Hello all,

We were at Kilve this weekend to create some wonderful creatures. As we drove over the hills towards the village, the weather began playing tricks with us; draping swirly mists across the countryside one minute and bathing us in golden sunlight the next. The mist gathered around us as we arrived at Kilve Court, creeping in from the woods and down from the moors, it was perfect for shrouding all kinds of menacing beasts as they prowled around, no doubt searching for unsuspecting Kilve students to munch on!

We spent Friday evening discussing the endless possibilities of fantasy creatures and playing games to come up with some original characters. But the real fun started on Saturday morning, when we walked into the Quantock hills and discovered evidence of countless fascinating creatures. There were wood knocks, river people, water gnomes, flying giants, a hoax and even a bog monster. Here's a student's quick sketch of the bog monster:

We even stumbled upon time portals, an abandoned pixie village, a fallen tree which showed us a map of a fantastical world, and an enourmous fossilised bird which we hoped wouldn't come to life and gobble us up:

Luckily we all avoided being trapped, eaten, or lost in time, and made it safely back to Kilve. In the afternoon we used clay to sculpt some models of the creatures we'd seen or new ones we'd just thought of, and made field study guides to record details of their habitats, food, life-cycles or information about how they originated. It's really useful to have supporting information like this about characters for your stories as it helps give them depth and believability - even if you don't put it all in the story, just the fact that you know it will shine through your writing and make it seem more substantial to the reader.

The students used their facts and models to do just that, spending all of Saturday evening writing wonderful and exciting stories about their creatures. Everyone worked really hard to improve their work so that it intrigued us, making us want to read more and more!

Sunday morning was spent finishing off in a big rush, sticking and copying and colouring in. But it was worth all the flurry as the presentation went brilliantly with laughter, suspense and plenty of applause!

Rosie and myself had a lovely drive home. Colour seemed to be rushing back into the world after the bleak winter - early daffodils splashed yellow on grassy banks, bright red dogwood twigs stretched up towards the sky and the sunset was casting a pinkish buttery glow over ploughed fields. All nice touches to add to stories or poems!

I have just finished reading Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper. It was an interesting book, with a sea shanty that got stuck in my head, appealing characters like Ma Kettle with a dress made from skull and crossbone flags, and descriptions that make you feel as though you are right in the story, living and breathing it.

However, the book also had some down points: it is set 500 years in the future but doesn't actually seem like it as the pirates use swords instead of guns and there's no explanation of why. The ending was a bit unsatisfactory as it felt rushed but also left open for the sequel. Sometimes I didn't want to read the chapters about the character of Connor as I was too interested in what was happening to the other character of Grace.

Having said all that, I couldn't put the book down, and thought about it when I wasn't reading it. I also want to read the next one in the series. So if the idea of vampires crossed with pirates intrigues you - get this book out from the library and let us know what you think!

Bye for now

Jennifer (and Rosie).