I love a good Friday and today has been a great Friday. Firstly, may I say thank you so much for all the messages about the piece I wrote yesterday about our encounter with the deer. It is so kind of you to find time to message me and for me to see how many of you enjoyed that piece is a real boost. As I am typing we are very close to passing through the 4000 page views mark and this is truly amazing. Who would have thought a littlee blog from a little mum on a little island would be read by so many people? I have conversations with people now and they comment about something and I think 'how did they know that,' then I realise they obviously read my blog. I afford myself the smallest of smiles. It is a joy to write every day and the challenge has taught me so much already and we are only in March. My little blog has also opened up so many opportunities and allowed me to share all that will you. We are clearly on a journey together.
Yesterday was special for other reasons. I connected with three inspiring women all within minutes of each other. Some of you may have watched 16 kids and Counting which was on channel 4 earlier in the week. There was a family featured with 11 children and one more on the way. The family was a delight and I felt privileged to be allowed into their lives. I felt a particular connection with Tania, the mother, as she home educated the children. I have only managed to home educated four children and I can't imagine doing it for 11. She was an inspiration and I took so much from the programme and subsequent visit to her website Larger Family Life. We have since chatted and swapped notes and I am going to be writing a guest blog for her site on running a smallholding and home educating and how we bring the two together. Tania and her family would love to have some land but they are starting their self sufficency journey with an allotment which is an excellent first step. If you have time do check out her website. Interestingly, she has overwhelmed with emails from parents asking for more information on home education. Tania is a natural pied piper so it really is a case of 'watch that space'.
On the very same day I made a super connection with Jane Kaye-Bailey who is the founder and director of The Butterfly Tree chairty in Zambia. Jane is an instant heroine of mine and I am quite determined to raise as much money as possible. Last night the Comic Relief programme was based in Zambia and in the area that Jane's charity works. Suddenly, we had the opportunity to let people see the coonection between what the children of rural Zambia need and what the charity provides. This connection is vital for our campaign on Arran so facebook was alive with 'shares' to reach as many people as possible. If you missed the programme is so worth a catch up. Look beyond the challenge faced by the celebrities, despite its obvious importance, and see the children and the lives they live versus the lives they could live. My little campaign is not just for islanders and I will be asking for help in lots of areas over the coming months. All support will be grateful received. More importantly, all support will be vital for these children in Zambia.
As if those connections weren't enough I then managed to connect with the niece of Hannah Frank. Fiona (I know!) runs the Hannah Frank organisation and promotes her late aunts wonderful art. I am researching an article that explores the relationship between Hannah's drawings and dance. We chatted about my recent illuminated letter that will be in the Glasgow Women's Library exhibition and then I suggested that I would love to create a dance piece in tribute to Hannah's work. This idea was met with great enthusiasm and Fiona and I are busy fleshing out how this might be achieved.
By the end of the day I sat on the sofa staring at my beloved ipad and feeling truly blessed that I had made connections with such wonderful women. Today all three projects moved on and more people have become involved. I am excited about the involvement of everyone but, if I am honest, there is one lady that stands out in my mind. Donna and I have been friends for years and we met in our shared time lecturing in dance and performing arts at the University of Winchester. We have since moved on to other things but have remained firm friends. Donna is currently studying for a masters in archiving. Donna will be joining me as a co-creator of the piece but she will also lead me through the archives that exist on Hannah and I am completely thrilled. She will add an integrity to the project that is beyond question and will enable to piece to be documented via video and linked firmly with the work of this wonderful artist. This promises to be a fascinating project. I am looking for others to be involved and if any of you reading this would like to make a contribution please get in touch. Specifically, at the moment, I am looking for 6 women preferably who have never danced before. The piece will be created over no more than 3 days so if you live off island this is your chance to visit! I can probably help with accommodation. I am also looking for someone to write an original score for the piece. I am not looking for a traditional music composition, more of a soundscape with some melodic moments. Lastly (!) I am also looking for someone to video both the rehearsals and the performance and edit this to form part of the body of work around Hannah Frank.
I know I ask for a lot but if you don't ask......
Today has been one of those days when threads are pulled in a bit tighter so that I can keep some sort of loose control on life. Max and George produced some wonderful follow up work from our field trip re-confirming what an excellent learning experience it had been. Harry showed that he knows a huge amount more than I do about nutrition and that always pleases me. I like it when the children are ahead as that is how it should be. To top it off I have just come back from a two hour coffee with Angie from Sugar and Spice where we planned our fothcoming course on Creating with Textiles and chuckled with Mark and Russell at Coast. The boys have given my some vintage cups that have lost their saucers and I have decided to give them to people all decorated with butterflies. I just want them to follow Lynn's example and use the cup to collect loose change and when it is full pass it to me for The Butterfly Tree. They can fill it up as many times as they like and, at the end of the campaign, they will have a lovely vintage cup to remind them of the contribution they have made. Perfect!
There are days when it is important to pause and remember how many lovely lovely people are in your life. Today was my day for doing that. Thank you so much for all you have done and for all you will be doing. Lots to think about so I need some quiet time in my lovely tunnel to chat to my plants. This always helps keep everything in focus and I do believe the plants enjoy our chats too because they grow so well for me.
Hoping everyone has a super weekend. Until tomorrow. xx
A couple of extra pictures from our trip yesterday. xx
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