Tuesday 29 September 2015

Week Three, Staple Hill



This week another fascinating exploration of explorings and journey makings.

We spoke of our favourite journeys and compared transport choices to life style choices. Taking Van Gogh as our inspiration on the subject of rowing boats, we spoke of everything from being un-anchored in life to being stranded on a shore and ways and means of getting around this quandry.

All in all we had both a very philosophical morning and afternoon! From riding a pedal bike outside of time, to how one piece of string can save us from many a mishap, the group bonded fondly over tea and choccie biccys. In fact, all participants seem to have the measure of each other and rather enjoy each others' company.

This became even more apparent in our later exercise of  making up luggage labels so we could take (perhaps only in our memories or imagination) our most treasured object on our imaginary group holiday to a south sea island.

It would seem that the morning group would take

3x teddies
1 radio
1 journal
1  video recorder
1 daughter
1 piece of string

with all those packed we should be prepared for anything!

... So it seems we are very open now to the idea of journeying together by now, so let's see where next week's sessions take us!



Tuesday 22 September 2015

Week Two, Staple Hill




I had such a lot of fun today! As described in our first physical exercise, I was feeling a little Bleeeuuuhgggghhhhhhh but ended the day feeling much more Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy! A fantastic energy filled the room as we took the theme of journeying and literally ran with it. Things took a metaphorical turn as we discussed our attitudes that drive us through life’s journeys. Several writing exercises produced some amazing texts, we had Coincidental Catastrophes in Conway and Beautiful Beings at the Bar in Babbacombe.
 The writing that came out of today’s session was profound and beautiful. I began to suspect that we had some published writers in our midst. Watch this space for evidence of their talents! People took a leap of faith in some of the more physical exercises which we will build upon to generate material for creating the artwork as a culmination of these sessions. The artists already have an idea brewing after two really great days at Staple Hill. We will, of course keep you posted.

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Week One, Staple Hill

Week one at Staple Hill library was a revelation. Wonderful friendly staff and an another engaged community made us all feel welcome from the moment we arrived and calmed our first-day nerves beautifully.

As you might have come to expect, much tea was drunk and cake eaten and much to our surprise, our participants were ready to jump straight in with some wonderful group sharing. Liz Vivi and I felt very humbled by these stories – not least because they will help to shape the structure of next week's work and allow us room to develop our ideas quicker than expected. Superb stuff.


Speaking of stories, we were speaking extracts from stories in our groups this week. One from Durrell's 'My Family and Other Animals' and the other a poem 'Ozymandias' by Shelley. Each of these extracts had been generously supplied by staff at the library and gave us a richer stepping off point than we could have hoped for. With both members of staff having added their personal associations with the texts to the session, the group discussed families and the value of books right from the outset, which located us all in the right space – the library- ready to be taken elsewhere. Perfect.

Responding to the Durrell extract brought about some musings on the bountifulness of nature, whereas Shelley took us to a more barren landscape which inspired imaginings of desserts and the positives and negatives of being alone... interesting stuff indeed.
Transporting our group members to distant lands of fictional tell in this way, we also asked the participants to smell teas from around the world so that we could also travel in our minds to real places if that's what was preferred.

We also each chose one of the vast array of teacups and told each other stories of the cup whether those were simply why we chose it or perhaps who might have owned it and where it had sat in their house.


A sumptuous beginning to this project, we are very excited to see which texts the groups bring in next week to transport the group elsewhere. What with the space feeling so relaxed already, I feel we are truly ready for the next step on our journey together. Exciting stuff!  

Monday 14 September 2015

I was delighted to have been invited to the Memory Café at Winterbourne last week. The empty tables beautifully adorned with blue flowers (the forget me not is central to the Alzeimer’s Society Dementia Friends campaign) soon filled up and the hall was alive with conversation, jokes and general hubbub.
I was providing a taster session for RE:MAPPING, our new arts based project which starts again this September (Tuesday 15th at 1.30pm) in Staple Hill Library. The afternoon sessions are aimed at people living with dementia, their families and carers.
Seeing as tea was to be served I thought I’d bring some teas of my own along to start off the conversation. We sniffed and felt Jasmine, Darjeeling and several other fragrant concoctions. We watched a beautiful flower tea unfurl in a glass cup. Everyone gave me one word to describe their thoughts about this strange sight. This wonderful group was very poetic, in the cup they saw: Sea Urchins, Kelp Forests, Other Worldly Coral Reefs In Bloom, Artistic Creepy Animals… No one however was brave enough to drink this particular tea!
People had very definite ideas about what makes the perfect cuppa. I found out about peoples’ favourite mugs bringing memories of loved ones, when the best china comes out of the cabinet and some very particular instructions for stirring your tea! As you may find from this list, the ‘perfect cuppa’ is a very personal thing…
HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT CUP OF TEA, by Winterbourne Memory Café
* Put a tea bag in a cup OR warm the pot
* Use one tea bag per person OR one between two
* Use boiling water OR let it cool a little
* Mash the tea against the pot OR stir it 3 times anticlockwise
* Put in a pinch of salt OR not!
* Leave to brew for two, three, five OR ten minutes
* Choose your favourite cup OR any cup will do
* Pour the milk in first OR the tea in first
* Fill your cup not quite to the top OR always leave a little undrunk at the bottom
* Enjoy your brew!
BUT the best advice I found at Winterbourne for the perfect cuppa….?
Get someone else to make it for you!
I had a great time getting creative with people at the Memory Café. It was gentle introduction to the many things we do at our sessions. We use stories, poems and pictures to take us on creative journeys together. We create writing, performances, films and much more in our sessions. The afternoons are fun and enjoyable, and yes we do drink a lot of tea!
I would like to thank everyone at the Memory Café for welcoming me into their group, and for being so poetic and artistic with me in a short hour. If you would like to find out more please email: info@lizclarke.org, or call:
0784 0663616
All are welcome to join us at the sessions whether you are living with dementia, are a family member or a carer.