The Island Project: Emma Massingale

Emma Massingale is a UK professional horse-trainer, specializing in liberty training and she's also a self-proclaimed lover of adventure and wild places. 

Emma has just recently released an hour-long film documenting her journey to a remote island off the coast of Connemara in Ireland with 6 horses, two of them untrained, and her camping gear.

She says:

Alone on an island with just my Ponies for company - Over the years I have started many young horses but I've always wondered if I didn't have any tools such as a halter, lead rope, saddle or round pen would it be possible? 

I found an island off the west coast of Ireland that had everything the ponies needed to live without needing me - they had water and food aplenty so the decision whether or not to interact with me would be based purely on a relationship, not through necessity.

I took two untrained Connemara Ponies and survived alone on a 70-acre island while trying to start these ponies without any tack or fences I took with me four of my trained Connemaras and they were the key to communicating with the new boys! 

Now, if that wasn't hard enough, I thought, as I'm on an island, it would be fun to go all Bear Grylls and catch my food as well! I took just rice and for a month foraged and fished for my one meal per day...oh and filmed the whole adventure for your viewing pleasure! I hope you enjoy sharing my time on the island. Emx

If you would like to follow more please find me on all the usual Social Media Channels @EmmaMassingale

If you're looking for an alternative to Netflix and love horses, adventure and stunning views of coastal Ireland, you might really enjoy this film. Full disclosure, there are pop-up ads, but for the most part, they're either fairly short or you are offered the option to skip some of them. All worth it for this wonderful film.

The Island Project: Emma Massingale

Beethoven's Fifth

St. Michael Garicoits de Cambo is a school in the southwestern French town of Cambo-les-Bains. The kids and staff have been active during the pandemic learning rhythmic exercises such as line-dancing and clapping. They recently put this outstanding performance on YouTube.

 

Edible and Non-Edible Art #3 and 4

A continuation of the food-related art series.

#3 Julie Lee

Julie Lee is an LA-based artist and photographer who freely confesses that she's a food-playing nerd. She visits farmers' markets, gardens and even forages in wilder places for inspiration for her collages which she then photographs and adds to the stock in her shop. 

Strawberry Fields

Patty Pan Squash

Summer Love

Here are Julie's links:

• Website
• Instagram
• Shop

Next up:

#4 Takayo Kiyota 

Takayo Kiyota is a Tokyo-based illustrator and makizushi artist who creates maki rolls, that in cross-section, reveal images that wow.

Kiyota, who goes by the name Tama-chan, lays out the ingredients with precision onto the rice, imagining what it will look like when rolled and sliced. She says distortions happen easily when things get moved or squished a certain way in the rolling or slicing. 

The rolls are quite large, not like the maki we get at our local sushi bar. 

This next one she created for an article on the globalization of Japanese food.

Tama-chan has even created a roll of a fetus in utero where each slice revealed a different stage in its development. 

Tama-chan gives workshops and has written a book in English in case you want to check it out.

Here's a short video about Takayo Kiyota's art.

Sounds of the Forest

 I'm still feeling the Earth Day vibe, so here's another Earth-oriented blog post. 

The International Forest Festival has been an annual event in a rural UK location for the last few years. The Festival invites participants to debate, celebrate and reflect as we rethink our relationship with trees and forests. 

Here's a video from 2019:

Unfortunately, the Festival was cancelled in 2020, so in response, the organizers invited people from around the world to share a 1-minute sound clip to be shared online. Thus was born the "Sounds of the Forest" project whereby people could connect with one another, inspire and be inspired. So far over 750 sound clips have been shared from 70 countries and every continent. They have been listened to more than 1.5 million times. 

Rowan Cannon and Sarah Bird, partners with the National Forest Company in creating the Timber Festival said, 

We're beyond thrilled with how many recordings have been contributed from forests and woodlands all over the world and the extraordinary level of global engagement. The sounds form an open-source library, to be used by anyone to listen to and create from. They have provided a source of meditation for many and been used as a source of inspiration for art and music for others. 

We are living in a world filled with uncertainty and we believe the natural world offers much reassurance and constancy. Sounds of the Forest has encouraged people to go to their local woodlands and forests and take time to stop, listen and record the harmonies of nature, then upload these online. Hopefully it has shown the unifying power of nature, it has transported thousands of us to forests around the world. In a time where we are physically isolated the project has provided hope and connection.

Forests are resilient, adaptive, multi-faceted and offer us real hope that we can find a way through this crisis.

We would never have anticipated how compelling and inspiring it would be to sit in our homes during these strange and uncertain times and to be transported, to a forest say, in Panama, Montreal or Hong Kong. It's been the most amazing thing, feeling so connected whilst so distanced.

Timber Festival 2021 is planned to go ahead at the site in Feanedock, UK where participants will be camping, glamping, singing, dancing and even watching magic shows and comedy routines. 

Ascension Dance

Horn Dance

Maypole Dancing

Most of us will not be able to attend this awesome-looking event, July 2,3 and 4, 2021, so in the meantime, head over to Forest Sounds to choose a forest or woodland to enjoy. On the Forest Sounds page you will find links to the top 10 sounds across the UK as well as the top 10 sounds in the rest of the world. You'll be able to hear the first cuckoo of the season at Feanedock, site of the Forest Festival or the howls of lemurs in Madagascar. 

If you prefer you can visit the Sounds of the Forest Soundmap HERE to choose where in the world you would like to place your ear 😊

In the meantime, embed yourself into the forest at the Eden Project in Cornwall:

wild_rumpus · Eden Project - dawn chorus

Swedish Humour

Since today looks like it will be the last cold day for a while, I thought I'd post this video that I recently came across. The young woman who made it - everything from costume, acting, set-up, filming and editing - is Jonna Jinton who moved a few years ago from Gothenburg in Sweden to a much more remote rural setting in the north of that country and is thriving there. 

Jonna's very creative and interested in almost everything from philosophy to making jewelry. Her website is www.jonnajintonsweden.com and her YouTube channel is Jonna Jinton. She has an astounding 3.5 million subscribers. As you'll see from just this one video she is an extremely talented filmmaker so I encourage you to have a look at some of her other videos.

This video had me hooked. I'm sure I'll go back to enjoy it on a hot summer day. I hope you like it as much as I did.

How Nordic People Do Laundry