With Rosie you can take a walk into the Past, Wild Woods, Shorelines or Garden with Rosie and find a whole world of experiences, as well as flavours and ingredients from native flora. Rosie is a natural historian who loves to create food with wild ingredients.
Small groups and individuals can be given tailored guided tours.
Rosie lives in a characterful cottage in a wooded wildlife garden, amongst green rolling pasture in Ayrshire, Southwest Scotland. She owns a holistic boarding cattery and is a complementary therapist, specialising in healing with and for animals and facilitating group self-awareness and confidence work. Bees, hens, ducks, cats and dogs (and the occasional pigeon or peacock) live happily together in her loving care.
“I came to storytelling when i saw how it brought people together and supported their health. My own child was struggling at school, entered depression but the gentle approach of a master storyteller brought her back to me. Since then I have followed a self-apprenticeship to the art of story. I have learned from the best in the Scottish and wider traditions as well as at the prestigious International School of Storytelling at Emerson College.
From being tiny I have always loved nature. I studied Botany at University and in 2012 became Forest School Leader. I combine my skills to create fun outdoor sessions and wildlife and wild food walks.
I am presently facilitator with The Living Voices Project: sharing story, poetry and song with older people (some with dementia) in care homes and the community. This wonderful project is now starting at VASA’s Book and Bun cafe in Ayr”
“Rosie’s Rambles was very good. Very informative, and from someone who knows her stuff. Excellent.” David, visitor to Robert Burn’s Birthplace Museum
“It was like watching a video in my head-but there’s no pictures”
“I don’t know how you did it, it was-all there-in the room and we were gripped” Attendees at Greenheart Sessions, Ayr “like we were small again and totally in it”
“She creates great beauty in her stories and her warmth and humour are evident”
“Rosie has great musicality, understanding of story wisdom and confidence. She is a fine storyteller with a particularly strong relationship to the environment, nature and animals” Clare Coburn, Australia
Personal History
I was born in Southern England, but grew up in the industrial North-east of England, where I viewed a ravaged world from the hills above the towns. Always accompanied by animals (other peoples!) and with my toy doll’s house full of pupating moths as my pets and to study, I grew up drawing insects, birds and wild flowers and loving traditional story tales. I also loved singing, song-making and drama but soon discovered this needed an audience which was not readily available. I was a shy child, lacking social skills, made shyer by removal to London when 15. I would sit on an urban fence and imagine the vista in front of me into hills and open countryside. I longingly gathered brambles and studied herbals and animal behaviour books…
I left metro-land to read Botany at University and was horrified to discover that the tutors advocated genetic manipulation, rather than ecology and the study of natural interactions on our living planet with which I resonated.
Gradually I gained skills, working as Police Special Constable and also DJ in my spare time. By day I built up the children’s section of A lovely bookshop. I then worked my way towards my present country lifestyle until, having qualified as Veterinary Nurse in 1989, I left the city life behind and moved to Ayrshire in south-western Scotland, to found Specialcats of Ayr. This is a special little boarding cattery where the emphasis is on peace, understanding of needs and providing a healing environment, for people as much as for their animals.
I continued to study animal behaviour science and psychology and to work in Veterinary practices locally. I was a trustee for the Feline Advisory Bureau, (now International Cat Care) http://www.icatcare.org to whose standards the cattery was built and is run.
I kept milk goats and sheep; hens, ducks and geese and was given bees. In 1992 I had my daughter, Jaime. A while after that I gave up vet nurse practise as just one job too many! I studied homeopathy briefly at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, until it was decided that only qualified vets could act as veterinary homeopaths, so I had to stop. It gave me groundings in homeopathic and flower remedies which I still use in house, home and cattery. I dabbled (under instruction) with acupuncture for my dog and Ayurvedic medicine for my cat to enhance their old age. I also studied aromatherapy for medicinal use (which is now also “vets only”).
I was aware that creatures became well when they stayed with me but did not know how this could be fostered deliberately until 1997, when I encountered some wonderful healers and joined a medicine circle. After this, things snowballed as they always do when there is flow, and I became a crystal healer and hands-on practitioner. “Faith Healing” is an accepted practice with its’ own ethical and professional guidelines which pre-date the Veterinary Surgeons’ Act (1962), and is permissible to do with animals as long as the vet in charge of an animal has seen it and gives his consent and no diagnosis or treatment is made other than by the vet.
I started storytelling in 2000, initially at Jaime’s school. I saw how it brought people together and supported their health. My own child, struggling at school, entered depression but the gentle approach of master storyteller Stanley Robertson brought her back to me. I apprenticed myself to the art of story. I learned from the best in the Scottish and wider traditions as well as at the prestigious International School of Storytelling at Emerson College. I met other tellers and singers, joining them to explore the use of story, song, writing, art and dance as therapy for change and expression. I now use these as tools to facilitate change for others.
In 2004 I met Wallace Smith from Michigan, a teacher of Esoteric Healing science. I knew that this modality was for me immediately and have been studying this since. I qualified as practitioner of Esoteric Healing with the International Network of Esoteric Healing. I have been amazed and privileged to work with this since and seen some wonderful results. It is a beautiful and gentle way to work, complementing and greatly enhancing the other work I do. I added Archetypal Healing work to my portfolio in 2008.
In 2012 I became Forest School Leader. I combine my varied skills to create fun outdoor activity sessions and also wildlife and wild food walks.
I am presently facilitator with The Living Voices Project: sharing story, poetry and song with older people (some with dementia) in care homes and the community. This wonderful project is now starting at VASA’s ‘Book and Bun’ cafe in Ayr.
I live in a character cottage amidst a wooded, wildlife garden, with fellow practitioner Alan, my animal and bird friends and a couple of hives of bees. I still run the boarding cattery with assistance from my valiant team. Visitors are welcome but please arrange in advance so that we can put aside time especially for you.