Strathspey Storywalks (2024)

22/12/2024

The year is turned. The winter sun-stop (grian stad geamhraidh) means the days now lengthen - the sun has re-fertilised the earth to turn it for another year.

Hope your solstice was lovely! Wondering with curiosity and trepidation what this year will bring...

17/12/2024

Last Storywalk of 2024 coming up on Friday - stargazing! 2025 dates are on the website, including a new year stroll from Aviemore on Jan 5th.

Winter is made for sharing stories! Come and listen, share, drink foraged tea, and enjoy this very special place we call home with new perspectives.

Booking link in bio 👆

14/12/2024

Needing a last minute Christmas gift?! ORDER BY TUES 17TH DEC LATEST! New batch of wildflower paper has arrived so vouchers are back in the online shop!

Individual and family vouchers are available - link in bio above 👆

Give an experience rather than a thing - stories, nature and foraged tea! Also...

- It supports a small local, low-impact business

- It supports the storytelling tradition, tales that have been told for generations, as well as further research projects into this wonderful place

- The vouchers are handwritten on paper seeded with British wildflowers, so you can plant it afterwards!

- The stamps are made from sustainably-sourced oak and the ink is vegan-friendly

- The packaging is 100% recycled and compostable...
..even my web host is based in the UK and powered by 100% UK-produced renewable energy.

So it's wins all round 🙏🤩

❗I'll be going to the postbox at 8am on Wednesday morning so please order by Tuesday night at the latest!! Link in bio above 👆

All good wishes to yous over the festive season...

Any stories of Glen Tanar folks? Feel free to send a DM, or email us at: highlandpicturepost@gmail.com.

13/12/2024

Any stories of Glen Tanar folks? Feel free to send a DM, or email us at: [email protected].

12/12/2024

Surprised and delighted to be heading to Glen Tanar with David Lintern Photography for a week next year to explore the premise that cultural loss is ecological loss.

If anyone has any current or past connections to Glen Tanar - working, living, stories, songs - drop me a message!

Many thanks to Bothy Project and Cairngorms National Park for this opportunity to highlight connections between land and people.
Posted • Recently we shared a call for applications to be artists in residence with as part of our programme, and received an incredible response 🌿

We’re delighted to share that local creatives Sarah Hobbs and David Lintern were successful, and together will be diving into the rich history of Glen Tanar, exploring local cultural heritage and connections to the land. Through listening, walking and photography they hope to weave together the voices of people connected to the Glen, helping their stories to be heard 📖

Watch this space to find out how Sarah and David get on, and for future opportunities.

The Cairngorms 2030 programme is made possible by thanks to National Lottery players.

📷Catriona Permenter, David Lintern

29/11/2024

Coming up tomorrow in Nethy! A really lovely community event (with hot chocolate!) for a very good cause...

Posted • Following the success of last year’s UNICEF fundraiser, we’d love to bring together our community again for a charity movement session. All proceeds will go directly to the UNICEF Gaza appeal for children in crisis.

Saturday 30th November 2024
10am - 12 noon
Nethy Bridge Community Centre
Suggested donation £12 (pay what you can)

Together we’ll enjoy a warming Pilates inspired movement session from Lucy followed by a restorative yin session and meditation from Katie and hot cacao kindly donated by Fiona’s whole Foods.

Everyone welcome. Booking essential for numbers and donations in cash on the day via cash or bank transfer if preferred.

Booking: [email protected]
or message on FB.

With thanks to Nethy Bridge Community Centre for offering the space in kind.

Image by Catriona Parmenter

26/11/2024

An artist depiction of The Fox's Tail (or Tale) by Molly age 6 from our live event on Saturday on Land Nature and Justice!

We raised just under £1,000 for the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability!

A HUGE thank you / tapadh leibh / shukran kteer for your generosity, patience (we were zoom-bombed), kindness, talent and above all, hopeful spirit to learn from one another, and seek connection and co-operation.

Here's to that.

The event recording will be available shortly to those who couldn't make it.

Speakers and contributors: Mazin Qumsiyeh, Alastair McIntosh, MJ McFadyen, Robbie Synge, Rhona Ramsay, Cairngorms Crofters & Farmers Group.
In collaboration with Highland - Palestine.
Cèilidh contributions from Will Boyd-Wallis, Cáit O'Neill McCullagh, Highland Harpist Emma Chisholm Wright, amongst others. Thank you all!

(Heartfelt appreciation to my co-organisers Jo Rodgers & Viktoria Stelikou, who I truly loved working with and also Timber+Stitch Studio who co-designed the wonderful poster!)

25/11/2024

Where I'm from...
..the oatcakes are large and floppy ;)
..a brew is a tea
..and you mash it (to brew it)
..a roll is a cob
..and everyone's a duck.

Any guesses?!

Just spent a week back in my hometown which I left at 16, and it was truly wonderful. The surprise snow was even more magical.

22/11/2024

TOMORROW (Sat)! This event will now be ONLINE due to weather conditions - if you'd like to attend, please DM for the meeting link.

🗓️ Sat 23 November, online
⏰ 3-5.30pm Discussion (including breaks)
⏰ 5.30-6.15pm - Raffle and digital cèilidh

Join us to explore to explore the connections between land, nature and justice in Palestine and the Highlands. How is biodiversity nurtured in both places, and can Palestine set a global example? How does cultural and ecological restoration take place? How are communities in Palestine ensuring survival of their connections to and knowledge of land and nature, in the face of occupation and oppression?

We are privileged to welcome Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability and Alastair McIntosh (Soil & Soul etc) for an afternoon all about land and community, facilitated by Mairi McFadyen .

We are also delighted to have contributions from Robbie Synge, Rhona Ramsay and Cairngorms Crofters & Farmers Group.

And then a short online cèilidh! Feel free to take a turn... we are thrilled to be joined by musician Will Boyd-Wallis and poet Cáit O'Neill McCullagh amongst others...

👉 The event will raise funds for Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, online donations will be accepted during the event.

We hope to see you there!

In collaboration with Highland - Palestine.

11/11/2024

Shared some stories of the wartime 'lumberjills' in the strath at the weekend. The Women's Timber Corps were women from all over Scotland - mostly big cities like Glasgow - who travelled to the rural Highlands to fell trees during the Second World War.

There were many lumberjill camps across the strath; none are mapped and recorded (though one site is waiting to be uploaded to the historic environment record!)

Their work is not visible in the landscape, and it was only in 2007 that a statue was unveiled to commemorate their efforts, in Aberfeldy.

And the white poppy remembers all who lost their lives, and hopes for a different future.

10/11/2024

It's been an exceedingly busy month! 30 hours of storytelling to 137 people in Glencoe, Aberdeenshire, Glenmore, Aviemore, Glen Feshie and Nethy Bridge (at the brilliant Hill to Grill organised by Cairngorms Connect - thank you to Catriona Parmenter Photography for the wonderful photos!)

I also ran an event as part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival for the very first time - thank you to all of you who joined the walk weaving together tales from the Highlands and Pal es tine!

Plus ran a story session for Love Outdoor Learning as teacher training, as well as several private and public storywalks.

It's been wonderful and very intense! Thank you all 🙏☺️

09/11/2024

There they are, shimmering away with Jupiter!

Got a Stargazing Storywalk coming up this Tues eve if anyone fancies it...

08/11/2024

Soraidh slàn le Niteworks ann an Inbhir Nis feasgar an-dè. Mìle, mìle taing air an obair agaibh.

A farewell to Niteworks in Inverness last night. A thousand thank-yous for your work.

Drank some Skye Black and wore my Skye earrings, thought both were fitting.

After, I walked downriver to my bed-on-a-boat for the night, along the carrying stream.

We will continue to sing these songs. We will continue to tell these stories.

SUAS LEIS A' GHÀIDHLIG!

PS. Invernesians can't dance.

07/11/2024

UPDATE! This event will now be ONLINE due to weather conditions. If you're interested in attending, please message me for the meeting link.

📣 Delighted to announce this event coming up on Sat 23 Nov!

We are privileged to welcome Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability and Alastair McIntosh (Soil & Soul etc) to Boat of Garten Community Hall for an afternoon all about land and community.

I'll be leading a wee Storywalk, interweaving folktales from Palestine and the Highlands.
Then, a discussion on ecological and cultural restoration facilitated by Mairi McFadyen including our main speakers plus contributions from Robbie Synge and Cairngorms Crofters & Farmers Group.
And then a cèilidh! Feel free to take a turn... we are thrilled to be joined by musician Will Boyd-Wallis and poet Cáit O'Neill McCullagh amongst others...

👉 The event will raise funds for Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability - book tickets at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/land-nature-justice-palestine-to-the-scottish-highlands-tickets-1072647199649? (Tickets are going like hot cakes so get your skates on!!)

29/10/2024

Only 3 spaces left on a special Samhain Stargazing Storywalk this Thursday! Gaelic stories in the stars, hot mulled apple juice, all the banter from 1,500 years ago, aurora not guaranteed.

👉 Tickets: https://booking.storywalks.scot/product/winter-stargazing-storywalk-thurs-31-oct-2024/

27/10/2024

Wee photo essay of how Highland hospitals were funded from the riches of empire, including the slave trade.

It begins to illustrate how much money was made elsewhere, on the backs of other people (including enslaved people), in places we colonised, and how we here may have benefitted from that for many hundreds of years.

Schools, and large parts of towns across the Highlands were funded this way too - I've focused on health for now.

Happy to accept any feedback or corrections, it's a work in progress...

👉 https://www.storywalks.scot/blog/highland-hospitals-built-from-the-riches-of-empire

22/10/2024

Zipped to Skye on Saturday for this event. We gathered in a sunny windblown Talla Bhreacais to hear Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation speak of their collective fight to oppose the Trans Mountain Pipeline extension - indigenous communities against massive corporations who continue to colonise and extract (in many cases without the proper permissions, ecological assessments etc) from land unceded to Canada.

The links to Scotland? Communities here continue to fight for the right to own, use and have a meaningful say in the face of the most concentrated private land ownership in Europe too (which in itself was a product of colonisation).

And, let's not forget that many of the so-called 'founding fathers' of what became Canada came from the Highlands and Islands - and the chain of events leads us to today, to indigenous communities continuing to fight for their right to exist.

(Also, the hereditary chief surname of George was put on Rueben's grandad in residential 'school', the boarding system which forcibly removed indigenous children from their families for generations, found to be cultural genocide in 2015. The Indian Residential School system was established under Glasgow-born John A Macdonald, first prime minister of so-called Canada, whose mother and whose wife both came from Dalnavert, just south of Aviemore.)

"Sing your songs and the rest will come."

A huge thank you to , & for organising, and of course to Michael Simpson and Reuben George. I look forward to reading the book!

And I highly recommend watching Yintah on Netflix atm, about the Wet'suwet'en lands of Unist'ot'en - also unceded to Canada - on which several new pipelines are meant to be built, despite the Wet'suwet'en Nation not giving permission. And the Canadian government arrests them and sends in the pipeline companies anyway. It gives a very good observational picture of the daily struggles against colonial violence.

Strathspey Storywalks