PlaySpace News 1 – August 2013

Welcome to the first PlaySpace Publications (PSP) occasional newsletter. So what’s new in creative words for health & wellbeing? I’m just back from a weekend conference in Taplow, Berkshire on Transforming Conflict, and this weekend I will be attending the Attentive Writers in Glasgow University; then in mid September there is Living with the Reality of Uncertainity – – a facilitator training with Ted Bowman -link; in October there’s the Lapidus conference and AGM in Bristol; and there’s the 99 words project that I’ve been introducing to my writing groups . . . .

And what next from PSP: wee dods of kismet – a posthumous collection of poems by Margaret Donaldson is currently being designed and will be available in October, mainly for family and friends as well as a fund raiser for her favorite charity. Margaret was a founder member of the Bank Street Writers and a generous supporter of Lapidus Scotland, .both o the committee and attending most of our events. Before the end of the year, PSP will publish Dorothy Stafford’s Lost Words as an inspiration for parents (aunts, uncles, babysitters too) to remember and record what children say. This is what Dorothy and William Stafford did in a private booklet for their family in Oregon. I have permission to make this more widely in Scotland, any profit will be donated to Parent Network Scotland Here’s one quote from Kim Stafford age 6 who is now the director of the Northwest Writing Institute:

                                           Kim, trying to balance on one foot: I can’t stand it.

As we enter the time of harvest, I’m reminded of a walled garden in Northern Scotland near Nairn where in the Spring I counted more that 20 kinds of potatoes planted and labeled in neat rows. They will soon be ready to lift:

tatties

Amber

Anya

Burg Reds

Colleen

Desiree

Epicure

Innovator

Kerrs Pink

Kestral

Maris Piper

Mary Peer

Nicola

Orla

Picasso

Pink Fir Apple

Sharpes Express

Sherine

Trixie

Vale Emerald

grown in Newbold walled garden