Ae Fond Thankyou

So, after four weeks at the Royal Botanic Garden the 'Secret Grove' has now slipped away into the undergrowth and come to an end. All involved would like to give a huge thanks and appreciation to everyone who came down and were a part of the event in whatever way. It was made what it was by your involvement and couldn't have evolved so without that.

We would love any feedback, comments, photos or ideas that you have in response to the whole event and experience and also for any developments and future ventures and activities that could grow out of this. If you do have any feedback or would like to suggest another event or project then please email will@invisiblestructures.org

If there is any particular performer, artist, workshop leader or anyone else that you would like to get in contact with to further things that you were introduced to during the event then do also email the above address and we can put you in touch with the appropriate person.

This blog will remain up for people to keep adding to if you wish.

At this stage we have no idea where we will be after the winter months, but keep eyes, ears, mouth and nose all open for signs of other sprouting groves or dens across the city...

The final weekend.... !!(28th and 29th August)

This is it. Your last chance to come down and hunt out the Secret Grove and explore this hidden den. Plenty of diverse and interesting things to do, plus a big old greenspace to hang out at. Come down to help celebrate the summation of this whole event.

Saturday 28th :

11.30 : Baba Yaga Bony-legs: Storytelling and drawing with illustrator Emily Learmont
1.30: Exploring Nature Through Drama - Jonathon White(tbc)

2.30 : 'Tracing the imagination' - Storytelling and art, an interactive session - Daru McAleece
3.30: 'By Living we Learn' Geddes Thinking Machine - Will Golding

3.30 : Contact Improvisation - Iraya Noble
3.30: Drama Games - Jonathon White
All day: Green wood-working - Richard Wells

Sunday 29th : (the last day!)

12.30 - 4.30: Art and Sustainability: -
Artachat, the Guerrilla Cinema project and Transition Edinburgh, present a unique afternoon of film, discussion and interactive workshops exploring Art and Sustainability.
12.30pm: A selection of short films by local and international artists. Powered by the Guerrilla Cinemas’ incredible Pedal Powered Cinema.
2pm Artachat and Edinburgh based artist, Natalie Taylor, host an informal discussion- “How sustainable is the sustainable artist?” - “Why do artists sometimes shy away from admitting their work is political or environmentally engaged?”.
3.15pm Transition Edinburgh

12.30: Interactive Performance (for children)

2.30 : A sensory exploration of plants and the world of funghi - Alison Murfitt
Come and use all your senses to explore the world of plants and fungi. Learn how to recognise and identify Scotlands native plants by more then sight alone. Drink different plant teas and learn their medicinal uses, use plants and fungi to create artwork and much more.

3.30: Interactive Performance (for children)

All day: Green Wood-working - Richard Wells

Friday 27th Workshops

Lots of interactive and participatory sessions tomorrow, and an evolving Bodger's Camp that is taking over a den of the grove.

11.30 : Map making - Heather Tuffery and Simon Clarke

12.30: Interactive Performance

2.30 : 'Tracing the imagination' - Storytelling and art, an interactive session - Daru McAleece

3.30: Interactive Performance

3.30 : Food farce discussion - John, Clement and others

Final Call-out...

A final shout out to anyone who might like the opportunity to share some of their knowledge and skills with all this weekend as one of our sessions or activities.

If you might like to please get in contact - will@invisiblestructures.org

Workshops tomorrow: Thursday 26th

11.30: Group storybuilding using drama techniques - Kirsty Nicolson and Beth Keenan

12.30: Drama Games - Jonathon White

2.30: AcroBalance - Emily Nicholl

2.30 : Homeopathy; Function, activities and culture cultivation – Helen Campbell
A discussion of function, activities and culture cultivation for the development of character, personality and self-help in evolution of city culture and the organisms that live within that. Homeopathic medicine can encourage self-help and development through the crises of life.

3.30: Singer's corner: Come along and share your favourite songs with others. Based on the oral tradition of folk stories and group singing.

Design with Nature; Wednesday 25th

Wednesday 25th :

11.30 : Ecology of a BackGreen - Nim Kibbler

12.30: Drama Games - Jonathon White

2.30 : Make Poetry Now - Harry Giles

2.30 : An Alloted Space - Gordon Peters

Gordon Peters rents an allotment plot in Inverleith – across the road from the Botanics West Gate – from Edinburgh Council, beside a hundred and thirty or so other plots. He has worked in health and social development in countries far away from Scotland, but now spends more time observing closely the nomadism of local plants and animals, rather than his previously nomadic life.

Gordon will demonstrate the space of his allotment and describe what he grows and his approach to urban gardening – companion planting, observing what grows well, co-existing with the animal life, going with the seasons, keeping a wild aesthetic alive but still talking to the neighbours. He is also an occasional poet [will be at Courtyard Readings beside the Scottish Poetry Library some days during the 16-27 August fortnight] and will bring a poem or two inspired by being in his plot, to this session beside the yurt.

He has been influenced by Patrick Geddes, Henry Thoreau, and Kenneth White, amongst others, and hopes to interest people in how you can use an empty space, or a grown over space, in a town like Edinburgh, and realise where the natural world, the urban world and the personal world can come together rather than split apart.

3.30: (TBC) - The Botanical Plinth - Bring your writings - read them out...!

More workshops than we know what to do with....Tuesday 24th September

If you are not back to work or school yet then tomorrow would be a perfect day to come down as we have a huge amount on for you to come and engage with and learn from. Check the workshops page for more information on each of them.

Tuesday 24th :

11.30 : Riddle Me This - Alette Willis

12.30: Interactive Performance

2.30 : Our nature in nature: collective art-making in the garden - Simon Jackson, and Alette Willis from Transition Edinburgh's Heart and Soul Group.

2.30 : Starting to Write (for Adults) - Jane Alexander

3.30: Interactive Performance

4.30 : From the unseen perspective: a presentation by a blind photographer on her artwork and photographic techniques - Rosita Mc Kenzie

Drop in: Full moon awareness, movement and flow - Bree and John

Drop in: Green Wood-working - Richard Wells

The penultimate weekend...and so much still to come

This weekend is packed full of gems but there is still room for more. If you would like to run a session over the last week please come down and speak to us this weekend.

Saturday 21st

11.30 : Origami Animals - Amelia Calvert

12.30 : Exploring Nature through Drama - Jonathon White

2.30 : 'Tracing the imagination' - Storytelling and art, an interactive session - Daru McAleece

2.30: ''Climate Camp 2010: Break the Banks'' - Tess Riley

3.30 : Contact Improvisation - Iraya Noble

Drop-in: An introduction to bodging and green wood-working with Richard Wells

Sunday 22nd :

11.30 : Nature relaxations and storytelling - Poonam and Danny Ladwa

11.30 : Have a go at green wood-working - Richard Wells

12.30: Interactive Performance

2.30 : How to make a pole lathe - Richard Wells

2.30 : Musical Plants - Nora Nooran

3.30: Interactive Performance

Last minute addition for today...!

Charles McKean's intriquing talk on 'the real significance of Edinburgh's Old Town' will now be today at 2.30. Sorry for any previous confusion.

2.30 : The Strange tale of European Edinburgh (Hyde) and British Edinburgh (Jekyll)': The real significance of Edinburgh's old town - Charles Mckean
How the evolution of Edinburgh has been misunderstood, and rather than being a juxtaposition of two towns of different age (old and new towns) it is in reality the juxtaposition of towns of two fundamentally different cultures (European and British).'

The old and the new towns of Edinburgh are a misnomer. The majority of buildings in the'Old Town' are more recent than the majority of buildings in the 'new'.

Yet the two towns are utterly distinct. Up on the rock is a typical European town (with one major exception) - of the kind you can seen in France, Spain, Germany, Denmark or Poland: the form, the spaces are the same. But NOT in England.

On the plain, they started to build British Edinburgh in 1767, rejecting their european origins, and preferring 'houses after the English manner,' with private squares, socially segregated streets and no place to riot in. So Edinburgh built the most English of English towns. Very modern. They then regarded the old town as the repository of primitiveness and savagery.

It is the origin of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde...

Thursday 19th Workshops

11.30 : Harp music and Storytelling - Mio Shapley

12.30: How to make shadow puppets - Gill Chantler

2.30 : Forum theatre Drama workshop - Rona Topaz

Have you ever wanted to be someone/something else? Join experienced theatre facilitator Rona Topaz as we try to create a human garden! Please feel free to bring props/appropriate clothing...

2.30 : Food for Thought! With Laura Blake

A brief look at how the foods choices we make have the potential to shape and impact our environment; both in our local communities and those further afield.

3.30: Drama Games