lizziebelle

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I spent last week at Sirius Rising, also known as Pagan Hippie Camp. I had to miss it last year, so it was extra good to be there. I really missed the place and the people I only get to see there.

The weather was mostly good: not much rain, not too hot, only one night that got chilly. Anytime I can spend a week outdoors and not get sunburn or heatstroke is a good one.

I managed to make it to one workshop, on cultural appropriation. It was run by three friends of mine, so I couldn't miss it. It was very informative and interesting, and gave me a starting point for conversations and a vocabulary to draw from. It's a hot topic in many spheres these days, so it's good to be able to have an informed debate about it.

I didn't get to see or spend time with a few folks I had hoped to, but I did get quality time with a few friends I don't get to see often. There are so many people, and so many things going on, it's a delicate balance.

I tried to get pictures of different things this year, and only partially succeeded. I wanted to work on portraits, and a few folks gamely posed for me. I love my friends: they indulge me when I ask. I get to do the same with my family this weekend, at the family reunion.

I still haven't dealt with all of the laundry and unpacking, and I won't get a chance to finish until after this weekend. It's so much work, but it's worth it. My spirit is refreshed from spending a week with like-minded folk. I even got some writing in, and was inspired to write a poem. I might post that later on.

My body is still recovering from all the walking on uneven ground and sleeping on a cot in a tent, and then driving for 9 hours straight. I really wish I could afford a small camper; that would make things so much simpler (and more comfortable). Someday, I hope.

It's hard to believe it's already in the past. I'm trying to hold on to the feelings and experiences as long as I can to get me through the long, mundane days in between.

See all my photos here.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: mundania
Crossposts: https://lizziebelle.livejournal.com/898029.html

Another festival has come and gone. It seems to take forever to get here, and then is gone in a flash. It was so good to be there, in a place that feels like home. Our little village springs up each year like Brigadoon, always changing but ever the same.

Walking along the drive one day, I happened to look up at the sky (I do that often) and saw a rainbow splashed across the clouds.

If that's not an omen, I don't know what is. It was glorious. A perfect reflection of the colorful village below.

I got to play my ukulele with my friend Snoo. I learned a new song: "Leaving on a Jet Plane." Shades of my childhood.

The weather was hot for most of the week. The only time it rained while I was there was early one morning, before I got up. My tent stayed nice and dry.

I saw lots of birds around camp, including a new one for me: an American redstart. I thought at first it was an oriole, but the patterns weren't quite right, and it was smaller. The pic above is a fledgling robin, waiting for his mama to feed him. He hopped around our kitchen area, and onto the grill. I didn't tell him we had cooked chicken on that grill the night before. ;)

I proposed having a write-in at camp for anyone who wanted to come and write. Two of my peeps took me up on it, and we wrote (and talked about writing) for three of the days we were there. I like writing with other people; it was one of the things I enjoyed most about Nanowrimo.

The last morning, when I went up to the lot to get the car, the sun was coming up and a mist was rising from the pond. It was so beautiful.

A perfect ending to a great week.

I leave tomorrow for Sirius Rising festival. I couldn't leave till then for various reasons, but I'm trying not to stress about it. There's quite enough stress in my life, thank you very much. I'm looking forward to being there, being set up, and being handed a cocktail around this time tomorrow.

I discovered the Prisma app, thanks to various cousins posting on Instagram. Oh my, is it fun. I couldn't put it on my phone because I don't have the latest OS, but I did put it on my iPad. It's probably a good thing I don't have it on my phone; I waste enough time on it as it is!

It's rather addicting.

I'll most likely be posting on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, so I'll see some of you there!

Sirius Rising 2015 was a lot of fun. There were plenty of laughs, some weather (including a flash flood watch), a fabulous bonfire (as always), good friends ('though not nearly enough; too many people missing this year), much mead and cocktails, fairies, unexpected delights, and lots more. My Nature Photography class was a success: 7 people attended, and we went on walkabout to take pictures, which we then shared. I even had one semi-famous person show up: Ben from Acrodisiac. He and his partner Jasper are amazing athletes. Not to mention adorable.

My (brand-new) air mattress didn't make it through the first night; I woke up in pain, and discovered it had deflated by about half. Good thing I kept the box and receipt. I bought a camp cot on a town trip, which worked just fine. No more air mattresses! Stupid things. I will have to get some sort of foam padding for it before next time, but someone loaned me one of those flip & fold chair thingies that lay flat, so I was able to sleep mostly comfortably.

I already miss Brushwood, and all my honeys. We really do have a wonderful community. But I'm glad to be back in my own bed, with a real bathroom.

You can see the rest of the pix I took here.

I tried to read all your wonderful adventures that you had while I was gone, but I only made it back through Friday. If anything important or exciting or amazing happened, let me know!

Tomorrow morning, very early, we leave for Sirius Rising festival. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm excited about teaching workshops, and I really need to get away. It's been a tough year. But things are getting better!

My second week on the phones was just as successful. One day, I made four appointments! I had at least one every day, for a total of ten for the week. Next month's commission will be nice.

After looking at the color for a couple of months, I finally decided to buy something called "Violet Vixen" for my hair (L'Oréal Feria brand) since I have a job now so I don't have to worry about interviews anymore. I want to have purple hair at least once in my life, you know? So I did it this morning. It's not really purple; more like plum. It looks much brighter and redder in the sun. Here it is, before I got it cut this afternoon:

It's shorter and spikier now. I think "Violet Vixen" is now my superhero name.

I got an email last night letting me know that my workshop proposal for Sirius Rising festival was accepted. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time, so I'm very excited (and nervous). The workshop I wanted to do was Nature Photography for the point & shoot camera, but we had to propose three (!) workshops so I also proposed Creative Selfies and Photo Journaling. As far as I know, all three were accepted (!) so now I have to get to work on fleshing out my ideas. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome! Wish me luck!

I got back today from my annual pilgrimage to western NY for Sirius Rising festival. It was so wonderful to be there with my other family! It's hard to believe it's already over, and I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Instead of the brutal heat like we had last year, we had a couple of very cool nights, and some rain. By the end of the day Saturday, it was quite muddy! I was very glad to have my rain boots. At least my tent stayed relatively dry.

There were some notable absences this year, which changed the atmosphere of our camp a bit, but we muddled through and managed to have a pretty good time. I got to spend some quality one-on-one time with a few friends, and reconnect with others. It's such a wonderful place to do that.

I am glad to be back to my own bed and bathroom, and glad that drive is over with. I have a week of memories to last me for the next year. And three days to recover before my family reunion next weekend.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the aerie

I am officially on vacation. I'm leaving tomorrow for Sirius Rising festival, with a stop in Binghamton on the way. Right now I'm in the pack everything stage; trying to remember everything I'll need without bringing too much stuff is tricky. I've already weeded out a few things I always bring but never use, and tossed a couple things into a giveaway pile. It's amazing how much stuff you need when you're camping! Especially the way we do it. ;)

I've been feeling a bit ambivalent about it all week. A few folks will be missing this year, and that's bumming me out a bit. A few others went to Sankofa festival, which is this week. I didn't get my act together in time to propose the workshop I want to do, which would have let me go for free. I'd love to do a nature photography for point-and-shoot cameras workshop. Wouldn't that be fun?

It's been 20 years since I first went to Brushwood, for Starwood festival the first few years and now Sirius. A lot has changed in 20 years. It's a very different vibe, for one thing; Starwood is a much more, er, energetic festival than Sirius. I really like the mellow vibe, as I'm not as young and energetic as I once was. I'd much rather hang out with my friends and talk than party every night.

I know I say this every year, but I really do want to get more reading and writing done this year. It will be easier without the distractions of TV and internet.

I'll try to post pix and things on Facebook and Twitter, for those who follow me there. See you when I get back!

golden apple, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I got back today from Sirius Rising festival, after a week in the woods with a few hundred of my closest friends. We had a good festival. It was very good to be there, and to get away; it's also good to be home, where I can sleep in my own bed and not on an air mattress in a tent. I must find a better option by next year. My back will thank me for it.

It was hot, but not as hot as it was here in Massachusetts, so I hear. Also, there's no air conditioning when you're camping. Well, unless you have a camper with it, but I don't. The only real relief was the pool, but that was short-lived. Still, it was good to have a pool there. I didn't even mind all the people playing volleyball with big inflatable balls.

I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to, because it was just too darned hot to walk around much. I did manage to get a few nice shots, even some of people.

The highlight of the week was a visit from Margot Adler. If you're Pagan and/or a fan of NPR, you probably know who she is. She was there to give a workshop (on Vampires in literature!) and participate in a panel discussion on Paganism, and she stopped by our camp for a drink one afternoon. Here she is getting her pinky nail painted green by our resident goddess, Anomie:

Margot is really nice and down-to-earth, not at all a diva (unlike some other Big Name Pagans I could mention). We had a nice discussion about a variety of topics, and it sounds as if she likes Brushwood enough to come again another time. It is rather a magickal place. I was really happy to be able to tell her in person how much her book meant to me. Drawing Down the Moon is what set me on this path, oh so many years ago.

This was my 20th trip there! Hard to believe all that time has passed. No wonder it feels like home. I've spent 20 weeks there - that's nearly five months!

My plants seem to have survived my absence (although my garden is overrun with weeds). We enjoyed the fruits of my labor the other night, eating my first tomato!

Several of the jelly bean tomatoes were ripe when I got home, so I had them with supper. Yummy!

Early bedtime tonight, I think. And back to work tomorrow. Which is my one-year anniversary at my job!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the aerie

barn, house, sky, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I'm glad June is over. It wasn't the best of months. Sales were really tough, money became suddenly tight, and the weather was either rainy or stinking hot. I'm ready for July. In two weeks, I will be at Brushwood for Sirius Rising festival, with my other family for a week of fun. I can't wait.

I'm still at war with the woodchucks, who insist on eating my sunflowers even after I sprayed them with critter repellent. I'm on to ammonia-soaked rags and mothballs now. We'll see if this works. I just want pretty flowers!

I do have plenty of baby tomatoes on all my plants. I just hope they don't all ripen while I'm away! Or, wither and die from heatstroke.

I took the above pic on a walk the other night, in between thunderstorms. The sky was so dramatic! And I didn't get rained on. :)

Just a quick post to let you all know I made it back safely from Sirius Rising. I had a nice time, didn't get sunburned, reconnected with some old friends and made some new ones. If you were following on Twitter or Facebook, you may have seen some pictures and brief posts. The only really bad thing that happened is the LCD screen on my camera is broken. It shows a bunch of white lines, and nothing else. We Googled it, it really is broken. It takes pix, but I can't see them until I upload them. I'm really bummed, because while it is fixable, it's cost prohibitive. So I have to start saving my pennies for a new camera. :(

But hey. If that's the worst thing to happen, I'm OK with that. More details later, after I re-acclimate and get some rest. And I start my new job in the morning! Wish me luck!

Current Mood: tired

sunset in the roundhouse, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

It took so long to upload the pictures last night (over 280 of them) that I went to bed before they were done. I spent much of the day today just recovering from a week of sun and fun; I didn't get a whole lot done, but I feel loads better than I did last night. I'm so glad I took today off!

The festival was very mellow and relaxed, for the most part. There was little drama, and what drama there was happened outside our camp. Babylon was smaller than usual this year, with several folks who couldn't make it, or couldn't come until later in the week. Things happened or they didn't, and nobody seemed all that concerned if they didn't.

There was a lot of spontaneous creativity, especially music. I heard many wonderful, informal performances, including one campsite doing a great rendition of "Sympathy for the Devil" on djembes, maracas, tambourine, and voice that I thought was a recording, and was tickled pink to see was actually live and in the woods.

The weather was mostly really good, too. We had storm warnings on Monday, but the storm blew past us to the south, and then we had the gorgeous sunset you see above. It was hot for a couple of days, but there was always a breeze. The skies were fantastic all week long.

I reconnected with several people, met some new folks, and got to spend lots of time with my Brushwood family. I made it to most of the nightly rituals, organized a fun party (Arabian Nights-themed), and even remembered to bring books and clothing to give away (which proved popular).

Next year is the 20th anniversary of Babylon (our camp), so we've started to plan for next year. Yes, already. We call going back home the "51-week town run." *g*

( the pictures )

You can see the whole set here.

I really wanted to go see the new Harry Potter movie today, but I just couldn't get up the energy to go. Later in the week, or perhaps next weekend. After a week when 1:00 a.m. was an early night, I am pooped. ;)

Current Mood: tired

sunset in the roundhouse, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

Current Mood: tired

dewy lupine leaf, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I finished packing last night, and I'm ready to go! Brushwood, here I come. Just waiting for my friend to come pick me (and my stuff) up, and we're off. I'm very excited to be seeing everyone. It's like a week-long family reunion, where the family is chosen and the community is created. It's an awesome place.

I'll try to post updates to Twitter (which should cross-post to Facebook), but otherwise I will be offline. Have a great week everyone, and I'll see you when I get back!

Current Mood: excited

dewy lupine leaf, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

Current Mood: excited

now that's a bonfire, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I haven't had nearly enough sleep, but I'm awake and may as well be doing something, so pictures it is. Perhaps some stories too, if my brain will cooperate. :)

( a lovely week )

We had a lot of fun times, and there was very little drama. We had a spontaneous mojito night, in which Tammy and I got very silly (my cheeks hurt from giggling). There was a lot of sharing of stories, both of festivals past and of a more personal nature (I had several people tell me very personal and emotional stories, and I found myself doing the same). There is such a feeling of family and trust, it feels natural to open up with all the things we hold inside all year. It's quite cathartic.

I managed once again to not go to any workshops, although I did go to a couple of the concerts. Kellianna was great; she's local (from Wendell, MA) and does workshops at Awen Tree in Easthampton, so I'm going to have to try and make one of them soon. She has a really great voice, and does chants as well as songs. The Dragon Ritual Drummers were great as always; they dedicated the energy raised during their performance to Frank Barney (one of the owners of Brushwood, who is undergoing treatment for Parkinson's), and broke three drumheads during the show! They said that's never happened before. Kiva was also there, and it was good to see them again. It's been a few years since they've been to Brushwood. Arianna (their singer) was hanging out with us at our campfire the other night, toasting marshmallows and sharing stories.

It's always so hard to leave; as we were driving out, it felt like we had just driven in. I was ready for my own bed & bathroom, though (and my back is all "what the heck?" this morning). There were only a couple of people up when we left, which made it easier, I think. It's always so emotional saying good-bye to everyone. A lot of them I only see there.

I'm sure more stories will come back to me as I re-acclimate (and perhaps take a nap), and I have more artsy photos to share, so there will probably be another post later.

I'm so glad I went. I really couldn't afford it, but I couldn't not go. It's my family of choice, and it feeds my spirit like nothing else in my life. I feel a real connection to the land and the people there that form an intentional community that is colorful, joyful, and inclusive.

now that's a bonfire, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I haven't had nearly enough sleep, but I'm awake and may as well be doing something, so pictures it is. Perhaps some stories too, if my brain will cooperate. :)

( a lovely week )

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.

( a few highlights, and, of course, some pictures )

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*

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.

( a few highlights, and, of course, some pictures )

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*

I've uploaded a few pix from my week at Sirius Rising to give you a taste of what it's like there.

( on to the pictures! )

This is just a taste of the fun. I took 125 photos, but I didn't feel like fighting with my software to process them all tonight. More tomorrow!

OK, one more chapter, then it's bedtime.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: the batcave

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lizziebelle

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May 2019

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