Positive Feedback

Today I received some positive feedback via an email, they said

"Hello Lisa,
We both thought it was really good fun and very interesting, we did a ghost tour in penzance a few years ago and also last year we done Jack The Ripper tour in London and they were both really good But the one you did was good the speaker he came over really well and the kids who were shouting and screaming they were very good to, If you do anything like that again could you let us know, perhaps you could do one on Halloween night and that would be good.
Once again thank you for a really good night.

Many Thanks

Andrew"

We Weren't Alone!

And I don't mean the Youth Council who were in the bushes. I have just spotted that we weren't alone, and Neil definitely wasn't. Behind him on the picture above is an orb (centre of his back). On the picture below there are a small collection of orbs - unless there is any other explanation? I'm looking forward to seeing the film that Jack has done of the ghost tour even more so now, to see if we spot anymore orbs! Spooky.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Evidence that the Youth Council were there

The Youth Council and friends go off to get ready to haunt us in the woods. They had arrived early and had put things around like spider webs and other special effects.

Whilst the stories were being told we also had rustling noises, breaking branches, a few chilling screams. Some of the audience were looking quite disturbed!

The Headless Ghost Tour - ArtCafe Style

------------------------------Nick led us around Nevendon Bushes, narrating with great gusto. We also had great sound and visual effects from the Youth Council.

Nick's voice must have reached the far corners of the woods as he told the story, we were entertained with tales of Voysey the criminal youth. Basil the owl-headed hunter, a duel in a clearing in the woods. The Coven and the Gangster's Torso, and to finish it off Neil made up the finale.

Here is Neils first proper piece of script-writing:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Haunted Bushes

As you have heard, there are many stories related to Nevendon Bushes. Some colourful characters have roamed the woods and used it for their unsavoury acts. But the spirits of those killed remain, trapped in the thickets and scrub, and at night they are especially active. It is no coincidence that there are few who venture into these woods at night.
Dark shadows can be seen silhouetted against the sky at dusk, often on a warm summer evening.
Strange rustling noises can be heard in the woods and there are even tales of a figure in the bog where we stopped earlier, most commonly seen after a wet summer.

We would not recommend walking alone at night as the spirit of old Abraham Voysey is said to roam here in the hope of taking revenge on his son. There are some reports of the Headless Hunter frequenting the clearing.
But the most chilling story is of the spirit of a bare-chested man.
Could this be Voysey? Or a Vane brother? It is said that the face is black but that a red scar can be seen clearly on the neck.
There are also reports of an awful smell like someone has not washed for weeks and the skin has started to rot and weep. Some say the smell is foxes, but even the foxes will not venture into certain parts of the woods – why?

One thing is for sure, these bushes contain something far more sinister than other woodlands.
The reports of a bare-chested figure rising from a concrete grave at night, close to the edge of the woods, faceless, and fleet of foot – you wouldn’t want to meet him. So steer clear of odd concrete structures in the darkness of the night.

Thank you for attending this evening.

Sleep well!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had to have a drink after this and all headed for the Watermill.

A Reminder of the Time Change

I must point out that the time has changed from 7.30 to 8.45 as Nick and the Youth Council both thought it would be too light and not eerie enough.
Spooook to you sooon!!

Inspirations for 'Headless Ghost Tour - ArtCafe Style'

Ghost Walk by Andrea Mason for Art U Need Needs U from the 'Nevendon Tales' by Simon Bill.
This was read by former London Tour Guide Chris Lowthorpe who is also a member of the Arcadian Collective http://www.myspace.com/arcadiancollective .
Myself and others enjoyed the experience very much. I have permission from Andrea to use this story in my events. It is as written but we have changed the end story, the new story which is a sort of summarising of the other stories was written by Neil Horner. So we are calling it 'The Headless Ghost Walk - ArtCafe Style.'


When we were on holiday in Cornwall we went on this one man show ghost walk, it was quite inspiring. Although the guy himself wasn't terribly terrifying the stories got you hooked and listening.
At first some people laughed because he was rather posh and nice sounding but by the time we heard a couple of his tales we were listening intently.
He was guiding us around St. Ives which is a very old town with lots of winding narrow roads.
I was quite impressed with the profit he would make from telling a story, he was charging £5 per adults and £3 for under 16 and there were about 30 people there, mainly adults.

What's Next

Click to enlarge

Puppet Family Workshop 2

...............................

Well this time we captured the puppet show on video, the children got on with making their puppets and we had time for the children to do their own puppet shows which we videoed.

It all went really well, lots of satisfied, happy little faces.

Whilst I was here I got talking to Vick Hobbs (?) hope I've got that right, who is responsible for the welfare of all the wildlife - he has a wealth of knowledge he is willing to share.

August Artist's Cafe

We had wonderful weather, and quite a gathering. What is nice is the whole impromptu impact of the Artists Cafe, I had numerous children come up and were interested in the art and I gave them some paper and lent them some pastels and they were away.
What Charlie was doing caused a lot of interest, he had lots of paper stuck to the concrete at the side of the cafe, and with a mixture of paint and bubble liquid blew bubbles that landed on the paper and left a mark, he said he was more interested in the bubbles that didn't land on the paper - where did they go?
There was me, Neil, Charlie and son, Nick, Jim, Sheila with her two daughters and grandchildren Angel, Ash and Aaliyah. We were joined briefly by Simon, maybe he'll stay longer next time.
A lovely afternoon full of conversation!
More photographs on the Artist's Cafe's own website: www.myspace.com/artcafeinc
ArtCafe's Myspace is now www.myspace.com/herron23h

Good News!

Having discovered that Nick (Puppet Workshop) has very good shouting and acting abilities I asked him if he would be the main narrator for the Headless Ghost Tour he agreed - we may discover his dark side!

The Puppet Family Workshop - So many people in one little gazebo!

This went really well, my only regret is not getting someone to take a photo of Nick and myself doing the Puppet show, Nick wrote the script - let's say it was a combination of Posh and Becks and a water pistol.

As you see we had the full quota of children - we even had to turn some away asking them to come back next week. It was completely different at first, we had one Mum and son turn up as they had booked and everybody else seemed to be in ignorance of us, sitting there eating their picnic or pushing their children on the swing. Many had come to go on the big inflatables,

I said to Nick " What if no-one wants to join in, what do we do?"

My daughter Claire had the bright idea of giving out leaflets and telling them about the Puppet show, this worked, suddenly we had loads of interest - well done Claire!

Nick has sort of made this into a mini-career since I first wrote about the event on here, last week he did four Puppet workshops in two local schools, and he really enjoyed them.

I promise I'll get photo's of the Puppet show next week, so if you missed out this time try to get down to Northlands Park at 1.00 next Monday.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Nick's Puppet Family Workshop's coming up next

Next Monday we have Nicks 'Puppet Family Workshop' Stage 1.
He has been working on the puppet theatre, when I met him yesterday he was a bit paint- splattered.

This laid back guy has it all in control, at the moment he is a LSA and school Librarian but he is going on to do teacher training in September, I wouldn't be surprised if he is headmaster in a few years time.

He said his first love is teaching and his second love is art. Having recently done a lot of work in his school with puppetry he wanted to share this with a wider audience.

I think himself and the kids got a lot out of the lessons, he is quoted as saying "I have not come across as better way of combining pure fun and education as puppetry."
Looking forward to the workshops Nick.

'Northlands Park Corner and Following Events'

The Fourth Artists Meeting

Well the weather was fine, so we sat outside. There was Lisa, Nick, Charlie and his son Luke, me and Lisa's friend. We all had a good chat and got on with some art. Luke who is four going on five was very helpful, he was assisting Charlie with his picture so that the canvas got covered with crayoning, Charlie was very patient.
We realised that Johnathon (6) had joined us when he asked to borrow our pencil sharpener.
Johnathon had been very busy doing lots of art with brightly coloured pencils, this is one of his pictures which is a car on a bright and sunny day.
I have got his picture in the 'Northlands Park Children's Gallery' http://www.childrensgallery.blogspot.com/
It was nice to see his mum and dad joining in too!

Nicks cool puppet!

Claire made one of Nick's puppets - an accessory all young ladies should carry round with them I think.

The Fun Day

We all enjoyed the Fun Day even though we had rain and black clouds quite a bit of the time. As you can see we were pretty busy in the marquee and also managed to get the word out as well. Click on the pictures to enlarge them. I had them placed perfectly on the post but they seem to have come out all higgledy piggledy.