We had a good turn-out for our first session of 2026, despite the freezing cold and threat of snow.
We began by making our personal three wishes for 2026. We shall see if we are able to manifest these into reality when we revisit at the end of the year.
Next we chose a penny from a jar, and shared a memory from our pasts, based on the year that coin was minted. This provoked many tales and many emotions.
Our first offering of the evening was an original poem, penned by one of our newest members, which she has kindly allowed us to publish here:
Hillfoots Tales
There is a lovely kind lady I know quite well,
Who goes by the name of Eleanor Bell,
Eleanor introduced Hillfoots Tales to me,
Which has filled my heart with glee.
We all have stories or poems to share,
We clap afterwards ’cause we all want mair,
Donations are welcome for the tin,
Then this event can continue and that’s a win.
We all meet in The Woolpack,
As we all love to yak,
We all laugh and we smile,
And we stay for a while.
We look forward to the next time we meet,
As we all know we are in for another great treat.
Next up was a Welsh tale, “The Cauldron of Inspiration” in which the wise woman Ceridwen who brews a magical potion of inspiration, but things do not turn out as she hopes. Then we were treated to a tale of the Norse myth of Creation, a strange tale of giants, gods and other mythical creatures. After that we listened to “An Unexpected Sunflower”, which was about bringing happiness to others and made us all smile. We heard another original poem next, “Get in Shape”. We could all sympathise with the character’s struggle to stay fit and healthy! “Ebeneezer the Wanderer” was our nest story, about an orphan boy whose luck changes when he finds a box of seeds in a hedgerow. This story was a local one, set in and around Alva. And finally, we heard a selection of stories about sightings of ghosts in Stirling Castle.
And it has to be said that even our members who came along without a tale to tell, ended up telling their own stories nonetheless.