Inspiring soup

First a big apology to any of you who might have followed a link to the Storytelling Centre on my last post and come up with something quite odd. It seems that their Homepage had been hacked. They do know about it now. So, again, sorry to anyone who may have been offended by the content of the link. The link on my post now goes to their About page and seems to be safe.

Anyway…

For me, finding inspiring things is like stirring a big pot of soup. I’m merrily stirring, thinking I’m doing okay, and then I find a new ingredient. It’s right at the back of the dark cupboard and I can’t believe I haven’t seen it before. This new ingredient smells incredible and looks wonderful and I simply must have it in my soup. So I impulsively chuck it in and the soup’s never the same again and always sooo much better. I’m not talking about stealing other people’s stuff but about taking it in, turning it around in wonder, and letting it naturally influence all the things that are going on in my head.

Okay, for some of you I just went way too arty-farty for your liking and that’s fine. Basically, it’s just a way in to explaining how excited I get in sharing around some lovely new ingredients I’ve found recently. Take a look/listen at these:

Rima Staines. She’s a brilliant illustrator and generally creative sort who I think is very exciting. Follow this link to get to her website (note: it’s a little confusing but you have to actually click on the signpost saying ‘The Hermitage’ to enter it): http://www.the-hermitage.org.uk/

Telling the Bees. Really ace folky band. You can catch some of their songs on their myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/tellingthebees

Polly Paulusma. Another great folky singer. Check some of her songs out here: http://www.myspace.com/pollypaulusma

The Secret of Kells. A beautifully animated film about celtic Britian. We watched recently for one of our film nights. You can get a good idea of what I’m talking about by clicking on trailer here: http://newvideo.com/secretofkells/

PS All these links seem to be safe…for now!