Tree Blessings at St Ina's

Today was the first of my tree blessings. They are an extension of my love for talking sticks, which I make from the driftwood at Cei Bach, New Quay. 

This driftwood is gifted to the sea by the fallen trees lining the banks of the river as it meanders through Llanina Woods. It gave me such comfort collecting the driftwood last Summer, bringing it home and creating talking sticks, used in Native American Culture to make space for a speaker to be heard, to be listened to, giving a voice to the beholder.

At the end of last Summer, I promised to return this year to thank the trees with Om Blessings and woven wool, in gratitude to the Earth for the mutualism of our symbiotic relationship to trees.

It made perfect sense for this first blessing of the year to be with my dear friend Caroline. It was she that set me on my love affair with wool. In the depth of my despair, following my sudden deafness, she visited me at home, taught me to crochet, left me with wool and a hook ... the rest, as they say, is history. 

Llanina holds spiritual significance for both of us. We dressed the chosen tree in woven wool and a silver leaf Om and then went to St.Ina Chapel.

 We read passages from Mission Praise to each other, wherever our pages opened, replacing the word Lord with Universe to recognise the multi-faith nature of spirituality. It was beautifully quiet and serene.

And then we meandered down to the Quay for afternoon tea overlooking the sea ... what could be more beautiful than to spend such an afternoon with a friend?

In Bed with Cheryl Beer! Fusion Inspire Retreat Update

 

 

Fusion Inspire Retreat in New Quay: Film 1



 

 

 

This is my first little film giving an insight into what I got up to last week in New Quay on

Fusion Inspire Retreat

 

 

Crisis! Stranded Sisters Cut Off by the Tide!

My youngest sister who came to stay with me for the night on retreat in New Quay

This photo was taken when we were on holidy in Puerto Rico last year!

I don’t feel that I can finish blogging about my recent stay in New Quay without telling you about mine and my sister’s near miss with a watery end! We had been for a wonderful coastal path walk and ended up on the beach.

‘I reckon we can walk round the beach to get back to New Quay.’      My sister quirpped.

‘Ok, let’s do it.’

So off we trot, me in a summer mini skirt and flip flops, hardly hiking attire, but it was sunny and it didn’t look far.

I suppose the fact that noone else was going that way back to town should have been a bit of a clue as to why we should have turned back there and then but no, we were so joyous to be in each others company, in such a beautiful place, that we carried along the pebble beach.

Soon there didn’t seem to be any sand left, just pebbles, well, now we came to think of it, they were more like rocks. I kept falling out of my flip flops onto the slate.

I expect that 2 other middle aged women in sun bathing outfits might have been swayed by the DANGER FALLING ROCKS sign attached to the crumbling slate walls that were now towering above us, but hey, how dangerous could it be ... we carried on... And so did the tide!

The water got higher and higher until eventually, there was only the fragmented slate rocks, wet moss, the sea and us left completely stranded.

‘We’ll have to swim,’ said my sister, who use to get up at 7am every morning to train with Hertfordshire County Swimming Team when she was a child.

‘I don’t think so,’ said I, who nearly drowned swimming a width in the junior pool.

‘What about your mobile fone, can you ring someone?’ She yelled above the crashing waves.

‘No signal!’

‘Shout for help!’

‘No, we'll go ...’

‘Please, shout for help.’

I could tell she was getting a tad stressed now.

 

‘We’ll  go back. No one can hear us, let’s just turn round and go back.’

'NO! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!’

She was shouting at the top of her voice now.

‘Listen love, get up and follow me. I’ll hold your bag, come on! If we’re quick we can make it back.’

We had to take off our shoes and wade back through the water, but my sister caught her foot on the slate beneath the sea. It was a really nasty cut but we had to keep going or else we really would have been completely stranded out there.

‘I’ll carry your stuff, just focus on getting back, come on!’

Eventually we were on the pebbles and then back to sand.

‘That was a great bit of team work.’ My little sister said and I felt a glow inside because we have always worked well as a team. 'You know what,' she continued, ‘even though it was a bit of a crisis and we were stranded on the rocks and at one point I thought we might drown, I’ve had a great time anyway,’ she said, ‘an adventure. We always have a great time don’t we Chez.’

Yes, we certainly do xxx

Funny thing was, when we got to New Quay we sat on the front having a cappacino and could see where we had been stranded and it was so close to the sea front that everyone must have been able to see us! Me, with my bright orange mini skirt crawling on my hands and knees desperate to land on terra firma, scrambling up the slate ...  and my sister, screaming at the top of her voice for help.

‘Why didn’t anyone help us?' she asked. And then we realised at that point that the tide was completely out! So if we had have waited instead of becoming panic striken, we could have easily walked back across the beach unscathed ...  seems everyone else realised this, which is why they probably left us to it! And for us ... another lifetime memory created!

Is Dylan Thomas Following me?

To begin at the beginning, during my creative journey, I have followed the places to which I have been drawn; I have set things up following leads and then if it is meant to happen, so be it, I have not forced the issue. That in itself has been a learning experience.

But as I carry on along the paths laid ahead of me, I keep bumping into Dylan Thomas! 

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For instance, New Quay was a favourite  haunt of Dylan's all through his life and he even lived there @ 1944/45. There is  a Dylan Trail showing just how many of the characters from his work originate in New Quay:

http://www.tourism.ceredigion.gov.uk/pdf/DylanThomas2.pdf

I am so very drawn to New Quay since working on Fusion Inspire. I have always loved it but I can honestly say it's grown now into a daily longing.  I belong there, it is as if I can be more creative when I am there, the sea, the waves, yes, but not any sea or random waves, has to be the waves that choose New Quay.

I didn't think too much about Dylan while I've been there. I was aware of the trail because of the blue Dylan Trail signs, but not so much that I thought it to be significant to my personal journey.

But then when I went to Llangrannog, drawn there by the piece of music I heard on Classic FM written by Edward Elgar, his Welsh Tune, I asked a man outside a cafe if he knew where the plaque was for Elgar that is mentioned on the internet. 'That could be it over on the pub,' he said, but when I went over, it was not a plaque for Elgar, but for Dylan Thomas.

If you have been reading my blog from the start, you know how I am about 3 callings ... you can read about it on this blog page: http://fusioninspire.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/fusion-inspire-how-did-i-get-here-part_9308.html

So here's where I'm at with Dylan:

The night before cat sitting started in New Quay, Annie who owns the Dylan Thomas Birth House, invited me to perform at Cwmdonkin Drive to celebrate Florrie's Birthday. Florrie is/was Dylan's Mother. We celebrated Welsh Mam's Day. We had to choose a room to perform in and I said I would like to play in the front sitting room as it would have been somewhere that Dylan would never have been permitted to bring his friends. They were allowed wednesday nights into his father's office. And so, being the undercover rebel that I am, I played there for all the times Dylan had longed to.

Now I come to think of it, it is my second visit to Cwmdonkin Drive since starting Fusion Inspire .. remember I went to Mab's Poetry Workshop right at the start, and that was at Dylan Thomas Birth House too! Oooo goosebump moment .. BIRTH House at the start of my creative journey! Only just twigged that!

Second, I notice that everywhere I find of interest in New Quay is part of Dylan's Trail. He is said to have written prolifically whilst in New Quay so must have been drawn creatively to it in much the same way as I am.

Thirdly, when I went over to the plaque in Llangrannog pointed out to me by cafe man, it was not a plaque for Elgar, no .. it was a Dylan Thomas Trail plaque!

I was telling a friend this and he said, 'Hey. do you think Dylan Thomas is following you?'

And this set me thinking. I closed my eyes and listened to my inner thoughts and decided that Dylan is inquisitive. He wants to know what I'm doing. He's just keeping an eye, so to speak. Maybe he's waiting for the penny to drop and for me to finally realise that he is a very significant part of this coastline in terms of how the rest of world sees West Wales, through his work, his eyes and consequently for my production to overlook him seems absurd! (Now that I've thought it through with his guidance!)

Off course, a more scientific approach to this conclusion would be that naturally any creative will be drawn to these places because of their beauty and therefore it is a spurious correlation to believe anything other than that of coincidence or that creative people will like these spots. But I'm listening to my inner voice now, the one mother nature gave me, not the one I have been taught through socialisation! And she says .. Eh UP! 3 callings from Dylan ... time to listen!

So, in my prodution, As Dai follows his quest, he will notice Dylan out of the corner of his eye, as a blue face (reference to the trail signs) that always seems to be there ... he feels he knows him ..

'Do I know you?'

'Dai, it's me!'

'I'm sorry, I feel I should know your face but ...'

'Did you not sing at my mother's birthday party, for Florrie? Remember?'

'Ummm ... now you come to ...'

'Surely you remember? It was quite early one morning, you, me and Norman knocking about on these very streets?'

'Yes, yes, I think I do remember that Nogood Boyo'

'Drinking from Cut Glass in the Dolau Inn?'

'Was that me, my friend?'

'I'm watching you Dai, I'm trailing with you every step of the way.'

As I have been writing this tonight I have been thinking about my castle conumdrum after the risk assessment at Llansteffan, I've drawn a bit of a blank ... and I thought to myself, 'I wonder if Llansteffan is part of Dylan's Trail?' And guess what!! It is!!

According to http://www.inspirationalwales.com/Be_Inspired/Dylan_Thomas_Trail.aspx  Llansteffan is the setting for Dylan's short story 'The Outing'

Here is Philip Madoc reading Part 1 of The Outing:

So, I definitely need to go over to Dylan Thomas Boat House really soon. I love to go there but haven't been for ages. It's where Dyaln wrote Under Milk Wood (see first youtube clip)

I'm not sure why, but I need to be near him, so I'm not going to question it, I'm just going to go and see what happens, see how I feel, maybe take a glass in Brown's or have a cuppa and a piece of Bara Brith in the Boat House itself.

Singing with Dolphins! LITERALLY!

When I was in the pub, I met Stewart, the fisherman who had been on the boat trip earlier that day, when I had magically captured the dolphin on film and got lost in the mesmerising twinkle of the sea's smile ...

Stew introduced me to the Volunteers? Volunteering for what? For the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre who are championing non-invasive research into monitroing the dolphins and marine life of Cardigan Bay. There are only 2 places in the UK where dolphins are semi-resident and New Quay is one of them.

I spoke with the volunteers. One of the things that the research team are doing is using hydrophonic acoustic equipment to record and identify dolphins voices.

OMG!! Recording the dolphins singing! I want to do that! I want to go and find Cadfael and his friends  and record their voices, sing with them, take their voices back to my studio and work on the most awesome and life enhancing collaboration of my entire life!

The volunteers said I should call in the next day and talk with Laura ... so I did. I explained everything to her and she suggested that I speak with Steve Hartley who runs the Boat Surveys.

He was very busy and couldn't see me but she said she would ask him to ring me. I gave my number but felt a bit flat thinking he probably wouldn't ring.

I was just about to go home, having a cuppa and a piece of bara brith cake, when my phone rang! It was Steve! We arranged to meet the next day.

What a totally gorgeous and wonderful human being he is! So busy and yet enough time to make everyone feel special. I explained all about Fusion Inspire, he explained all about the significance of the research, respecting the dolphins space, sharing a message of conservation, getting the word out there, drumming up support for the Centre ... I listened, said I would write into the production the conservation message ... that I would put their logo on my fliers ....

Steve offered for me to have access to their library of recordings!

'How kind but Steve, I must go out and record the dolphins myself, I have to feel it, if I can feel it, I can tell other people about it from my heart, I have to sing with dolphins.'

'Yes, OK then.'

'Yes, but I need to go out with you on the boat, I need to record them myself, to sing ..'

'Yes. OK'

'What, yes?'

'Yes, that's totally possible'

And there it is folks! I AM GOING BACK TO NEW QUAY AT THE END OF MAY TO GO OUT ON THE SURVEY BOAT AND RECORD DOLPHINS SINGING AND WILL THEN BRING BACK THEIR SONGS TO MY STUDIO WORK OUT HARMONY PIECES AND INVITE OTHER SINGERS TO COME AND RECORD ON A TRACK WITH THE DOLPHINS TO USE AS A SOUNDSCAPE FOR THE PRODUCTION!

Steve said that we may actually be able to find Cadfael, that they know his voice! Cadfael will actaully be in the production!

HOW TOTALLY AND UTTERLY IMMENSE!

In my career I have been truly blessed and collaborated with some of the world's most well know muscians. I have played alongside Lonnie Donnegan, opened for Sir Bob Geldof, Van Morrison, been on the same festival line up as Jools Holland .. but never has there been such an absolutely awe inspiring collaboration in my life, neither could I have ever imagined for one moment that this could even be possible! I am so euphorically happy I can barely think about anything else!

Every other word that comes out of my mouth is 'dolphin' ... 'Oh, did I mention that I am GOING TO SING WITH DOLPHINS'

'ER, YES! ABOUT 500 TIMES!'

And also, Steve owns a Caravan site with just 28 vans and not an Elvis Impersonator in sight! He took me down to Cei Bach where he is based, it is beautiful & I have to say it totally feels right but there are no sea views and these are very important to me, the feeling of space and far reaching vision.  I need some time to think things through properly. I have booked the holiday cottage for the end of May and will take it from there. I trust totally that the universe will sort this our for me! If I am supposed to have a place to go to in New Quay then it will undoubtedly happen!

p.s. did I mention that I AM GOING TO SING WITH DOLPHINS! ;)

Dolphin Dancing

Woke up super doper early today to the sun bursting across the harbour. HOOOOOORRRAAAHHHH!!! 

Where the boats had been fighting off the weather’s grip on their mooring, now sails were raised and ready to glide effortlessly into the beyond.

I think I almost ran down to the boat booking service and when I got here a really lovely young woman sold me a ticket for the 11.45 2 Hour Dolphin trip. How exciting is that! Honestly, life does not get better than this!

So I thought I would go and book my holiday cottage for the end of May so that I can come back for another 4 days of Fusion retreat, but the office was closed.

What’s a girl to do ... spare hour before the boat? BEACH! I ran down to the shell covered sand to look for mermaid scales.

I was the only person there! Just the sea, the sand, the shells and me, boiling in my parker, jumper, boots, jeans and heavy socks. I whipped off as much as is decent these days, rolled up my flowery jeans and went in paddling.

The water was so wonderfully freezing cold ... I walked along the coast line and every time I found a mermaid scale I said thank you ... to the universe I think for presenting it me, and the more I said thank you, the more I found.

I decided to stop looking and to just enjoy the experience: there’s a lesson in there! Honestly, as soon as I did this, I came across the only whole scallop shell that I have seen all the time I have been here in the millions and trillions of broken shells I have wandered through. It was a gift from nature, she likes Fusion Inspire, I can feel she does, she was showing me that I am taking the right path.

Minutes later, the most beautiful large half piece of scallop shell, moulded softly by the sand and sea in their rhythmic dance back and fore to the shore line, was at my bare bathed feet.

‘Oh Thank you’ I yelped into the sky. I think I will wear this piece during the live performances of the production.

I held it in my hand almost all day, so tactile, such a reminder of the joy felt at finding it.

So, the hour skipped by without a blink of the sunshine and I scurried myself off down to the little fishing boat bobbing in the sea. It was too shallow by the quay so we had to put on bright orange life jackets.

I had a giggle to myself because attached to the jacket was a little plastic whistle, which I couldn’t resist blowing. I made a little half hearted blow, like the trickle of water ... I couldn’t see anyone hearing it and coming to my rescue!

We climbed aboard a sort of dingy. It was terribly exciting. Very close to the water and thrilling. We were ferried to our boat and away we chugged.

I have got to tell you, it is quite possibly 2 of the most wonderful hours of my entire life!

The coastline from the sea is STUNNING and the view outwards is entrancing! The sun gave such a light to the vastness that it split the sea and sky backdrop into every shade of blue imaginable; like a water colour painting where the artist has managed to invent new unimaginable shades in just one colour. So beautiful that I almost wanted to weep.

All I had with me was my broken little hand held but as if by magic, from nowhere, up he came, the most beautiful and utterl magestic creature I have witnessed in my entire life, curving across the wave right in front of me. I thought my heart would stop. I almost wished I hadn't been filming and that I would have seen him with my own eyes rather than through my camera.

I am so utterly chuffed! I will be using this clip in the filmscape when the storyline is the dialogue between Cadfael & Dafydd.

I have had lots of moments like that this week. Where this coast line, our coast line, the western coast line of Wales, right here on our doorstep, is quite possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life, And doesn’t that fit in with the whole story of the Dragon Tree, our Dafyydd on his quest finding that the key was with him all along.


Maybe I am Dafydd and this whole production is more biographical than I realised? I haven’t meant for that to happen, it’s not what I planned as I didn’t really ‘plan' anything, rather responded to opportunity presented and then write the narrative around those things, and now, I realise that the narrative in many ways, is my own; It seems this really is a Journey Through my Creative Mind!

Dolphin Prince: Cadfael

Photo by  Janet Baxter : Available at Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre

One of the most exciting things about New quay is that dolphins love it here. So I had planned to go out on the little fishing boat to film them as part of the projections for Fusion Inspire but the weather has been howling so bad that not only have boat trips been laid off,  one of the moored yachts came loose and crashed into the others!

So looking for dolphins has not happened, YET!

However, when I went into the Dolphin Research Centre to find out about the trips, there was a sign up saying ‘ADOPT A DOLPHIN’

To help raise fund for the vital environmental research there are 5 dolphins that you can adopt, you get a certificate and a picture, they tell you all about your dolphin.

I figured it was a good idea to help with fund raising by adopting a dolphin with the money I had put aside for my cancelled boat trips, it felt right...

I have chosen Cadfael, because he was the only welsh named dolphin. Cadfael means Warrior Prince ...  so the dolphin that our main character meets on his Quest will be this Dolphin, I have already scripted their dialogue in my head as if it were always there ... I was literally walking to the shop sketching the draft in my notebook, I was so inspired.

Hey, just a thought folks ... Why don't you adopt a dolphin too and help to conserve our beautiful wildlife. It's only £30.00 for the year and you get a £5 discount voucher for a boat trip as part of the adoption. Here's the link to their website ...   http://www.cbmwc.org/

I was floating back down the road full of the most immense joy, 'Oh well, I thought to myself, not to worry if Mother Nature feels I should be land based this week, I will listen to her.'

But what I didn't know at this point was that the Warrior Prince was much closer to me than I thought ...