August 5th, 2013: Wood Magic Picnic and Storytelling Adventure

Our first Wood Magic event took place today at the Richard Jefferies Museum. It looked like it was going to rain, "Bring something waterproof to sit on folks! But don't let the rain stop you, just wellies and waterproofs...stories in the rain is good fun." was the message. 

Mike provided a tarpaulin, I found a lovely spot behind the orchard, under an old plum tree. The stinging nettles needed to be removed, a bench provided and the tarpaulin laid out. It looked very magical, secret, wild! Mike and I could imagine Jefferies sitting in there, writing or thinking. I hid Kapchack's treasure behind the tree. But the children were quick, and all over the tree. In my bid to rescue the gems, I spilt them all over the ground. Some things should not be rescued, was my thought. 

We prepared the workshop room in the cottage: colouring, large paper for group drawings, clay work for the pendants and a lovely story diorama from Jill Carter who also came to help work with the children. It looked super. 

Grown-up children arrived first! Always good to see the like-minded, who love Jefferies, keen to be involved in sharing his stories and environment: Frances Bevan, Ian Hamson, Simon Webb,Joy Bells, Clare Keen, Bea Menier...followed by families with enthusiastic children, "this is wonderful!" said Hannah. Children began to gather sticks, run through the many secret spaces, explore the orchard. Would they ever want to sit down and listen to a story? Perhaps the garden is enough of a story itself! It was for Jefferies. 

At 3pm, we gathered in the 'story-den'. Some children were still very restless, chattery, intrigued, scrambly, like squirrels! Some sat eagerly waiting: word had got out that Kapchack was king! "Is there a king?" "Yes, high up in this tree, there was a king over everybody and everything, and this was his palace!" "And who is the toad? Where did he live?" cried a little voice. What happened to the couple in the orchard? Did he ever find the locket? Alas no! The beautiful young girl went to France and George grew old in the orchard, until one day...

Stories over, Mike gives a tour of the museum, the quiet spaces upstairs are full of interested visitors. Hilda, Joy, Billy and Jill make some pendants with children and eat a little cake...some pringles and bread rolls work their way onto the table. Its a busy place. Some children are still running about with sticks and playing in the den. 

And the rain came down at 4:30pm. Thank you rain for holding back and for giving us a few dry hours on this wonderful afternoon to share one of Swindon's best kept secrets: Richard Jefferies, his stories and gardens, his own love of children too, which is so evident in his storytelling, and ability to have nature whisper into small ears. 

GALLERY: 

pendants and colouring

Jill Carter's World

Friday 2nd August: Making session with Jill Carter

I need a farmer, his love, some things to engage children...some jewels. Jill offers up her studio of wonderfulness...Flo gets to work. Jill has an old Jewelry box. Could this be a garden treasure box? It becomes a garden treasure box! We make flower filled backgrounds. We make a farmer and his love.. Jill drew fun people... in love.

and they slot nicely into the box lid. I have filled it with Kapchack jewels. We have a story! The Story of My Heart, says farmer George.

That Kapchack is such a magpie!

Thursday 1st August: Shopping and Making

Only four days until children come to visit. I have been thinking about the Wood Magic text, rereading, rereading. What will engage the children? Is it the toad? Is it the spider? Is it the evil Kapchack? Or, perhaps a love story? Aha! The young farmer and his girl from the village:

Once upon a time, many, many years ago, when the old gentleman was young, and lived with his mother at the farmhouse, it happened that he fell in love. The lady he loved was very young, very beautiful, very proud, very capricious, and very poor. She lived in a house in the village little better than a cottage, with an old woman who was said to be her aunt. As the young farmer was well off, for the land was his own, and he had no one to keep but his old mother, and as the young lady dearly loved him, there seemed no possible obstacle in their way. But it is well known that a brook can never run straight, and thus, though all looked so smooth, there were, in reality, two difficulties...

A rich young man also becomes attracted to the young lady and gives her a golden locket. The young farmer is jealous and will not speak to her. The young lady loves the farmer and tries to make amends:

"George, I have put the locket in the arbour, with a letter for you. If you will not speak to me, read the letter, and throw the locket in the brook."

But George never finds the locket nor the letter...for Kapchack, the magpie has stolen it. His love never returns and he grows old in his orchard. Until a storm comes and breaks the apple tree, revealing the letter and the locket. George reads the letter:

When the poor old man had read these words, and saw that after all the playful magpie must have taken the glittering locket and placed it, not in his nest, but a chink of the tree; when he learned that all these years and years the girl he had so dearly loved must have been waiting with aching heart for a letter of forgiveness from him, the orchard swam round, as it were, before his eyes, he heard a rushing sound like a waterfall in his ears, the returning light of the sun went out again, and he fainted. 

Treasure and Kapchack, living up to his name: magpie! What activities will engage the children with the story? I go shopping with William and Florence: some clay, some jewels, some gold paint, some sequins! The lost locket. We visit the museum with Joy, Natasha, Gill, and Billy...and make our own pendants. They are looking great!

A Wood Magic Story Trail

It's 2012 I meet Mike Pringle who is keen to bring people and energy to the museum. He has made a successful grant application to English Heritage and has worked for years to develop some great ideas to engage more people in the museum. We discuss making a story trail for Wood Magic and get very excited about the prospect of children really engaging with the garden: the imagined magical space coming to life again. Mike designs a Kapchack! I find the magic words of Jefferies to create our first storyboard ...

Kapchack is the magpie; and he is king over everything and everybody — over the fly and the wasp, and the finches, and the heron, and the horse, and the rabbit, and the flowers, and the trees. Kapchack, the great and mighty magpie, but,  he is the ugliest creature that ever hopped. The feathers round one eye have all come out and left a bare place, and he is quite blind on the other. Indeed his left eye is gone altogether. His beak is chipped and worn; his wings are so beaten and decayed that he can hardly fly; and there are several feathers out of his tail. He is the most miserable thing you ever saw.


People are visiting, children are coming for stories on Monday August 5th... A Wood Magic Picnic and Storytelling Adventure!

A Book is Bought

Back in 2007, just a year after arriving in Swindon, I visited the Richard Jefferies Museum at Coate Water. It had an enchanting garden, with a mulberry tree, and an orchard. There was an old pig-sty, and lots of fascinating out-buildings. Inside the museum, I found a book. It was the title that drew me to it: Wood Magic. 

I took it home and read it, realising that all the animals and places mentioned in that book were in that very garden. There was a cunning spider and a jealous toad, there was a wicked magpie and a little boy who spoke to all the animals and things in the garden: children ought to know about this, I thought. Jill Carter and I made a book, The Cunning Spider which was funded by a grant that Jean Saunders found for her 'Footsteps of Richard Jefferies' project. We didn't know much about making books, but we wanted to share the fun story with children. Storytelling and art sessions were organised and lots of children came to visit.