The morning of the 28th we installed bamboo poles in Jadim de Igreja Matriz to hang our lanterns for Illuminating Site. We came back late afternoon to hang the lanterns, breaking for a brief supper before coming back. When we began the final preparations we realized that the gusty winds and the never before lit candles stubbornly were not cooperating. Of course, a fairly large crowd of towns people were there right on time while Jo and Paul with Telmo were frantically running back and forth with matches and lighters.

Finally, after about an hour, all of the lanterns were lit with at least one candle (rather than the three each that had been planned) and some lanterns had to be moved from the original placements to more wind sheltered areas. The installation was beautiful and well-attended by an appreciative audience yet we were left dissatisfied as our original intent wasn't completely fulfilled and, more to the point, we had spent so much time in a panic trying to make it work so we couldn't really relax and enjoy what we had created.

The following morning we decided to change our plans and leave for Beja. Jo finished House of Morgado in a Jar and then we took off. We booked a cheap room and, when we got there, we realized that, since we had gone through Booking.com rather than the hotel's web site, they had put us in the worst room in the hotel even though we were the only guests there.

Walking the labyrinthine, narrow, hilly cobblestone streets in old town Mértola we encountered several obviously befuddled tourists driving cars desperately trying to find an exit from behind the walls and we were very happy that we learned our lesson in Odemira and parked the car at the first free spot we could find and continued our exploration on foot. It is impressive how locals are able to navigate these streets with motorized vehicles but rather foolhardy for tourists to attempt.

Mértola was an important river port to many different civilizations. Ruins from Rome, the Moors, and Christendom are found throughout the town. Sitting high on a hill overlooking the river is an impressive castle keep surrounded by a very large castle that would have seem impregnable to pre-modern warriors. The Igreja Matriz was built upon a Mosque near the ruins of an Islamic neighborhood that serves as a living archeological exhibit with both tourists and scientific laborers on the site. Remnants of what was once a very beautiful and elaborate mosaic feature various animals from Europe and Africa.

After strolling through the castle we found a wonderful restaurant with outdoor dining above the river. Jo enjoyed grilled prawns and Paul had black pork. We viewed an old Roman structure guarding entry to the river before going back to the car and onto Serpa.

This time we kept driving into old town, inside the castle walls, before finding a parking space right next to egress out into wider, straighter streets. We enjoyed looking at painted pottery at an artisan shop and managed to limit our purchases to two small bowls and an olive serving dish with small side bowl for discarded pits (we will miss the ready availability of delicious olives at nearly every meal). Then onto the castle past numerous churches. 

On the way out we looked for what we thought was a brewery but turned out to be just a pub serving the widespread Sagres beers (Portugal is great for wine but is behind on the craft beer scene). We stumbled upon a Chinese Store - it seems that there are several in every town - selling all sorts of things at, usually, low prices, and purchased the additional candles we need for our installation of 40 handmade lanterns. We thought that "Chinese Store" was slang used by the locals to denote stores operated by Asian immigrants but noted that the stores had "Loja Chinesa" painted on their outside logos as self-designation.

We noted through the day's drive how much the landscape seemed so typical of Portugal - as well as California - everything appeared. At least in Alentejo we have observed towns of only white-washed buildings and red-tile roofs without exception. Castle ruins are common, as are many churches - Igreja Matriz and Igreja de Nossa Senhora are typical. The dried grass covered hills are dotted with cork trees which have an appearance much like the scrub oak familiar in California. As is true in California, wild fires are a threat - last year there were many deaths from the fires.

Telmo finished laser-cutting and we began assembling lanterns: 19 with our designs cut directly into the cardboard, 9 with the designs cut in parchment paper to be glued to cardboard frames and 11 with dried flowers pressed between two sheets of translucent paper. The parchment paper lanterns are extremely delicate - even when working with FabLab technology we still have ended up with a very ephemeral installation.

With all 40 lanterns assembled we now can turn our attention to being tourists. We took the bus to Beja to pick up a rental car - a small Renault that is a bit bigger than the Fiat 500 we reserved but still small enough to make it difficult for Paul to slip his clown-sized shoes into and out of the door, especially when close parking doesn't allow for fully ajar egress.

We walked the old town but, according to the helpful woman at the Information office, most were closed on Mondays. The castle was quite impressive, and impressively restored. It was one of the first constructed with offensive military strategy to fight off attackers rather than merely defensive resistance of a siege as the central purpose. The step steps reminded us that we have become flat-landers in Florida whose legs are more accustomed to level walking than climbs. We delighted in discovering may different  mason symbols chiseled into the stones.

We also enjoyed the Igreja de Nossa Senhora (it seems that devotion to Mary is significant here) with the gold leaf overlaid carved wood chapel. In Portugal everything but restaurants close for two hours so we decided to go for lunch. We really enjoyed the cold melon soup. After lunch we strolled through the remains of a Franciscan monastery that is now an upscale hotel.

The next day we drove to the coast. Odemira's highlights include a beautiful river walk and a still working windmill. It is sited on one of the least polluted rivers in Europe with beautiful hills and valleys. The drive there reminded us of mountain roads with steep ups and downs and rather sharp turns.  Then onto the coast: first the very typical touristy beach town of Vila Nova de Milfontes, then to gorgeous cliffs and beach of Zambujeira de Mar and Praia de Carvalhal - which all the other tourists had sought out as well due to its advertised "less popular and secluded" status.

Returning through Odemira was a bit harrowing as we drove back through town and up the very narrow, steep "two-way" streets with tight turns and minimal signage. We sighted the windmill and the way out from the top of a hill and so we went back down into the labyrinth of cobblestone paths and somehow managed to get on the route home. We detoured to Teotónio and tried to no avail to find the Associação de Artesãos.  The next day Sara shared that she and Carlos also couldn't find it on one of their trips.

After two and a half weeks of devotedly working with images in Photoshop and Illustrator we have handed off the lantern cutting to Telmo, who is filling in for Carlos while he leads a multi-nation workshop in Aljustrel with 36 participants. As we are more used to doing everything ourselves, this time of waiting for someone else to fabricate our designs is rather odd...and slightly unnerving, especially as we are aiming to be completed by the end of the weekend so we can have some time to explore the region by bus.

We are cutting designs into the cardboard of 19 lanterns and into parchment paper that will be glued to another 8 to 10 lanterns. Jo has glued flora she dried and pressed onto tissue paper that will be for another 8 to 10 lanterns. She managed to convince fellow resident artist Margaret Feeney to paint designs onto a prototype lantern which will also be included in the installation.

We needed a break from Photoshop so we shot three stop motion videos: something with laundry pins in the back yard and two in a beautiful, shaded area near the monastery ruins. These will be posted once we add sound to them. We are also moving forward on our weaving with bamboo and buinho grasses.

Antonio, the shopkeeper where we buy our produce, wine and cheese, is also the holder of the keys for the churches of the village. He took us up the hill to view Igreja Matriz, which is only utilized for special festas.

American welder/sculpture Sage's sister has left the house, Margaret's son Timo came and spent the night before leaving for Lisbon where Margaret has joined him.  Sam (U.K.) and Marina (France) who reside in Iceland are now in the Buinho house along with Telmo and Rui (not sure of the spelling), who is helping Carlos with the workshop in Aljustrel, 10 km away.

We have determined a site for our lantern installation, a narrow, neglected park next to Igreja Matriz, one of eleven historic churches (not counting the private chapels that the wealthy nobility had) in Messejana. Matriz is never used, the church in the town square with the active bell tower is where Mass is held.
 
Carlos has created a solid functional design for the cardboard structures while we have been spending far too much time on Photoshop converting pictures we have taken of interesting patterns into images to be converted in Illustrator to vectors that the laser cutter can follow. When we see “selections” with “dancing ants” surrounding them when we close our eyes it is clearly time to change activities. We have started weaving with bamboo and a native grass – not sure what will become of that project – but it is a welcome relief from the computer time.
 
We go on walks in the morning and/or the evening to avoid the rather oppressive sun. On Monday we took advantage to the overcast morning skies to walk the approximately 2 km to Igreja Nossa Senhora Da Assunção, an 11th-century church and former-mosque in the civil parish of Mértola. Unfortunately we were not able to go inside – it looks like the church is not actively utilized – but it was quite lovely. On the walk home – in full sun – two loose dogs challenged us from a distance. We think they weren’t sure whether they should be herding us as there is sheep nearby, but they did run off when we advanced.
 
We’ve been enjoying our walks with Margaret, a visual artist from New Zealand. She bonded with a horse along one of our routes and brought carrots to feed it. Messejana seems bigger than 800 people but we have to admit that walking in any distance will take you out of town rather quickly, unless you are on one of the roads that loops back toward the center of town.
 
We have been enjoying our walks to the ruins of the Franciscan Monastery. The cork and olive trees both have impressive trunks. The remnants of old orchards have been providing us with delicious plums. We are hoping the pears ripen before we leave.

Sara and Carlos had meetings to go to at the University so they invited Margaret and us to join them on the trip to Évora. The hour and a half + trip through fields of sunflowers was filled with lively discussion. When we arrived Carlos gave us a brief tour of the university reconstructed from the original medieval architecture - complete with elevated lecterns for the esteemed professor to reign their intellect down upon their students. As expected, the walls have beautiful tile mosaics throughout.

Afterwards we treked to a square with the ruins of a Roman building. Carlos went off to his business leaving Margaret to visit a local museum while Jo and I roamed the streets. A very aesthetic town where, unlike Messejana, the white-walled buildings tend to feature yellow stripes. According to Carlos, Messejana is a bit of an outlier in the region, bucking the tendency in the South towards yellow.

We enjoyed peering into store windows but most of the shops were closed for the mid-day so we went for lunch. The sandwiches were tasty, especially the pork Bifama but the pastries were exceptional. We went for the renowned Pasteis de nata as well as a flakier custard filled Cavecas de frade which was even better. The small shots of espresso were very strong and wonderful.

When we got back to town Carlos met with us to plan a project of ours: Lanterns with patterns we have found locally cut out via the laser cutter. Another meeting the next day was our first attempt at a prototype - which was rejected - but Carlos stayed late to create a new design for the cardboard lanterns lit by votive candles. We found a small park near the Matiz church on the hill that will work wonderfully for the installation of around 30 lanterns. Unfortunately this means we will be spending more time on Photoshop designing images than we would prefer but the project could be great.

Shopping is done at one of two largish grocery stores in neighboring town of Aljustrel which became the municipal center after Messejana backed the “wrong horse” during a revolution. The history and archeology of Messajana is long and rich, dating back to the Neolithic, to rules by the Iberians, the Romans, the Moors, the Church, the fascist regime, and now the socialist democracy.

We are staying in the Morgadinho House, a portion of an old Morgado palace by the town square with the bull ring abutting the back garden. This is a palace made for comfort, not ostentatious display or military defense – though the neighboring apartment contains a private chapel complete with a high window to the side of the altar allowing the nobility to attend Mass without being viewed by the commoners. The Fascist regime of most of the 20th century allowed for a neo-feudal system to thrive in the South, with few individuals amassing vast tracts of property. Sara’s grandfather was one of these pseudo-nobles – though he was a benevolent owner – bringing a factory and jobs to the region and willing his properties to those who had worked for him rather than family.


The town has very little signage to indicate which street you are on, or the shops and restaurants. There is a pleasing aesthetic of sameness; white washed, one-story buildings with a painted blue

The gracious 90 year-old former maid, who is now a landowner through inheritance from her former employer, showed us the private chapel and town square church which abuts an old jail and tower whose bell marks every hour with an exuberant song at 5:30 PM to celebrate the end of the work day. Then we toured the local museum in Sara’s grandfather’s former house. Later Carlos took us to the ruins of a Franciscan monastery while sharing information of the traditions and history of the land.
 
Our hosts are truly remarkable. In addition to being college researchers, parents, and directors of Buinho Creative Hub, they are very active in community organizations. During our time here they will be hosting a two week event in Lisbon with 35 students from various countries. Carlos meets with artist residents to help plan our projects and provide support – he is very tightly scheduled yet always seems to be always able to add something else to his ever-expanding responsibilities. They are passionate about what they are doing, ambitious with a big vision, with nearly boundless energy.

The FabLab houses 3D printers, laser cutter, and CNC (computer numerical control) machine as well as other more mundane pieces of technology for fabrication. The house, remodeled by our hosts, features an open-design, work spaces, two bedrooms and a kitchen.

On the 4th we gathered for lunch at a local athletic club, sitting at a long table with Carlos, Margaret an artist from New Zealand, Misha an

We arrived early for our 8:20 PM flight from Tallahassee. Sat at a restaurant for a beer and fries with a view of the gate. Jo noted that the 5:59 flight was significantly delayed so she inquired and got us on the "early" flight.  I rushed to pay the bill so we could board the flight and, once boarded, we sat on the tarmac for awhile. Finally the plane taxied to the runway....and sat.....and sat....and sat. The plane was so delayed that the window for arrival in Atlanta was pushed way back.  The plane taxied back to the gate to let off passengers who wanted to spend the night in Tally rather than Atlanta. Jo desperately tried to get accurate information as to our connecting flight from Delta.  Just as the doors were closed down and the plane taxied to take-off, she heard that we would likely miss our flight to Amsterdam.

The plane touched down 27 minutes before our scheduled take-off.  And then it sat as there was a bit of a back-up at the gates. When we finally de-boarded we ran from the extreme end of the terminal to the airport train to get to the international terminal on the extreme end of the line. We ran/power-walked to our gate (we really need to get some more cardio training), saw the plane, but the doors were locked and no one was there to help us. We - and about 20 others - watched in disbelief as the plane pulled away from the gate at the exact scheduled departure time.

We stood in line at the Delta help-desk without moving and watching the line grow longer and longer. Jo went hunting for another person to help us schedule a new flight plan for the next day: from Atlanta to Madrid and then to Lisbon instead of the originally scheduled Atlanta>Amsterdam>Lisbon and a voucher for a stay at the Airport Hilton.

When we arrived the next day at the airport we went back to the Delta help desk armed with the information that there was a direct flight to Lisbon scheduled at the same time as the Madrid flight. After waiting for permission from someone on the phone we were booked on a flight that, due to all the weather affecting other flights, wasn't full.

Of course, during this time we attempted to contact our AirBnB host to inform him of our ever changing arrival times. We arrived at the apartment in the very convenient tourist-popular Alfama neighborhood at 9:00 AM and he wasn't there - responding that check-in was noon.  So we cooled our heels in a local sitting area for older residents.

When we finally got in to the apartment we took a nap and then walked about - seeing the ever present parade of Tuk Tuks with their tourists going up and down the hilly cobblestoned streets. The streets are narrow, the sidewalks even more so. Paul had his elbow brushed by the side view mirror of a passing car. The next day we strolled through an immense flea market to the river port and up through a large field full

We rented a car for a trip into Estonia. First stop was Lihula where we very much enjoyed the winter landscape of Matsalu National Park, renowned for its birdlife.

Our next stop was the capital city of Tallinn where we enjoyed strolling along the harbor and in the medieval Old Town.

Tartu, with its historic University and Old Town was lovely, especially during a light snow during an evening walk.

Fittingly it was overcast with drizzling rain all day Saturday as the coastal towns of Latvia celebrated Sea Festival. After mulling it over for some time we decided to head south to the third largest city of Latvia, Liepāja, rather than to the north to Ventspils as it was a shorter drive. We walked to two neighborhood  "creative centers" indicated on the map and found a wonderful weaving studio with gorgeous wool and linen creations as well as beaded wristbands. Fortunately they only took cash as the very inexpensive prices were extremely tempting. Nearby was an amber studio (Liepāja is known for the harvest of amber stones that wash up on the beach). We enjoyed an outdoor exhibit of paintings at the entry to the Festival and a hearty lunch of pork kebabs, boiled potatoes and a scrumptious cooked cabbage dish.

It started raining so we headed to Pāvilosta for the much smaller town's Festival. We followed the map's directions to find a working bread museum for tastings of traditional-style bread. We also couldn't leave without purchasing some incredible farmhouse smoked bacon. Pāvilosta was wet too but we found a vendor of smoked fish before making it to the beach to watch the procession of boats to the Sea and the entrance of the sea gods who mounted the stage where Neptune made a boisterous speech.

Sunday in Aizpute is wonderfully quiet. There is no truck traffic on the main road in front of SERDE and, at 9:00 AM there were very few

The fourth of July was spent mostly inside - it was raining very hard all day long - we lost internet due to some close strikes of lightning. So, when it was supposed to be fair and relatively warm on the fifth we decided to take a trip in the rental car.

Arriving in the very aesthetic town of Kuldīga Paul began to remember different locations that we had visited in Spring 2014. Jo, who creates mental maps to orient, felt the need to go to the bridge near the falls on the north as that was the way we entered the town in 2014. Once we got to the bridge (and picked up a map at the Information center) we were confident as we walked through the sculpture garden of Livija Rezevska and past old town through another park to the pedestrian street, Liepajas iela. There were none of the wonderfully whimsical bird sculptures along the street as they are for the Spring. As we had taken hundreds of photos  of the town three years ago we didn't feel the urge to click our cameras that much (alas, the Kudīga blog entry from April 2014 had no pictures - apparently we had intended to edit and post but never did).

We then ventured to the small village of Alsunga, a small Latvian Catholic community with a unique culture.  After a lovely lunch at Spēlmaņu krogs of regional specialities including sklandrausis, the delicious carrot, potato tart with cumin on rye crust (we were completely sated for less than 12€ for both of us).

Sunday we took two of SERDE's old bicycles out for a ride around town. These are much the same era bikes as we had access to in Lapua but in better condition, nevertheless, the single-speed gearing and lack of hand brakes are difficult for us to get used to. Also, compared to our mountain bikes with geometry to allow for quick turns making turns on these borrowed cycles with what is to us huge wheels seems a bit unstable. Nevertheless, we really enjoy being able to go for rides.

We quickly got out of town - several times - Aizpute is not very large. There were many beautifully maintained gardens both for vegetables and flowers. There were also large community gardens with multiple small greenhouses and individual plots.

After lunch we took the rental car and drove to the village of Kazdanga. Quickly arriving we realized we could have easily biked the 9 km. We enjoyed our walk around the Kazdanga Castle and Manor grounds. A massive amount of cut wood was piled behind the 19th century Castle on an old basketball court, no doubt constructed during the Soviet era. We strolled to the crypt of Barons Manteuffels and continued on the path to view contemporary sculpture made from wood. We were especially taken by the male figure made by negative space with the shadowing female figure which appeared to be cut out from the original log.

Returning to Aizpute we decided to take a slight detour to the village of Cīrava. The dirt road was being graded, once we passed the grader we understood why. Tours of beehive training site require previous booking so we continued on to the Cirava antiquities storehouse - which is closed Mondays. Undeterred we drove to the center of town to take many photos of the old Lutheran Church, Millhouse and a hunting castle of the von Manteuffels family. Seeing these once magnificent buildings in various states of disrepair was emotional.

Once back to SERDE we videotaped an experiment with balls on the various old wooden floors - an edited version will be coming soon. We also enjoyed having a Skype conversation with Paul's siblings and Dad who had gathered in Ames to celebrate Bill's 96th birthday.

Tuesday morning we went back to the "Jewish steps" to shoot a standing version "Aizpute Steps" stop motion video. This time the weather forecast was accurate as we got caught in pretty heavy showers.

Our last day in Lapua was delightful. The sun was shining, no rain in sight. We took the bikes up to Simpsiö and had a very enjoyable hike, except for the inevitable swarm of mosquitoes. One of these days we will remember the repellent before heading into the woods.

The next day we said our goodbyes to Christine and took the train to the airport. Unfortunately we experienced what we had been warned about the trains - they are often late - we arrived at the exchange station 20 minutes late. Unclear whether there would be other commuter trains to the airport or when they would run we ran through the station. While Jo was asking an official looking employee where to go we surprised to see our very dear friend Karri Kokko who was waiting to meet us to spend a little time with us as we transferred trains.

In spite of some panic when Baltic Air enforced their very strict 8 kilogram limit on carry-on baggage, we made our plane in plenty of time. The flight was late, but we both had a strong and surprising rush of emotion when we saw the coast of Latvia and the skyline of Riga as we neared landing. Latvia has taken a special place in our hearts. 

After renting a car we managed to find the big Maxima near the airport and purchase food, stop at the Alus ("beer") shop to purchase 1/2 liter plastic bottles of Latvian beer (that was the smallest size we could get), before we started the 2 hour, beautiful drive to Aizpute. Along the drive Jo commented that Latvia reminded her a bit of Iowa, there is a rich, sensuous, fertile feeling of the land.

Around 10 PM we noted that we were getting near to sunset, something that we never saw while in Finland. We were very happy to arrive in Aizpute and find SERDE, an extraordinary facility in very old, beautiful buildings. We took a brief tour of the site and were stunned by the beauty of the multiple rooms of the center which originally was a house of rich people, later turned into multiple small apartments during Soviet times and abandoned until Signe Pucena and Ugis Pucens took on the monumental task of restoring and renovating the building to create a vibrant cultural center.

Homemade potato chips
Maarit Halonen

Ajan alussa kivi, humalassa                                       When time began, there was a stone drunk
Samuli Koskela

Unobstructed View - rehearsal
Being part of            
Maarit Halonen            

Obstructed view - performance

Tikku kynnen alla               
Splinter under nail
Samuli Koskela     

Reflection appears                       
       Rooted but estranged
           Raw rage
Egon Overteyns

White wall                       
Maarit Halonen

Unobstructed view - rehearsal
Aikarauta, valja virta                       
Time iron, slow flow of water
Samuli Koskela

Obstructed view - performance

Bolstered by a nice preview article on the second page of the local paper we had strong attendance for Nameless, but in sight. Nearly perfect number of people; if we had more it would have been difficult to deal with. The three performers, Maarit, Egon, and Samuli, were all quite wonderful and the audience seemed enthralled by both the performances and installation.

The reception afterwards included a lively question/answer session with us oftentimes waiting for the English translation of what our collaborators had shared with the audience.

We are gratified that the Center wants to keep the cold storage installation as is and wants to also exhibit some of the  other works but a little sad, even though we always knew this would be the case, that the studio installation must come down to make room for the next artists in residence to be able to do their work.

We will be posting more photos of the installation and photos and video of the performance once we have a chance to curate them and create a separate web page devoted to the performance installation.

Saturday the 24th was a national holiday - Juhannus (St. John's Day) - previously on 25 June, exactly six months opposite of the 25th of December but now legislated to be on the Saturday between the 20th and the 26th. Like Christmas, that falls conspicuously close to the Solstice, the origins of Juhannus, clearly from pagan festivals are widely recognized as a Midsummer holiday. In regions that hold public celebrations bonfires, maypoles, wreaths of flowers and birches and various other holdovers of pagan harvest and fertility rituals are enjoyed. However, as our local informants have shared, Lapua's dominant cultural groups are extremely conservative and nearly ascetic Pentecostal and Lutheran denominations. Also Lapua is not a large city so there is no public celebration and the typical approach to the holiday is to go to the country (having small summer country cottages is very much a Finnish thing) and spend time with family. We were told that bonfires in this region are during Easter when they burn effigies of witches.

While we enjoyed the civic celebration of Ligō in Riga we didn't feel too cheated that we weren't part of a Juhannes festival as Thursday night we were guests of Egon and Susanna for a backyard party on the night of their wedding. There we sampled a lovely Mallaskuun Peltopyy Pils from a Lapuan brewery and Napue Gin, a product of the newly-founded Kyrö Distillery Company in Isokyrö, which isn't far away. The gin won an international award for best gin and tonic. The assertive flavors of the gin  require a diluting that tonic provides and Jo commented are somewhat reminiscent of rye. While writing this blog entry a Google search showed that the distillery started by making rye whiskey before moving onto gin.

All day Friday was at the studio preparing the installation followed by a much deserved sauna at the apartment followed by our version of a traditional dinner with pickled herring, boiled potatoes, pickles, and cold beet salad/soup with some lovely dark bread. Saturday we were planning on only spending a little time at the studio but didn't leave until after 4:00 PM. However, we got nearly finished and felt fine not going in on Sunday. Instead we rode the old

 We are less than a week from opening Nameless, but in sight. The performance installation has expanded from the original idea to mark the 'walls' of our generously allotted spaces in the studio to incorporate a very large installation in the beautiful 'cold storage' room and the austerely sublime small kitchen between the two rooms.

The installation in cold storage is mostly 'there' with a few final details to be added. The kitchen only needs a few items removed to emphasize its stark character. A few more 'walls' need to be created and mounted in the studio.

Our hope is to finish the installation in the next two days so we may fully enjoy the midsummer festival of Juhannus on Saturday. Nights are going to get longer now but it won't do much to change the need to block out the light for sleep; sunset last night was at 11:39 PM and sunrise tomorrow is at 3:22 AM.

We estimate an hour of performance by our collaborators who have devoted their time and efforts to the project in spite of the distractions of real life: Maarit is pregnant and bought a house yesterday, Egon is getting married today. We are thrilled by our collaborators. Maarit and Egon are new to performance but very open to the creative process. Samuli, active in community theatre, is voracious in his appetite for artful exploration. It will be a wonderful show.

A looming deadline has a way of focusing one's energy. Our opening is scheduled for the 27th and there is much to do to create the performance installation in the beautiful spaces of the studio, kitchen and cold storage at the top of the stairs with the crack in the wall from the 1976 explosion of the gunpowder in another building in the old Lapua Ammunition Cartridge factory site.

We met with Maarit for rehearsal, attempting to accomplish two sessions worth of work in one in order to catch her up with her fellow collaborators. We came close. She created the three texts and two out of three movement phrases. We are very happy she has joined us as her sensual movement quality is a lovely counterpoint to the men.

The lunch buffet was especially full of yummy food as they were preparing for the influx of people expected for the beginning of a three day festival. We watched two thick, steroid-enhanced weightlifters with their attempts to set up a portable sound system; clearly they weren't sound technicians and had little experience at taking their show on the road. Back in the studio we heard them struggle to get rid of  very loud feedback for what seemed an inordinate amount of time. Once they got the mic working properly it seemed appropriate that one of these giant masses of a man checked the mic by repeating "fee fie foe fum" over and over again.

We had a very productive day. Jo laid out the drying flowers in a secondary "press" made of newspapers, bricks and boards while Paul lashed together a "loom" of birch and willow sticks. We broke for lunch at the buffet in the building across from the studio. Their soup is exceptional.

After lunch we met with Samuli Koskela, Konsta Ikola, and Egon Overteyns for our first rehearsal. We were very happy after a very productive session to realize that all three have complete buy-in on the project. Konsta was distressed to realize that he has a conflict during our performance date but we will videotape his performance and project it into the installation.