My anger is my blessing. Here and now. 
Here and now. A travel tale?
Baba Yaga. 
Baba and Yaga.

At the Edge of Storytelling

A strange place to begin! But since I started storytelling, as opposed to thinking about stories, the edge is the place that I've resisted. Its much easier to go with the mainstream acceptable forms of stories that one hears, learns to enjoy (or not) and tell. Then last year, I attended a course called 'What If?...' - my introduction to the surreal in the story. For a week we told of going underground following a bee, or into space walking on asteroids, and liberation for that split second on the edge of the impossible. I loved it, came away with the question 'What is a no-story, that is not not a story?' Complicated???? For me, it seemed the question was enough and I let it lie.


And this week it returned in the most unexpected way. Two stories: take a look:

1. Horses with Long Necks

This is taking place in some country - it could be either Istanbul or Reading Wood. They are horses with long necks. They are giraffes, and they make ‘tchk, tchk, tchk, tchk’ noises. They are going horse racing, and are waiting to have lunch as they meet their mother. They are also waiting for their photos to be taken. They are growing so tall, they could jump high!

The man in the middle is not scared. He’s taking them for tea. They will be drinking tea out of the sea, they are that tall, but it is better they just have a cup of tea. ‘How lovely people are!’ they are saying. The one in the corner is saying ‘Roll on the horse racing! I’m Win, who are you?’

They are waiting for tea. If all the windows open up, they could put their heads inside, then they could find something to eat. One giraffe said, ‘Hello! Go spend a penny on a cup of tea!’.  How does a giraffe spend a penny on a cup of tea? 

Finally, after the cup of tea, they have another one and decide to have yet another one. They are waiting for the cup of tea but it never arrives. The man sits quietly, not bringing the cup of tea. They can’t get out of the picture. 

Story created on 31^st January 2011 by the Milton Grange coffee club members: Ann, Barbara and Barbara, Bill, William, Mary, Sylvia, Winifred (Win), Maria, Angelica, with the support of Carol, Sheila and Grant. 

2. Pretty Boy

He is called William Thomas. He is a very pretty boy. He doesn’t look much like my dad. He’s blowing a trumpet of some sort, but it’s too big for him. He’s got to shoot up and get bigger to be able to hold the trumpet well. He’s here at Milton Grange. It’s a living room of some sort. It is too much of a mess. The trumpet is making a ‘do, do, dooot’ noise, but it should be louder than that. It should be ‘DO, DO, DO, DO, DOOOT’. Louder!

His mum is thinking that he’s wetting his trousers and the neighbours are thinking the same thing. The neighbours wished he played something quieter and that he was less smelly!

He’s blowing so hard, the music papers are flying all over the place, or it must be a bit windy in that living room. It is the noise of the wind that makes the music. He’s not reading the music, he’s just playing the trumpet. 

When he finishes playing, he will go and find some very pretty girls or he might be flat out and go to sleep. If pretty boy can play music, he can also find some very pretty girls!

Story created on 31^st January 2011 by the Milton Grange coffee club members: Ann, Barbara and Barbara, Bill, William, Mary, Sylvia, Winifred (Win), Maria, Angelica, with the support of Carol, Sheila and Grant. 

Two stories created by a group of elderly people at a care home. We showed them photographs and for over an hour, they worked at describing the photograph. It is part of the 'Time Slips' method created by Anne Bastings in the US. We are trying to adapt it to work with patients suffering from dementia.

Are they stories?