Writing Workshop at Vogrie Country Park

I facilitated a day workshop on nature writing today at Vogrie Country Park. It was aimed at people like countryside rangers and environmental education workers who could use writing in their work, but a couple of people were there out of personal interest. Twelve people there in total, which is a great number, enough to have proper discussions but not so many that it becomes unwieldy. We discussed reasons for writing about nature, how to use creative writing about nature in group work, then we had a guided walk round the beautiful park (thanks to Jo and Alan the countryside rangers for leading these walks). Then we all wrote something inspired by the walk, some people shared what they had written, others talked about how they felt about writing. Then we talked about how we could use writing in education work, with some people sharing specific activities they have used with groups. There was a lot of lively discussion throughout the day and plenty of cups of tea! It was great to see everyone enthused about creative writing and I also came away with a handful of haiku and some ideas for longer poems (one of the side benefits of tutoring I always find!).