At 11am tomorrow morning I’m going to be telling stories in the Central Library for Granite Noir 2022 I’m delighted to be the only family-friendly event in the festival – with stories of various crimes suitable for children aged Primary 1 and up.

“Join local storyteller Pauline Cordiner for some tales of thrilling thefts, vicious villains, pathetic pirates, dreadful deaths and maybe even some troublesome toilets! Pauline will tell traditional stories from the North East of Scotland, Europe and around the world in this session suitable for children aged 5 and up”

https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/…/granite-noir…/

Well that’s Spectra 2022 over for another year – and what an amazing festival it was! This year I was joined by my wonderful storytelling friend, Lindsey Gibb and we shared stories with an audience of over 800 over 4 evenings of the festival. Oh and we had a huge amount of fun too – I don’t know if Lindsey has forgiven Fizzy the Fairy for her impromptu beat-boxing, but many laughs were had and each and every audience was an absolute pleasure!

It was great to be back telling stories to a festival audience again and indoors too! (Well, this is Aberdeen in February!) We managed to see some of the exhibits which this year were fewer but GRANDER – just huge! And perfect for a country inching its way out of Covid restrictions.

I can’t wait to see what Spectra 2023 has in store for us!

Oh yes and there will be a fair amount of fisher folk stuff, Medieval stuff, Pictish stuff, Viking stuff and I’m really hoping we’ll get away for our usual festivals this summer.

Plenty of reasons to strut about like a Book of Deer Beastie! 😀

Just back from a great morning at Oyne Primary School – all Elfed up for the P1-4s for some Christmas stories and then the P5-7s enjoyed the death of Baldur so much * that they got a bonus Thor’s Wedding!

Now it’s time to de-Elf myself and get ready for some Tales from the Longhouse with Cathbad and Olaf with special guest Pauline Cordiner tonight!

*for the Yule/Mistletoe link

I’ve just done the first of my two sessions up in Balintore and all the classes were amazing with great engagement and questions at the end!

I told them all about Thor’s wedding and then the defeat of Pictish Chieftain Mael the Tusk by Sigurd the Mighty. (Definitely a contender for Stupid Deaths!)

Tonight I’m going to be sharing the stage at the Seaboard Hall with Andy Shanks who has been composing songs at the school with Ewan McVicar! Time for more Viking tales and fishy fables

#SISFstoryripple

Both events have been made possible due to the Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s Big Scottish Story Ripple initiative and are supported by Scottish Storytelling Centre and the Scottish Storytelling Forum (TRACS).

Loved being a Christmas Fairy yesterday for We Too SC045895! We even had a wee bit of snow on the ground to make it look festive

The old Archaeolink Hangerok (Viking apron) has had its days… so today’s work is making a new one that will reflect a reasonably well off Viking lady from the time of the first raids of the North East.

The North East of Scotland was raided or invaded numerous times by the Vikings – from the capturing in 900AD of a fortress at Dunnottar, to the 1004 invasion at Gamrie* and the invasion of Apardion (Aberdeen) in 1153 recorded by Icelandic poet Einar Skulason.

*The locals fought off the Vikings and the skulls of three of their leaders were built into the walls of the kirk! The ruins of the kirk still exist and the recesses in which the skulls lay can still be seen.

Last night was one of my Ripple events for #SISFStoryRipple!

Fizzy the Fairy and I visited the TClub – Special Needs Tuesday Club in Peterhead to tell them some tales of fishwives, fairies and sing a couple of fun songs!

We were made to feel SO welcome. Thanks Tuesday Club!

This event has been made possible due to the Scottish International Storytelling Festival‘s Big Scottish Story Ripple initiative and is supported by the Scottish Storytelling Forum (TRACS)

Two of my favourite photos by Abby Beatrice Quick taken at the weekend during the Torry Ecomuseum Project launch. – just look at those colours! We stopped off at the Torry Coo which Aberdonians know is the old fog horn.

The Tales of Torry included the Wreck of the Oscar, some incompetent grave robbers and a few fishy tales

You can find out all about the Torry Ecomuseum Project here – https://oldtorry.org.uk/tep/

I almost forgot to share these photos! Taken at Skene Square Primary School by friends of Victoria and Westburn Park who organised the event – again we had been called off by the rain which was just to heavy to be outside – although my wonderful friend Diana Peers managed to do her stories in the park in the morning.
Keep an eye on the changes at the parks – the volunteers have some great plans coming up and you can follow their Facebook page to see what’s going on 🙂