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Besides the above pun fest (yes, I did hear you sigh!), I have been having a lot of fun with various pieces of good news and creative projects in the pipeline.

The first high point was the fact that my poem ‘7am rising’, which featured on the ‘Bugged’ website at www.bugged.org.uk in July has also been chosen for the ‘Bugged’ anthology. This ‘creative eavesdropping’ project led by Jo Bell and David Calcutt will culminate with an anthology launch at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham on the evening of Thursday, October 21.

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy turning my poem into a video, which you can find on Facebook, the ‘Bugged’ website or on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZudi3U_CSE or hopefully below!

An audio recording of the poem is also due to feature on the Radio Wildfire (www.radiowildfire.com) live internet broadcast from 8pm to 10pm tomorrow (Monday, September 6) night. Fuller listing details of tomorrow’s transmission can be found at the end of this post and here is one of the extra photos that didn’t quite make it into my video version!

The other project I’ve been sorting – or ‘salting’ – this week is the collaborative poetry/art display/drop-in workshop that I’m organising for Droitwich Spa Salt Day next Saturday (September 11) from 10am to 5pm. The St Andrew’s Square stand, which I will be manning in the morning followed then by fellow poet Jodie Ford and artist Sarah Edwards, will give adults and children the chance to write their own short salt/Droitwich/home-themed poem onto a coloured cardboard salt cube. They can then add it to a display, choosing to build a pillar of salt, a pyramid of salt or sprinkle it on some chips!

I’ll be posting more details about this and some inspirational prompts on the fansite blog later. But I will add that there are lots of other fun activities planned from the farmers market to a Roman soldier encampments, salt-making demonstrations, music, canal boat trips  and many activities to keep youngsters amused. It should be a great day, fingers crossed for the sunny September weather, which has smiled on every Salt Day I’ve been to so far.

Anyway, this post is getting way too long for what’s already been a long weekend! I’ll end by leaving you more details of tomorrow’s Radio Wildfire broadcast. Enjoy!

www.radiowildfire.com Monday 6^th September 8.00-10.00 pm (UK time).

“As summer 2010 goes out in a blaze of glorious, Radio Wildfire brings you idyllic holiday snapshots of literary life with just a little bit of sand to get between your toes and irritate, to get into your eyes and start the tears … with an outgoing poet laureate, an upcoming premiere and an incoming festival.

Outgoing, outgoing Birmingham Poet Laureate, Adrian Johnson, recalls brave days and love in the time of the poll tax and the fall of the UK’s first female PM in his first novel Love and Taxes. He reflects on how much has, or has not, changed twenty years on. Also, on the agenda is a look at a year in the life as poet laureate and how ‘the art form of 1980′s recession’ (poetry) is back, again!

Julie Boden talks about The Piano Room, her project with composer Steve Tromans and dramaturg Vanessa Oakes which will be premiered at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall later this month as Poet and Pianist. Starting life as a selection of poems with musical interludes, it is now a fusion of music and poetry, finding ways to get the two to shapeshift and dance together

Tony Stringfellow rails us with information about the Poetry Train which pulls in to Shifnal on Wednesday 22^nd September.  On board will be the renowned Dreadlock Alien, Spoz, Simon Pitt, Rattan Reehal, Fatama Al Matar, Tony Stringfellow Stephen Morris and Tony himself.  There will also be musical punctuation from Olugbala Kokumo.  It’s part of Shifnal’s first festival of Arts Culture and Entertainment, taking place from September 17^th – 26^th with 32 events, ranging from the CBSO to Fuzzbox.

We’ll also have some seasonal (and some not so seasonal) tracks which have been newly uploaded to www.radiowildfire.com by Sarah James, Ben Macnair and Heather Wastie. They include work from the Bugged project by Sarah, and Heather putting ‘records’ (best, longest, greatest etc) firmly in their place with her recording.

Plus: information on Warwick Words Festival; Birmingham Book Festival; a Radio Wildfire workshop and a live Radio Wildfire Outside Broadcast.

Join us: Monday 6th September 8.00-10.00 pm UK time at www.radiowildfire.com

Radio Wildfire: outgoing across the internet”

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Five days at Center Parcs in Nottinghamshire has been a great chance to relax with my family, search out leaves and shadows to photograph, get closer to nature and enjoy some great cycle rides through the beautiful forest.

Like most holidays, it’s also been a chance to put everyday life into perspective and if not strike out a new path, to strike out a new sense of perspective.

This sense of re-energisation was further boosted by another lovely review of Into the Yell, by writer Sophie Shanahan on her blog at: http://sophieshanahan.wordpress.com/ and the news that one of my poems has come joint first in the Exmoor Society Poetry Competition.

Once the inevitable unpacking and washing are sorted, I shall be putting this energy to good use to enjoy the last few days of the holidays with my boys and prepare to run another collaborative poetry/art display/drop-in workshop at Droitwich’s annual Salt Day festival on Saturday, September 11.

Hope everyone else is enjoying the bank holiday!

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Not only was it an enjoyable evening but we had some great poets and music in the open mic section of the night and managed to tot up £133.62 for the Worcestershire Breast Unit Campaign. Hurrah! A big thank you to all those who organised, helped, supported, performed, attended…

I’m also looking forward to reading in the Worcester Festival Phonic Room event at the Boston Tea Party, Worcester, tomorrow night from 7pm.

Then I’m going to treat myself to a few days off – maybe enjoy a week with my camera searching trees for shadows and leaves – before gearing up for my guest poet slot at Burton’s Spoken Worlds when it relaunches next month.

The evening at Rangemore House on Friday, September 17 will also be a trip down memory lane for me as it’s nearly ten years since I stopped working for the Burton Mail.

The evening kicks off at 7.30pm and will also feature an open mic of poetry, prose and sketches. Organised by Gary Carr (www.gary-carr.me.uk/worlds.html ), Spoken Worlds is on the third Friday of every month. Entry is £2 and other guests lined up include Rachel Pantechnicon on October 15 and James Nash on November 19.

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Nature’s/God’s /life’s (select according to your own personal beliefs!)system of ‘give and take’  has rarely felt more evident to me than in my email inbox this week!

A message arrived on Wednesday with the disappointing news that my planned National Poetry Day (Thursday, October 7) workshops, pencilled into the diary two months ago, would not unfortunately be able to go ahead after all. Then on Friday, I received an email with the great news that one of my poems on the national poetry day theme of ‘home’ has been chosen by Jane Yeh for September’s Poetry News, hurrah!

Of course, this all helps to remind me that the best way of dealing with bad news is just to get on with things while you wait for the good news, which always arrives eventually!

On the topic of waiting, I can’t wait to see the ‘Waiting Room’ installation which has just gone in today at Kidderminster’s Swan Centre  as part of the town’s two week arts festival. The project organised by Sarah Tamar and Natasha Roberts includes recordings of two of my poems on the theme of waiting. (There is a taster trailer on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsN_YgDW2zE .) I can’t wait to check the whole thing out on Monday!

I also can’t wait for the charity reading I’m doing with fellow Worcestershire poet Jenny Hope at the Farrier’s Arms, Worcester, on Wednesday night. The event, which will also include an open mic, is in aid of the Worcestershire Cancer Unit Campaign and should be a fantastic evening, as well a great fundraiser for a very worthy cause.

It’s going to be a busy but fun week!

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