Sunday 10 November 2019

'Back from the Brink'

My 'office' on Friday
Even if you've never been to Northamptonshire, there is a good chance you've heard of Rockingham Forest. This was once a hunting forest covering over a third of the county; it now exists in isolated patches dotted through a farmed landscape, giving people like me the opportunity to walk in nature and breathe in some good air.  The perfect setting, then, for a creative writing workshop.

It was a privilege to be asked to run a session in Fineshade Wood under the aegis of a Back from the Brink Project, which as the name suggests is concerned with the conservation and restoration of rare plants, bats, birds, reptiles and butterflies. Our focus was birds and we began with a short guided walk led by Liz, who works for the project. After the recent torrential rain, I was relieved that we had glorious sunshine, although it was a bit nippy. Liz gave us lots of information about what was going on in this patch of woodland. We stood in silence to take in the atmosphere, connecting with our senses and enjoying the cackling of rooks and the call of pheasants.

Back in the warm, I gave the participants some exercises to do to help get the creative juices going, and read various extracts of published works - poetry, fiction and non-fiction - by way of example. Then I suggested some prompts and off they went. Despite some of them saying 'I'm not really a writer', they all produced some lovely work and I hope they will carry on doing so.

From my point of view there were two equally important aims of this workshop:
  1. To encourage participants to create a piece of writing based on the birds in the woodland and the environment in a wider sense.
  2. To bring awareness of the work of Roots of Rockingham, Back from the Brink and all the groups involved in restoring and managing this network of woodland sites, creating more habitat in which a range of vulnerable species can thrive, and to stimulate engagement in this work.
I think on both counts we had a successful morning.

6 comments:

  1. This sounds like such an important workshop. It's alarming how much of our wildlife is disappearing. Last night my husband and I attended a reception for an artist who displayed wonderful collages with accompanying poems highlighting the wildlife in her area (California foothills). Everything that calls attention to this theme is so important.

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    1. I've been out this afternoon to check out the venue for the next one, Elizabeth. A different piece of woodland but still within Rockingham Forest.

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  2. It does sound like a wonderful, successful time. And maybe it's the start of a long, wonderful poetry journey for the participants.

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    1. Thanks, Priscilla. It would be hard NOT to be inspired by the surroundings.

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  3. What a brilliant workshop and setting - I'm quite envious, Julia! Funnily enough, I was just writing a blog post on my new website about the joy of reading a book of Nature poems with my granddaughter. Even better to be in the midst of nature!

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    1. I'll look out for that, Rosemary. I don't seem to get notifications when you post and I'm sure I used to. I've clearly clicked the wrong thing somewhere!

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