Week Three - and my first Podcast

 Week Three - and  my first Podcast 

So I've been "travelling" for three weeks now - but actually i got here, Cape Clear Island, a week ago. 
I had my first goat milking lesson on Thursday 












and did a bit more milking on Friday and over the weekend





Also on the weekend I made some Goat Milk Cottage Cheese - which is amazingly straightforward to make... (just boil, add vinegar, stir, separate, and hang it overnight!) and the next day turned it into four CHEESECAKES
















which i'm very proud of (and which have been very popular here). 

So that's me. A Beginner Milker. 

 On Monday we had a crisis - Ed - my friend, the goat farmer - had to go to hospital with severe stomach pains.  Which is rather complicated on an island... he called the nurse round, she arranged for the island bus to come to the house, for the lifeboat to come to the harbour, and for the ambulance to come to Baltimore on the other side - the ambulance took him to hospital in Cork which is around 60 miles away.

 Vanessa - who lives here and also knows all there is to know about goats - went with him... leaving me, and two WWOOFERS (farm volunteers) who had arrived just the previous evening, in charge of the goat farm!  So in a rather ironic case of the not-blind leading the not-blind, I taught Lynne and Mike how to do milking, and we did the Monday milking as best we could in the morning, got the goats to bed at night, and got them up for the Tuesday morning milking - but we (and, probably, the goats) were VERY relieved to hear that Ed had been given a clean bill of health. Vaness and Ed came back on the morning ferry, Izzy the guide dog welcomed them back, and all is now back to normal. 

In the meantime I'd been sitting with Lynne and Mike yesterday afternoon thinking that I really would like to get on with editing my interview material into podcasts, but was finding the sound editing programme a bit tricky. So I asked Lynne if she knew anything about sound editing - she didn't, but she thought Mike might.  And it turns out that Mike has spent eight years studying sound engineering and music technology..... and he and I spend the whole afternoon putting together my first podcast. 
We hope you like it!  The podcasts are hosted on my Hannah Frank Art website, so you have to click on the link below to find it ..... ( but do come back!) 

Announcing


"ARCHIPELAGIC THINKING"

I've also been talking to dancer Ruairi O'Donovan and musician Sean O'Dalaigh: who are putting on an  installation and spectacular dance event this coming Saturday on the island this coming Saturday on the island.  It's POLITICAL DANCE - and takes place, as it happens, the day after the overwhelmingly significant referendum which is taking place here on Friday, about how much influence the state should have on women's choices about their bodies*.  
The dance event answers questions about "How does a body dance socio-economic issues, confront the devastation of marginalised communities and languages or dance with questions of indigenity?" and they've done research to link Newfoundland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, The Hebrides and Cape Clear. 
 Quite mindblowing... so I've changed my travel plans so I can be here for the events.   I went down to today's rehearsal to ask for a job (thinking perhaps selling tickets, cooking...) but it turns out I may be teaching a Klezmer Dance some time during the day!... there's also a boat trip to the lighthouse, a meal, a music session,  accommodation and brunch as part of the tickets.  Fancy it? Tickets and more info here!   

it's rather poignant that the installation part of the day is taking place in the Irish College which has otherwise been closed for the past two years.... 

SAIL RAIL

If you haven't heard of SAIL RAIL it's an amazing scheme that allows a ticket from ANYWHERE IN IRELAND to ANYWHERE IN BRITAIN for about £45 - and I'm using it to come home on Sunday/Monday.  The current plan is that I'll be popping into Bampton on Monday evening for the music and dancing, then going to see my mum and my sister and her family for a few days, before the Spanish/Portuguese leg of my journey which should start with the boat over to Santander on 6 June, and sailing.... .but things can change of course. 

 (btw If you're in the UK you buy the tickets from Arriva Trains Wales - if you're in Ireland you buy the tickets from Irish Ferries.  )


lots of love
Fiona 

(and 28 goats)




*re the Referendum here in Ireland - in a novel state of affairs, they have had a lot of discussion leading up to the referendum about WHAT THEY WOULD DO IF THE CURRENT SITUATION CHANGED. (Something that perhaps a certain UK government could have been well advised to do, before a certain referendum we held?). 







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