Of course, the nice things people say and the buzz of doing a good show is reward in itself! But it’s also nice to know that just over half way through the run the costs of printing and the voluntary contribution for the free fringe are all covered – I am even on my way to covering the Equity Membership again this year with 4 more shows to go.

As ever it is an invigoration and joy to be part of the amazing explosion that is the Festival and Fringe in Edinburgh’s August. I’ve met some lovely people and even told some of them stories. It’s also a secret thrill to have fellow storytellers come up and ask to re-tell a few as well. To which the answer is obviously ‘yes, please!’ Never trap a tale that wants to run free!

Half way through the year, and half way through our story Ceilidh programme at the Storytelling Centre already! Our Deep Blue Sea, hosted by yours truly was, I blush to tell you, a great success. Jan Bee Brown took on our choir master role with some rousing sea shanties – and a surprise New Zealand Hakka thrown in for good measure.

I love the warm atmosphere these events create in the Cafe space – about 50:50 regulars and passers by but by the end of it everyone is chattering and leaving as friends sharing and joining in the spirit of a real life house ceilidh

Edinburgh has gone pop and all the fringe and festival tents are deflated for the winter. But the work of Edinburgh storytelling goes on never fear. The Burgh Blatherers (of whom your humble author is present Secretary) go from strength to strength. It does seem to have been a long haul back from the Covid brink when our hard core met solely on Zoom but at last numbers are picking up again.

Last Wednesday saw our triumphant sell-out story ceilidh at the Edinburgh Storytelling Centre with contributions varying from donkey eared kings to, frankly, lewdness and innuendo aplenty with the queen of the fairies and her bull from the sea!

The Burgh Blatherers are a traditional story-telling club, welcoming anyone and everyone with a story to tell, or most especially practice, in front of a supportive and generous audience. We meet once a month on Zoom, second Friday of every month, and once a month in person, fourth Tuesday. We were formed upstairs in the Waverley bar (as are many good things) from a group of apprentice storytellers looking for free listeners back in 2017. Find us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/theBurghBlatherers . It would be great to see you at our next ceilidh!

What a joy to spend time in lovely north Wales with storytellers, delving into the nuts and bolts of tellng with Daniel Morden and Phil Okwedy who are generous and patient tutors and especially to meet all the fellow aspirant tellers! My discoveries include the beauty of oak trees in full leaf, the deliciousness of elderflower ice-cream, the magic of telling in a reconstructed iron age round house.

Thanks to Phil Okwedy (https://www.philokwedystoryteller.co.uk/) for the picture of Sadhbh in action, mid dance between the worlds.

The travelling dust and the highs and lows of criticism and advice have settled now however, and Sadhbh is ‘written’ – developed anyway. Now to find some laughs and moments of space in her story – a magical moonlight bright figure who travels some difficult paths to find acceptance at the last I hope. This storytelling business can take you to some dark and wonderful places indeed!

Nothing beats the warm glow of a congenial evening spent among storytellers sharing good craick and song! Our first outing went with warmth and laughter to cheer us up on a dreich January evening – stand out stories about Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and the Cailleach of course, who made a fabulous appearance in scots verse this time!  I’m really looking forward to participating in the rest of the series. Great to be back at the Storytelling Centre!

We’re off on our travels again – by train this time to Aberdeen where we are delighted to be invited to take part in Climate Week North East with two performances of Dagba’s Forest Tales at the Lemontree in Aberdeen on 9th April.

It is a pleasure to revisit these tales as ever, though with sadness that we all still need to spread the message about climate change so fiercely!

https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/climate-week-north-east-dagbas-forest-tales/

The hard work of the last 8 months from writing, editing, collating, proof reading and ‘printer liaison’ with our new collaborators, Lea and Mary at the Book Whisperers to bring together a collection of 17 spoken stories from members of the Burgh Blatherers storytelling club in time for Scotland’s Year of Stories. All culminating at long last in our launch event at the Scottish Storytelling Festival last night! What a learning curve! What a fantastic editing team we made, and what a delight to be able to say – I am a published author!

Well done and congratulations to our whole team – particularly the Book Whisperers, and our fabulous stall team of Lynsey and Findlay who took the bit between their teeth to sell sell sell! Now it is is out there, available at the SSC bookshop and on Amazon! And just look at this lovely review!

We’ve had fun this Summer taking Dagba and a new ‘work in progress’ Fionn McCoul and the Forests all over Scotland from Mintlaw in Aberdeenshire to Castle Semple Country Park, in Renfrewshire.

Heartfelt Medley: A Burgh Blatherers Virtual Show on 19th June from 7.30 to 9.30

Join the Burgh Blatherers in a one-of-a-kind virtual show blending visual and oral storytelling to celebrate that the times they are a-changing and we are full of energy brought on by sunshine, blue skies and the prospect of new brighter horizons. In this show eight tellers have reached into their minds and hearts to present a wonderful variety of stories intertwined with song, music, poetry, sketches, images and video. As always, the most important ingredient is our audience.

This could be Burgh Blatherers’ last online show, let’s make it a very special one! Register for the event at the Scottish Storytelling Centre:
https://scottishstorytellingcentre.online.red61.co.uk/…

This event will be held on Zoom. During the event all attendees will be on screen and able to communicate via the chat function. If you have booked a ticket you will receive a confirmation email with your log in details. 

I’m looking foward to this one, Maria, Bob and I among other ‘Blatherers’ all showing off our newly acquired lockdown zoom skills, playing around with music and image backgrounds not usually available to us in the flesh!

Maria’s amazing family project based on letters found in the Glen Esk Museum stunning evocative of two lost worlds – the rich and complex pre WW1 rural life of Scottish glens and the wilderness of the Canadian gold rush, written by Maria with music composed by Georgina with the letters brought to authentic life by Alan’s poignant reading gets two more well-deserved outings in a mini-tour of North-East Scotland. Shows at:

Johnshaven Village Hall Saturday Feb 15th 7.30 pm 

New Deer Village Hall Sunday Feb16th 3pm 

Tease your imagination and watch a taster here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea8saUVelmk&feature=youtu.be

Autumn has seen Maria outshine herself with the premier of Miss Lindsay’s Secret, a project she has been working on around letters from the Glen Esk Museum, which went down a storm at the Edinburgh International Storytelling Festival and is soon to tour the North East with fabulous original music from her daughter Georgina and resonant readings from Alan Finalyson.

Meanwhile Dagba has not been forgotten and has had a couple of outings on his bicycle which is becoming ever more integrated into the show in the library at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and soon to ride around Edinburgh in April next year as part of the Puppet Animation Festival – and even further if we can get our legs in training to take him!

And don’t forget Christmas! A couple of library tellings at the National Library of Scotland accompanied by Christmas songs to keep the ukuleles in tune, and our winter fixture, back with Bob Mitchell and the Burgh Blatherers, the Winter Warmer coming up on 6th December at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.

Finishing 2019 with a bang and making plans for 2020