We had a Funtastic time at Leeson House this weekend searching for fairies and other magical creatures.

Friday evening started with a discussion about the realm of faery and moved on to what fairies might be like today and whether they have evolved to adapt to our changing environments. This was a perfect kick start for designing our own wands and wings. We thought about camouflage needs and utility features to assist fairies with their tasks!


Saturday morning saw us squelching a muddy path to the coast. The wind picked up along the way but the sun still shone and our spirits stayed high enough to create some original onomatopoeic words like ‘hoowawh’ to describe the wind (by Kitty) or ‘ziziziz’ for pebbles crunching together (by Kai). We also had evocative descriptions using our five senses like ‘lushy mud’ (by Sophie) and ‘the itchy, prickly, spiny mud felt horrible down my legs’ (by Emily). Words and descriptions like these can really make a piece of writing feel alive.

In the afternoon we were back at Leeson House starting stories and poems, drawing illustrations, and making our wings. We spent a while thinking up some original descriptive similes. Similies can be really fun to use in writing because you can be so inventive. Here are three that are really unique:

‘Sinking in the mud like weetabix in milk.’(Rosina).
‘Mushrooms the colour of the sunset.’ (Emily).
‘A bush as silver as lead.’(Kai).

Everybody worked really hard with lots of different projects going on and the time flew until evening. After dinner we went out in the dark to search the grounds for any nocturnal fairies or fantastical creatures that might have been lurking about. However, the wind began to really howl and buffet us about and it soon blew us back to the cosy classroom!

The weekend finished with a bustle of activity as everyone got ready for the presentation. Parents enjoyed seeing their young fairies reading their work and showing off their wings!

If you’re interested in this course we have it coming up again soon, this time at Kilve Court in Somerset from March 27th – 29th. Call Kilve Court for details (01278 741270). If you’d like to see what else we’re up to and the other courses we have coming up, please take a look at our website and the ‘upcoming courses’ page!

In the meantime, why don’t you head out for a blustery walk yourself? Have a go at thinking up some wonderful descriptions and similes and send them to us. If we’re really impressed we’ll put them in our newsletter (send us your email address if you’d like to be added to the mailing list: creativecreatures@hotmail.co.uk).

Sorry it’s been such a long time since we told you what we were up to! We’ve had two great weekend workshops since our last blog, one at Kilve Court and one at Leeson House.

At Kilve we explored some Tall Tales and looked out for Beautiful Beasts. During a grey-skies walk to the beach we mapped out creature sightings and suspicious settings. The leafless bushes were frazzly, like a giant birdbeast’s nest, and The Lake of Dragon Tears at the end of a quiet lane seemed very melancholy. Some fabulous stories were created from ideas discovered along the way, including one by Heather. Here’s an extract from her work:

‘Slowly Fireball creaked the door open, Fireball trembled with fear, his legs were shaking and he was biting his lip.
“Who goes there?” boomed a familiar voice.
“Are you the person that tricked me?” Fireball asked politely.
“Ah, that’s where you are wrong,” said the voice.
Out of the darkest corner of the room, a figure who looked like Ben Franklin came out. Suddenly he shape shifted into Madonna, then Fireball himself, and finally John Terry.’

This story extract shows the tension and excitement which can make a story really fun to read to yourself, but especially fun to storytell, something we all had a chance to try out over the weekend. It’s great to tell stories to your family and friends as well as just writing them, but don’t forget to do some warm up voice exercises first!

At Leeson House it was the first run for a new course - Smuggling Stories. We had four students ready for the challenges of smuggling a poem beneath our very noses, casting their minds into the past for some atmospheric stories, and making a book to smuggle them home in. Phew!

Saturday was a piercingly sunny day and we trudged through the mud to Dancing Ledge to see things from the perspective of an 18th century smuggler, learning bits of helpful information on the way. At Dancing Ledge the pockmarked slope slid into the sea, with a shock of white spray jumping up at the edge, and we imagined how difficult it would have been to land there years ago with a boat loaded with contraband.

On Sunday we woke up to a layer of frost making the world look magical. But it didn’t distract us long from writing stories filled with drama and suspense and making books to record smuggling facts. Students went home smuggling their stories in a hidden compartment, only to be revealed to a trusted few!

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. Our New Year has started with a flurry of activity as we are developing the website, creating a newsletter for you, and taking bookings for the months that lie ahead.

The first Creative Creatures course for 2009 is this coming weekend, where we’ll be finding some Funtastic Fairies at Leeson House (Jan 16th-18th). Next we delve into Grisly Grimm and Freaky Fairytales at Kilve Court (Jan 30th-Feb1st) and then we are back at Kilve the very next weekend (Feb 6th-8th) when we will be Creating Creatures. See the upcoming courses page for contact details and for courses later in the year.

That’s all for now, hope to see you on one of our courses soon!
Jennifer.