WRITING INSPIRED BY SPRING
Following the success of Autumn and Winter courses at Porter’s Lodge, Writer in Residence Ann Kronbergs is now offering a Spring Writing Workshop in April 2025 drawing inspiration from the garden and woodland of Porter’s Lodge.
This course is for you whether you are house-proud like the Mole in Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, seeing the season as a trigger for a massive spring clean: “with brooms, then with dusters, then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pale of whitewash…”; or maybe you are simply a watchful observer of nature, spotting the buds and new leaves on shrubs and trees, feeling sudden joy at the sight of the first cherry blossom. This afternoon course is for writers of all levels, designed to provide a wealth of sensory and literary sources to help you tap into this spell-binding season and make a start on poems, short stories or reflective essays.
In Session 1 the Spring Writing Workshop will begin with ashort woodland walk, searching for sights and sounds of spring, making notes. Following a route back into the main garden and along winding pathways into the East Wood and shrubbery, everywhere you will notice buds opening into flowers and trees coming into leaf. The statue of Flora, the tutelary spirit of spring, will give everyone a chance to pause and take stock before passing by the borders alongside the North Lawn to note the signs of new growth. Finally you will stand under the mighty Spanish Chestnut tree on the South Lawn, investigating all the evidence of its response to the light and warmth of spring.
After a short break for refreshments, in Session 2 you will rework your field notes prompted by examples from a number of writers who have captured the essence of spring in their work. On cherry blossom there is A.E. Housman marking the appearance of the flower in April:
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Or the poet laureate Simon Armitage using the haiku form to capture the pear tree in flower in his collection Blossomise(2024):
Wind plays through the boughs.
Today a pear tree in bloom,
Tomorrow a flute.
You may borrow some of these writing strategies to help you to find your own voice as you make a start on a springtimepiece of writing
Session 3 of The Spring Writing Workshop will challenge you to pin down an idea for your own seasonal writing project, bringing together your impressions of the season of buds and blossom in the Porter’s Lodge garden. By the end you will have written lines of a poem, a story or reflective essay, and you will leave with a plan to complete it soon.
Book online for this workshop below.
Duration: 3 hours 15 minutes
Date: Wednesday 16th April 2025
Time: 1:00-4:15p.m.
Fee: £30
