, down to the depths

Down to your drowned death 

the Mermaid Pool at Blakemere

And of those mermaids there was one

Who had once asked the fairies of the forest

For a friendly favour, a wild and wonderful wish,

To become the most mysterious, the most marvelous,

The most powerful mermaid,

Ever 

 

Gawain rested by the water,

trailing his tired toes in

The cool refreshing water

When he felt a tug on his leg,

A hand pulling him into the dark water,

And down, down, down….

(Longnor)
So many people to thank here – all those artists, puppeteers and poets and Borderland Voices  who are coordinating my Gawain workshops in the schools

Field, flowers, fruit and picnics

Fields, flowers and fruit

A day of art and picnics

Dove Valley Centre, Staffordshire

Tuesday 4^th September

 

Join the Stone and Water team at the Dove Valley Centre for a relaxed session making the most of late summer sunshine (we hope!)

early for apples maybe…

At this beautiful setting in the Upper Dove Valley, there will be time to walk if you want to, and wander if you will, to look at flowers, hope for butterflies, watch the ravens wheeling overhead, examine the apples ripening in the orchard and draw, write, scribble, print or sew the things you have discovered.

 

There will be artists to help but this will be a relaxed day without lots of formal teaching. Bring a picnic and spend a day on the farm.

 

butterflies still on the nettles?

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

When: Tuesday 4^th September

Times: 11am – 3pm

What to bring: your own picnic, a raincoat (just in case – there is indoor space as well!), a smile

What we’ll provide: art resources and helpful artists, friendly people to talk to, warm spaces, refreshments and a wonderful location!

Finding DVC: the centre is signposted on the road between Sheen and Longnor/ Postcode: SK17 0PR

 

Parking: the track down the hill is steep but drive down to dale floor (past the farm and keep going)

Or park just inside the gate off the Sheen road and have a gentle stroll down to join us!

Cost: the event is free and no booking is needed – but it would help us a lot if we know you are coming!

 

Contact: if you have any questions, contact Gordon at stoneandwater@btinternet.com

 

turn discoveries into artwork

small creatures event

Wild Beasts and Fabulous Flowers

we are hoping for bumblebees

21^st August, 10 – 15.00

In the grounds of

St Bartholomews School, Longnor, SK17 0NZ

 

What wildlife lives in the fields and gardens of Longnor? With wildlife walks and a bit of rummaging, we’ll bug-hunt and butterfly count and hope for beautiful bumblebees

From bees, flowers, butterflies and wildlife: investigations will lead onto drawing and making until visitors can make a whole hand full of tiny creatures to take home
creatures

will there be rabbits?

• Free
• Materials provided
• Children 7 years old or less need to bring a grown-up with them
• No booking needed, just drop by and join in for an hour or so
• More information: stoneandwater@btinternet.com
• Or find us on fb: Stone and Water

Emergency excitement event! We have a day available for a community or community group in the South West Peak area for sometime in August or September: we will bring activities if you can offer a space and an opportunity open to anyone. Talk to Gordon or Sarah at our email address or at an event

 

will there be toads?

Working with support from the South West Peak Landscape Partnership and the Bingham Trust, Stone and Water is running this series of free family activities in the South West Peak and Buxton area through the second half of 2018.

We have 8 days of activity planned. Some places are stand-alone events. At others, we’ll invite participants to also propose ideas for a future winter event – maybe we should make lanterns of the houses in your village, maybe have a cosy storytelling session, maybe we should make kites of local birds…

 

there may well be mice on people’s fingers!

Next event: probably in Corbar Woods in Buxton – soon!

a house with long-bone fences

Lost Stories of Buxton

Thursday 19th July
Buxton Library
an event as part of Buxton Festival Fringe

the strangest street in Macclesfield (we weren’t sure we wanted it in Buxton!)

There were silly stories and horrible stories and slightly sticky stories involving marshmallows….
There were ideas about unicorns and ice cream

The city of the Gorgs sheltered in a mountain

While the Gorgs live in an underground city,
With a cold water supply from the mountain
Where a network of trees
Feeds energy to the city.
There under that mountain,
The aliens live, secret and safe
Waiting for the Doctor and a visit from the Tardis.

In the morning we had casual visitors, drifting in and being netted by our pens and glue and excitement and mess. After lunch the lovely Drama Club from The Rossendale Trust in Macclesfield and everything got even stranger with…..

practising cackles

A spooky house with long-bone fences
Where Rupert’s brothers are trapped
While he laughs his most sinister laugh.

The strangest street in the world
(or at least in Macc):
Adam’s graveyard,
Ann’s farm house,
A purple castle,
A haunted house with a burning roof
Whence everyone is trying to escape.

 

With many thanks to all our artists and storytellers,

to Buxton Festival fringe for encouraging the event

and to Buxton Library for hosting it!

This event was supported by The Bingham Trust

 

a bear waits in a beautiful wood

Save

Save

Summer excitements!

Laughter, buzzards, buildings and fun

A season of family events

From fabulous buildings to amazing creatures, from wide skies and rolling clouds to blizzards, rain and vanishing rivers, we’ll be celebrating the wonderful world of the South West Peak. Picking up on themes around wildlife, history, buildings and people, these events will invite participants to think about their homes, explore a bit, find fossils in walls, butterflies in hedgerows, who knows what or where

We have 8 days of activity planned. Some places are stand-alone events. At others, we’ll invite participants to also propose ideas for a future winter event – maybe we should make lanterns of the houses in your village, maybe have a cosy storytelling session, maybe we should make kites of local birds…We also have 1 “emergency excitement” day for the summer when someone or somewhere within the South West Peak could come to us and say “could you come and do something here please?” – no guarantees, but do get in touch! (stoneandwater@btinternet.com)

These events are free

• No booking is needed – just come along and join in
• Children under 8 need to bring a grown-up with them
• Each day will offer a mix of storytelling and art activities around different themes

JULY

Saturday 7^th

Dove Valley Meadows Meander

Dove Valley Centre, SK17 0PR

12 – 4

Art, stories and exploring the beautiful meadows of the Dove valley

lost castle from Warslow, maybe?

AUGUST

Wednesday 15^th

The lost castles of the moorlands

Warslow Village Hall

10 – 12, 1- 3

Haunted houses and lost castles: the buildings of the Moorlands – make your own strange or mysterious, wild, weird or wonderful house!

 

Tuesday 21^st

Wild beasts and fabulous flowers

St Bartholomew’s School playing field, Longnor

10 – 12, 1 – 3

Bees, flowers, butterflies and wildlife: fill your fingers with a field full of creatures

 

Wednesday 29^th (August)

Details to be confirmed (see contact below)

Taxal: event planned beside St James’ church: check for details

10 – 12, 1- 3

Tasty, crunchy, juicy…and is there a story, too?

 

OCTOBER

Sunday 14^th

Apple Day

Dove Valley Centre, SK17 0PR

(times to be confirmed)

An orchard full of puppet people!

For more information, look at

Stone and Water facebook page

Stone and Water blog: https://stoneandwaterblog.wordpress.com/

Email: stoneandwater@btinternet.com

 

Emergency excitement event! We have a day available to a community or community group in the South West Peak area for sometime in August or September: we will bring activities if you can offer a space and an opportunity open to anyone. Talk to Gordon or Sarah at our email address or at an event

The Summer Excitements programme is supported by South West Peak and the Bingham Trust

Goldsitch Moss holds memories, stories and precious wildlife