PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR 2010 COURSES

	Islands of the Heart creative writing retreat with Roselle Angwin on the magical Isle of Iona 2011: Saturday April 2 – Friday 8           (painting by Roselle)   Argyll Hotel Isle of Iona Hebrides with Roselle Angwin (NB these details are for 2010; 2011 details avalaible later in year) And we like migrant birds blown in to here Where all our stories meet… An island is both a physical point in space and metaphorically a place where we might bring ourselves home. Iona is one of those places where, as the Celts describe it, the veil is thin. It has probably been a place of pilgrimage for 1000s of years; it was a Druidic teaching centre before the arrival of Celtic Christianity. Here, surrounded by the seas that both connect us and keep us apart, is a good place to start the quest for the heart. For nine years I’ve led a weeklong retreat on Iona with my friend, fellow author and poet Kenneth Steven. The many people who have attended, some of whom return every year, know what a unique, and frequently life-changing, experience these five days offer. In 2010 I’m launching the Iona event as a solo adventure for me. I shall keep the spirit of our shared venture: the ambience and format; the wonderful Argyll Hotel, right on the water; the walks; the warm gatherings; the workshops, discussions, talks, poems and readings; the daylong pilgrimage to St Columba’s Bay gathering silence, green stones, and the voices of the air; looking for seals; the boat trip to Staffa (weather permitting). This is a place to bring your stories and poems, your joys and sorrows, your laughter and your open heart. In addition, I’m adding an extra focus: the theme of ‘islands’ as a starting point and medium for thought, creative expression, writing, and reflection. This year, too, there are changes to booking and accommodation arrangements. Choose a place to stay to suit your budget; a tent for the hardy (farm camping, showers and loo, £5 a night currently) or five nights in the wonderful Lagandorain hostel (under £20 a night), to a local B&B. Of course, nothing will beat the Argyll Hotel: a single garden room overlooking the ruined ancient nunnery at the hotel is less than £50 a night B&B; the spectacular sea-view doubles are £100-ish per night. It does of course make a difference to the experience to all be under the same roof; so if you choose the hotel, I’d advise very early booking (please make your own accommodation arrangements). See http://www.argyllhoteliona.co.uk, and under their ‘essentials’ button you’ll find a link to other island accommodation. You will book the course itself with me, and make your own arrangements for accommodation and travel (see details on my website and more info on accommodation on the Argyll Hotel website). We’ll be at the Argyll for all the indoor sessions (morning, late afternoon, and evening) and dinner will need to be taken there, as part of the group. We think you can eat really well, on the fine Argyll fare, for between £18-£25 per day (excluding drinks), assuming you have breakfast wherever you’re staying. Frugal people can of course probably improve on that! So the maths: the cheapest option (tent) for the truly hardy and frugal is a total of around £325, all-in (inc. my fee & dinner) except travel and drinks; the hostel about £400; external B&B about £450; & the Argyll from around £525, ditto. Practical info: please check my website for details on travel, clothing, etc. Fee: this is in two parts my fee, and the accommodation. My fee is £200; you will need to send £100 to me as a deposit by December 5th, please (though if you pick this flier up after that date, give me a ring to check whether there are still places). The balance of my fee is due by March 1st. Please note that if for any reason I cancel the course, your fee is refundable. If you cancel before March 1st, it’s also refundable minus £25 admin costs. After that refunds are not possible. You might want to consider travel insurance. The Hotel or other accommodation needs to be booked and paid for separately. The hotel needs your bookings immediately, but will tell you about deposits and refunds. My recommendation is that if you don’t stay at the Argyll make enquiries about other accommodation, but wait for final confirmation from me after December 10th before paying a deposit on your accommodation if it’s non-refundable (but you do need to book my part and pay me a deposit asap). Please note that the Hotel and some other places have twin rooms, which will bring the individual cost down if you’re coming with a friend. Prices do not include the optional boat trip to Staffa, which will be around £20 – and it’s more than worth it. Booking: please send the deposit of £100 (cheque to R L Angwin), your name, address, email and phone number to me at P O Box 17, Yelverton, Devon PL20 6YF. 01548 821004 www.fire-in-the-head.co.uk   roselle@fire-in-the-head.co.uk Timing: the course starts at 7pm with dinner on the evening of Monday 19th April, and finishes after breakfast on Saturday 24th. Note that the last ferry from Mull to Iona is 6pm usually at this time of year; please check with Caledonian MacBrayne times of crossings from Oban to Craignure on Mull in order to take the bus to get you to the Iona ferry at Fionnphort in time for this. The focus of the course is poetry, but this does not exclude prose writing and prose writers. It’s not about being ‘good at’ something, but about exploring words, their richness and their edges. Iona: The Glass-Blue Day  The way sky inhabits the creases smears colour that steals your breath The sand so pale it might be grains of light The big Hebridean night that opens its arms and drops its creel of stars towards our upturned faces  (Roselle Angwin)       TRAVEL: flights or trains to Glasgow (I personally recommend the train whenever possible for two reasons: one, the environmental - walking lightly on this earth is part of the ethos of Fire in the Head; and two, the spirit of pilgrimage is best honoured by including time for the soul to keep up with the body). Then take the West Highland Line – in daylight if possible, as the scenery is stunning – to Oban (beware that the train splits at Crianlarich for Fort William!). There is then the ferry sailing to Craignure on Mull (Caledonian MacBrayne, or ‘Calmac’; see their website); a bus journey (the buses normally tie in with the ferries) across Mull to Fionnphort; finally the five-minute ferry crossing to Iona. The Argyll Hotel is visible in front of you to the right. CLOTHING: In April we’ve usually been lucky with the weather: mostly fine bright days. But it’s COLD; there’s almost always a wind, and we have to allow for stormy weather. We do quite a lot of walking, too, so warm clothing, waterproofs, windproofs, gloves and scarves and walking boots are musts. Argyll Hotel: 01681 700334 reception@argyllhoteliona.co.uk    GROUND OF BEING WORKSHOPS ‘Ground of Being’ day workshop in creative writing & environmental awareness Merrivale, Dartmoor with ecopoet & author Roselle Angwin Summer solstice Sunday June 20th 2010 10am–6pm (the latter approx.) Gather 9.45am at Four Winds car park, near Princetown, Dartmoor (OS ref: 562749) Humans are tuned for relationship. The eyes, the skin, the tongue, ears, and nostrils–all are gates where our body receives the nourishment of otherness. This landscape of shadowed voices, these feathered bodies and antlers and tumbling streams–these breathing shapes are our family, the beings with whom we are engaged, with whom we struggle and suffer and celebrate. (David Abram) Wildness is the state of complete awareness. That’s why we need it. (Gary Snyder) Relationship is our natural state. And yet loss of heart and alienation seem to be widespread experiences in our fragmented consumer society. What would it be like to live in accord with our essential nature, aware of interrelationship and interdependence as felt experiences? Time spent in natural landscapes like that of Dartmoor enables us to feel and deepen this sense of connectedness, and can offer us a lasting shift in understanding. This outdoor workshop day aims, by re-immersing you in the land with its inhabitants, to reconnect you to lost and hidden parts of yourself, to your imagination and creativity, and to the shared heart of nature. Here we touch the invisible ‘ground of being’, where briefly we may move beyond the separate disconnected self. We’ll be drawing on ancient sources, and returning to the wells from which we sometimes forget to drink. Coming back, we use poetry & creative writing to record our experience in whatever words have been given to us during the day, alive and thrumming. Techniques from Zen mindfulness, shamanic and wilderness quest work, reflective writing and transpersonal psychology help deepen the process. We’ll be paying attention with all our senses, including the non-physical ones, plus using silence as starting points, and writing as a way of recording our responses. I’ve been immersed in the natural world in its every aspect, form, shape, season, weather and manifestation all my life; and am passionate about sharing my explorations. My practice is a nature-based spirituality. Please bring packed lunch, water, a notebook and pen, an extra layer and/or waterproof, sturdy footwear. NB Places are limited. To book, please send the full fee of £40 (£35 if booked before May 1st) to: Roselle Angwin, P O Box 17, Yelverton, Devon PL20 6YF.  01548 821004   Residential Courses at South Hooe, Devon ('Tamar Weekends')

These take place at the stunning SOUTH HOOE MINE CAPTAINS HOUSE (Hole’s Hole, Bere Alston, Yelverton. Devon PL20 7BW), Trish Dugmore’s very special B&B on the Devon banks of the River Tamar, where the whole house swims in light. South Hooe is very small and groups are friendly. There are two twin rooms and a few singles. Fees include all meals and accommodation, and the courses fill fast. For travel and accommodation details please phone Trish on 01822 840329 click here for website; for booking and all other enquiries contact Roselle (to contact her click here).

Tamar weekend course fees: weekends £295, plus supplement of £50 if single room preferred.

Bookings with full fee (non-refundable and non-transferable within 30 days of the course) must be received in advance please.

 

DATE FOR 2010 TBA

(Autumn 2010) 'The Zen of Poetry' retreat

My own life as well as my writing is underpinned by my 35-year relationship with the profound simplicity of Zen Buddhism, with its focus on mindfulness and the passing moment. Although I've led a number of such workshops elsewhere, this is the first time I've offered this course at South Hooe, and it grew from the need, at a recent poetry workshop, expressed by a number of participants, for more silent time and for exploring the connections between the philosophy of Zen and the art of writing poetry. It's probably helpful if you already have an interest in either Zen or poetry – if both, that's a bonus; although the 'process' here is more emphasised than the 'product'.

Wooda Farm residential for the novelists   postponed

 

 

WOODA, 11 -13 June 2010 (www.woodafarm.co.uk)

Up until this year this course has been exclusively for participants on my STORYMAKING correspondence course. This year, however, I will be opening it to anyone currently working on a novel. We tend to look at specific aspects of the novel: characters, plot dynamic, themes, dialogue, creating scenes etc. There's plenty of hands-on workshop stuff; group discussions; and room for you to talk a little about your own novel too. Oh and we usually have an hour or two at the beach during the weekend.

This is what I wrote in 2007: I've just come back from the first weekend residential for the Storymaking correspondence course. People from the first two courses joined me.

Where to start? Well, it was hard to imagine that anywhere might rival South Hooe or Iona... but this hidden little wooded valley near the north Cornish coast is another taste of paradise. Hosted in eco-style by Max and Gary, the house and the buildings (which, converted for arts' use, have just won an architecture award) fitted me like a second skin. The food was fabulous: plentiful, imaginative, organic, vegetarian and all home-cooked, with most of it grown or gathered there. There's a wind-turbine on the hill which sounds like a bigger version of the stream in the valley; our hosts had put organic chocolates on our pillows and wild roses by the beds.

I suppose I should say something of the course! Well, I had met many of the participants before on previous courses; it was a joy to meet the others, and most people were meeting each other for the first time, having exchanged emails and work only up until now. I think I can say that for all of us it was a very happy and fruitful and productive time; helped of course by the venue, the chickens clucking at our feet and the space; not to mention the food and wine and the fact that Max and Gary anticipated our every need.

The gathering itself was a mix of ‘work’ (one of the things we did was role-play our characters), discussion, fun, eating and walking. The sea is about two miles away – we had a memorable and lovely walk by the river, through fields of barley, meadow-bound single oaks and cows in the beautiful secluded valleys around Crackington Haven, but despite the sea being within scent and view, we somehow didn’t quite actually find the sand… so that’s an intention for this year. Plus my daughter tells me of a little very ancient chapel up on the cliffs nearby. (You might be glad to hear that we found the beach in 2008!)

The cost in 2010 has yet to be confirmed.

I really look forward to meeting with you (again, in some cases!).

 

working hard at wooda...