By Kate Hodges
17th August 2020
DO Corn Rigs and Barley Rigs
Traditionally, this is the time of year that corn dollies were made from the last few stems of wheat, twisted and bound together to form a safe haven for the spirit of the harvest. The dolly would be ploughed back into the soil on Plough Monday in the early new year. Wheat weaving connects us with our past, and is a creative and rewarding past-time. In our new, digital issue, we speak to wheat weaver Carol Partridge about her art and the stories behind it. Why not try making your own corn dolly? The Harvest Knot was traditionally given as a love token and is fairly easy to do! Find instructions here
EVENT Show Time!
We are massive fans of children’s picture book There’s a Bear on My Chair, so are paw-fully excited about the live puppet retelling of the book by Toby Olié, in association with the London puppet magic-makers, Little Angel Theatre. The show will be broadcast on the Theatre’s YouTube channel this Saturday at 11am, then available online – check out the other shows available on their page, and do make a donation if you can.
MAKE Natural Make-over
Trees are laden with berries and fruit, and there’s plenty of sun, so this is a great time of year to surf that glut and dye your clothes using natural materials. Use berries to create pastel pinks or go greet with artichokes, blue with red cabbage, or yellow with marigolds and turmeric – find a great list here. For really delicate, subtle results, why not try printing your garments with flowers?
EVENT Bow Selectors
This Saturday, at 11am, the Philharmonia Orchestra will present a free, world-class, specially recorded concert for families on their YouTube channel. Conducted by Holly Mathieson and presented by Lucy Drever, it has been created for families of all shapes and sizes to enjoy, the performance is built around the theme of ‘connection’, of joining together after the lockdown. It will include Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and George Walker’s Lyric for Strings. The concert will also connect with the Southbank Centre’s Everyday Heroes outdoor art and poetry exhibition, which celebrates key workers; if you’re in London, do take a wander around it. A performance of Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst will be interwoven with community artwork depicting local heroes. The concert is part of The Philharmonia Sessions – a summer programme of three free digital concerts, conceived and created especially for an online audience, filmed several days in advance of their broadcast at Battersea Arts Centre.
EVENT and DO Zzzzzzz Time
Fancy sleeping somewhere other than your bunk or bed? On Friday, Action for Children are asking families to ditch the duvet and banish the blanket and spend the night in the most unusual place in your home or garden. You might pitch a tent under your table, or bed down in your bathroom. The aim is to raise money for vulnerable children and families, so hunker down with the gang, join all-known faces such as Jessica Hynes and Ed Byrne, and fundraise while you snore. More here
What we’ve been reading this week:
‘We need to show children we can survive’: how to parent through a pandemic. “The pandemic has brought a new level of honesty into family life. “In the past, parents might have said ‘Don’t worry’ to their kids – but the pandemic means they’ve seen their parents worried, it’s put everything on the table.” As with all traumas, it’s a learning opportunity that, in the long term, will boost resilience. “It’s about managing the setbacks and knocks and showing children how to use them to become stronger – and that doesn’t mean airbrushing them out, or pretending they’re not there, it means being clear about the fact that we’ve all been worried, that the virus is an unknown and in many ways it remains an unknown. But we need to show children that we can survive, even if things go against us in the future. So if there are problems ahead with, for example, a second wave, then, yes, we’ll be disappointed – but we will get through.””
Read more here
Found something inspirational to read that you’d like to share? Want to share your creations with us? Have an idea for things to do? We’d love to hear from you. Email Kate
