Lughnasadh Update

Ok, I think I’ve recovered from my Lughnasadh weekend campout. It was excellent, and well worth taking the time off from work. Honestly, I needed the break.
Work is going fine, but now that I’m in “Laptop Connect”, the calls are more challenging and take longer to resolve. I still get frustrated with the ones I can’t quite fix, but the number of those calls is dropping. And many times, the problem lies in the computer, and there’s nothing I can do except tell them they need to get to a repair tech.
So, yeah, stress relief was definitely in order this weekend. Not that I wasn’t nervous about the opening ritual I wrote, or running a workshop!
The event started Thursday, and I got up to the site at about 1 p.m. It was a bit later than I’d hoped, but since I was towing a borrowed trailer full of stuff for the event, I took my time getting there. No way am I going to try and go 70 on the highway with a trailer, not with my little V-6 engine! Luckily, there were only about 8 miles of actual freeway, with the rest on smaller highways and roads.
I had plenty of time to get my camp set up, and get some people to read parts for the ritual. It was a pretty simple opening, and everyone seemed to like it. The theme for the whole event was “Lugh’s Games”, so playful and fun was called for! The circle was cast with blowing bubbles, and the Spirit was invoked in the form of the Holy Fool. Short and simple, just like I hoped.
Friday I participated in a couple of workshops, worked security/safety for a while, and then we had the Body Painting Jam and Fantasia Fling. The painting was fun, with everybody taking turns decorating each other. Watercolor pencils are great for this, even though some folks sweated off some of the paint before the Fling.
Saturday, more workshops, the Main Ritual, and that evening was the potluck feast. Yum! Some very talented cooks in this bunch, I tell ya. Considering that I’d been getting by on granola bars, dried fruit and the like, I was hungry! Bardic Circle was that evening, too, and I hoped that the beers I’d drunk wouldn’t mess me up! I did “For Three Of Us”, which I’d learned from Tempest, and one of John Inchingham’s songs, “The Rogue Wizard’s Lament”. It felt good to sing again, especially as I had next to no voice at Beltane. After Bardic, the drumming and dancing, and we were able to have a really good fire to gather around. Hooray for rain and less danger of wildfires!! I ended up being Fire Tender for the evening, so was the last one out. A few of us stayed out late, lying on the ground by the fire and enjoying the night sky. Lots of falling stars, nearly no light pollution...combined with the new moon and solar eclipse energy, it was just magical.
I think I got to bed about 4 a.m., after dousing the fire thoroughly. About an hour or so later, I (and most of the camp) woke to the yipping of a young coyote! Boy, he was loud! He was checking out the generator about 50 ft. from my tent, apparently. After a while he heard the rest of the pack calling from the other ridge and took off to join them. First time I’d ever really heard a coyote live. Pretty cool.
Sunday was Closing Ritual and packing out. I didn’t get to the sunscreen in time, so got kinda toasted. Serves me right, I guess. After I got the trailer dropped off, and got my shower, I pretty much crashed for the evening. The rains waited till that evening, thank goodness.
All in all, a good weekend. I feel much better for having had the time off and getting out to camp. There were a lot of little things that made me think of my friends off at Pennsic, too. We even had a yurt in the camp, and that made me smile for many reasons.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to go to the Mabon event, but I’m sure looking forward to Witches’ Ball for Samhain!

Best Ostara Evar! (long)

Apologies for the length of this post, and the possible "squee factor". I really had a better day than I'd dared to hope, and I am still energized.

Here's how my Ostara went today:

Got up this morning, glad to have the day off and be able to go to the Ostara gathering. I packed my feast basket with the homemade rolls for the potluck, got the shovels from the backyard, loaded up my drums and stuff. The shovels were for the tree-planting we were gonna do as part of the ritual.

Found Sunflower River easily enough, and pulled into the yard. This place is a small farm, really, now being rehabbed into a working farm again. Four people sharing the place, Alan, Kat, Jenny and Tristan. The same ones I’d met at the concert so long ago! Jenny’s the one who finally got me the info for the gathering, since she’s in ASFS as well.

People were arriving for a while, and one of the young guys from work even showed up with his folks. That was pretty funny, actually, especially as he usually doesn’t come out for circles. I was lighting and tending the fire, meeting people, having a good time, and got the urge to call Sandy. Talked to her for a few, then to Fred when he came in. That was cool.

After that, I headed back up toward the house for some reason, and stopped dead in my tracks. Lo and behold, there was Matti! I honestly did not expect him to come down for Ostara! We hugged and said hi, and I continued on into the house. Of course, I had to scoot out the other door and around the corner to immediately call Sandy back and tell her that he’d made it down…*grin*

Eventually, we all headed to the ‘ritual grove’ area, beyond the sheds and chicken coop, and gathered for ritual. The current May King and Queen presided, and it was very nice. We had bread and strawberries with mead or juice for libation, and then got divided up into seven teams to plant the new fruit trees for the farm. We’ll all get a share of the fruit eventually, whether it be as mead or desserts, too. Some of the people who weren’t up to the digging kept the chanting going while we worked. When the trees were all in, they were watered, and each team fed their tree some energy. We went back to the circle and closed things down, and headed back to the main yard. I put my shovels back in the truck, and walked with Matt over to the van while he was putting his away. We talked a bit about how things are up at the mountain home, and the possibility of pooling our resources for Beltane’s camping event. I went back to the house as he was getting his drum and guitar out and locking up. I really hope he didn’t see me step in the hole and fall on my face by the kitchen door… I wasn’t hurt, just embarrassed.

The food at our feast was very good, lots of variety. The fire I’d started was our cooking fire, and the firepit ring had a grill built into it. There was chicken and elk steak, Portobello mushrooms and eggplant. Add the salads, desserts and drinks, and we all ate very well. I had a tiny bite of chicken and a tiny bit of the elk, as they just smelled so good! I had some plum mead and a bottle of a wonderful Ginger Stout that Jamie had made.

After dinner, the drums and instruments started appearing from their hiding place in the yurt. I ended up sharing out some of my tinwhistles in an impromptu ‘petting zoo’, and a couple of people even tried the bodhran. Phoenix got his drums going, Matt joined in, and I moved over to play my little doumbek. A few other drums appeared, Alan had the didgeridoo out, and it just grew from there. It was a great jam, and I don’t know how long it lasted, really. We sang several songs, some of the other gals started dancing, it was just too cool. I’ve been waiting a year and a half for the chance to drum and sing with Matti, and I finally got it today. W00t! There truly is a groove that you get into when drumming and I was feeling it. The rhythms would change, and I was right there in perfect sync, not realizing it until seconds later. My kind of magic.

The sun was starting to sink when we packed up the drums, and people started saying their goodbyes. I got one more hug from Matt and sent him off with a hug for Mama, too. I stayed to help clean up and put things away, then headed home myself.

All day long, I had been having a good day, and thanking the gods that I had been able to go out. I managed to keep most of the energy either under control or grounded, but on the way home I had my music cranked, shouting my thanks to the Universe! I really needed a good day, and the good days are coming around more often than they used to. Sometimes I really can tell when things are “right”. Today was like that. Thanks for letting me share it.