Bear Bridge

Dear Listener,

Here we go with episode 20!

Here's a direct link to this week's episode, right click and save link to download it to your hard drive. If you enjoy these stories, please consider leaving some feedback as a comment and/or subscribing on i-Tunes or RSS.

I hope you enjoy this story about how a little village came to be called Bakerton after a baker and a miller saved it from some savage bears with cunning and magic. You will even learn to speak a handy bit of the bear's language.

The soundtrack is from Magnatune artists: Ehren Starks and Anthony Salvo.

Wishing you sweet dreams ... until next time ...

Subterranean

Dear Listener,

Here is a story that is stitched together from ideas that occurred to me while out walking the dog, my ponderings on the nature of fear, a dream from a long time ago, and a more recent journey in my own soul - it kind of emerged over the course of the last week.

Is there something in you that needs unblocking so it can come to life again?

Here's the direct link for this week's episode. If you have time, check out the archive to download any of the previous 18 episodes and I hope you find something you like.

The atmospheric sound track is by Indidginus from the album Circa Diem - worth a listen right through by itself as it takes the listener on an aural journey from dawn to night ...

Sweet dreams ...

The Seven Legged Spider

Dear Listener,

Here's the direct link to the MP3 of this week's episode, to download it "right click" and "save link as". You can also listen by clicking on the flash player above or via iTunes or by subscribing to the feed with any other podcast client.

I have no doubt that many of you will recognise this story as yet another variant of a popular folk tale. I remember hearing it as a child. usually the "take home message" is something to do with collaborating and contributing to a greater effort, but here's my take on it ...

If you enjoy the background music on these podcasts, it is all available from magnatune.com where you can listen online for free or download stuff for a bargain subscription. This weeks soundtrack is from Countryside Stroll by Cari Live.

If you have been enjoying the podcasts, please leave us some feedback as a comment. We know that people must be listening because the stats tell us so, but who and what? We'd love to hear from you.

Until next week, enjoy, and ... sweet dreams ...

Wild Blue Yonder

Dear Listener,

Here's a direct link to this week's episode.

To follow the bubbles upward or the rocks downward?

It is a deep dive into the ocean and beyond, to carry you far away in your imagination, to dream within dreams, or just to help you get to sleep ... enjoy!

The delicate and atmospheric soundtrack of sparse piano and drones is the work of Kourosh Dini, from the fittingly named album, "Water and Sky". You can find more at magnatune.com as always.

Sweet dreams,

Seymour.

Beth and the Emerantil

Dear Listener,

Here is a direct link to this week's story. I apologise for the drop in service recently due to seasonal bugs hitting our recording schedule, but I hope we're back to normal from this week.

"Climb up onto my back."

This is the story I have been meaning to write ever since that long weekend at the end of April 2011 when Prince William tied the knot with Kate. I guess it kind of emerged from all that was bubbling in my thoughts at the time, while watching a whole nation with their eyes fixed on the young couple.

The soundtrack for this story is from Countryside Stroll by Cari Live and it is available from magnatune.com

We hope that you enjoy this episode and if you want more you can always check out the archive or subscribe to the feed or iTunes.

Until next time, thank you for listening and ...

Sweet dreams ...

Tolly-pep-me

Dear Listener,

Just a short one this week...

Sometimes the stories we tell children to make them behave can have the opposite of the intended effect. We were told that if we were pulling a nasty face when the wind changed direction, then we would get permanently stuck with that facial expression. I remember an afternoon spent sitting on a rock with my friends holding grotesque facial expressions for as long as possible in the hope that the wind would change direction and we'd be able to go home sporting a contorted visage.

Well, here's another autobiographical fragment from my early memories, introducing another old-wives-tale for the collection.

As usual here's the direct link to the MP3 file ... or blah blah blah ... subscribe ... blah ... iTunes ... e.t.c.

I have also added an "Archive" page here so if you have missed episodes or you would like to peruse the entire back-catalogue it should make things easier for you. 

Sweet dreams,

Seymour

A Tale of Two Pots

Dear Listener,

Broken and wounded though we are, perhaps we are more useful than we think. At least that's what I was wondering as I wrote this very simple little story, which based on one of those folk tales that I heard once and which has stuck in my mind. I think the original may be from India but don't quote me on that.

As usual, here's the direct link if that's how you get your fix. Otherwise, don't forget that you can get this podcast via iTunes or subscribe to the feed with another podcatcher of your choice.

I hope you enjoy this.

Sweet dreams,

Seymour.

Between Two Tides

Dear Listener,

Here's a direct link for this weeks episode.

I wrote this story about 12 years ago so it is one of the few that has not been freshly generated for the Borders of Sleep project. However, I am including it here because, like some other stories here, it is a re-telling of a very vivid dream that I had one night - albeit a long and odd one. At the time, I was a second year Anthropology undergraduate and I think that some of the things that were occupying my waking thoughts had started to seethe on another level.

You will, hopefully, imbibe something of my sadness at what happens to human beings as they move from an essentially egalitarian hunter-gatherer existence to a sedentary existence where the accumulation of wealth and status begins to create hierarchies that are often underpinned by a priesthood and religion that becomes more concerned with legalities and maintaining power structures than stewarding the mystical.

Ah, well, If all that sounds a bit heavy, don't try to read too much into it, just enjoy the story and the pictures it makes in your mind ...it's only a silly dream after all.

Sweet dreams,

Seymour

Clown

Dear Listener,

A few months ago, by a string of coincidences and choices that principally consisted of me being stupid, forgetful and impulsive, I went home to collect something I had forgotten and discovered a fire in my kitchen. I was able to save the house and our dog before any serious damage was done. The timing of everything was so impeccable and, since it owed absolutely nothing to the intervention of my will or powers of determination, I was convinced there was a wiser and higher power at work that morning.

I don't know if that was in the back of my mind when I wrote this story about a clown whose very foolishness preserves him through peril. To be honest, as with so many of these stories, I simply let my imagination go and recorded what I observed.

You'll hear straight away that this story is a bit different from others so far. Lookout for one or two rhymes and the Tango-Jazz in the soundtrack from Scott Hallgren (check him out on Magnatune).

Here's the direct link to the MP3 that you can download by right clicking and saving to your hard drive, or you can listen with the embedded player above or subscribe using i-Tunes or other podcatchers using the links in the side bar.

Enjoy listening, please leave some comments, and ... until next week ... sweet dreams!

Seymour.

Balthazar's Chandelier

Dear Listener,

It was reached by a bamboo scaffold ...

Welcome to episode 11 of Stories from the Borders of Sleep, which tells of an extraordinary day in the life of a humble servant who was trying his best to keep a low profile ...

It is also the first episode in our long promised new WEEKLY podcasting schedule!

As usual, here's the link for direct download (right click and save to your hard drive) and here's a link for the i-Tunes page for this podcast. If you use another type of podcatcher and would like to subscribe, grab a feed from the top of the column on the right.

This is one of many stories that I have heard or read in a forgotten time and place that has, nevertheless, stuck in my mind enough to be given the "borders of sleep" treatment. I hope that it stays with you as long as it has stayed with me.

Sweet dreams ...

Seymour.