Meeting Sita Brahmachari : Author in Residence, Forest Holidays : Sherwood Forest

Amanda Cottingham | July 26, 2012 | 4 Comments

I am exhausted but very happy this evening, after a fantastic day at Sherwood Forest, courtesy of Forest Holidays. We met the extremely talented and beautiful author Sita Brahmachari.

Sita Brahmachari is the author of Artichoke Hearts, for which she won the Waterstones Childrens Book Prize 2011, and Jasmine Skies which was published in March 2012.

What an inspiration this lady is. I am going to blog in more detail about our day but wanted to share with you the fruits of our labour in the forest.

As part of the creative writing exercise we passed around the holey stone.

The holey stone is Nana Josie’s favourite symbol in ’Artichoke Hearts’

As we passed it around we all thought of words or phrases. We attempted to take in our surroundings but to let our imaginations run free.

Sita then took away the collection of words and wrapped them all up in a poem.

Holey Stone Poem!

We are lying on a magic blanket

Inside a circle

Eyes closed

Listening to the trilling, knocking creepy, clanking echoing of the wood

This glade is a privilege…a goldmine for the imagination

Dappled green sunlight

Echoing spirits

Squirrels skitter up the trees

Rabbits hide in the hollows

Among the tree trunks

In this glade

green grasses

wave

We are watched by deer

Gnats hover around itchy heads

scratching the imagination

Who would have thought that all these were hiding here?

ghosts

eye-balls

pixies

fairies

pirates

highway men

So many characters past and present sheltering under these branches

If you were to step out here at night

placing your bare feet in mud still warm where deer have trod

You would find a haunted hollow

Twisted branches creeping down

Rotting wood

In the distance the scent of a fox

The bark of a dog

A bat diving down down

Uncertain sounds…

forms

shapes

smells

A rustling and a skitting underground

We are lying on a magic blanket

Inside a circle

Eyes closed

Listening to the trilling, knocking creepy, clanking echoing of the wood

By Ellie Wright, Amanda and Niamh Cottingham, Leih, Matthew and Rebecca Foley, Christine Poulson, Charlotte Howell, Sean and Dylan Power, Danielle Hart and Sita Brahmachari.

Taken from Sita Brahmachari’s site HERE. You can read more about her week at Sherwood Forest by following the link, including more details about the books she has written. She is writing a third novel so I would recommend bookmarking the page to find out more details in the future.

I bid you goodnight, I have a very busy few days ahead of me. I promise to fill you in a little more on what we got up to, next week.

Thank you for reading

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Tags: Artichoke Hearts, Forest Holidays, Jasmine Skies, poetry, Sherwood forest, Sita Brahmachari, Waterstones Childrens Book prize

Category: Family, My Writing, The Blog, Travel/Holidays

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Forest Holidays : Sherwood Forest | August 6, 2012

Jen says:

July 27, 2012 at 12:32 pm

It sounds like you had a lovely day! Look forward to hearing more soon x

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Ruth says:

July 27, 2012 at 1:07 pm

So pleased to hear that you got a lot out of your trip to Sherwood Forest. We had a lovely day on Tuesday too.
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Rosie Scribble says:

July 27, 2012 at 1:20 pm

Great to hear you had a good time. Beautiful setting isn’t it?
Rosie Scribble recently posted..What’s your summer holiday reading?

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