Oh fit a lovely time Fizzy the Fairy and I had yesterday at Banff Castle – Banffshire!! Such a lovely audience of giggling grown ups, bubbly bairns and totty-wee toddlers who joined in with stories of daft loons, funny fairies and princely puddocks!
Thanks to Jo Edwards for the photographs!
Weel fit a grand trip we hid tae Portsoy fur the Haal this wikend!
Sheena and I had a great weekend at the Portsoy Haal this weekend – heading off on Friday afternoon (with Wee Imp and the caravan in tow!)
After the concert our first session was the late night storytelling at the Town Hall – a grand 2 hours with folk sharing their tales from 11pm to 1am. Wee Imp enjoyed the late night walk back to the camp site!
Our storytelling workshop on Saturday morning went down a treat too – we had 16 enthusiastic attendees who heard stories and learned about how some famous authors got into a bit of trouble by putting their neighbours in their novels! Abdy then had a go at creating life stories from photographs and came scarily close to the truth in some cases!
Wee Imp and I went off with oor pal Tattie to hear some of the ballads sung at the Greig Duncan Collection competition – after which I was brave enough to have a swim in the North Sea (but there’s nae photies o that!)
A few sangs, many midgie bites and a fire on the beach on Saturday evening made sure I had a good nights sleep ready for our last storytelling session at the Town Hall bar at Sunday lunchtime. Then it was already time to go home – wi a few songs and ballads sung all the way home in the car. (Wee Imp had her headphones on by this point, preferring Eurovision over ballads!)
Thanks to Portsoy Haal for having us both along, fit a gran time wi hid! And thanks to everyone who came along to share their stories, songs, poems. And thanks to Sheena for having me laughing so much!
I caught Fizzy the Fairy last night getting ready to head out to the Fairies Yule Party. She was in a very festive mood and was almost set to head out to the Cauld Hill o Fare.
Now! If you know your Aberdeenshire stories, you’ll know that the fairies once lived in the Seeley Howe on the Laird of Blelacks Land. They were then dislodged by John Farquharson (a reputed magician) and sent to the Hill o Fare which wasn’t a patch on the Seeley Howe!
They cursed Blelack of course, stating
“Dool, dool to Blelack,
And dool to Blelack’s heir,
For drivin’ us frae the Seely Howe,
To the cauld Hill o’ Fare!”
And that was him cursed. Fizzy assures me that the Hill of Fare is actually very nice these days (the fairies having had a few centuries to spruce it up a bit) but aye that it is a bit chilly.
So! I decided to give her Christmas present early. When we went to Ellon a few weeks ago, we met Elsie who said that Fizzy could do with a nice warm ganzie. So I’ve got the old knitting needles out and have managed to knit Fizzy a lovely jumper to keep her warm. She’s delighted – especially considering my lack of knitting skills!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Pauline Cordiner - Scottish Storyteller 