Segment 7th February 2011

Our new series starts on 7th February and the theme will be town and country.

New courses for 2011 - Life Lines - creative writing for older people

Ledbury Poetry Festival is kindly funding a series of weekly sessions on Thursdays (see poster) and these are free but you need to book your place - please phone or email me. We will be looking at the idea of "Life Writing" - the sort of writing that is based on the human experience of the world and our place in it. Enthusiasm is all you need to bring.

New courses for 2011

A new monthly series of Segments begins on Monday February 7th - see poster for details or call 01989 563370.  As usual, we will be using items from Herefordshire's heritage collection as our starting point.  The theme for our first session will be London and our picture is called "London Window box" by MFP Lewis.

Autumn update

I'm sorry to bring the word autumn into the conversation but September really is very close now and I want to let you know what's happening about the writing courses.

Firstly Segments - I'm afraid that there will be no further sessions but my thanks go to everyone who took part and made it such fun.

Other stuff -  I am running a few sessions closer to home in Ross and my usual workshops at Mind in Hereford.

BUT some of you may be interested in a free series in Ross on Wye, starting in November and funded for "older people" - shall we say 50+ ?  I am calling it Life Lines Writers. For this see the flyer (click to enlarge). If any of you are interested please let me know and I'll reserve you a space.

  

Sally

Creative Words@ Friars Street

The November series of Creative Words was attended by 13 enthusiastic people and we looked at ways of seeing the bright side of November and the English winter. We celebrated rain, snow, and light (much of the latter artificial) and wrote about them in prose and poetry; in haiku and kennings and many other ways. We were inspired by all sorts of poems, music clips and the paintings of Breughel. (We also had biscuits)

So thanks to all the participants, and to Robert Frost, Basho, Saint Lucia, Charlie Rossiter, Brian Patten and all the others who inspired and delighted us.

The photo shows our last session - sadly a few missing due to illness or having left Blighty for warmer climes. But we have decided to do more - we re-convene in April for a summery series - please get in touch if you'd like to join.

Therapeutic Words @ Friars Street, Hereford

Therapeutic Words@ Friars Street

The introductory workshop on November 6th - which was called "Therapeutic Uses of Creative Writing"- was a success and there was some very positive feedback. I noted down such comments as: enlivening, inspirational, gave me hope, gave me ideas, opened up possibilities.

So the result is that we are doing some more next year (see poster) but I have slightly changed the emphasis because people seemed as interested in personal development as in professional development i.e. although they may use the techniques and ideas they experience on the course in their work lives, their main interest is in their own development using creative writing.

So there will be 4 more Friday morning sessions next year - the first one on January 22nd. Do get in touch if you are interested.

Inside the Yurt

Recently it seems as though yurts are following me around - in a good way!
On World Mental Health Day in October I visited the Herefordshire Mind drop in centre at Heffernan House and there was a beautiful full-sized yurt miraculously squeezed in to their lovely garden and the sun shone on us. A couple of weeks later I visited the new visitors centre at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens and found myself inside another yurt - this time with its own carpets and a TV showing us a film about their amazing wych elm project.

And of course - Carol Ann Duffy recently wrote a very moving poem entitled Inside the Yurt - a typically image-crammed and magical piece dedicated to the work of Catherine Lockerbie. (You can see the poem on the Times online - click here