Hiking with SIPA

There were only a few of us today, and it was a bit chillier than expected, but it was still a lot of fun to meet up with some friends from SIPA for an afternoon hike.

This area has loads of parks and trails and state reserves - I've been down here for school for three years and I've barely scratched the surface - so both of the places we went were new to me.

Our first stop was a local arboretum.

There were a lot of pine and cypress trees.

We saw some ducks and a turtle out on the pond.

Apparently, there is also a bamboo forest, which was beautiful, but which was rather surreal because of how out-of-place it felt. There were old sandstone blocks strewn about, perhaps from a long-since gone house, and little tunnels running through the thick bamboo grove.

We also went over to a second, smaller hiking trail which featured a creek (mostly dry at the moment), lots of shelf fungus, and birds including cardinals and a red-headed woodpecker.

October 30th, 2016

Yesterday was a wonderful, busy day. After volunteering at Habitat for Humanity in the morning, I got changed and ready to go to SIPA's Samhain ritual. Tara met me outside my dorm around 2:45, and we drove over to Crab Orchard Campground for the event.

The ritual had originally been going to be at Devil's Kitchen Lake like Mabon, but apparently that area is now undergoing construction, so the parks department gave us the Crab Orchard spot instead. Quite honestly, it was probably a better site, anyway - for one thing, the peninsula was huge, and we had the whole thing to ourselves. There was no designated shelter, which, granted, would have been less fun had it been raining like last year, but fortunately, the weather was perfect. The sky was clear, and it was 80 degrees in the afternoon.

I explored the site a bit, and found this strawberry plant growing a baby strawberry! It seemed a little late in the season, but as warm as it was, I suppose the plants didn't mind.

Because the area was so large, we had a lot of options for where we held ritual. Tara originally wanted to use this spot, right on the lake, which had a cool, star-shaped tree stump in the ground. However, it was quite windy, and there was some concern about whether or not things would blow over, so she decided instead to use an area further back in the trees, but which still had a view of the lake.

As always, there was a potluck. I brought soda, since there hadn't been enough drinks at the last ritual, and enjoyed pizza, vegetables, pasta, cupcakes, and cookies. There was also a home-grown watermelon which I had some of later - very tasty - and apple cider.

Look at these cool Samhain cupcakes! They were filled with raspberry sauce, too, mmmm....

I hadn't been expecting to get to use my construction skills at all at the ritual, but as it would turn out, there were some pieces to construct for the Circle setup. Sean designed these elemental doorways, built out of 2x2s and fabric, which we put together using his battery-powered staple gun. This was Air, in the East.

A close-up of the elemental altar beyond the Air doorway; people had the opportunity to banish from their lives anything relating to the element Air by writing it down and then tying the paper to the wreath like a dreamcatcher.

The Fire doorway; problems relating to the element Fire were written down and the papers burned in the cauldron.

The Water doorway; problems relating to the element Water were written down and drowned in the water inside the vase.

The Earth doorway; problems relating to the element Earth were buried in the tray of potting soil.

There was also a central bonfire for burning any problems related to Spirit, or to issues not clearly covered by one of the other elements.

These were the items I brought for the ancestor altar; we've had some deaths in the family this year, so I had quite a bit more to bring than I did last Samhain.

We held the ritual after the sun went down. It was windy enough that it was impossible to keep the candles lit, but I saw a shooting star right after everyone had finished honoring their ancestors, and it was a really good, contemplative ceremony. There were also some reporters from a local newspaper who came to talk and photograph, so I may be in the newspaper sometime this week!

September 25th, 2016

I just got back from camping out after SIPA's Mabon ritual - it was a very nice evening!

The site for this ritual was over at Devil's Kitchen Lake, on a little peninsula. It was sunny, and very hot - almost 90⁰!

Near the tip of the peninsula was a little shelter with picnic tables, where we eventually set up food for our potluck.

There was also a big stone fire pit, so some of the guys got wood together to build up a ritual fire later in the evening.

This is more of the lake - it was a very pretty view!

Somebody brought bubble wands, so a couple of us stood around for a while blowing bubbles.

I was borrowing the group leader's tent after she kindly agreed to lend it to me, and I ended up pitching it to the side of the trail with a nice view of the water.

There ended up being quite a good amount of food for the potluck, between cakes and mashed potatoes and pasta and fruit. I brought peanuts in the shells, because they're fun to crack open and also make good offerings.

One couple brought this large cow's skull to rest among some of the harvest offerings people brought.

There were also two little dogs, who quickly became good friends!

Starting the fire...

Sunset...

Some toads, who all things considered were pretty good-natured about being handled.

The ritual Circle, outlined with tiki torches and with the fire pit in the center.

The focus of the ritual was balance, recognizing the things which we meant to accomplish this past year and did not, and releasing that energy. It was simple and to the point, which worked well for the intended goal in my opinion. I volunteered to do Quarter calls for West; it was my first time taking on a role like that for a public ritual, so I was a little nervous, but I think it went well.

The stars last night were beautiful - there were so many, and it was such a clear night that there was really good visibility.

And then this image is from this morning, standing on the fishing pier and looking out over the lake.

View from the pier back towards the campsite.

The Samhain ritual will be held at this same spot, so I'm looking forward to that.

May 7th, 2016

I had a lovely day today! There was a free community event at Touch of Nature, and I got to go kayaking for about an hour. There were a bunch of turtles on logs, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I'm a little red on my forearms, but hopefully they're not too badly burned.

After kayaking, I hiked up the trail where we built our Woods project.

At the end of the trail, I sat for a bit and stuck my feet in the lake.

I also spotted this little blue feather.

And then a snake!

And lots of lizards! This one was sitting on the step up to the deck I worked on.

April 22nd, 2016

The school year is finally winding down, but it seems I have as much to do as ever. This month has been particularly action-packed, as we finally got into the build phase of the project we began back in February. It took us four and a half days spread over a couple of weeks, but we finished it, and it looks great. It'll be a really functional piece of work for the environmental center's programs

When we first arrived for our last build day on Tuesday, we found this dragonfly nymph exoskeleton on the trim of our deck. In the words of our professor, our project has already started breeding life. Personally, I took it as a good omen, and things continued to go well as we finished things up.

Here we are adding some finishing touches...

Our final product; we built a deck, two tables, and a net rack for a macro-invertebrate dipping station. Originally, there was also meant to be a kiosk for signage, but as we discovered, there are a lot of subterranean rocks on our site, which meant that that piece could not be built at this time. However, the center has our drafted plans and materials, so if they later on feel like relocating that component to a different area and building it, they can do so.

Our deck, from a different angle.

We saw this lovely (and large!) snake on Tuesday, plus a water snake I couldn't get a picture of.

Later that day, I found this little guy sitting on a campus sidewalk - they were only an inch or two across!

February 14th, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day, all. Sorry I haven't posted yet this month - I've been so busy with school that I haven't been able to think straight in what little free time I've had.

In spite of all that, I have managed to keep my head mostly above water, and even went hiking last weekend. Here's some pictures of the lake and trail.

My Building Tech: Woods class will be working out here, creating a learning station for participants to dip for macro-invertebrates and learn about aquatic ecosystems. It'll be really nice to go out regularly to such a lovely natural spot.

Ferns and moss growing, even in February.

A fossil of some sort of tree, just lying in the creek bed.

We sat out on this point and just meditated in the sun for a bit. It was so quiet, with only the water lapping against the rocks.

Our tour guide also demonstrated how to make red ochre paint out of local rocks containing iron ore. The thick paste has been used for thousands of years and around the world in cave paintings, dyes, and body paint. In particular, it was used by local indigenous peoples, who also used local deposits of chert for tools. The picture is me, with red ochre smeared on my cheeks.