Today after waking up early, I enjoyed some playing around on my new hobby – the ukulele! I was encouraged by a friend when I told them that I wanted to play a particular Regurgitator song I love. Now no apologies here – if the Gurge can mash hip hop, punk, metal, easy listening with ballads then there is scope for a fangirl to sing “One Day” on a Uke 🙂

After some very poor uncoordinated strumming and out of tune singing, it was time to go for a walk… It was wonderful to reconnect with the River and my dear friend Anne Britt Rage. We had so much to catch up on from the past 8 years since we last saw each other f2f. Anne Britt has been a wonderful collaborator on a number of previous projects and our shared interests around human rights, climate resilience and ecological systems.

After our River walk, it was time to go to the studio to start to settle in. Today there were 3 artists at the Studios and so some wonderful conversations and sharing stories about our practice. Hopefully over the time, I might interview some of this community of creatives for the blog – just to share a little about this wonderful hive of artistic endeavour. Some of my raffia found its way to my studio so who knows what will happen next!!

It is August 8 – Lion’s Gate today – which is meant to be a powerful time for setting intentions. For myself and some friends we gathered near our closest waters to acknowledge this auspicious date. It is also the full moon, which is also very synchronistic as when I was in Drammen 8 years ago, I had a ceremony at the river’s edge at the full moon to share love and healing through the water. Tonight, in ceremony, prayers of love and peace were sent through the waters. We are living in such troubled times with the impact of climate bearing down as well as the spectre of genocide.

The ceremony is a small gesture, one which provides the chance to speak to the matters that hold me to be accountable to my values and beliefs.

A big day with more adventures planned for tomorrow…

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