Now THAT'S a big goose!

The Swing

This is our swing... its really long and it hangs off a cottonwood tree. If you have someone pushing you can easily touch the clouds with your toes...

This is Taz... I like Taz

Full moon weekend pictures

Weekend in Review

Well it was an eventful, awesome, full moon weekend in Sedona. I was invited out by a sweet girl on friday. She picked me up and we went to the full moon drum circle at Cathedral Rock. Cathedral Rock's claim to fame is being the most photographed place in Sedona. Say "Moab" and people will likely conjure images of Delicate Arch. Likewise, say "Sedona" and the image is of Cathedral Rock. As you can see the Cathedral Rock area is very photogenic so you can't blame people for focusing their digital cameras here so obsessively.

So we head up to the drum circle and the energy was simply amazing. The full moon light creates a strange atmosphere... the night is alive. The people are all dancing, drumming and talking. I'm meeting all these beautiful people... dancing the pain away and embracing the endless joy of movement... grabbing lonely drums at random.... finding myself dancing with whomever whenever.... A true delight for the senses.

Then, saturday night, we had a pot luck. And it was a blast. The fire pit was raging. The guitars were plentiful and rockin the roll. Everyone backing up each other's songs in an all night impromptu. I found a role as the sole drummer for the night. The food was orgasmic... er... organic I mean. The love of everyone was tangible.

I brought out my "ritual pitch". "Pitch" is the tears of trees. when they dry you can collect them and release the tree spirit on a hot coal. I have pine pitch from all over the wasatch front, new mexico zuni mountian pinion pine and also from the old timeshare condos in Jackson. The Jackson pitch has a sweet citrus flavor to it. So anyhow... I bust out the ritual pitch stuff and with a peacock feather begin pine smudging anyone who wanted... which was most the group in the end. People were literally lining up faster than I could stench them. Everyone was amazed at how I was able to take the wonderful places I had been with me and share them with others years later in this manner... It's a true way to connect profoundly with nature. And the variety of olfactory stimulus was what most would comment on... the citrus of jackson, the freshness of utah and the christmas vanilla cinnamon of new mexico all had such different effects to the mind. It ended up me, deva and kevin all with our noses less then three inches from the coals... huffing the different pine pithces and ascending higher and higher into the night. I took a friend, Brittney, around the pond on the canoe at midnight hunting the milkable bufo alvarius toads... they make strange "ribbits" from the iris reads around the pond.... I believe there are two that are toad husband and toad wife and they sing love songs at night... If only we could be as sensual and romantic as the thoughtful toad.

The pot luck was a hit even tho it looked like the weather had different plans, but we kept good intentions and the weather ended up agreeing... to a point... that point was the electical storm that knocked out the power. So there we are... no electricity... an electrial lighting storm... a ranging fire and billowing pine pitch. Toads singing, people dancing to guitars and folk songs... stars and candle light all night... it was perfect. And to end the perfect night I stepped on "something" barefooted around midnight-thirty. It cut me good and bad. I decided not to end the night getting stiches and just bandaged it well and went to sleep. So far it's been having a miraculous healing.

All sunday the power stayed out. All cornville was affected. that means for most of cornville no water too. We were lucky to have the well water and the BBQ and besides not having internet life wasn't too much different for us. We cooked outside and drank right from the well. No big deal... but I did realize my addiction for the internet is profound. When will there be 12 steps for me????

The power did not return until monday morning so I spent sunday night alone with a fire, stars and full moon as company. Friends til the end. I played my lil drum, did qigong... snacked on pot luck left overs and thanked heaven for bringing me the peace of the moment. I stayed up til the ungodly hour of 2 am (3 am Utah time) just thinking of how life is a beautiful dream.

Won't you dream a little dream of me?

Animal Update

Well the skunks were out last night... Bean (a doggy here at home) likes to fight with them for food at night and commonly gets skunked so I knew they were out there but last night I saw them. They hang out in herds. Lots of them. And they are either dumb or arrogant (typically arrogance is befriended by dumb) as they would rather hiss and spray you rather than hide. I rode my bike up the drive way toward the road and there they were... all over... at least three really big ones too... So when I rode back down I made sure to make lots fo noises to scare them away, but they decided to just be skunky instead. Later, as I drove back on the propery there were little baby skunks and were being chased onto the property from my car... not my intetion of course. Anyhow... they kinda scare me... little devils they are.

I also came across a large racoon in the grove during the day time on friday. I thought it was one of the cats then realized it was a monster racoon... we kinda checked each other out and then it went -zip-

...and... the big fish died. A bird went for it and got it but couldn't fly away with it... so it was left dead in the pond. Now everyone believes me that there was indeed a big one. I got apologies all around, and simply thought it was too bad nobody was interested in the big fish when it was alive and full of good ju ju beans. Anyhow, the lesson was missed on most as of yet. Hopefully somebody soon will start to pay attention to the life, as opposed to the death, of the pond.

Fay Canyon Hike

The following are pictures from Fay Canyon in west Sedona.... I posted lots... hopefully it's not over kill.