Valerie Gillies

Oh, no.

It's lovely to get a little laugh.

Do something that's quite serious and you set out with good intentions and then you can't find, there isn't a matching one.

Yes, that was a residential workshop at... Watton Lodge.

It was at Watton, it wasn't at Worcester, that's right.

So we cut out paper lanterns.

And we were able to write poems that we'd composed in the workshop on the inside and then put a battery candle, little tiny one, inside.

And it lit up the text.

We carried them out to the veranda and sat them all along the balustrada so people could look up and see, there's mine, there's yours, as darkness fell.

Then the moon rose and we all danced.

The circle dance together, which was a bit like the lantern figures going round.

It was lovely.

I think there was a Chinese poet, a woman poet called Ling Zhao in the 14th century.

And she was also a Zen master.

I think you can still call her a master even if they're Roman.

And she said that the truth of things is to be found on the tips of the 10,000 grasses.

Yes, just two months ago.

Together, I think I had read something from Scottish folklore about how at New Year it was customary to bring in a bucket of fresh water from the well and some grasses.

On top of that, that symbolized what you were hoping for in the coming year.

You wanted fresh water for your animals and you wanted grass.