A Scottish Storyteller

So a lot has happened since my last post! Most importantly the sad loss of our good friend, Stanley Robertson. He was an inspiration to myself and my fellow storytellers and ballad singers and I was very privileged to be one of his "quinies" - Stanley always had time to teach a ballad or story! Stanley's funeral was very touching and, as he was buried at Lumphanan and we were all there to sing at the graveside, a few of us made the walk up the Old Road past the great oak tree Auld Craobhie. Stanley was due to be the guest speaker at GAS's October Friday Fling for Doricfest. Instead we have decided to hold the event in his honour and everyone is welcome to share a story or song of Stanley's. Gabrielle and Antony, Stanleys daughter and son will be there and I'm sure everyone will do what he taught us justice! Stanley at the Travellers Well on the way out to Lumphanan In the last couple of months, I've been telling stories at the Burn O Vat and in the We...

What a busy summer this has been! I've now been back from Glastonbury for a couple of weeks - what a great start to the summer! I was storytelling in the Kidz Field and the Green Futures Field and met some great people. At the Green Futures field I had the privilege of telling with Christine Willison , Anne Lister and Cath Little. I was also given an unexpected slot at the Kidz Field storytelling tent, run by John Row - which I enjoyed thoroughly ! Next time, I'm determined to spend more time in the Kidz Field as there's always so much going on... Here I am storytelling in the Kidz Field - clearly describing a very grumpy character (I don't look like this all the time, honest!) We took the long way back home to Aberdeen - via Cerne Abbas (to see the Giant ), a couple of days relaxing (and washing off the mud!) in Bournemouth, up past Stonehenge to Nottingham, on past Sherwood Forest to Castleford and then a brief stop in Edinburgh before finally reaching...

So since January this year, I have been doing a lot of puppet making and rehearsing for a blacklight and shadow puppet show - which is a totally new storytelling experience for me! Along with Aberdeen Street Entertainers, I have been working on a 20 minute show called the Story of Evolution - This is just part of of A Night At The Museum II which will be taking place at Aberdeen University's Zoology Department on the 16th May - just under a week away! We spent almost the whole day today rehearsing and putting the finishing touches to some of the scenes and we recorded one of the short sections - the dinosaur shadow puppet scene! If you want to see our first rehersals (don't worry - it'll get much better over the next week!), have a look here -

During the past week I was looking for a classic "fool" story to tell at April's First Friday Fling (which I'm just home from!) In the end I told Silly Jack, but one of the ones I considered was the Three Wishes. You know... man gets 3 wishes. Wishes he has sausages for his tea by mistake. His wife gets on to him for wasting a wish and wishes it was stuck on to his nose and they have to use the last wish wishing it off his nose... Classic story :) And best of all - I found this animated version of it on The Reading Bus web page: http://www.readingbus.co.uk/ReadingBusBlog/archives/category/animations/three-wishes Read more about the Reading Bus on their web page and enjoy more stories and podcasts recorded by kids from Aberdeen!

So today I did my first stint in the round house and it was totally amazing! It was really busy - no idea how many people came through the doors, but we didn't stop all day even though it was a bit nippy outside. I just checked and think I told 12 stories today - which is pretty good going for the old voice which has been out of use over winter. Three were completely new stories - one of which I'd put together for the RGU project at Archaeolink (mentioned briefly in my last post) and one I'd written myself about the Northern Lights. My favourite thing today was when I was asking the kids what they'd teach a Princess for her to be useful to her country and one girl was adamant she'd need to learn martial arts. Why? Because being a ninja princess would come in very handy. I love it when kids come out with things like this - quite often it stays in the story the next time I tell it. And I made sure that the princess's ninja skills did indeed come in handy later...

Well - spring is coming and that means that for me, so does the storytelling season! I was shocked to calculate that I have now been volunteering at Archaolink Prehistory Park for 8 years now! This will be my 9th season at the park. I've always had a keen interest in prehistory and archaeology, so when Archaeolink opened in 1998 and a workmate brought me along one weekend in 1999 to help with the preparation of thatching the round house, I knew then I wanted to spend more time doing this sort of thing. This was followed up by a couple of weekends at the dig on the top of Berryhill in 2000 where I was encouraged for the first time to explain to the visitors what was going on - back then I wouldn't have dreamed that some day I would have the confidence to stand up in front of over 200 people and tell a story or sing a song! (Incidentally, they discovered I was really good at turfing, so I never got to get in about with a trowel and paintbrush. Damn.) The Iron Age Roundhouse wi...

An English doctor, being shown around a Scottish hospital, is taken into a ward with a number of patients who show no visible signs of injury. He goes to examine the first man he sees, and the man proclaims “Fair fa’ yer sonsie face, Great chieftain e’ the puddin’ race!” The Englishman, somewhat taken aback, goes to the next patient, who immediately launches into: “Some hae meat, and canna eat, and some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, and sae the Laird be thankit.” The next patient sits up and declaims: “Wee sleekit cow’rin tim’rous beastie, O what a panic’s in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, wi’ bickering brattle. I wad be laith to run and chase thee, wi’ murdering prattle!” “Well,” says the Englishman to his Scottish colleague. “I see you saved the psychiatric ward for last.” “Nay, nay,” the Scottish doctor corrects him, “This is the Burns Unit...”