Aberdeenshire Autumn Workshops-updated

Caroline's next visit to Aberdeenshire is on 6-8th September. The weekend will follow the usual workshop format. We'll also be going on our annual fungi foray on Monday 9th. Let Caroline or me know if you'd like to come along.

The October workshop is the annual 3 day intensive with Mark at Fetternear Hall 12-14th October, with a session on the evening of the 11th for those studying weapons. The summer workshop in Kingston was interesting and deep work but technique-light, so I'd really encourage any of the Aberdeenshire students, past or present, regardless of level of experience* , to come along on the Saturday afternoon to share this great teaching with a group of other lovely people. Then stay for as many sessions as you can...
All the details are available here, but feel free to contact me if you need any further information or help.

Caroline's remaining workshops of 2019 are 8-10th November and 6-8th December. 2020 dates will be scheduled around Oct/Nov time so please let Caroline know if there are weekends you would prefer her to avoid if possible.

* update: subject to having covered key elements of the syllabus - please talk to your instructor for more information and to discuss suitability. New beginners or students with less experience are encouraged to attend the monthly Saturday sessions with Caroline which cover Short Form and related Partnerwork.

Annual Fungi Foray in Aberdeenshire

We'll be heading out to the woods for a few hours on Monday 17th September. Last ear was the greatest chanterelle harvest I have ever known. This year's weather has been entirely different, so who knows what will be fruiting when we walk out into the trees. All GR students welcome.

A mixed basket from a foray in 2011

Annual Great River Fungi Foray

All students are welcome to join us for our annual mushroom walks on Monday after the weekend's classes. No experience necessary. Wear boots and bring a basket if you have one.

There are also T'ai Chi 121 spaces available on Saturday and Monday mornings. 

September Workshops in Aberdeenshire

This months workshops with Caroline are this weekend 15-17th September.

The Weapons session is at Fetternear Hall at the earlier start time of 6:30pm, all other workshops are at Balvack. Great River students of any level are particularly welcome to the Saturday sessions.

Friday 6:30-9:30pm: Weapons, including Sabre for beginners 6:30-7:30  (£5).
Saturday 1-4pm: Short Form, and related study
Saturday 5.30-8.30pm: Partnerwork
Sunday 1-4pm: Long Form
Sunday 5.30-8.30pm: Advanced Studies and Dance

The price is £16 (concs available) per 3 hr session. Please bring food to share on Saturday and Sunday. Get in touch with your instructor if you need travel directions or feel free to contact me with any other questions.

Also, weather permitting, there will be a mushroom foraging day on Monday 18th September. Let Caroline or me know if you'd like to come along.

The final workshops of 2017 with Caroline are 10-12 November and 8-10 December. The Autumn Intensive at Fetternear Hall with Mark is 14-16th October. All the details are here.

September photos

Dark Mountain Basecamp at Embercombe. Wonderful people and place.

Little house boat on the lake at Embercombe, one of the few places I had a moment of home-envy.

...but then I came home.

The Pre-Norman art basket is in full swing, I will blog about it when it is finished.

Teaching in warm sunshine this weekend in Aberdeenshire. Wonderful work by all and good atmosphere - thanks to all who came and to P and D for having us again.

New partnerwork exercise, looking forward to sharing this one.

Annual fungi foray...

...always a delight to find comedy mushrooms. This is a rather cheeky orange birch bolete, next to unidentified 'lbj' (little brown job). If it's not edible, medicinal, useful or poisonous, sadly I probably haven't learned it over the years.

Lots of chanterelles, plenty of ceps, orange birch, brown birch and bay boletes, some deceivers and a bowl of brambles. We dried the boletes and processed the chanterelles for frying in butter and freezing. Some also went into a pie which was very tasty. Real thanks to the woods of Aberdeenshire for their bounty.

Aberdeenshire Workshops 5-7th September

The next Aberdeenshire workshops with Caroline are this weekend. All workshops are at Balvack, except for Weapons which is at Fetternear Hall. Great River students of any level are particularly welcome to the Saturday sessions.

Friday 7-10pm: Weapons
Saturday 2-5pm: Short Form, and related study
Saturday 6.30-9.30pm: Partnerwork
Sunday 2-5pm: Long Form, Heartwork, One Posture
Sunday 6.30-9.30pm: Dance, etc.

The price is £15 (concs available) per 3 hr session. Please bring food to share on Saturday and Sunday. Get in touch with your instructor if you need travel directions or feel free to contact me with any other questions.

There will also be a mushrooming expedition on Monday 8th September. Let Caro or me know if you'd like to come. Wear suitable outdoor clothing, and bring a penknife if you have one.

The October workshop is a 3 day intensive with Mark on 11-13th October.
The dates for 2014 workshops in Aberdeenshire are listed here.

Identifying Mushrooms and Toadstools

Paul Nichol was a guest on the recent Coastal Forager course, he is one of the UK's foremost fungi experts. He has just revised his excellent identifying guide book 'An Initial Guide to the Identification of Mushrooms and Toadstools'. It is a dichotomous key, rather than a guidebook with pictures and descriptions. To use it, simply have your specimen and your chosen colour guide book to hand. Starting on page 8, and then working through the yes / no answers in the book, it will bring you to the genus of the mushroom in question. Then it is much easier to look through that section of your colour guide, rather than randomly trawling through the whole book when you have yet another small brown capped mushroom to look up. Some fungi genera have hundreds of members, such as the Russulas, which our woods are full of right now. I wholeheartedly recommend this little book to all budding mushroom-heads (!) and aficionados alike. The book can be bought directly from Paul, you can contact me for his email address or mail address for a nice signed copy. Alternatively he has just started selling them here on Amazon.

With my long-standing love of fungi rekindled, I am planning ahead to next year and some T'ai Chi buddies have asked if I would lead a few forays, and they would do the driving. I will be very happy to do that. I plan to book an extra day on the end of my September and / or October Aberdeenshire dates so that we can go into the woods with our knives and baskets. I know several good sites on Deeside. In the past I did go mushrooming here in the South, but as I was not the driver, it will take me a little time to remember where it was we went. I will do my research and give months of notice for the planned days so that those of you with proper jobs can get the day off as it is likely to be a Monday or Tuesday that I will do in Scotland. The near-London day could be a Saturday or a weekday, or one of each. Anyway, do get in touch if you fancy joining the gang.

Lastly, finances allowing, I plan to go on more courses with Woodsmoke next year, and I will post the details as soon as they are online. I would like to do the Woodlander, Coastal Forager (again, with waders and more fishing tackle!), Blade, (2 days each of stone age flint knapping, bronze age smelting from malachite and iron age steel knife making, from scratch,details to follow) and perhaps the Autumn Harvester course, just for the sheer delicious experience, even though that's probably my area of some skill already. I would be delighted if any T'ai Chi family wanted to come along too, ask me for details.

National Fungus Day

© Tom Hare

October 13th is the first National Fungus Day. If you're near Kew Gardens you can visit their Fungarium (the largest collection of dried fungi in the world) on Sunday along with other fungi-related events, or see these giant willow sculptures by Tom Hare until 3rd November.

A great ash tree at Totnes

The Star Ship Enterprise

Chicken of the woods

Chanterelles

A wonderful, wonderful afternoon mushrooming in Inverness-shire last weekend with Davina, Alastair from Anam Cara (www.anamcara.org) and some of his neighbours. We found more chanterelles than I have ever found, puddles of softly solidified orange light dappled between the clumps of grass. If I don't go on a foray at least once every autumn, I don't feel I have experienced the season properly. Later we cooked up a risotto with our finds which we shared with the Wwoofers who'd just arrived.