How I Spent My Summer Solstice part two

[elionwyr]

Ok, so.
Just past the Runestead...

I don't know what purpose this statue serves, offhand, but I found her beautiful, and she reminded me a bit of the sculpture sidhefire creates..



Many of the campsites are marked off with tapestries, and support private shrines. As you look across the forest, you see things like this:



We visited with some of my host's friends for a bit Saturday afternoon, and eventually went back to our campsite, gathered up some food and feasting gear, and joined a horde o' people for the Saturday night potluck. No pics of this, but it was a generous spread, hosted near the Air Shrine, which changes each year (as I understand it) and tends to feature gods' eyes, which I've always loved...(Photo quality here suffers from being shot pretty much into the sun with a camera phone.)





Because there are really only about 100 people on this planet - the rest is done with mirrors - my path intersected with a friend I met online several years ago but had never met. He thought he recognized me from Facebook but didn't say anything until he heard my name during introductions over the food line. Turns out they knew friends of adelheid_p, who knew other people they knew...and am I really that surprised? No, not really. Pleased? Absolutely! :)

After dinner came the solstice ritual. We were treated to a ride there via a haywagon (sans hay) (sans haunted hayride). Dancing afterwards (I regret not having a better camera with me):







This is sorta typical - sorta - of what one could find at the campsite shrines:



(And this is the end of the pics.)

We were gifted with another haywagon trip, this time through the forest around the campsites and festival areas rather than back to the air shrine. *laugh* It was quite a treat - lovely, cool, seeing parts of Brushwood we would have absolutely missed otherwise in the sometimes shockingly golden light of dusk.

Taking the advice of our driver, adelheid_p and I retraced some of the wagon's path and decided to walk a labyrinth that had been cut into the field rather than sketched out in stones. With only the vague light lingering in the sky. a rather appopriate half moon moving overhead, and the scattered tiny torches of fireflies, it was a truly beautiful introduction to the experience of walking a labyrinth.

We made our way back to our campsite, lit a fire, drank some mead, celebrated that what little rain had fallen had done so around noon on Saturday and then passed us by. I opted to go brave the hot tub; adelheid_p settled in for bed. I paid another visit to the Runestead, and found a tiny bird's nest in my path. Is this a nudge? I suspect so. I thought about this as I stumbled off to my sleeping bag somewhere around 1:30AM.

Slept much too long again Sunday morning - but dang, I was doing some good dreaming! - and sleepily had some cereal as my host went off in search of a shower. I found a tiny discarded egg shell - probably not the same kind of bird that had created last night's nest, but..hm. Something more to think about...

I should add here: Further proof of the smallness of the planet...there was an event about a month ago at Brushwood that was hosted (?) by Hypnotic Clambake. I know you don't know who that is...it's a band Josef Kessler (from Boiled in Lead) joined. I have their first CD. I had no idea they were still together. And while Josef has become my own private will-o-the-wisp, it seems (I've tracked down his father, who is also a wonderful performer, and seen him in concert, but I've mostly given up hope of ever having the good fortune of seeing Josef perform live again..and no, he's no longer with this band) - it seems there's still a tiny thread to be followed. And I had to laugh over the ridiculous "coincidence" of it all.

We said our goodbyes and took a quick trip via car to the two shrines (water and earth) I'd not really seen the day before, and headed back to Pittsburgh, where I didn't manage to go to bed quite early enough, despite being exhausted.

So! This was a really really good weekend. I'm so glad I found the courage to go despite my shyness. I miss all of you in Seattle a lot. Quite a lot. And...I have Stuff to think about, voices to relearn how to hear, and a nest to flutter out of.

Comments

[harkalark.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing. It sounds like a wonderful trip. The labyrinth sounds cool, though I'm not sure if I would find that neat or frustrating in practice.

And yay coincidences. :)

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

I think the coolest part of the labyrinth was seeing the fireflies in the uncut tall grass of the field at dusk. Very cool! I'm so glad you had a good time!

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

It really was. Thanks so much!!!