Cabinet of Curiosities

Earlier in the year, in my role at the council, I ran two creative writing projects for people living with, and affected by, dementia. One was called 'Cabinet of Curiosities' and included 8 weekly sessions at the Beaney in Canterbury for people living with dementia, their carers and some fabulous volunteers. We used the museum's exhibits as inspiration for our writing, sometimes wandering out into the galleries and sometimes handling objects in the room. This project was also a finalist in the Kent's Dementia Friendly Awards.

The other was called 'Day in the Life' and was held monthly at Blean Village Hall. This project was for people who had been affected by dementia in any way, maybe their husband or wife had a diagnosis, maybe it was their nan or grandad, or anyone. We were also supported by some great volunteers from the Word Out poets.

A selection of the work created during these projects was collated and a book produced, which was launched last Wednesday at the Beaney, where some of the participants came along and read aloud. The work they shared is moving, and funny, honest and heartfelt. One participant said to me 'I never dreamt I could write poetry' - this book goes to show that, given the chance, anyone can write, and everyone has something to say.

Hop Tales at Cranmer House

Last Saturday was the first of five creative writing sessions at Cranmer House in Canterbury. I’d met a few of the residents before, but it’s always exciting going into somewhere to meet a new group of people.

The residents had previously been working towards building a scarecrow for the Scarecrow trail at the Westgate Gardens, and they had created one on the theme of ‘Hopping Mad’ about the hop picking that happened locally. I decided it would be fun to link on to this for my first session with them.

We read poems about Hop Picking and also one written from a scarecrow’s point of view. The group spent some time imagining what it would be like to be a scarecrow and writing their own version of this poem. One writer told us how he thought his scarecrow would want to go for a pint!

This segued nicely into us reading a wonderful poem called ‘Get Drunk’ by Charles Baudelaire – after all, no workshop with the theme of ‘Hop Tales’ would be complete without talking about beer. After hearing about getting drunk, we wrote a group poem called ‘When I was naughty’ which had residents telling tales about punching brothers, stealing apples and cheating at exams!

All in all it was a great fun session full of recitations from Mary, wonderful poetry reading from Joan, fantastic cake baked by Fay’s mum and tea. What more could we ask for? I’m looking forward to the next one on 29 October on the theme of ‘Home’.

Write in a Yurt

The Quiet View is one of those places where you feel the tension leaving your body as you walk away from the car, and I knew it would be an ideal place for a writing for wellbeing workshop. A perfect place to stop, and breathe, and take time to reflect.

So last Saturday morning seven people (and a cat) joined me in the yurt at The Quiet View.

I’d taken inspiration from the beautiful location so we spent the morning exploring silence and sound, including reading some fantastic poems by Billy Collins, Michael Hofmann and Katherine Mansfield.

Our final writing activity involved sitting outside in the beautiful gardens to write about sound. This generated some beautiful, heartfelt writing including the sounds of the garden, memories brought back by the surroundings, jumpers, peace, and the importance of quietness.

As always I was touched by the honesty and the writing of everyone who came along, thank you for making it such a great morning. I'll keep everyone posted as to when the next one is :)

Finding Ella Harding

Last Tuesday was our first session at Brambles Care Home in Wye, where we introduced some of the residents to ‘Finding Ella Harding’  - which is a Heritage Lottery funded project being run by Jasper from Funder Films CIC.

Ella Harding was a teenager living in Wye during the First World War, and she kept a diary of the war by sticking newspaper clippings into exercise books, and writing accounts of what happened during the conflict. When she turned sixteen she volunteered at the aerodrome in the village where she spent her time mending planes.

I’m running four creative writing sessions with the residents to give them the opportunity to use the Ella’s diary as inspiration for writing, and to link some of the diary entries to their own lives.

During the war newspapers often published inspirational, patriotic poems, and Ella included some of these in her diaries. On Tuesday we read Big Boy Blue and War Girls by Jessie Pope.

War Girls talks about all the roles that women carried out during the war. It’s somehow comforting to think that despite the horrors of the war, something good came from it, as it was the first time women were able to take on roles that had traditionally been for men, and I wonder how different the world would be without that step forward.

A Tale of Two Labyrinths: Part 2

After our time at the UKC labyrinth we began the descent into town and out the other side to the CCCU labyrinth.

The Eliot path from the Uni led into a maze of alleys and pathways through town. I’ve lived relatively locally all my life and didn’t even know these green paths existed. Canterbury has well-hidden treasures. Half way, at the Beaney, we stopped for much needed refreshments, then continued our journey. Throughout the day I was reminded how much I really like walking when I have good company, and the people around me were all so interesting to talk and listen to.

We reached the CCCU labyrinth where I realised that labyrinths have their own personality, and can elicit different responses. This one was a classical labyrinth mown into the grass, and had a playful feel about it. Without even thinking about it, I took my shoes off so I could walk it barefoot, and noticed other people were doing the same.

Whereas the first labyrinth walk had been quiet and thoughtful, here people were running, dancing, talking and laughing their way around. The grass tickled my toes as I walked and I found I had a huge smile on my face. We ate our picnic lunch and chatted some more, about labyrinths, Canterbury, writing, life, the universe, and everything really.

Then began my third walk of the day.

I thought where my car was parked would be just round the corner, but googlemaps told me I was twenty minutes away. I planned a route and three of us began the trek.

At one point, we thought maps had lied, that this road was a dead end, and while we were deciding what to do we discovered the ‘St Augustine’s Conduit House’ –  a kind of 13th century mini-reservoir for St Augustine’s Abbey. It collected rainwater for the monks. This conduit was used right up until the 19th Century, although after the abbey was dissolved, it supplied a local brewery. Another hidden gem of Canterbury!

Maps hadn’t lied, it wasn’t a dead end – we followed an alley, climbed a metal stile (so wrong, stiles should be wooden!) then reached my car, and headed home for much needed tea. Physically exhausted, but mentally recharged. Thanks everyone :)

A Tale of Two Labyrinths: Part 1

Sunday morning arrived and I was faced with a dilemma before I’d even cleaned my teeth. It looked hot and sunny, but I don’t trust the Kentish weather. It often has a mind of its own, and I usually subscribe to the ‘layers’ strategy.

However, today I was doing a long walk, and carrying my lunch, so layers weren’t really an option – if it stayed as hot as it was now, I didn’t want to be lugging a cardi and coat around.

In the end, I decided to be brave, just took a hoody, and wore a summer dress to deal with the heat, but did pack a pair of leggings ‘just in case’.

So, after my very serious first world dilemma was sorted,  and after some jiggery pokery with travel and parking, I arrived at the labyrinth hidden away behind Eliot College.

Eleven of us had come together to walk the two labyrinths, it was gorgeous weather, and very peaceful on the hill up above Canterbury.

I stepped onto the stone path of the labyrinth, and took a breath, somewhat reassured by Jan Sellers reminder that you can’t do this wrong, just walk it as you feel is right. I’m a bit of a power walker and I expected to walk quickly, expected to find myself overtaking people.

But a strange thing happened, after the first few strides, I slowed right down, I started paying minute attention to the stone path, the pebbles and twigs, the leaves, the ants, the sun reflecting of parts of the path. I lost track of time while I was walking. It felt like I had permission to take my time, because what I was doing felt like it had a purpose.

The labyrinth walk was very quiet, people seemed focussed, and I became aware of a kind of labyrinth etiquette that stopped me waving and grinning to people as our paths converged. After walking, people sat quietly afterwards, some people wrote, and there was some murmured conversation.

Then we set off to reach Labyrinth Number 2, at CCCU’s Priory…

To be continued…

Farewell to Hut 136

On Sunday the sun set on Hut 136 at the end of a wonderful two weeks.

This time has given me space to breathe. The first week I had Swedish Quilt Artist Tamara Schultz with me for company, we spent lots of time throwing creative ideas backwards and forwards, diving into imaginative ‘what ifs?’ designing artists’ books, and chatting about the inconsequential everyday stuff that is actually very important. I also ran the ‘Write on the Beach’ workshop, which you can read about below.

The second week, after Tamara had gone, was more about quiet reflection and free writing. Staring out to sea, out towards that distant horizon, I could feel my brain begin to unwind and stretch into new directions. I spent time free writing, just scribbling without worrying about shaping things into ‘poetry’, and I now have a lot of raw material that maybe I can polish. It almost doesn’t matter, I can feel space in my head for ideas to grow and evolve, and that was what I really needed.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to People United for the use of their hut, it has been a truly treasured experience.