summer update

tomatoes, castles and hikes

Dear friends, fellow travellers, and curious minds,

It has been some months since I last wrote to you, and in that time the seasons have quietly turned. From the cool spring weeks to the height of summer’s heat. In fact, as I write to you, it is thirty-five degrees outside. Perhaps not so warm for the Australians, but the city of Paris is far from equipped from this kind of canicule.

I feel the need to apologise for letting so much slip past before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys?), as is often the case with my letters. But perhaps this is simply the way of things: life ripening in unexpected directions before one has the chance to name or ponder what is happening.

This summer has been one of movement and stillness in equal measure:
short train rides to the forest and long train rides to the sea, reading on our balcony in the late evening light, and walking through forests thick with the scent of warm pine, while occasionally slipping on rocks.

So, here’s a small update from the passing of Spring and this Summer:

I am now the audio producer for For The Wild, a slow-media collective dedicated to land-based protection, intersectional storytelling, and deep ecology. It has been a joy and a challenge to weave together voices, ideas, and sounds that push at the edges of our collective imagination. I have also been producing a radio a series, Listening Fields, for FADE Radio, to interview and feature sound artists, field recordists and musicians all working in the discipline of deep listening, ecology and sonic meditations.

My studio, Earthly Futures, had its first season of programming with sonic supper clubs, collaborations, hosting artist talks and residencies and concerts. This will continue to expand in the later half of this year as well as across. If you’re coming through Paris and want to pitch an event or program, feel free to send the studio an email at info@earthlyfutures.com.

Aside from work and all the things My days have been a mix of garden-tending and sound-tending. I have once again, over-seeded our balcony garden; however, it is now bursting with cherry tomatoes - red and black! Summer has marked the churn of our ice cream machine (with roasted banana being a successful experiment), bubbling fermenting jars, and conversations that spiral late into the night. In fact, I have taken to making my own drinks with an ever-trusty ginger bug, a kombucha scoby and a jun scoby (pictured below):

As the studio calendar fills with autumn workshops and the final year of my twenties inches forward, I am thinking often about slowness…how so much of what matters needs time to germinate unseen before it blooms. Perhaps I need to accept that unfinished thoughts are enough. Thank you for your patience, for walking alongside me in these shifting seasons, and for letting this space be one of shared roots and new shoots. For those joining from Australia, I will be back on your shores across November and will look forward to reconnecting with you all outside of this digital realm.

With warmth and care,
Victoria