A-Z Challenge Day 19-Sustainability

noun

1.

the ability to be sustained, supported, upheld, or confirmed.

2.

Environmental Science. the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance:

The committee is developing sustainability standards for products that use energy.

S is for Sustainability. Sustainability is very much part of the ethos of Greenbelt,  the festival of  arts, music and social justice, that takes place each August Bank Holiday weekend in the grounds of Boughton House near Kettering, Northants, in the UK. So it's a good time to point you towards their latest blog entry, with its details of their Green Cup recycling scheme. Rather than end the festival with tons of used plastic glasses and cups thrown into landfill, festival-goers are being encouraged to pay a £1 deposit on their own cup at the start of the weekend, which they can keep and reuse. They then have the choice to either return it and have their deposit refunded, or keep it as a souvenir. 

I'll be interested to see how it works out.

A-Z Challenge Day 2 - Benedictus, Beauty

On to Day 2 - Beauty - Dictionary  definitions:A combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight; A combination of qualities that pleases theintellect. 

Only skin deep? In the eye of the beholder? The older I get, the more words just don't do it for me. Maybe simply feeling without wasting precious time trying to encapsulate  is enough. Encountering beauty through nature; the photo above is from our epic trip through the Highlands five years ago, am apt example. I'll leave the capturing to those more articulate and able than myself.

One such  is the late John O'Donohue, poet, artist and philosopher, heard here in one of his last interviews before his sudden and premature death in 2008, talking with Krista Tippett on The Inner Landscape of Beauty. I especially love his definition of spirituality as the art of homecoming.

I always associate him with Greenbelt, though, sadly, I was never to  hear him talk, as I didn't begin to attend the  festival until summer of 2008. I do though treasure a copy  what I think may have been one of his last works: the anthology of blessings: Benedictus, and we also had a poem from his Conamara Blues, read out at my mother-in law's - Mr GP's mother's funeral.

To me, John had the ability to hold the tension between both the beauty and the dark side of our natures and of the world, yet at the same time open our  minds to new landscapes, the which we could hardly have imagined were possible. I encountered his works for the first time when I was transitioning between churches and traditions. To discover such a resource then, an antidote to some of the dogmatic certainties which I so struggled with, was indeed a blessing.

Blogging A-Z Day 8: Greenbelt Festival

The Green Caterpillar - Greenbelt Festival, Cheltenham Racecourse, 2011

...and so to G for Greenbelt Festival, that annual dose of music, arts, worship, and social justice issues;  land of Amorphous Green Caterpillars, silly hats, fairy lights, music, mayhem and musings. Now in its 41st (or 42nd?) year, it's found a home in various different locations, the latest  being the beautiful woodland estate of Boughton House, in Northamptonshire. I've been an [albeit tiny] part of Greenbelt since 2008, both as a festival-goer with Mr GP to begin with, then one year solo, followed by three years as a worship volunteer. I've learned and experienced so much from it over that period. Encountering GB at a time when I was searching, re-thinking my faith and transitioning between churches, it's been in turn   a refuge, inspiration, exasperation and 'I-don't-know-what-elseration.'

Sometimes it's good to have a break, however, and so I've decided to take a 'sabbatical' from Greenbelt this summer. Last year, its first in Boughton, I found quite tough, both physically and otherwise (and I'm no softie!) It's that little bit further to travel for me than was Cheltenham, adding extra logistical and financial difficulties  onto the load. We'll have had quite a tiring year by the time August Bank holiday comes round again, plus the possibility of something equally exacting that I may be taking part in this autumn. Taking into account that Greenbelt is also in the process of re-inventing itself, it only seems sensible to wait and see what the feedback from this year, theme The Bright Field brings. I'm sure I'll enjoy it all the more for having a gap between visits, although the Bank Holiday is going to feel very strange indeed.

I'll leave you with a powerful moment  from Greenbelt 2012, (the muddy one!) -  the Sunday morning festival communion service with folk band Flaming Nora leading the crowd in Mike Scott's hit Bring em all in. Enjoy.

Summer Wanderings: Bikes, Buddhists Bunting and Birds

Welcome back to the blog after the Summer break. And what a Summer it was this year! Sun, sea,  soggy sand, (which Mr GP had to pull me out of!) and...silliness. Well, not the last, but  I had to find something else beginning with the same letter. Here's a quick tour of what I've called the Summer of the volunteer.

Souvenir from LEL 2013 - Control Eskdalemuir

First off, we caught two  trains  and a bus to  the wilds of Eskdalemuir in Scotland to join the doughty team of volunteers supporting thousands of cyclists riding the LEL London-Edinburgh London cycle event. How do you begin to describe such a mammoth undertaking? Mr GP rode in this four years ago; this time he wanted to experience it from the other side. We'd deliberately chosen this remote location, because of it being one we'd passed through several years previously on our Durham-Iona walk. Also due to to the nearby presence of the Samye Ling Buddhist monastery and Tibetan centre: a wonderfully peaceful place to wander round between shifts; the fact that they have a great coffee shop is neither here nor there... I'll keep you any  longer, but in true Blue Peter style, pass you on to something somebody else made earlier -  by Peter, a fellow volunteer who captures the whole experience far better than I ever could.

Siloth on Solway - Milennium mosaic

From there we hurtled back down to Carlisle and out to sunny Siloth on Solway. What a discovery there, too! Simple, honest to goodness unspolt seaside with wonderful views from  the Solway back over to Scotland in one direction and towards the 'proper,' Lake District in the other. Somebody told me that you've not visited the true Lake District until you've been to Keswick.

Home Comforts: A little corner of Greenbelt 2013

Then on  - for me at least - to Greenbelt Festival where I was volunteering again  in one of the worship venues. I've said before my personal experience of the festival  seems to alternate between one good and one bad year. 2010, good, 2011, less than positive, 2012 much better. 2013? I'd say it was the year of change and challenge - for many of us, I'd guess, as we came to term with the challenges of a re-configured (because of the damage done to the racecourse during last year's floods) and much smaller site. Apart from the inevitable noise pollution which was unavoidable with several major music venues Big top and beer tent all located up one end of the festival village, and the loss of several much-loved venues to the downscaling, I rather liked it myself. It seemed much cosier and less intimidating to this dyed in the wool introvert, whilst as a hard-working volunteer I found that with the smaller distances between locations, I actually managed to get to more than one talk this time round. Sue Pickering's first talk on the Friday evening on the spirituality of ageing, Hopeweaver's creative morning prayer, Steve Chalke, Abbot Christopher Jamieson's breathtaking session on contemplative prayer - I was stewarding for this one, but it was so popular that we had the doors open. I'll never forget standing there watching what must have been over 300 people, deep in silent prayer, some I guess, for the first time ever,  whilst the hullaballoo of the festival was all around them. Plenty other memories too - many of them came with the volunteer experience. A classic being helping to steward a long, long queue of folk queuing for the Goth eucharist whilst a silent eucharist was being held just across the hallway. Surreal isn't in it!

That pesky 'inner parrot!'

Finally, last weekend, I'd a great time introducing some groups to the Sybil MacBeth colouring prayer methods as part of a series of interactive workshops over the county border. Pictured here is that pesky 'Inner Parrot,' (inner critic), who played a walk-on part being ceremoniously binned at the start of each session! I fancy he looks suitably  subdued now, don't you? 

So, on with the autumn with many changes forecast in my little corner. Fasten your seatbelts now...

Five Things I wouldn't Go to Greenbelt Without - 2

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:19-21 King James Version (KJV)

Or to bring the text up to date : Lay not up woolly baselayers with insufficient supplies of cedarballs or you will discover evidence of fine dining and corruption when you finally get round to rounding up your camping gear. Oh pooh!

Undaunted, I'll be raiding the town's haberdashery departments tomorrow for a pretty embroidered patch to disguise the hole. I quite fancy something like this.   No, I'll not be trying to design one myself  before anybody suggests it - my sewing's simply not good enough.  Besides, I'm still busy making up the bunting kit that Ms GP bought me a few months ago. Four down, eight still to go. And they do look rather good, if I say so myself. Add them to the lot I made for last year's Greenbelt and there'll be no danger of me not being able to find my way back to my tent.

Five Things I Wouldn't go to Greenbelt Without

The Big Green Amorphous Caterpillar  bides its time...

For all Greenbelt  afficionados - you'll have noticed a new feature on this year's  GB blog: My Greenbelt Five, where folk are asked to list the five things  to  which they're most looking forward  at this year's festival and why.

I thought I'd do one  here.  Thanks to a technical blip (partly my memory, partly my bank) I've not yet been able to download the programme, so I've no idea yet what I'm excited about - unless you count my first bath for six days after I get home. But nil desperandum, I've been inspired to make my own, alternative Greenbelt Five: Five Things I wouldn't Go to Greenbelt Without (Five Things Without Which I wouldn't Go to Greenbelt? ) Here we go:

1. Duct tape - Or should that be Duck?  After the rain we had on the Friday  night last time, there'd easily have been enough water on site to provide modest  leisure  facilities for any number of our little feathered friends.  After jamming my porch door on the first evening I was extremely grateful for its sticking powers. (The tape, not the ducks!).  It also held up the legs of my makeshift camping table  - lovingly forged from an old Sylvanian Families tin tray that used to belong to my daughter.  It's mended the frame of my 'Granny' trolley, (another festival must have, great for lugging all your clobber on site)  and I can imagine that it'd come in handy for mending torn canvas and snapped tent poles. 

2. My cosy green fleecy blanket with pretty tasselly bits.  You can go glamping in a pop-up tent as well, you know. Who needs teepees, oriental rugs and firepits!

3. My Kelly Kettle. Never try to separate a Greenpatch from her supply of boiling water and teabags! (Fairtrade, of course). Everything Stops for Tea, after all! It will work this time, of course it will.

4. My Rohan merino base layer top, (woolly vest for the unsophisticated). A couple of these saw me through a mammoth five week walking trip last year and yes, they really can be worn for days at a time without ponging too much. A real Godsend on those chilly evenings on the campsite. Worth every penny.

5. My faithful bog standard Nokia phone gets its annual workout at Greenbelt. It can't email or tweet  - I leave that to the dawn chorus - just good old PAYG calls and texts.

If I can just sneak in another one: on Mr GP's advice, I'll reluctantly add earplugs. (Who wants to sleep with wodges of greyish gunk stuck in your ears?) But needs must - I'm volunteering this year and suspect I may be pitched rather nearer the centre of the action than I was last time round.

So there you have it.  Any Greenbelters reading this, I'd love to know what you'd put on your list.

Coming soon - How to be a Bad Christian

               
...and a better human being.  Dave Tomlinson tells about the inspiration behind his new book.

      

‘This book is written for the countless ordinary people who don’t know what to make of organised religion, have little time for creeds and doctrines or even churchgoing, yet who nevertheless attempt to live in the spirit of Christianity…’

             More here.

Another very good reason for going to Greenbelt Festival if you've not tried it already.

                           

Pop up tent folding: a new Olympic sport?

My faithful 'Des Res' for Greenbelt: 3 M, dbl-skinned,  with blt- in gsht, porch and air circulation system [front door] - aka the 'Amorphous Green Caterpillar'

 If Pop-up tent folding should be made an olympic sport; I'll not be rushing to sign up...

Spent last night - no, let's be honest - spent part of last night   out in the back garden doing a pre-GB try out of my tent.  Why do I need to do this?  I know  the wretched thing is still in one piece after its debut at GB 2011!  Come 2 am,  the insomnia prompted by the heat and  the rustling of God's tiny creatures in the shrubbery became too much and I snuck back into the house to seek refuge with Mr GP.

Quite why I've also chosen what must be the warmest day we've had for ages to check out all my other camping gear, goodness only knows, but never mind, it's all neatly folded and packed away. Apart from  my super-duper pop-up tent; here it is, 'airing.' Anyone who's read about my struggles with it last year * will know what I'm talking about and why I've nicknamed it the 'Amorphous Green Caterpillar!'   Is there a patron saint of tent folding do you know? It was never like this back in my Girl Guiding Days!

I’d no trouble ‘popping’ the tent up; but folding down…well, let’s just say that in the time it took to upend it, my cosy green caterpillar-like abode transformed into a huge, threatening amorphous mass, billowing round the back garden like a barrage balloon. It unleashed in me (and in Mr M) dark forces that no amount of watching instructional videos on Youtube could purge. And there are no shortage of them, believe me. To wrestle the sodding thing into submission requires arms the length of a gorilla, and the strength of one too.

 Miffy.wibsite.com

  

Smoke gets in your eyes

Took advantage of Mr GP's absence at a BBQ to have my own cooking session en plein air, and give my kelly kettle, (seen here at Greenbelt 2011), it's first outing of the year. For the uninitiated a kelly or poacher's kettle is simply a double-walled metal chamber, with the water kept in the chimney wall. You  fill the base with fuel, place the chamber on top,  before lighting  it. The kelly then gives a convincing imitation of the eruption of Mt Vesuvius, and 3-5 minutes later le voila, tea is served! The beauty of this little chappie is that it's compact, light, can burn any fuel that's to hand  - green brownie points here - enabling you to whip up a quick cuppa at a moment's notice wherever you are, whether that's the riverbank, wilderness, even the desert... Yes, camel dung makes excellent fuel I'm told, not that I'm ever likely to be in a position to try that one out. It also appeals to the latent Girl Guide in me. After all, my patrol were awarded  the wooden spoon for best cooks 1972. (If my memory serves me rightly, lukewarm   porridge and lumpy mince of doubtful origin featured largely on our menus!)

Luckily nobody passing by the Greenpatch residence at about 5.30 this evening  caught sight of the smoke signals, or if they did, heard the cursing, blinding and puffing and had the presence of mind not to call the fire brigade. It was just me, re-discovering the knack of getting the sodding thing to keep burning. There's a certain technique to this (which I didn't quite master at GB whilst trying to brew up in a howling wind on the first day!) It Consists of pointing the kettle into the prevailing wind, blowing vigorously into the holes in the base, head down like a demented hen, whilst simultaneously posting fuel as fast as you can into the chimney. It took a few trial runs and a moud of messy ash today  before I  realised that I'd have to put  aside romantic backwoodsmen notions of scavenging for pine cones, kindling and grasses -  and settle for  using billions of little squares of cardboard;  far more efficient and less smoky.

 Not the best of timing, I must admit, kellying on the same day as having my hair done. I pong as if I smoke 60 a day. Great cup of coffee though.  However, I need to get in a lot more practice before I can fulfil my dreams  of plentiful hot water for cuppas, washing, and sneaky late night hot water bottles. at GB.

Jubilee - Let the festivities commence!

...and I could have sworn that my bunting (see 2011 Greenbelt pic) was neatly stashed away with my craft supplies. Not so, it seems. Item 1 on the 'to-do' list for the day: rake out my rucksack from the tottering pile under the stairs and check there.

There is an alternative - get going on the handy bunting kit that Ms GP gave me for my birthday. Given the combined lack of a  machine and my sewing skills, we could be in for a long wait. Your Majesty - would you mind posponing the celebrations for a month, or three?

Social Media and Introversion

Hot on the heels (oops, nearly typed 'hells!' ) of my post on Procrastination and them pesky widgets, comes Ian's reflections on Slate's assertion that opting out of Facebook and other social networks could prove detrimental to one's reputation.

This is  a topic to which I've not given much thought, to be honest. My age and situation at  present relieves me of much of the pressure to see and be seen; nevertheless  I'm very much aware that whatever I post once out there, stays out there. It's a small world, even in cyberspace and I'd hope that if anybody who knows me does stumble upon my inane ramblings, said ramblings will reflect positively on me. To misquote the judge at the Lady Chatterley trial: " Is this something you would want your husband/children/friends/fellow tertiaries/church members to read?"

I agree about the overwhelmingness of it all and an introvert's need to maintain their own personal space. Paradoxical, isn't it? Social media and the internet is such a boon for  those of us who need time to reflect before we 'speak,' who draw strength from our own inner world and who find overmuch interaction with others draining. We can gather our thoughts rather than be 'put on the spot,' reflect on what we really want to say. And oh the wonder of being able to explore new horizons, ideas, people that we'd simply never have the chance to encounter otherwise.  Yet 'online,' as 'offline,' I know I can quite easily go into overload and have to pull out.

Funnily enough, my shyness and the behaviour patterns associated with that also show up on line. I'm definitely still in the cyber-kitchen at parties.

Any solutions? Well, being a Franciscan tertiary with an intentional way ('rule') of life, including a focus on simplicity,   helps. I have a mobile, not a smartphone and choose not to give out my number to all and sundry. Folk know that my landline is  the best way of contacting me.  So don't e-mail me to change arrangements once I've left home because I'll not get it. I kinda regret not tweeting; I do feel out of the loop sometimes, especially at places like Greenbelt, but heigh-ho, you can't have it all.

And lastly...(phew!) and I'm preaching to myself here - intentionality in how you  contribute online is part of the simplicity rather than drift. Plan that blog post; on Facebook  - let's visit that new spirituality group today, make yourself comment, (just one will do); leave those endless news updates for now, they'll still be there tomorrow....and the next day. Oh, and is there anything you've learned online today that you could take offline or vice versa, an idea for a new project, something with which to encourage others? Why not drop them an e-mail, a letter,  a phone call, even (gasp!) ask them out for a drink or a cuppa?

What do readers think?

Now I just know I'm going to regret clicking 'publish' here... :)

Dreaming of sunny days - Greenbelt 2012

Who'd believe we're officially in Spring? I've  the heating on, a freshly-brewed mug of coffee beside me, a bowl of porridge whirling round in the microwave ( Mr GP's shirts are probably standing to attention on the line  by now) and I'm still freezing. Time to dream of sunnier times and the annual opportunity to chill out - often in the original sense of the word (brrr!) at Greenbelt 2012; theme  Paradise Lost & Found. That's my trusty little tent pictured.

For those of you of a Franciscan persuasion, I've noticed that Ian Cron, author of, amongst others,  Chasing Francis - A Pilgrim's Tale, is down to talk this year. It's not clear what his topic will be, but I'd like to go along and listen anyway. Cron's novel about Chase, the megachurch pastor who loses his faith then rediscovers it after a pilgrimage to Italy is a good and accessible  introduction to the saint, supplementing the 'meatier' writings about Francis rather well IMO.