Storytelling--a Little Break from Ireland Posts

Believe it or not, I still have several more posts to write about my trip to Ireland. But since I've been home, I've been busy with my usual pursuits: updating my booths, storytelling, and gardens.

The last one is the easiest update of all--beyond pulling a few weeds, putting out some mums and removing summer's tired-out plants, the gardens are pretty much over. We still have peppers coming on and a enough tomatoes to keep us until frost, but other than that the gardens are over for this year. It's disappointing because I usually have fresh veggies clear into October. Not this year. The late summer drought and intense heat did the gardens in. Larry made cider and grape juice in the press, and we have bushels of apples put away to make apple butter soon; a few pears are hanging on and there are grapes to eat. Right now all we can do is look to the spring to start afresh.

I had a bit of a break when I got back from my trip, and we took one evening to head up to the Gathering at Sweet Creek for some good old-time music. It was good to hear Mack Samples, a fellow Two Lane Livin' columnist, playing with his band.

Our son Aaron joined us that evening, so we got some visiting mixed with the good music. What a nice time that was!

Storytelling has been unusually busy this month. Generally in September my calendar is pretty clear but this year I've had several events. The second weekend of the month I was at the Mercer County Heritage Festival in Princeton, WV, telling stories and singing ballads and mixing up ghost tales with the Tower Street Stringband's music. Great fun! We told stories to about 500 school children on Friday, then there were many performances on Saturday by tellers, actors, musicians, and even Civil War re-enactors who replayed the Battle of Pigeon Creek.

The following Monday I was so fortunate as to join Heidi Muller to present a program of dulcimer music and storytelling for the Road Scholar program at Cedar Lakes in Ripley. Heidi lives in Oregon but makes the annual trip to teach this workshop and I get to join her for one evening's presentation. I was too busy talking and telling to take any photos!

This past weekend was a combination of storytelling and family visits as I traveled to the eastern side of West Virginia for the Lost River Artisan Center's annual fundraising event.

I presented an afternoon and an evening program and in between and around them I visited with my oldest son and his family, and with my sister Judy and her family. Good food, good people, good fun!

I prepared different presentations for each of these; the morning display was for the story of my parents' meeting in England during World War II, and in the evening I focused on Appalachian tales and brought out my coal mining artifacts.

The evening event included a silent auction and there was an amber artglass plate there that I loved. I bid for a bit but it soon got out of my range. Imagine my surprise when my son won the auction and handed the plate to me! What a lovely gift; I am so happy to have it in my home.

In between these events I have been enjoying being home and working on the plans for upcoming events, like this coming weekend's storytelling and workshop I'll be presenting in Buffalo New York, a week of programs for Kanawha County libraries, the West Virginia Storytelling Festival, the Ripley Ghost Walk, a house concert for the Bady House Concert Series in Brooklyn, NY and several other events. While September has been busy, October promises to be even more so and I'm doing my best to be prepared.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.