Do you enjoy storytelling?

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 ... storytellers of an earlier time!

Last week I had the opportunity to join fellow writers at a creative writing event.  The event was organised to showcase stories on a local radio station (Wycombe Sound).  I enjoy the radio and I particularly love listening to stories and plays.

It was fun to be part of the audience.  As well as enjoying the literary event, for me, it provided ideas, thinking space and feedback about what makes writing an enjoyable pastime. 

·      How good it is to listen to a story

·      How valuable to hear the rhythm of the words

·      How worthwhile to savour the vocabulary expressed

·      How alive a story becomes when read aloud

·      How the story sounds in different voices and accents

·      How deliberation and intonation can make a character come alive

·      How writing and sharing stories can push us out of our comfort zones

·      How we have preferences for particular types of writing

·      How we can be seduced by new and unusual styles

·      How we can write more creatively learning from others

·      How we tell a different story from the same picture prompt

·      How we fully appreciate the pain of several rewrites

·      How joyful we can be after the final edit!

Creative writing is a great way to capture and share stories – happy stories, sad stories, stories with a moral, stories with a twist and even stories of the tallest kind!  Stories have added benefits of sharing a message.  They amuse and entertain adults and children.  Many stories allow a person to travel for miles without leaving the comfy armchair. Writing and storytelling can be very therapeutic too, in my opinion.

A note of thanks to my new writing friends for an entertaining evening.  I look forward to tuning in to hear their short stories on the radio this week (Friday).  Feel free to join me from wherever you are … invite your writing muse. Who knows what stories may unfold?

Who needs to escape and relax?

Kentwell Hall, Long Melford

Last week The Man and I spent a few relaxing days on holiday.  We visited Suffolk, an East Anglian county in England, which is well worth the trip especially if there is a need to escape ‘far from the madding crowd’.  The air is cleaner, the pace is slower and generally a good tonic at this time of year, in my humble opinion.  We stayed at two beautiful locations, each providing good insights to Suffolk as a county.

Had the opportunity to visit Kentwell Hall,Long Melford, a beautiful red brick Tudor mansion surrounded by a moat and set in tranquil parklands. Lots of history attached to this magnificent building. Fascinating to learn that the mansion and grounds is currently owned and managed privately by Judith and Patrick Philips, who purchased the place in 1970 as a restoration project! It is evident that there have been hours of work spent on the building and grounds, reviving and restoring much of the grandeur of the place.  Certainly not a project for the faint hearted and I am full of admiration and in awe of the work carried out.  It is certainly a labour of love and one conducted with patience and care.  Each room has its own story to tell and is beautifully written about and shared with visitors. The ambience of the place captures the history of a bygone age very well.  Kentwell Hall organise special historic events too.  Historical Re-Creation days from medieval times to WWII are popular and the Hall is available for current day events like weddings and scary Halloween events! Rumour has it that there is a haunted room in the Hall too! But we didn’t stay late enough in the day to find out… although there was a room where I didn’t feel like staying too long … 

What I particularly enjoyed about Kentwell, there was so much to discover … the Hall, the restored rooms, the outbuildings, artwork and beautiful gardens.  We spent ages wandering and meandering which generated an appetite for lunch. The Man discovered some beautiful old Rolls Royce cars in a shed near the tearooms, which really excited him. Strangely, these 'works of arts' seemed to renew his interest in bygone days more so than wallhangings and house decor. Strange that.     

How do you resolve a birthday dilemma?

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 ... a birthday surprise!

  

Last week I received an unexpected surprise from a good friend of mine.

‘This is for you,’ she said and presented a beautifully wrapped gift.

‘Thank you, what a lovely surprise.’

‘Happy birthday,’ she continued. 

‘Oh thank you’, I replied,  ‘but it’s not my birthday until the end of next month.  You’re so organised’.

‘Oh no! I thought it was the end of this month’, she declared.

There had been a trauma with a phone and lost contacts, which resulted in the mix up of birthday dates.  It happens, I know, we’ve all been there … yours truly included!  I’ve sent a friend birthday wishes twice this year on different months for the same birthday! Life can get busy at times but the good news is that no friendships were lost in the process.

You’ll be pleased to know that I graciously accepted my friend’s gift although now I had a dilemma. To open or not open the gift before my official birthday date?  Unlike the queen who has two birthdays – official and unofficial – I’ve only one birthday … and that’s official. I’m wondering if the queen has a birthday gift dilemma on her birthdays? Are there official and unofficial birthday gifts? Just wondering, you understand.

Well, I waited a whole day, almost another day more but ‘suspense’ couldn’t wait and … yes, I opened the early birthday gift.  I was delighted with my friend’s choice of gift.  She knows me so well.  A wonderful gift and one I’m very happy to receive.  I’m grateful and thankful for a gift that will come in very useful over the coming weeks … and before my official birthday too. Dilemma resolved!