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?

Visionary Arts: Making it so!

 What an incredible day!!

It's very hard for me to put into words the coming together of a collection of ideas

without getting emotional!

 

 

 

Contemporary Dance Troop with Arts Care Gofal Celf LegaC, Rob Latham and Bob Edwards, Sam Collins, Jacqueline Emslie, Rachel Hargrave and the Cardigan Drummers, myself and Amanda Painting made our way down to the secret cove to film the opening film scape for The Dragon Tree.

 

Thanks everyone: YOU ROCK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Mandy and I went down in July to scope the route down, the sun was shining and we didn't have any drums! We got half way down and it looked easy enough! But today in October with all the gear I have to be honest there was a moment when I thought, 'Oh my giddiest of aunts!'

 

 

 

But I knew it would be worth all the hard work to get down to the beautiful cove in Llangrannog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It became something of a team building experience with people helping each other to make the descent. Certainly the most physical of all my shoots so far!

 

 

 

 

 

While the drummers played, LegaC warmed up on the beach.

 

Let the dance begin ...

 

 

 

 

Bob Edwards and Rob Latham both represented different incarnations of the main character Dafydd as he lay shipwrecked and confused seeing his whole life before his eyes. Dancing around him with waves ... mermaids making a decision whether or not to save him ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mother of all the Mermaids, Guinivere dances with the shipwrecked fisherman in making her final decision

 

 

And then the trek all the way back to Mandy's beautiful Farmhouse, Morfa Isaf

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up & up & up ....

 

 

 

Great BIG team building hugs

when we got to the top!

 

 
And then down to some serious packed lunching!

BIG thanks to Joy, one of the mums who came to support the dancers today, to Laura Jenkins, Dance Development Manager for Arts Care Gofal Celf and to Zosia Jo, Dance Tutor at Arts Care Gofal Celf.

Massive thanks to all the dancers, drummers and actors!! And of course to Mandy Painting.

But ... BIGGEST thanks to the SUNSHINE for showing her beautiful face ... and to the West Wales Coast line for being a constant heartbeat.

... and to The Arts Council of Wales for my Individual Mainline Grant :)

IF YOU FANCY STAYING AT MORFA ISAF OR FILMING THERE, THEN PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT MANDY PAINTING:

http://www.morfaisaf.co.uk/

Dragon Roots: Ddraig Gwraidd

 

The Ddraig Gwraidd Table is ready!

 

This table will form part of my Bi-lingual Arts Installation to accompany The Dragon Tree

 

It is made from tree trunk roots dug up by Patricia Mc Parlin in Pembrey kindly donated to Fusion Inspire and a piece of wood I found in Llannon

 

Jeff Beer has rubbed it down and attached the table top to the roots with wooden dowels using a traditional technique to form the piece.

Chasing the Unicorn



 

 

 

 

 

As you know, I have been going through all my material, stories, song sketches, music and films, over the last week.

 

This track Chasing the Unicorn is one of the songs that hasn't made the cut, it just doesn't fit into the production. I was in the studio working on the other songs and this one popped out. I do quite like it so rather than shelve it, I thought I would share it with you here ...

 

Please feel free to share Chasing the Unicorn on facebook etc with your friends :)