Dolly’s Coat of Many Colours and My Party Dress (by sarah)

Sometimes there is a beautiful soul that lights up the world around it - I am sure that most people have heard the news by now of Dolly Parton's passing at the age of 80 - a good age and yet with the strain on the world I could not help but want more. Dolly was a song writer, performer, comedian, savvy business woman and charity worker. I have seen it said that no style of music was untouched by her presence... she built communities and was even important in the scientific sphere, funding research and more.

I used to think declarations of grief for celebrities was stupid, but said so and was rightly told off my friend - a fellow musician and scientist. And that made my own grief for when my celebs started dying easier to bear as I had already faced that demon. Said friend liked Dolly too... (it was Michael Jackson's death I was told off over saying the reactions to were stupid, for those who are interested).

So this is my piece on Saint Dolly, as my mum used to call her:

I have an eclectic taste in music - I always called it random. When I started University I bought three CDs - Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Californication, Guns and Roses, and Dolly Parton. The last two were greatest hits and I had a portable discman which had been playing my friend's CDs all summer but I had to give them back...

I still have Dolly's CD and when Jean was little we found a massive collection of her songs that my mum had, and this was fine until we got to the one called Jeany's Afraid of the Dark... as its about a nightlight put on a grave and as my little Jeany was indeed scared and always had been scared of the dark I just couldn't cope with that song, so tended to stick to the songs I knew after that even though I pretty much loved everything I heard of hers.

As I delved into my own song writing and guitar playing I found Dolly a source of inspiration and frustration! Everything she said was pretty much awesome and the numbers of songs she'd written was mind blowing - as someone was being seen as too prolific in my own writing this made me sigh with relief as poems toppled onto the page.

Dolly wrote over five thousand songs and recorded over a thousand herself. This made my poetry and song writing look like under achieving, and I couldn't help but think about this when I received my bronze medal for a song for the Creative Olympics back in 2012. or when I composed a steampunk shanty on request and when I attended the Song Writers' Circle or when Paul Murphy mentioned me in the same sentence as her.

Her always-onwards attitude helped me when I faced setbacks including losing my voice; she was the biggest musical crossover me and my mum had and dad even liked "some" of her songs. He was more keen on her as an actor - I think it was a boob thing - her and my mum both had massive boobs. In her younger days, mum had even played the guitar and sung - she liked to rewrite pop songs to make them religious - mum was annoyingly good at this.

Dolly represented hope to my mum, whether that when mum was on soup runs for the homeless or when she was helping my diva and queen friends get that Dolly look. Then there was the fact that we used to go to barn dances, there was always a Dolly song there for the line dancing at the very minimum - I was banned from line dancing after an incident in my late teens were my failure to remember which way is left and which way is right and my general clumsy double jointedness (dyspraxia and hypermobility syndrome) resulted in me taking out pretty much the entire dance floor.

Mum got to make tasselled jackets and gingham dresses but that was later - when I was little and just starting school I had all handmade clothes which meant we were poor - it doesn't now, but in the 80's it did and there was a party coming up and I was excited but everyone was talking about their new dresses; and I wore dungarees and tracksuits mainly because I was a tom boy and always climbing things and school didn't have a compulsory uniform, and I had been in trouble every single time I was in a dress because apparently you shouldn't climb trees, or kick the football too high or sit like that in a skirt or dress. So I had cute little matching tops and trousers she'd made me.

But a party was different and on top of that I had started to be bullied for wearing homemade things... but mum was making me a dress... I can not remember which one - was it the one made of worn out velvetine bedding in hot pink that my dad made matching bows for? Or was it the knitted dress created from all the offcut yarn scraps of my nans and aunts (the one a second one of had to be made for my doll)?

I don't know but I was cross and then on the TV came this song and Dolly changed my mind singing about each stitch being made with love and scraps and I became fiercely proud of my dresses and home made things - creating problems for myself by going on and on about it, but I think it was better that way.

It was nothing compared to the kids finding out I got free school meals... Dolly Parton fed kids like me and gave them books and did it internationally and she loved everyone.

So what of the frustration?

Well a) some of her songs.... they might seem simple enough but sometimes that makes it a hell of a lot harder to play and b) I don't tend to have long nails because of playing the guitar and doing practical jobs like ground maintenance on a campsite. When I explained this it was pointed out that Dolly had the longest nails any of us had ever seen 90's and early 00's, and had been a farmer. Of course I have friends who actively grew their nails for guitar playing (one hand only) for plucking. This particular comparison was not helpful but Dolly basically had a pep talk for just finding your own way anyway. And it turns out I just kind of suck at having long nails and that is fine.

The world needs people like Dolly - my eldest bought me the news of her death last night and hadn't realised how old she was because Dolly had seemed so timeless. She was hope and love and will be missed.

For me it was like loosing another part of my mother - Dolly's music, and occasionally aesthetics, were something we shared. I was in many ways the opposite of my mum but not with this. Like Star Trek this was an "us thing". I don't know if the kids remember us all singing and dancing - belting out JOLEEEENE in a way the youngest would announce as "cringe" these days.

RIP Dolly Parton GNU

As sad as this is she was missing her husband so much and no one is truly dead until the last ripple they caused fades, and Dolly made many a splash and some of them pretty big! (Again, probably the boobs).

Dolly also made it OK for me to have big boobs and feel that that was more than OK. Body Positivity where and when it was needed.

I never met Dolly but she had a massive impact on my life and always for the positive.

"Life is like a Butterfly..."

Illuminated Fragments (by sarah)

Currently it is the Gloucester History Festival - happening very differently to previous year in the restrictions on numbers and the shift to more outside pre booked things and mostly online talks and interactive virtual tours. Even if I'd been well enough there is no way Cuddly Science/History could have done it's normal activities with sand pit digs and cloth puppets 0.o

I am seeing past events popping up on Facebook memories and they are awesome but do you know what? So is this year... there is a festival that had to completely start from scratch and reorganise some great stuff and they managed it and on their big year too! 10yrs of the Festival and 25yrs for the Heritage Open Days!

And it's not like I am completely devoid of involvement - back in the spring an art and archaeology project that I was very excited to be a part of obviously had to go on hold but now the exhibition is there for anyone who wanders over to see! They are asking people to pre book free tickets and wear face masks when in the building as well as doing track and trace.

It's at Llanthony Secunda Priory and called Illuminated Fragments. There were 15 of us lead by Jacqui Grange of Creative Solutions with access to the archaeological finds from the area thanks to Cotswold Archaeology, and tutorials on calligraphy as well as researching the history and stories of the area.

I really enjoyed the parts of it I managed to get to and the work produced is truly spectacular - it is only up until the 14th of Sept 2020. Including the Heritage Open Day.

A Start Not The Start (by sarah)

There is so much awesome stuff happening for me right now that I am not even sure where to begin with telling everybody about it, it is over whelming and wonderful and also twinned with my grief and health issues which affect me and the family in general. I have lots of back blogging to do - I have the photos and even stuff written but I have in general lacked energy.

But I need to make a start and this month was the one I chose as the starting point. It is not The Start but rather a start and it is the start of many things.

There are many projects a foot and some in the pipe line, some have been dormant for too long. I feel scared that another curve ball be thrown to us and I am currently typing at half speed having managed to mangle my finger yesterday - I dislocated the top of it but it popped back in ok - it was a searing scream of pain but I often dislocate things - it has gotten worse over night which sucks. I am hoping it will settle down and I won't have to bother the dr with something they really can do nothing about - hyper mobility sucks - mine has gotten a lot worse since the miscarriages - I have devised work arounds so I can get on with everything.

SO life is challenging, life is scary and life is rich.

From Spring time I have been in the midst of Moon Mania, I went on library tours with Space Craft and the Cuddly Science Puppets, I did the online Art Blast for the actual Apollo 50th celebrations, I did numerous activities for the Earth and Moon Festival including sitting by an giant inflatable earth getting people to join in with a community textiles project. I did poetry events and run creative writing workshops, I even got my rocks out at various museums.

Thanks to the Heritage Hub and Gloucester Archives I had oral history training to help me collect as many Moon Memories as I can - I have a lot but I want MORE!

I am compiling a book called The Moon Miscellany inspired by the TV celebrations centred around the actual moon landings - it was my dad's idea and it does hurt that he isn't here - even his moon memory is half written - it shall go in the book anyway. I did talks and came up with other things that I just could not secure funding for but which I hope to take forward over the next few years.

Also I thought artists where bad at sticking to deadlines - but I am still pretty much waiting on ALL bar one of the science and tech folk who were going to write me essays - blooming academics!

The fantastic thing about Moon Mania was that it contains lots of other smaller projects and I got my own funding to take the Moon Maker Meets and Moon Mega Make forward and that is something I did not believe I could do at the beginning of the year.

Everything was themed on space and I even snuck it in with an art exhibition at the Museum of Gloucester as part of the Gloucester Poetry Festival - I could not have done with out friends and strangers alike who volunteered their time. I gave everyone Moon Mania t-shirts.

I've done a huge photo study of the moon using camera and telescope and upped the astrophotography game - I ended up missing the science of it all very badly but also got to share that science with people.

Yesterday Alaric came home with a crunchy bar for me - the chocolate had been given to him as a bribe because someone I have never met wants to see my rocks - my SPACE ROCKS! This pleases me probably far more than it should.

Moonmania has been fantastic with fabric artists, Lino print makers, steampunk, poets, storytellers, comic book artists, glass workers and photographers jumping aboard. And it is not the end of that but a beginning!

My living room is full of crates of meteorites and paintings of space and little origami stars and I need to work out what other art spaces it can go up in! I was very lucky that the community textile project got to go up over the summer as part of Art In The City.

This summer I also won a traineeship with the Carnival Arts Partnership and got to work on the Gloucester Carnival - I learnt so much stuff and made a lot of different types of dragons including getting to go and work with the amazing Matt West at his workshop seeing how larger structures are put together. I discovered a new pair mache technique, how to make giant puppets, and was rather envious of Charles vacuum former. Cheltenham Hackspace helped me through all the Moon Mania and the the Carnival Madness - we were also having work done on the house so that my mum could move in properly at the same time - there may have have been more tears and frustration than I would have liked.

From this I know that I want to do bigger pieces of art and it has fed back into the science and the craft and the performance side of things.

I want to make things with metal and wood - and resin.

This is a beginning.

During the summer and autumn I also got to attend some free business and fundraising workshops with Jolt and the Culture Trust, this was incredibly helpful in building up contacts and directly lead to a group of us story tellers finalising a dream we'd been working on. Gloucester now has a story telling night and that is fantastic! More than fantastic in fact and I hope we can get it self sustaining.

Between the story telling and popping out to do a little bit more comedy I want to resurrect my radio or podcasting and maybe even mix it in with the oral histories stuff. I definitely want to do more acting - I have just finished my Frightmare run and it is still THE BEST JOB EVER!!!

I have been making dragons, and been part of goblin markets, performed and reviewed and created zines. Though my foray into the world of comic books has halted somewhat and I can't really see a way back in - we are now firmly entrenched in the cosplay side of things but again this was really my families thing whilst I sat at the stalls - I need to sort out more things for the zines and books and oh boy is the publishing stuff zooming off ahead!

The cosplay has kind of morphed into historical reenactement which is interesting.

And of course it's been 10 years since I started the insane writing challenge NaNoWriMo - so this month marks the beginning of me pulling the big over all project I have been creating into some sort of shape. The Punks Universe - it is more than that - it is the story I was writing with my dad when I was a kid and it is the story my kids make characters for and it needs to be out in the world properly and not scattered here there and everywhere with half of it hidden.

This is more than enough to keep me busy and sometimes I am too busy and I am also a worried mummy - Jean appears to have inherited the hyper mobility though is one joint short of a diagnosis of the syndrome but also needs to now go to the Dr with her back and hip. This I am fearing will put the kibosh on some of the dreams and hopes and it is a sucky condition. Mary is very flexible but is a dancer, an acrobat so I think she'll be fine she just has horrendous melt downs and though excelling at maths is struggling so with reading and writing (though she has drastically improved over the summer thanks primarily to the Library and their Reading Challenge that she loves - it was space themed!) - considering again my own issues with dyslexia and ADHD I am worried.

But we will adapt and try not to be sad and angry but sometimes that is hard.

This is a beginning, a start - this year has been an upheaval and a transition - the last two years have been a personal trial of pain and suffering and yet I have created, my family have achieved and we are Polyps together against the world - and we need to be because - even the good things are hard to be enthusiastic about and I very much love the good things.

So I shall end with some good things - I was offered a place on a song writing workshop - I attended and worked with musicians and made a thing and the thing is on an album and I am even doing the word bit and that is an AWESOME thing I have always wanted to do. I ended up performing at the 3 choirs festival.

Alaric loves working with physical things - metal work is his main thing and he enrolled on a welding curse and he has done all his exam pieces already and it has bought him much joy.

Jean re-sat her radio license exam and passed and has been enjoying radioing Alaric and they did their first Raynet event - this is a voluntary organisation that provides comms support for community events ie radioing through accidents or where crowd control need to go and work as a back up network for emergencies and disasters like the floods in 2007 when all the phone networks went down.

Mary has chopped all her hair off to donate for wig making for those kids who have lost theirs due to cancer treatment, also Mary can read... Mary read out a poem at the last poetry event, Mary has worked very hard on this.

Nanny has started making a Harry Potter cover for the cot settee.

Things We Are Up Too :) (by sarah)

Sun 20th of Jan - Waterstones Presents Villanelles with the Gloucester Poetry Society 2-4 pm in the cafe Waterstones Gloucester free entry

Thurs 31st of Jan - an evening with Holly McNish and fellow poets at Blackfriars Gloucester (sold out)

February World Poetry Writing Month - or WoPo - a writing drive I have been running for nearly a decade now, it runs through out Feb and I pop up writing exercises and various inspirational bits including guest bloggers and I have some fantastically talented people lined up as guest posters this year 🙂 There is also a Facebook group and page and posts will appear on TheMonsterBlogs twitter and the Pinterest board.

Thurs 7th Feb - First Thursday The Enduring Eye at the Wilson Museum and Art Gallery Cheltenham Sarah will be presenting a poetic response to the polar exploration exhibition, free event and part of regular series: On the first Thursday of the month a cultural hub of food, music, performance, art and retail – all within walking distance and outside of traditional working hours – will come together along Clarence Street, Royal Well Road, St George’s Place and Church Street. First Thursdays is a public event and free to attend. The cultural quarter stays open until 9pm or later on the first Thursday of every month

Mon 11th of Feb - Cheltenham Poetry Festival Slam Qualifier 7:30 pm Playhouse Theatre Cheltenham, £5 tix

Sun 17th of Feb - Waterstones Presents Villanelles with the Gloucester/shire Poetry Society 2-4 pm free event - this event is now on the third Thursday of each month bar April as it clashes with Easter Sunday.

Sat 23rd of Feb - Folk Craft and Story Telling at the Folk Museum Gloucester (also known as the Life Museum) this is a free event as part of the Folk Trail during the Gloucester Folk Festival. Based in the Dairy and Victorian School Room out the back of the museum - sadly due to structural work the actual museum will be closed but the diary, cider press room and garden will be open. We will be running Rag Rug and Barge Painting workshops in the Dairy and story telling (including Aethelflead the puppet) in the Victorian School Room!

Horrid Henry isn’t Horid (by sarah)

There is an article on the BBC news website asking - Should Parents Ban Horrid Henry?, my response to this is... NO.

Horrid Henry is not actually horrid - pretty much as soon as you ask should you ban a book the answer is NO (even bad books that really shouldn't exist should not be banned they should be watered down with lots of other books and besides if you ban them you have just made it more likely that impressionable people will read them as they are now EXCITING, it's what I call the prohibition effect).

The stories have progressions where the kids fight and resolve differences and get around issues such as dyslexia and ADHD etc... and the insecurities that brings for kids etc... they are a positive thing. They also covered headlice and all the other little things that dominate a child's world, yes they contain toilet humour but lets face it 6-12 year olds tend to love that sort of stuff (regardless of gender), just pomp loudly in a room full of kids and you'll see what I mean!

Jean's read all the books and for Mary the Too Cool for School episode/film thingy was immensely important as a confidence builder. In the article the actors main issue was that his kid started kicking up after watching it - my take on that... kids go through phases. Jean started kicking after watching Ben 10 the animation - this was a time to teach that you can't just blanket copy what you see.

Also the books have the easy read high content thing going for them which is exactly what reluctant readers and those with things like dyslexia need. They need a story they can get their teeth into and in this case they will often identify heavily with the protagonist i.e. Henry but it is not so bulksome and wordy that they will feel they are grinding their way through them.

Yay so Horrid Henry is not actually horrid!