This summer me and Lee-Anne went to a clay art lesson at a local event downtown. Before this, I'd tried it in Katimavik during the Summerside rotation where I made a mug with an anchor on it. I've also attended similar sessions when I worked at the Summer Program every year during Wacky Water Week. Sometimes facilitators got to take part in activities but I might have just supported people. If I did make something, I can't remember what it was.
This was a little different because we didn't get to keep what we made, but we got to use the wheel. In the past, all I did was form the shapes I wanted with my hands, then cut grooves in the clay (called scoring), wet it, and stuck the pieces together. This time, the clay was placed in the centre of a round platform which span when you pushed on a pedal.
You shaped it by running your hands up and down the sides and pushing down on the top, then pinching the walls as they form. Objective was to make a cup. I was pretty good at it, but because the session ended after a time limit instead of when you completed your cup, I wound up getting it where I wanted, but then just playing with it until time ran out. Because of this the walls of my cup got too thin and eventually tore.
There was also a local event called the "Bestival" in Belmont Village. This is an annual event, but the first year we were here it was just a smattering of stands with a handful of people walking around. I guess people were still COVID conscious, or maybe it was required to be scaled down, because this year it was at a totally different level. Huge crowds, live music on stages set up on opposite sides of the Belmont area, lots of local artists and restaurants with stands. An Indian restaurant that's usually sit-in that me and Lee-Anne haven't got around to trying had a stand out and we tried it. It was okay.
We stuck around for one of the bands. I don't know what it was called but it was like big band/rap fusion. Main instrument was trumpet. Kind of cool.
I just looked through my posts for this year, and I guess I never mentioned going to the multicultural festival. I didn't go on purpose, I was just in the area and saw a bunch of people going somewhere so I followed them. I go to the multicultural festival most years, but it's always by accident. I ran into a handful of people I know and listened to a few songs from an Indigenous group called The Sarcastic Onions. I didn't try any food, all the lines were way too long.
I also went to a baptism recently. I'm not Christian so I'd never been to one before. I always imagined them as either fully submerging the baby in a body of water or pouring water over the baby's head. What happened was the person in charge, I think wetted her hands and touched the baby's cheeks and forehead, but I couldn't be quite sure there was any water involved. Much quicker and less dramatic than I was anticipating.
At one point she told us all to reach out in the direction of the baby and offer our protection. Part of me worried that my non-Christian energies would inadvertently cast a hex on the child
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