Nature

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Changing Landscapes – Poetry Workshops

Harehill House, Littleborough

Fridays 10am to 12noon – 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th Sept, 3rd Oct

In September I will be leading a series of poetry workshops where we will look at the landscapes around Littleborough and the surrounding hills and moors. There will be plenty of inspiration, discussion and poetic hints and tips to enable participants to write some poetry to be proud of.

A flyer advertising the Changing Landscapes workshops

An anthology of poems created from these sessions will be published and distributed in a large print format making it accessible for people who might not be able to access poetry in the typical smaller print sizes. A launch event for the book will be announced once a date can be finalised and all contributing poets will have the chance to read some of their work at the launch.

Bookings are currently open. There is a charge of £25, payable at the first session, which covers the 5 workshops and a copy of the anthology. Places are limited and can be booked by emailing Liz White at: lizwhitecreative@gmail.com

One of the sessions, 12th September (weather permitting), will consist of a field trip to explore and discuss the local landscapes.

This project is supported with funding from Grantscape and organised by Liz White for Create and Connect.

A little bit more nature
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A little bit more nature

Sometimes nature can be the inspiration for making new images and sometimes it can inspire new creative writing. Recently I was thinking back to a time about 50 years ago when I was walking the last part of the journey to school and was distracted by a Merlin flying just a few yards away and parallel to the path. I’d never seen one before and it was genuinely stunning. A small bird of prey it was struggling in the face of a very strong wind so I was able to watch it closely for a while. I was a bit late for school but it is a memory I still treasure and I’ve never since seen a Merlin. That inspired the little poem below, and after that I couldn’t resist adding it with drawing into my nature journal.

Nature journal page by Seamus with poem and drawing of a Merlin made with coloured pencils and fountain pen.

Sometimes the idea comes from the image and then the words come along afterwards as was the case with this watercolour sketch and poem about a grey seal.

Nature journal page by Seamus with poem and watercolour of a grey seal

Not everything in the journal includes poetry and the spread below has a few little nuggets of folklore and myth along with 25 additional names for Digitalis, the plant we now call Foxglove. There watercolours were painted from one of the beautiful foxgloves that have been thriving in our garden in the last month.

Photo of a spread from my nature journal with pictures and text about foxgloves.

Poetry day at Hare Hill House, Littleborough
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Poetry day at Hare Hill House, Littleborough

Saturday 28th June 2025

We still have a few places left on our poetry workshops at Hare Hill House on Saturday 28th June.

Photo of the Bandstand at Hare Hill Park, Littleborough

There are two workshops to choose from both running from 10am to 12noon.

Becky May will be running a Contemporary Poetry session while I will running a Nature poetry session. The workshops cost just £5 per person and you can book by emailing Liz white – lizwhitecreative@gmail.com or myself – seamus@onepoetsvision.co.uk

After the workshops there will be poetry performances and then in the afternoon Yorkshire poet and author Gaia Holmes will be discussing her work, including her recently published collection of short stories “He used to do dangerous things”. The afternoon session is free of charge and all are welcome.

This promises to be an enjoyable and productive day of poetry in the historic Hare Hill House in Littleborough.

poetryworkshops #naturepoetry #naturewriting #contemporarypoetry #poetry #poetryperformance #authortalk @gaiaholmes73 @rochdale.creates @cartwheel_arts @rochdalelibrary @rochdalecouncil

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Love Nature, Love Words, Love Pictures

If you are a nature lover you probably already know how being outside among plants, trees and all kinds of wildlife, can help lift your mood and make you feel good. But did you know that recording your experiences, observations and thoughts can multiply those benefits?

Photo of the participants and facilitators for the nature journalling session, stood by woodland with a Culture Coop Random Acts of Art poster

Last weekend my wife, Maggie, and I ran nature journaling session at the Hollingworth Lake Country Park. We all had a great time with a nature work, tips for finding subjects to write about and a range of ways to make illustrations. The participants were shown how you can make a journal using various kinds of paper and they also learned some watercolour techniques to create a nice, and quick, illustration of bluebells.

One of our participants even climbed a tree while the other had a sit down in a den made of branches at the bottom of the tree.

Photo from the nature journalling session, showing participants during the activities
Photo from the nature journalling session, showing participants during the activities

We were really impressed by the enthusiasm, skills and knowledge of those people who came along and really happy to send them home with their own jounaling journey underway.

We were also delighted with the feedback, some of which is shown below:

“Want to do more”
“Lovely, awesome”
“Thanks very much for this afternoon. I really enjoyed it, much better than I thought I would. It has certainly inspired me and given me confidence to learn more and develop new skills.”
“Would be great if there was a journalling group”
“Loved seeing lots of different ways of making images”
“It was great to spend time on what’s meaningful”

Photo from the nature journalling session, showing participants during the activities
Photo from the nature journalling session, showing participants during the activities
Photo from the nature journalling session, showing participants during the activities