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Greenbelt mud

Not surprisingly, I suppose, I seem to be getting a lot of Google search hits for people looking for pictures of the Greenbelt mud.

My favourite...

Greenbelt 2012 (part 2)

The storm hit us on Saturday afternoon, and as the previous photos indicated it was bleak up on the general camp site. Friends with the L'Arche community got totally washed out and had to go home, talk of a friend of a friend losing his tent (not a big problem) with his iPad in it (a big problem).

Saturday evening's main act was the Asian Dub Foundation and I wasn't really in the mood.

We made a hasty decision on Sunday lunchtime to break the tent down and carry it and all the kit back to the car. This was some distance and my arms are still a bit sore - the stackerbox containing our main kitchen stuff was not packed with long-distance carriage in mind.

I went back and set up my small 2-man tent for the night. Three acts on Sunday evening made up for a lot.

 

Mud - the novelty wore off quickly

 

The Proclaimers were brilliant, and the teenagers dancing in the mud were only a bit annoying, then a gap and an all too brief set by Shlomo, followed by Nitin Sawhney. Tom Wright had spoken well earlier in the afternoon, but the lighting up in the gods in the Centaur venue were too low and taking notes was a problem. I also got stonking cramp in my right leg and had to stand up.

Sunday night passed ok, and I got up early on Monday pleased that my now very small amount of kit could be carried by me to the car in one go. John had decamped for the night to the Midlands. Our neighbours were now facing the sorts of pain that we endured yesterday.

On Monday I went to a seminar titled 'Is conflict holding us back?' and found myself sitting next to the man I had been sitting next to at Tom Wright. I then went to find John in the Tiny Tea Tent and, having got my tea and cake, found the same chap with one of his companions on the other end of the table.

 

Site vibing illuminated tulips

 

I finished off lying on the floor of Centaur for an hour listening to the wonderful Aradhna and admiring their video backing.

Aradhna - Yeshu Muktinath (Official Music Video) from AradhnaMusic on Vimeo.

 As I came out it started to drizzle and that was it, I'm afraid, back to the car and home by early evening. Folk Night wasn't my thing anyway.

My wellies have dried

 

Greenbelt 2012 (part 1 - revisited)

I originally posted this the other day from the site using the typepad app for my phone, but made a couple of typos (including getting the year wrong) so I have re-written this.

It has been an interesting festival so far. The weather yesterday was truly terrible and with warm sun and a breeze today we are still not confident that the site will be dry enough to get vehicles on for packing up, which will be as pants as it is possible to be.

Art installation at the back of the InSense venue

Enjoyed Dream's party worship yesterday morning and Bruce Cockburn was awesome on Friday night - solo, but what a guitarist, warm, witty, compassionate.

Bruce Cockburn

Went to a production of La Boheme which was really good, although thr cenue wasn't really up to it acoustically. The Jesus Arms was good last night as long as you didn't look at the inches of gloopy mud underfoot.

You could see the storm coming

Some tents fared less well

Tom Wright this afternoon and then Proclaimers, Shlomo and Nitin Sawney. Good mix of things.

Also hope to catch up with old friends. Seen one or two in the distance but those I have met have been great to catch up with.

Really pleased with the Bialetti stove top espresso pot. Sausages for lunch and then a full afternoon of things to engage with.

Journalling

When we headed off for France and Italy I was really unsure of the availability of wifi, and I didn't want to spend all my time on my iPad, so I dug out a favourite Lamy pen and a lovely notebook F had bought me for a birthday some time ago and I really enjoyed the process of writing our experiences each day - and, of course, you can easily slip other bits of paper into a book as well. It is great now re-reading the notes I made and writing them up on a blog with the photos I took and video that the boys shot.

I grabbed a different note book prior to heading off to Soul Survivor to jot things as needed, and discovered I had made some notes a couple of years ago (only a few pages). Great to re-read those and add a few more things that it seemed God was saying during the worship and ministry.

I need to journal more.

a pilgrimage of sorts

I have started writing up the journal and adding the photos we took on our epic month on the road at a different blog here.

Because of the way blogs work you need to start at the bottom and work up, but you're more than capable of that, I'm sure.

2000

The stats page for my blog says that I have, so far, produced 1999 posts, making this one the 2000th.

 

I am currently completing the first month of my Extended Ministerial Development Leave and have been travelling: several thousand miles, over 1200 photos, a journal, some great memories and a bit of a tan. All this will need some putting together so that you may share something of the journey we've made.

 

In the mean time thank you for reading.

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