Sirius Rising

[lizziebelle]

berries, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I had a nice festival this year. Lots of good friends (including some old ones who came back, and a few new ones), good food, drink, and fun.





My first day there (Sunday), I very cleverly discovered that Rob hadn't yet tied down the infrastructure inside the dome extension by getting bonked on the head by a two-by-four. Ouch. I went up to my tent to take some Advil and lay down, and they very thoughtfully came up to check on me after a little while. I was fine. Just a little tender on the noggin.



The first couple of days (and nights) were quite cool, but sunny and nice. I did a little reading, a little writing, and a lot of hanging around talking. A lot of these folks I only get to see once a year, so I wanted to make the most of our time together.



Wednesday was a really nice day, and warm even at night. It was nice not to have to bundle up after dark, and huddle under the comforter in bed.



Every night, we'd gather around the old tire-rim fire and pass mead, scotch, and other delights around the circle. Ed made Jiffy Pop a few times, very successfully I might add (especially considering he was cooking it over open flames).



We decided to make Mint Juleps instead of Mojitos this year (there is a big patch of mint next to our camping area), and I give them a big thumbs-up. I rather like Bourbon. *g*



Wednesday night was the annual JP Memorial Chocolate & Lingerie Party. Note the leopard velvet robe I'm wearing, in JP's honor, of course. *g* I managed not to get too tipsy on chocolate martinis this year, mainly by not drinking them. I had some other frou-frou drink instead; something with cherries. I think. Yes, definitely cherries.



textiletart brought henna, and we had a Mehndi party. She also did Cymbri's hands for the wedding later in the week. That was fun.



The boys sanded & repainted Snoo's pole so that it would be nice and smooth.



They also built a stage around the pole. Boys.



Snoo sure does know how to work that pole, though. *g*



Cate had an Absinthe-tasting party, at which I decided that I really don't like absinthe, just as I had expected.



One of our neighbors, Lady Allyn, has a themed cocktail hour every evening. One night, the theme was Pimps & 'Hos, and Derek made the observation that textiletart and ned_gasket have a Cadillac, so how could we resist? We slutted ourselves up, and drove over (a whole 50 yards or so) in the Caddy. Lady Allyn loved it.



Cymbri took a shift on Dogstar Radio one afternoon, so of course we had to go up and visit. They do a radio show every year for the festival, at a whole 1Mz (it goes a couple of miles before fading out). She had fun with it.



Someone (Richard, maybe?) brought these cool packets that made the fire turn pretty colors. Because of course we have to have the coolest fire. *g*



This is the Voodoo parade I tweeted about. The Dragon Ritual Drummers played for it. Another one of those things one only sees there. *g*

After the DRD concert on Friday night, they had a Dragon Ritual up at the labyrinth. It was the single coolest thing I've ever seen there. It was after dark, and they used this puppet for the ritual:



It has feathers, bells, and lights on it. Each section had a person carrying it. A man carrying Chinese lanterns led the dragon through the labyrinth, and a woman was between them, blowing fire every once in a while. She did it right in front of us at one point. It was so cool. No words, just an ethereal dragon snaking through the labyrinth.



In the center of the labyrinth was this cool tree, painted white, hung with bells, feathers, and windchimes. It was beautiful.



Saturday was the wedding. I got to stand up for the bride. :)

While we were feasting on mounds of smoked meat, this random Sitar player plopped down and started playing.



He played for us later too, while it was raining and we were all under the tarp. I said "It's awesome to be us," and everyone laughed, then agreed.



The bonfire was huge, and hot, and awesome as always. It started raining after a while, but as I said, we were ensconced under the tarp with a Sitar player and plenty of beer by then. We could see the bonfire from there, anyway.

The week went by much too quickly, but it was lovely to be there. I'm so glad I got to go. I've already started planning for next year. *g*