A story with a view

One for the Godly Play community...in the most recent GP newsletter they included a few stories about unusual locations for storytelling - on a frozen lake from Rebecca Nye probably comes top! However, I recently had the chance to tell The Great Family in one of the world's most beautiful - and famous spots. 

The team I am part of at L'Arche had the rare opportunity to spend the day together - with the previso we didn't go too far and didn't spend much money! Hmm, a challenge. Happily we are less than ten miles from Loch Ness, so we planned a day on the beach there, with a barbeque.

There is always one tiny problem with planning such days in Scotland...the weather. But we prayed and hoped and trusted. And had one of the most beautiful days possible, it was calm and wonderfully warm. Being on a beach, albeit a rocky one, was a good place to wonder about Abram and Sarai's journey, as we pondered on our journey together in L'Arche. Seasoned and sharp-eyed Godly Players will spot a few extra stones in the desert. Each of us placed one in response to ourselves in the story. 

We also broke bread together and thought about the hospitality of Abraham, and what that means for us in L'Arche as we welcome folk, well known and new, each day. This icon sits in the house at L'Arche and often reminds me to go beyond the necessary in my welcome, as well as to take my own part in the feast to which I am invited.

PS No, Nessie did not come to join us for the story - maybe she's just not ready yet!

Emerging

 

 

This is just a wee post to pop my head up and say 'hello!' - our last month has been overfull and a few things just have had to be dropped - poor old blog - it's you again. The days have been packed with birthday celebrations, Jubilee parties, family reunions, work on our house - new flooring at last - hurray! There has also been lots and lots of storytelling, and baby steps towards a new Godly Play Circle in Inverness. Finally the school holidays have arrived - and my own, so high on my catch up list is Featherglen...emerging from its' cocoon. 

My youngest son is an avid observer of wild life. Our house and garden is full of jars - which we try to get emptied out each day - of his catches. A month or so back he found a huge furry caterpillar, a real beast of thing, which we managed to feed until it built its cocoon. And then we waited...and waited...it looked dead...very dead. But  what did we know? Suddenly, there it was, a strikingly patterned and utterly beautiful Garden Tiger, Arctia caja. They are a bit unusual, so we spent time enjoying its' unfolding before releasing it - in the hope of more to come. 

I'm grateful that my son draws my attention to things so small. So very small, but with its' own story to tell, one that touched me deeply.

Dragonmania

One of my children is a big fan of dragons - in fact he frequently dresses like one - is it rude to say he sometimes behaves like one...? He's usually a very sweet pet dragon...he also loves all things that come in eggs. I haven't posted much recently about crafty things but I was delighted to find a dragon pattern here. It was pretty easy to make, and relaxing to sew by hand. I had a wee wooden egg and managed to needle felt a baby dragon to go inside.I haven't done much needle felting before but I was the little chap wasn't too tricky to make. Do you know Rhythm of the Home? It's a great resource for making things for children (and their adults) as well as some interesting articles on their blog. I'm looking out for the summer edition!

 

Just a quick update, here is the almost-end of our Eastertide garden, rejigged again for Ascension. It's not the greatest of pictures and I see the kitchen table is covered in lego, but hey, that's the stuff of our lives! The star that T put in the bare branch at the start of Lent 'because God is with us' has hung on, and seems all the more relevant for celebrating the mystery of Ascension - that 'Jesus went away so He could be with us always'

And also a link to a post about Godly Play in L'Arche - not written by me but I am there... Here  is a felted picture made by me and two of our Community core members. We made it as a focal point, as we don't have a lot of GP materials, and it helps to lend a sense of belonging if we sometimes make things together. Additionally it was a very therapeutic and meaningful activity for the three of us. Wet felting is a great way to work out frustrations! Do I have any? Hmm, oh just occasionally!

Friends

I love meeting new friends through the blogosphere, especially people who I would never have the chance to meet otherwise, but who share a lot in common with me. I've been very inspired by Storyteller who blogs here and Sheila here. They both blog a lot about Godly Play and very kindly asked me to write something for them about celebrating the season of Easter. It was a good challenge for me to settle and focus in what have been some full days. You can read my thoughts about creating an Eastertide Garden here and also about the Road to Emmaus here. Oddly enough, while my posts were being posted in Finland and Germany I was away from home at a L'Arche meeting, staying at the wonderful Emmaus House in Edinburgh.

I can't resist showing you a few pictures from a visit to friend's farm just down the road from our home. Feeding lambs? Surely one of life's sweetest experiences! Happy reading and happy weekend!

Viking Invasion!

 This weekend, once more, Scotland was invaded by vikings! Um, except they were mainly Scottish vikings and a couple of Canadians too...OK, so what I know about vikings could probably be written on the back of a very small postcard. But I do know that small boys (and their dads, so it turns out) just love them! And so it came to pass that for my youngest son's birthday party, that our garden and house was filled a horde of erm, really rather cute, no, apparently I should say, ferocious vikings.

And a dragon. Because what are vikings without dragons? And because T just IS a dragon. Of the smallest, generally sweetest, kind.  For years now...

So after gearing up with some felt helmets - which came together surprisingly swiftly - I may do a wee tute if life allows...wooden shields (made by the Chief himself) got decorated and named with runic letters. Wooden swords all round, then it was time for a bit of viking training - led all too convincingly by the Chief himself - soon had everyone roaring around the garden.

 

A bit of blind fold viking dressing...

No wonder he looked rather grumpy...

Then to the feasting! They each made an edible shield (that's pizza to you and me).

For fans of Cressida Cowell's books of 'How to Train your Dragon' can you spot Hiccup and Camicazi? And Toothless of course...

The Chief proved (once again) to be a million times better at cake decorating than me.  Me: "Can you make me a dragon?"  Him: "No problem" And so it proved to be. No flames, other than seven candles but it was all devoured...

Vikings welcome any day!

Easter Crafts

Happy, happy Easter! I love Easter days! There's always such a sense of anticipation - spiritually, obviously for me, but also perhaps that sense of spring, that the year has turned, of being the right time sow seeds, enjoy a few days of holiday...it's all about being re-created and re-creating.

On Saturday after the all-too-necessary evils of a bit of housework, and with my husband away for the day, the boys and I had a very creative day. We started with some wonderfully smelling beeswax candles, made in eggshells (following inspiration from Explore and Express and a tutorial from Magic Onions). The boys cut the wicks and J tied them onto bamboo sticks. T poured the wax pellets into an old baked bean tin (impromptu bain marie) and inspected their melting progress in a slightly overfull steamer.

Then we moved from melting wax to melting chocolate - a rather more popular choice - to make some little nests on a spoon - simple and fun - and with lots of tasting and chocolaty fingers along the way! We popped them in the fridge, while I told the boys the final part of the Faces of Easter Story.

 We headed out to the garden and woods to get all we needed for our Easter garden, which turned out to be quite an installation on our kitchen table! I was surprised but pleased that they enjoyed arranging the flowers, which J especially did very well. he also found the big rock to close the tomb. T put his clay bird in pride of place. Our wheatgrass has grown very well!

Finally, it was time to eat the wee nests, which were a big hit. It was a great afternoon, after all the activity of the last few days.