soulful
Category: festies
hare
hare… i saw at hare at buddhafield, the first time i have ever met this astonishing, beautiful beast
i was working, visiting our team in the top car park at buddhafield, stepped away into the next field for a pee
perusing the view, out across the dark green of the woods, to the tree strewn fields and the blackdown hills there beyond… blakean, majestic, a mythic vision of british landscape
what? what on earth is that?? some sort of kangaroo? the size of a small dog, a lazy yet purposeful lollop strut as it came towards me
i had always thought, hare is but a bunny on steroids, yet no, not at all, a completely different energy, none of the rabbits twitchy flight
he stopped and looked, pugilist ugly face, before, as if with a shrug, continued on his way… a creature of intent, you know when you have been considered by a hare!
yes, the sleek long attentive ears, when called upon, a burst of impossible speed, helter skelter hare, with his darting quirk jinx flight!
but actually, pugnacious, just as likely to stand his ground and fight…. hare
……………………
awww buddhafield, realm of bliss, laughter and joy, a treat being in the field! … gentle segue into my traditional, sprawling annual post… buddhafield my high summer honeymoon, a romance with life itself, a love song to the endless transcendent beauty of the ephemeral world of form… ha… all the things, most of the people i love in one place, in nature
a brief but busy week, of curiosity and the warmth of gorgeous hugs…. sounds cheesy, i know, but its true… yes, sleep deprivation, being outside, mild exposure, induces a state of perpetual euphoria, but so, so much more than that!
it has taken about a decade of going every year to get ‘there’… ever changing, usually deepening connection
on arrival peacefully sitting under the dripping leaf canopy of a huge old beech tree, next to a near empty pasture, waiting for the rain to stop… eyes on the sky, gauging whether it would be dry enough, long enough, to put up a tent?
the joyful hodge podge of inumerable small events:
making magical fire from a bow and notched wood, summoning a bright burst of welcome warm flame, with focus, effort… the help of the teachers, dandeion fluff, bracken… and the power of the elements themselves…
i sat with a love, chai and cake, in the teepee at pachamammas, subtle music, a fire, the close comforting babble of other folks chat, watching the gentle unfolding of a long languorous sunset… conjuring, coaxing the beauty of impossible colours, rummaged as if from the dressing up box of the sky and earth itself!
3 communal rousing and varied singing workshops, ‘freedom is coming, oh yes i know’ bellowed aloud to the heavens!
looking deeply into the eyes of strangers… one soul… no longer strangers
superb vegan crew food grub, guzzling whilst slurping herbal tea, guffaw laughing much of the time
stewarding, rocking the gate in the busy welcoming hours of wednesday, every other car an old friend to kiss, the other vehicles with folk to gabble cheerfully away too… new friends
in the quieter hours nattering nonsense with our lovely steward team, them thar in the ticket office and security
else late at night in buddhafield east, singing along to my fave dylan song with an old school banjo playing hippy, being massaged, dancing arms flailing, whilst supine on the floor with the groovy boogie-ers high in the upright realm above
kirtan, puja and ritual… followed closely by the latino calypso vibe of dende… wriggled through to the front, where the fun always is, flung about, dance sweaty madness!
late late at night, getting home to my tent, gawping up at the stars and the moon above, my neighbour, with whom i have never spoken comes home, we cuddle for half an hour, satellites, a shooting star to wish on, whispering to each other, her about aliens, me about the different energies of the stars and moon… very buddhafield
oh so so many more memories to wallow in, a thousand festivals blossoming in one
how to anchor these truths deep within ourselves? engaging body, mind, speech, heart and soul… only when our hearts are open, buoyed up by the infectious glee of each others tender company could this ever be possible
the thrill of a gentle, soft, slow, strong hug… there is no rush… here, in your arms, not always, but yes, sometimes.. ha!… beyond time, beyond space, tumble into the immense, eternal rapture of the heart… one love, thank you x
pics by Kit Williams, from masquerade… and Rima Staines
Mahasukha/ Xavier Rudd Spirit Bird… from midst the funky bass massive
bimble
Glitter-gasm! It’s Mark Bolans Scarecrow Grandad!!
slowly regenerating after a bonkers fun weekend ‘commuting’ to bimble
these the only photos i managed to take… and a lovely one of daughter on downs (just so i don’t appear too solipsistic)
face paint by heather, took several ingots worth to gild my beatiful and wrinkled visage
particularly after a night of bamboozle boogie-ing till a most crepuscular dawn
thanks to all the various posses that adopted me, the immense blue of the sky above, the musicians, the golden yellow fields, friends old …and new
and to all those that funky mosh flamencoed with me down the front. gr-oo-ooooo-vy
your beautiful! x
fluffy
feeling deliciously fluffy and mellow, back from a week roaming around the western lands
firstly pootling about near glasto with lovely friends, up the tor, zig zag, forensic grammar(!) cactii and erbs
Then the glorious hug fest that is buddhafield… the site hunkered down in a valley, serene amongst trees, prayer flags fluttering against a backdrop of sky, the mingled sounds of drums, voices singing and the grumpy thud of electronic beats
interestingly i didn’t have as many of the full power euphoric moments of other years, but just felt astonishingly happy… enough, more than enough!
land and people, always it is land and people that both heals and nourishes us
lots of missed connections, curious how many friends you can only glimpse but once over 5 days, but, ha, no matter when you can plonk yourself down next to a random stranger, gabble away, share a moment
my most powerful memory is just that of laughing! many many lovely new people
grooving away down the front to omniblivion, qi gong, yakking about the fire, singing, snuggled up, cozy in small world after all the bands have gone
stewarding, rocking the walkie talkie, hi viz and colourful ermintrude hat!
Curiously, stewarding is brill, a few niggly moments of course(!), but its such a gentle friendly way to get involved with and deeply into the festie
its a bit like being in a singing workshop, if i’m at the back, on the edge, behind a couple of tall broad fellows then i just can’t feel it, miss every note
but when i wriggle and shimmy my way to the front, there, cocooned amongst folk, caressed by the timbre and warmth of the human voice… there …together
heartfelt thanks to all you beauuuuuuuuuuuuutiful souls. Love Ya!
no pics, as always, so just the first song i’m listening to this morning… take it away janis
soppy kiss
…and a huge hug and a soppy kiss, belatedly, for all of the buddhafield massif!!!! You wonderful people!
due to circumstances (thanks to those who helped with those) was a preposterous but sumptous short 48 hour jaunt to somerset!
many lovely new friends, nights giggling and guffawing withb old ones… meditation, and a very lumpy earth to sleep on
highlights.. hmmm many! a heat funk ecstatic dance, gawping into beautiful soulful eyes, hugging, but then sweat stuck flesh to flesh, having to peel yourself apart from each other (ha!)… straight from there over to the utterly different, equally amazing, manic gallumphing exuberance of the ceilidh… doxie do yaw pardner, strip the willow… ‘hello! would you like to dance’ ‘Why! Thank you. don’t mind if i do!’
else having a siesta in the glade waking neath the shade of beautiful beech trees, an undulating mosaic of leaves above… soporific patterns
after a singing workshop, one wonderful fellow went off to propose to his girlfriend… they were smooching in the garden outside of a tee pee… our camouflaged choir snuck along behind, surrounded them, linked arms and sang ‘Si a Hambe, qui que neni cose’ (or some such malarkey)… sentimental and sweet
overall, a reminder to myself that i don’t have to be curmudgeonly, overwhelmed, restricted, but rather …that sometimes,at least we can be open, expanded… exalted… to summon the feelings of poise and grace… blessed thanks for the sunshine, the beauty of this land, the health of my body (a boon so often taken for granted)… and most of all for the water that is love, that flows so sweetly between us all. om shanti. love x
bf 2012
awww buddhafield, bless!!! dumb struck stupefied, will take a fair old time to ponder and digest even a slither of what was there for me to learn… of course there was the mud, earth that oozed, that stodged and clagged, sticky with struggle… quagmire… that and the continual palaver, the fiasco of welly politics…
but more, much more, myriad spirit that stirred then swooped
i remember.. what… of being in small world as the the band played a whirling dervish gypsy stomp… hoopla doomp.. hoopla doomp.. there, coming across marsha, sitting serenely on the floor guarding an egg!! inevitably there was a story, she had to take it to her uncle who lived amongst the trees in the forest of dean? i sat quietly besides her, she broke her lump of clay in half and passed some over ‘here, something for you to squidge’ ‘thank you’
or of singing amazing grace beneath the deckchair Red and yellow stripes of the big top, funky and gorgeous as the sound swirled fast around us, voices that bind, that nourish, that cherish
of pushing cars out on the sunday… heave ho.. heave ho… ‘put the bleeding car in GEAR!!’, vroom splatter fleck shower of spray.. waaggghh…
or of coming to the end of a gorgeous ecstatic dance, my hands, my eyes, smoking with the glory aura of holy fire, i came across merleen, another lost child i had met at the gate, we hugged, pink and green, the billow and flow of the heart chakra, immense… much much more… but also of just goofing about up at the gate, or sitting in cafes happily nattering, laughing, scoffing lasagne…thank you … love all you guys, your amazing xxx
before buddhafield
Fire Clubs! check. Floppy Ermintrude Hat! check. FountainPensHayfeverRemedyGaloshersCopiousDuvetsToothpaste….. blah di blah … cuddly toy
tra la la! oh and never forgetting a warm smile and a brimful heart
my departure slightly delayed by painting an om in sherbaileys pink nail varnish on my wellies, so i won’t muddle them up… and watering the garden, precisely as it started to rain, ho hum!
heres to sun bathed dawdlesome days… see some of you in the field xxxxxx
oh and rather loving buddhas sunflower in this pic
team 4 bf 2011
bf 2010
playgroup
