Musical superstars at Sutton Bank

Well, I don’t think many of the people who braved the elements today to come to Sutton Bank Visitor Centre in the glorious North York Moors were expecting to become world musical superstars today. But that’s exactly what happened!

Radio York’s own Jonathan Cowap was at the ‘My Awesome Planet’ event being held at Sutton Bank, where I was teaching ‘Compost! The (mini-)Musical‘ to any of the visitors who fancied taking part.

The children, mums, dads and grandmas who volunteered learned the complete musical in a mere 30 minutes. And then they performed it!

Their audience consisted not only of visitors to Sutton Bank, but also, thanks to the presence of Radio York, the whole of the rest of the world …

‘Even Africa?’ asked one participant. Yes, thanks to the internet, even people in Africa could hear these wonderful performers!

‘They look like they’re having a fantastic time!’ said Jonathan Cowap.

Thank you to everyone at the Visitor Centre for welcoming us so warmly. And to Jonathan Cowap from Radio York for coming and listening to us. To Sally Ann Smith for organising the My Awesome Planet event. And most of all to the fantastically talented performers.

Think global! Compost local! Now!

At the 'My Awesome Planet' event at Sutton Bank, North York Moors

Fancy putting on Compost! The (mini-)Musical yourself? Find out more about the Compost! The (mini-)Musical Teaching Pack with Resource CD here.

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Rambling through Seven Stories

I led two Rhyme Time Rambles at  Seven Stories, the wonderful Centre for Children’s Books in Newcastle, today. We rhyme-time rambled …

Our Rhyme Time Ramble route at Seven Stories, Newcastle

We rambled through the Wild Wood and through 100 Acre Wood. We sang songs and chanted poems about Toad and Ratty and Mole, and about Tigger and Owl and Piglet and Pooh. And we slurched like snails, and we buzzed like bees, and we fluttered like butterflies.

This event was one of a series of events at Seven Stories this week entitled ‘A Walk in the Wood’.

If you haven’t been to Seven Stories, do go! It’s a magical place. The exhibition about The Wind in the Willows and Pooh comes to an end soon. But that will be followed by a Judith Kerr exhibition. (‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’ was one of my favourite books as a child, so I’m looking forward to that exhibition.)

Thank you to everyone who joined in our Rhyme Time Rambles, and to all the staff at Seven Stories, for their welcome.

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Insect Festival 2009

Fabulous weather, a beautiful location, fascinating exhibits, and a Buzzing! show from John and me. It all adds up to a great day out – which is exactly what the Insect Festival 2009 here in York was last Saturday.

Yorkshire Moth Man, Dr Dave Chesmore had a stall, with lots of live moths he’d caught in the York area. There were also stalls from a wide variety of other people and organisations, including the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, the National Biodiversity Network, a jeweller, Elaine Kool, who makes stunning jewellery inspired by insects (find out more), and Ento Ceramics, whose ceramics are painted with beautiful insect designs (find out more).

John Rayson and I were asked to perform a Buzzing! show all about insects, which we did in the Tempest Anderson Hall. Fortunately another clutch of my world-first insect discovery, Berberis sawfly larvae, had hatched just a couple of days before, so I was able to take some live larvae along for people to see.

We had great feedback from our show.  Luke Tilley, who had invited us to perform there, wrote to us to say the show was:

‘excellent. I enjoyed it very much, and so did the audience.’

And Professor Jim Hardie, former President of the Royal Entomological Society, said he ‘greatly enjoyed’ our show.

Professor Hardie went on to say that  ‘Lesley Goodman would have been delighted by the way you presented insects to a very general audience.’ I was very touched to hear this. You’ll recall I was awarded the Lesley Goodman Award by the Royal Entomological Society last year. I’m very pleased that it was felt that I have lived up to the aim of her award, and to her memory.

John and I ended our show with a poem about the Harlequin ladybird, and we stayed on in the hall to go along to a fascinating talk there about the Harlequin ladybird, given by Dr Lori-Jane Lawson Handley from the University of Hull.

Don’t forget to record your sightings of Harlequin and other ladybirds with the UK Ladybird Survey. Scientists like Dr Lawson Handley need our records!

Anneliese Emmans Dean – info@theBigBuzz.biz – www.theBigBuzz.biz