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Amanda Edmiston Botanica Fabula: Posted on 01 April 2013 20:52
Living Voices a snapshot of a session….the planning and delivery
 Living Voices is a pilot project developed by the Scottish Poetry Library http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/carers in conjunction with The Scottish Storytelling Centre, it has engaged professional poets, musicians and storytellers (of whom I'm one) to deliver workshops in care homes in three areas of Scotland, telling stories, reading poetry and singing a song or two, working with participants with a variety of needs ( including dementia and sensory impairment), the care home staff and volunteers. |
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Amanda Edmiston Botanica Fabula: Posted on 12 February 2013 23:20
  I was the crimson, scarlet, fire colours of Autumn that underpinned Euan and the Elder form the start, both through its words it has Rowan berries'…forged by lightening rouged by blood…',the story of a man's search for wood for his pot bellied stove in a native Scottish woodland.A search that sees him find berries and nuts for sustenance and health and ultimately leads him to disrespect nature and be admonished in a most poetic way by a green man type figure. So it would only seem appropriate to ensure that the launch of our little book was done in a way that was |
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Amanda Edmiston Botanica fabula: Posted on 11 January 2013 23:37
It all started with this view….. I was booked to storytell at Glasgow's lovelyHidden gardens , for Autumn 2011. I wanted a new story, I wanted inspiration…. Walking back home from dropping the child at school on a driech day, the naked girders of the cranes watching the Clyde, the Kelvin gravid and tidal, trees trembling as winter's portent sidled in on an October spiral, I leant on the bridge, and watched as the waste ground twisted and arched, subtly shifting its seasonal structure…. |
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Amanda Edmiston Botanica Fabula: Posted on 04 October 2012 21:03
 'Mum, have we got any algae….can I have a wee bit in a jug…..and the other things'…..the child appeared with an armful of plastic kitchenware balanced like the Lakeland company had revived 'Double or Drop' for the cupcake generation.'I'm doing the ice cubes' came the explanation as the sound of the freezer door thunking and ice gliding across the bath….
This game has become an infrequent regular in our house, it started about 3 years ago when Glasgow based play company 'Rattlin Boag' did a brilliant and inspiring water workshop in the Hidden Gardens…. |
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Amanda Edmiston Botanica Fabula: Posted on 09 September 2012 22:19
  More excitement, I can barely stop myself twinkling at random people, friends who have claimed for years that I'm not really that fond of hugs have been stunned by my sudden love of cuddling them for the slightest reason, I've been remembering to tell people how much I appreciate them and generally been rather sweet recently, even if I do say so myself! Whats been going on…. too much maca root and chilli powder in my tea again? (well, yes, admittedly…). But more than anything else its been that the move to be closer to my friends in a house with a garden, with delightful neighbours has shown me more than ever what really lovely, kind, interesting, intelligent people I'm surrounded by these days, the house itself soothes and comforts me…even the raindrops tell stories (but thats the beginning of my next blog…. |
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Amanda Edmiston Botanica Fabula: Posted on 06 September 2012 20:54
 It has to be said that I LOVE MY JOB……really REALLY love it, and at any given moment I'm in raptures about a recent gig, I love everything about it, the excitement at new bookings, the struggle to grasp at and find inspiration for what I'll do, then the euphoria when the inspiration is found, the moment when I feel like a little kid as I get to rush around exploring places, counting trees, picking plants, researching history, then the thrill when it all knits together and the pieces all fit like some amazing magical blanket. |
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Amanda Edmiston Botanica fabula: Posted on 15 August 2012 22:27
So the long promised tale of werewolves, Solanaceae; the lost legend I'd been promising herbalists I'd recreate for a long time, the missing link that explained the flesh crawling, skin walking, shape shifting, Atropine aggravated descent into fluid filled paranoia and night terrors brought in on the tidal flow, seven days before the red run, as the flutter of malicious pleasure at the call of no holds barred, social graces denied, premenstrual ruination….
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Amanda Edmiston Botanica Fabula: Posted on 11 July 2012 23:22
It started weeks ago, before the flowers had blossomed a mere leaf or two haunted the path, the week of the story walk, a whiff of peanut butter, I got closer, drawn in, a plant with intention, pulled me closer, promising powers of seduction and sleep, the child balked…..gagged…..croaked ' evil peanut butter…..mummy what IS that'….cursed and retched 'don't touch it, WHAT is it, its like peanut butter went bad mum, MUM……M….U…..M, MUM don't photograph it, can we go now, CAN WE GO NOW…' |
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Amanda Edmiston Botanica Fabula: Posted on 04 June 2012 23:30
Well the Herbal storywalk, through Glasgow's Botanic gardens, and its little used arboretum was a joy, the day before I went for a really green and inspiring walk down to the old North Woodside colour mill (or flint mill, where in days gone by they ground imported minerals for colour and later flint for glaze for the potteries near Glasgow) on the Kelvin, then I sat under the pre blooming blossoms of the Elder tree and twisted a tale to my own devices, a Hans Christian Anderson variation of a Northern European fairy tale about the elusive woman of wisdom and wiles, at once vengeful and protective: the Elder mother. |
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Amanda Edmiston Botanica fabula: Posted on 22 May 2012 22:12
 …..we've been 'wild learning' and 'wild fooding' of late, the last school were punitive, authoritarian, overtly cowtowing to the kirk under the guise of modernity, mouthed words ill thought out of 'others'….I prefer to be one of the others, so hearing their words if even the speakers did not we took them at their subtext and made tracks…..To be truthful, it became clear, like rainbow drenched dew drops, over easter, that it wasn't the children who were the source of the bullying but the staff, leading by example…. |
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