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Mama, gardener, teacher, photographer, faffer with paint and colour

Saturday 22 October 2011

Dark story and firelight.

This evening we went to a harvest party in the field at Chagfood where the beautiful vegetables from our veggie box are lovingly grown.For those of you who live many miles away you can check out some of our friends and Samson the Horse who does a lot of the work at Chagfood.We feel so lucky to have happy smiley people, and a beautiful strong horse, growing fantastic food right on the edge of our town.
The evening was warm and star filled and it was good to sit around the fire, chatting and listen to the music of the incredibly talented Rima accompanying Thomas Hirons' enchanting storytelling. Pig tailed daughter listened wide eyed, or eyes screwed up, depending which way the smoke from the fire blew and only dared to whisper, "Is it true?" a few lines from the end.The story was of Baba Yaga, a fearful crone who lives in the deepest dark of the woods and Helena who must rescue her brother from the dreadful crone. Rima played the accordian, running as Helena's life depended on it away from Baba Yaga, or snoring like the old crone herself. Lots of ahhs and oohhhs and witchy enough to take your mind to the dark places.
The food shed was raided and the children returned with pudding for us, which was an unexpected treat. In the dark we tried to work out what it was made out of, maybe plum kind of crumble?!
Little children lay in their mums arms feeding,watching, or closing their eyes as they were falling asleep saying,"I'm never ever EVER going to bed". Away from the heat of the fire and just out of the adults gaze, the straw bales were torn apart and the children made straw beds and flung armfuls at each other with glee.
I wonder if this will be one of the nights she will remember, playing in the dark, swinging her torch and running between the candles, just in case the story was true.

4 comments:

  1. How lovely to find you in my virtual world :o). I followed your trail of traffic to my blog. I didn't talk to many people the other night - being one of the feeding mamas and only having one hand to keep smoke out of Pickle's drowsy face. The story was magical, as was the whole night. Sadly, I missed the pudding and we left just as the band arrived, but glad we went. And I haven't forgotten out tea, cake and photos meeting...
    Happy blogging Rachel.

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  2. :) we left just after you too, before it all went pear shaped with Daisy,maybe we can take tents in the summer and let the children sleep?! Hard to imagine even getting out the house without a boat after todays rain.Do you fancy cake here or in town?(obviously not on a torrential rain day !)

    Lots of love Rxx

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  3. That sounds amazing! Last night I heard about it from my brother's point of view, that of the storyteller, and now I have heard about it from the other side. I think a good audience is more than half of a good storytelling event. When I used to sing in public regularly I always felt that the audience pulled different things out of us and made each concert very different. My favourite concerts were those in which I felt almost as though I was not present, and that the audience themselves conjured my voice from the other world with a message just for them. I know that Tom feels the same about his audiences, that they change what happens. I probably shouldn't even use the word audience as it sounds very formal, he would probably prefer to use the term, "captive friends and listeners!" Anyway, thanks for that very vivid picture. As I cannot attend any of Tom and Rima's stories (I am in the south of France) the next best thing is to hear about it from those that did : )

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  4. Yes Hita, it was a magical night for listening, I was very happy to hear Tom and Rima finally.I love your drawings by the way, I got to you through Tom so listening is a wonderful connector esp in the age of twitter and blogging!I am new to all this interwoven communication but quite enjoying the inspirations from artists in particular and the chaotic paths that lead me to someone else's creations.I will look forward to reading your blog and seeing where it leads me next!!xxx

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