We had a lovely session today at the GREC Language Cafe!
First we heard from two speakers, Shelter and Aberlang; then I told a story about a challenge to become a queen.
Afterwards, the Cafetistas wrote words in English and their own languages (and there were so many in the room) – words relating to house and home 
We made a bit of word art!
Coming up on Saturday 11th April! I’m going to be running a Hand Puppet Workshop, Family Storytelling Session and a Family Scots Song Workshop – all at the Blackpots Pavilion in Whitehills!
The Hand Puppet workshop runs from 11am to 12pm – Learn to bring a hand puppet to life – Bring your own puppet or borrow one of Pauline’s many characters for the workshop. For bairns aged 5 and up and their grown ups. Unaccompanied grown ups are of course welcome an aa! 
£5
The family storytelling session runs from 1 to 2pm and costs £3. Come hear some tales of legendary leviathans,
boastful bosuns and mysterious mermaids! Suitable
for age 2 to 102! Any auller than that an I’m sure you hae a tale or two to tell
The family Scots Song workshop will run 3 to 4pm and costs £3. Sing yer hairts oot at this fun Scots song workshop for wee ones and their grown ups – again, unaccompanied grownups are aye welcome!
The pavillion pop up cafe will be open – hot dogs and drinks from £1.
I’m also chuffed tae be takkin part in the Scots Variety Concert in the Whitehills Village Hall at 7pm. I’ll be in fine company wi Doug Hay, Moira Stewart, the Portsoy Pipe Band, local highland dancers, Mike Blackburn, Aaron Clark and Graham Legge!
Book via Whitehills Playing Field on Facebook
or by calling Doug Hay on 07979 360238
Aye it’s been a busy couple of wiks an although it’s the skweel holidays, I’ve got some exciting prep coming up! I’m delighted to announce a successful application to the Wee Grants for Creativity In The Scots Leid!
I’m going to be visiting Arduthie Primary in Stonehaven to work with the bairns to write some songs in Doric as part of their Hoolie In The Schoolie! This is going to be so much fun 
his isn’t even my penultimate post for today! Yes. I have been busy!! And that’s why it was such a pleasure to visit our wonderful friends at Aye Aye Club on Monday for some crafting!
Making dreamcatchers looks tricky the traditional way – luckily M had been busy crocheting all weekend (I did have a go! Mine is the neon pink doily in the second photo!) to create the centres in these cardboard disc dreamcatchers.
It was so relaxing! I must do more crafts in amongst all the upcoming prep for future projects (see next posts lol)
Thankyou Aye Aye for allowing me to pinch and share some of your photos!!
For this post, I’d like to direct you to the Grampian Association of Storytellers Facebook post – https://www.facebook.com/grampianassocationofstorytellers/posts/pfbid036spEEU2rYpRxi1NMqqdqTRuAfKyLDkiUmFccL2rh9dhRv4C6vyN9RuYALPLbTqDbl
(Cut and paste below for those of you not on Facebook!)
Celebrating Doric, Poetry, and Heritage: A Fireside Evening of Shared Joy
We all enjoyed the last session of our Fireside Chat series—Doric speakers and abanderados alike, or not. You didn’t need to speak this beautiful language to feel the enthusiasm of our guest, 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿, or to delight in the rhymes collected by 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗿 and later reworked by Scottish students aged 5 to 11. 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿, attentive to the diversity of our audience—from California to Saudi Arabia—offered vivid translations of the rhymes. But even without them, the verses came alive in her voice, and whether we spoke Doric or not, we could all enjoy their inner music.
But let’s start from the beginning. A century ago, a Scottish woman, 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗿, traveled through parts of the northwest of Scotland by bicycle, collecting songs, riddles, and rhymes. 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿 introduced her to us with warmth, offering clues on where to explore her work further.
A project funded by the 𝗗𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 has recently brought these rhymes into several primary schools. Guided by 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿, children aged 5 to 11 have enjoyed them, illustrated them, and recreated them—after compiling lovely lists of Doric vocabulary. There are so many valuable elements, so many layers of learning, in the illustrations and rhymes she shared with us!
A note for our international audience: Doric is a variety of Scots, one of the four official languages of Scotland, alongside English, Gaelic, and British Sign Language.
For those who would like to learn more about 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗿, the 𝗗𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 project, 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿, or Doric itself, we will share some links (see them in the comments—shhh… the algorithm penalises us if we add them here ).
Many thanks to our guest, the Scottish storyteller 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿, for a night full of poetry and love for linguistic diversity; to our host, 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗮 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘁𝘁, for guiding the evening with her usual contagious enthusiasm and wisdom; and, of course, to our wonderful international audience.
What’s next?
𝗜𝗻-𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁
In collaboration with the 𝗘𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗲
One Thousand and One Persian Nights – a Nowruz celebration
Part of the Aberdeen and Beyond Storytelling Festival
Wednesday, 25 March
𝗢𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁
Guest: 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗺𝘀𝗼𝗻 (folklorist, musician & storyteller)
Tales and songs from the Traveller tradition and beyond 15 April (Zoom)
You can find all the details about both events in their corresponding posts.
The p6s at Meethill School are not getting away without a post though! As part of the Aberdeenshire Museums Service Cultural Tides Doric Workshops, the P6s learned stories from Peterhead’s past, figured out 5 stages to each story (start, middle, end!) and started writing out the stories in Doric – they did amazingly well with the Doric spikkers in the class sharin fit they kent wi the ithers!
Weel deen P6 and thanks to the pupils and Miss Jango for working so hard
(and yes, P6 – I’m on the hunt for some CHEERY stories from Peterheid for you!)
My last post was about the first two Doric Workshops I ran at Meethill School for the Cultural Tides Project – and now I can share some results from the 3rd workshop!
The P5s joined me in creating a couple of Doric Rhymes – the first was about what they get up to in their spare time… and they did so well with that rhyme that we had time to create a second rhyme about their favourite words in Doric!
Here they are, along with the pupils AMAZING illustrations! I wanted to share ALL the drawings because I loved them so much, so click on the gallery to view each full size illustration
At the wikend wi nivver sit doon
Wir either skatin, crabbin or gaen doon I toon
The Lido’s gey hoochin wi faimlies waakin dugs
The soons o bairnies squealin fills wir lugs*
Skurries pinch wir pieces file wir puddlin in the waater
We’ll later ging tae Zanres fur a fine sausage in baatter!
Back hame tae wir hooses, jammies on an a buik tae read
Aifter aniter bonnie day wi freens, oot in Peterheid!
Tattiebogles, oxters, peekin bairns an lugs
Foggiebummers, bosies, puddock, doup an dugs
Hummel doddies, peely wally duncin, scunnert, feel
A o these are Doric wurds kent at Meethill Skweel!
As you can see from the second photo, it was a bright and sunny day up in Peterhead yesterday for my first visit to Meethill School as part of the Cultural Tides project organised by Aberdeenshire Museums Service !
I had great fun with the first two Doric workshops – an introduction to Doric in the morning where the P5 and 6 pupils had fun showing off how much Doric they knew, miming Doric words for eachother to guess (10/10 from what I saw!) and creating a Doric vocabulary for use in the other workshops.
In the afternoon they voted (very wisely!) for their favourite of 5 traditional songs connected with Peterheid and the surrounding area, decided what the song was “missing” and added a whole new verse (and a half! Watch this space)
I also got to see the school’s Storytelling Chair for the first time. (First photo) It was made by the folks at HMP Grampian in memory of Mr Black, who was the headteacher until 2024. there are amazing images from childrens’ books all over it and… some of my favourite Doric words!
What a treat to be invited into Ellon Primary for World Book Day on Wednesday!
I always love looking at the artwork on the walls of classrooms. Here is the P2s’ hard work for the Chinese Year of the Horse
It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I’m playing catchy-up with the socials again!
Here are some super photos courtesy of 55th Aberdeen Brownies who I visited last week to help out with their Folklore Badge!
The girls heard a couple of stories of mythological creatures and went on a creature hunt before naming each creature and telling me what they knew about them. I was SO impressed with their knowledge! Tonight the girls will be doing the final part of their badge – designing badges based on the mythological creatures they know! I can’t wait to see their designs
Pauline Cordiner - Scottish Storyteller 