The days are gallivanting into a thwarted sense of summer time. While the light is long, the skies are all too frequently sprinkled with a grey tinge, leaving my very being calling out for sunshine. But this is Ireland and onwards we march, irrespective of the weather.
After months and months of full on activity, this week my body and brain were telling me to go inwards, to re-calibrate, to re-engage. A big part of me resists the urge to settle- always instead on the hunt for the next adventure or the next idea to bring to life, but another part of me is leading me to do the groundwork, the study, the reflection, the planning, the rest.
So after we took Trailblaze to Cork last week (including a quick jaunt to Sherkin Island to see a performance), I somewhat reluctantly took myself home. There I met canal walks, new growth in my back garden, wild raspberry picking, chasing of invoices, a photo shoot, yoga practice, essay writing, retreat planning, tagine making, Street Feast chats and diving into the next stage of Trailblaze. The latter feels big and significant. The latter feels necessary. We are business planning, disecting the digital landscape and figuring out where next to take this little gem.
The immediate next Trailblaze stop will be Galway for the Arts Festival on July 28th when we will hosting an evening in the beautiful Aula Maxima on the NUIG campus. We’ve a brilliant brilliant line-up of speakers and I am feeling so excited about this one. The line-up includes Sunny Jacobs (writer and exonerated prisoner), Colm O’Gorman (Director of Amnesty Ireland), Manchan Magan (travel writer, playwright and journalist), Dylan Haskins (documentary maker and DIY’er), John O’Donoghue (broadcaster and questioner- also Dylan’s grandfather), Dave Cunningham (yoga teacher)… and more. Tickets are available here.
And so to round up some of my recent summer happenings, a few images from the last couple of weeks:
And we had some interesting encounters with tagging on our Street Feast installation in the Science Gallery…
While the back garden has some lovely new growth…
But not as nice as my aunt’s amazing garden..
Or as tasty as the wild raspberries that we found..
I also made it along with my camera to a day with the National Digital Research Centre and their interesting Swequity programme- an intense learning experience for start-up tech entrepreneurs…
And probably best of all, this morning included a little visit from two of my favourite people in the world…
Your world is so colorful, so musical, so full of ideas and creativity, Clare, that it is breathing life into my own. I hope the summer continues being exhilarating! Much love to you.