October 24th 2011
The weekend started early because I took Friday off so I could get packed and head to Karen and David’s place for our Beltane MEF (Magick Earth Festival). This time the event was brought to you by our lovely friends at The Cauldron of the Four Winds (COTFW). I think all of this group are already a part of the MEF family.
The big event of Friday afternoon was the erecting of the Yurt in it’s new location (it had been ripped off it’s previous location by ferocious winds), this task was made possible by the many hands that joined in the task. As always the participants were a mix of regulars and fresh faces and those newbie’s were soon made to feel part of the family.
Friday’s meal was lovely (Karen and her kitchen helpers did a lovely job of feeding everybody all weekend) and as was to be expected there was enough food to feed all the hordes.
Some drumming and chanting with a bit of dancing was enjoyed by many.
I took along too many Kg’s of crystal’s for the circle and as usual encouraged others to have a chance to build the crystal circle however they wanted, the result was lovely and we held Saturdays crystal workshop inside the circle.
Saturday had many crafty elemental workshops that were well attended, and almost all of the participants of the fire spinning workshop went on to spin with fire later that night.
The big event in the afternoon was Tracey’s Quiz, she had put lots of effort into researching the questions over a wide range of subjects (including witch lore), stickers for good team answers bedecked many faces and jackets and the eventual winners got cups and prizes were awarded to all.
The main ritual took place in the lovely large ritual space and it was great to see the space come to life, as was to be expected we finished with some cauldron jumping.
Once it got dark the fire toys came out to play and 5 fire staff and a set of fire fans got well used, some drummers also came down to help create some more energy for us.
The networking (gossiping) and chatting continued well into the morning as is usual and everybody seemed to have a great time (despite the mozzies). Sunday morning started well with more cooked breakfasts before heading back for more craft based workshops (the Wand and Staff one again involved many people and created some lovely tools).
Daniel and I headed out after lunch along with several others, I had an appointment in town with a drum circle..............
3 hours hard out dancing on the pavement (in my bare feet) and another hour of full on drumming down at the Britomart station, a dozen drummers (Josh with his Digi) and some shakers, we hardly stopped the whole time, it was the best drum circle I have ever been in with some great interaction with the public who lapped it up. I found them when they first started their beats and soon handed over my drum and seat to somebody else and got up and worked the crowd to get them to join us, many needed little encouragement but some really enjoyed it once they got over their stage fright, several of my friends stopped and came to share a hug and one gave me a kiss and ran away. At one point the Hari Krishners passing by came and joined our jam dancing and playing and sharing the beautiful energy being created by everybody. That energy allowed supporters of all the teams (including the French) to dance and play together and have a beautiful time, Richard (as organiser) donated the proceeds of the hat to me to buy some more instruments so next time you see us we will have some more shakers to play with.

October 10 2011
Well I am a bit tired but for good reason, I was doing casual work from Monday to Thursday and then I headed down to Taupo for the second yearly spiritual show, a new friend down there also wanted to get a drum circle happening there so she made some flyers and booked a school room for Saturday night. The show was fairly quiet on Saturday and I went on to a great dinner with Toni and her family before heading back to the school for our drum circle, well most of those who said they would come didn't show but we went ahead with it anyway and had a great couple of hours, Sharon and Toni are both now converts to the ease of drum circles and how much fun they can be. Sunday started slow but after lunch things suddenly picked up and I was busy selling crystals, then several people who came in wanted to talk about drumming and drum circles and so there are now a core of keen drummers down in Taupo. Toni has a business based from home http://www.energycentral.co.nz and does healing as well as being a lovely witch, I have loaned her some new drums to sell as well as some spares to get her drum circle going and I will be encouraging her all I can, I am also trying to get some people in Rotorua interested in drum circles and get these two towns to come together and share some energy. On the drive home I got a phone call from another Taupo lady who wants to get into some drumming so I have a feeling that my previous drum circle efforts down there may now be coming to fruition.

October 4 2011
Saturday was a small 1 day show in Ellerslie, it was a cozy little hall and the day slowly ticked over, several of my favourite 'Stalker Customers' who seem to show up everywhere were there to see what was new since last week. Sunday was a last minute drum circle outside the Auckland Town hall as part of the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra open day, a dozen of the regular 'serious' drummers showed up and we had a great time for an hour or so creating some lovely energy that the public walking by loved. Fraser Bruce also had an information stall there with a range of home made musical instruments that got me thinking about some more instruments to build.

September 26 2011
This weekend there was no show - shock, horror.... what do I do ?.... (I have only 1 more empty weekend before christmas).... well this means that I can attend the Cauldron of the Four Winds 'Ostara' ritual and catch up with many of my MEF family. Saturday morning was spent getting a haircut for me and a WOF for my van and then working on my car. After lunch I headed over to collect lots of hugs from all those present, as I am a professional lots of 'Networking' took place over a glass, I was so good to catch up with these friends that I had missed while I was away in the USA. Dave was in hospital (more healing energy coming your way) and Karen was preoccupied with that so the rest of the pagan family took over and finished cooking nibbles and dinner, as always the food was yummy and we were unable to consume it all, (thanks again Karen). Ritual was lovely, but confused (as with Dave's absence, Karen played Dave's part and Jilly played Karens part and so it went). Some went on to watch the Rugby and some then watched the League (and all were happy with the results). Chris had brought his crystals to play with and time was spent trying new configurations with the rose quartz and amethyst within the main quartz circle, Chris and I are both looking forward to adding some extra 'poundage' to our circles when a new shipment arrives from Brazil in a couple of weeks and we also considered merging both our crystal collections at the Beltane festival. As always if was a lovely time and thanks to all those who participated, BIG love and healing to both Karen and Dave, and I am looking forward to Beltane with you all.

September 19 2011
Well I have been doing casual work for a week so this has taken longer than planned but here is my collection of Burningman thoughts.

So much happened to me in my month away on my Burningman Pilgrimage that I can’t make a sensible story of it, instead I have just this collection of random thoughts and things that happened to me, I hope they are not too confusing.

This all came about because my friend Kiwi (Chris Hanks) said he was going to submit a proposal to build the Temple at Burningman this year, as a friend I agreed to be there to help him do it, later when he confirmed that his bid has been accepted by those who control these things my immediate thought was ‘shit… now where am I going to find the money’, but I manifested all problems would be solved and so they were.

I flew into San Francisco for a visit to Burningman HQ where I caught up with old friends Marian amd Megs (who I had made friends with when they came to Kiwiburn) and made some lovely new friends, including several other crystalaholics.

I Stayed over night at a friend of a friends place, ‘Little wing’ who was soon part of my friends circle. It was a long bus trip to Reno, when I got there I was issued my freebie steel cap boots some hugs from the crew and then I was busy working.

 This was the first time an international team had come together to build the temple, and it had a strong representation of Kiwi, Irish and Canadians, we also included many token Americans.

Several Team shopping trips were arranged with borrowed cars so we could get the tents, food, water etc that we would need to survive on the Playa.

The couple of Thrift shops up the road got plenty of business from us travellers as we shopped on the cheap for extra clothes, warm blankets, water bottles etc

The crew at Hobson square in Reno had already been hard at work for over 3 months and the yard was full of prefabricated sections of temple and the trucks were rolling to ship it out to the desert.

I joined the rest of the crew in the pattern of working hard and late each night as this was the most important thing in our lives, our crew motto was “My Drinking Crew has a Building Problem”

Finally convoys of us started heading out to the playa where we camped on the bare temple site beside our truck loads of temple pieces.

Most of us were in tents, our first job was to setup kitchen, dining area and fluffer station, when I arrived we got straight into setting up the dining area when our first small dust storm came to welcome us, my goggles and facemask were still buried with my gear in the back of a truck, I learnt as soon as you get up grab your eye protection and mask, just in case.

Our amazing crew included many pagans and hippies and so there was lots of happy hippy healing energy to share.

Amazing dawns and sunsets greeted us every day.

There was no day and night shift, many were working 18+ hours per day, stopping to eat and sleeping in short naps when we had to, nobody was forcing us, we just wanted to prove wrong those who thought we had taken on too big a project and that we would not get it all done.

Because of the crew spirit and hippy energy there were no grumpy or angry words when your machinery was taken off you to be given to another team with a higher priority job.

We had a wonderful team of Fluffers, their job was to make sure we drink water and had our electrolytes as well as giving us special food and liquid treats during the day and night, they kept of functioning thru the long days and nights, to help them keep going I often retired to the Fluffer station during the hottest part of the day to give them foot and other massages. Many of our other healers also took time out to give massages and healing as required

The heat of the day was generally over 100 degrees in the shade but in the early hours of the morning it could get very cold, my big wool coat and thermal underwear got lots of use.

My tent was rated as 4 person, so just room for me and my stuff, I had a small air mattress covered with a woolly blanket and my good thermal sleeping bag to keep me warm at night, during the day it was far too hot to lay in.

Our construction town had it’s own power grid with cables run for essential stuff and Jims Cool Yurt with it’s simple (and low powered) swamp cooler was a popular place during the heat of the day and despite it’s small space 5 people could often be found dozing in it.

Most of us had payed into the builders food fund and we had a great team of cooks to ensure we ate well and could keep working hard in the heat, our meals consisted of Breakfast, lunch, dinner and Middens (mid night meal).

I was part of a small group that headed to Frog pond (a local spring) one afternoon while it was still fresh, (not overloaded by the dirty hippies), it was most satisfying to relax in a cool pond, almost paradise.

 The ‘Early Burn’ had some interestig art creations, my favourite was the Motorola Radio, it seems not everybody was happy with their handheld radio’s performance, the big art piece was several metres high and had a big speaker tuned into one of the radio channels so those in the know could talk thru it.

Many of us were soon trained to use the scissor lift trucks and spend lots of time up in the air in them, as our temple grew, in the distance we could see the man and the start of the city growing.

People started coming to the temple perimeter to gaze at our creation, this is when I started to realise as a newbie that if people who had been coming here for 10 years were amazed by our temple it really must be something extra special.

It was the largest free standing temporary wooden structure in the world, there were no foundations, just some ground anchors in the ground to tie it too and some raked over gravel (Zen gardening) covered in plywood and steel as our base.

Built like a wedding cake as separate layers that were then lifted on top of one another it would require the biggest crane ever seen in Black Rock City to assemble it.

There temple consisted of 5 towers almost 20 metres high representing Birth, Growth, Union, Decay and Death arrayed around a central tower 37m high representing Gratitude, 3 towers were linked by walkways up to the first level of the main tower, the other 2 towers were linked at the ground level by corridors.

My team spent most of it’s time building the 5 smaller towers and connecting walkways and I was tasked with bolting on the lifting points on each of the towers and so was a little nervous each time one was lifted into the air, we also assembled the small tower at the very top of the main tower.

Originally the Burningman Management only installed ground anchors for 4 of the 6 towers as they did not believe we could complete this ambitious project, and it was not until we completed them that they then installed the anchors for the final 2 towers.

The weather was great with only a couple of mild dust storms and thunder storms and only one days lifting put off due to high winds.

The construction crew was mainly composed of people who do NOT do this kind of stuff for a living, sometimes it was painful to watch somebody hammering in a nail but everybody’s help was of value.

We stole a number of the DPW (Department of Public Works) staff over to our crew and many others from their crew drove heavy equipment for us, these guys and girls normally build the infrastructure required for this city to exist, and then pack it away at the end of the event.

Despite their fierce some reputation all the DPW crew I worked with were lovely people and very helpful, many are hippies at heart

We finished the Temple at midnight on Sunday when the festival officially opened (apparently the Temple construction is often behind schedule) and allowed the waiting mass of people to walk in and over it, I am proud to be the first hippy to lay on the ground in the main temple when we opened and listen to the Gamelatron playing. This is a Balinese gong orchestra connected to electrical servo’s and a computer so it can play 24 hours a day without stopping to eat.

After the temple opened we had to break up our builders camp and head off to our own camps, I was part of Minitropolis with many other temple builders.

I volunteered to take a turn as a Temple Guardian, at night we kept an eye on people and were there to comfort and guide them if required as well as ensure all things were good in the temple.

On the night they burned the Trojan Horse I walked around the mobile party created by all the Music ‘Art cars’ that surrounded the area creating new streets and disorientating me completely, after wandering around I caught sight of our Big Green arrow camp sign in the sky and knew how to find my way home.

The big loud party with amplified noise (no I don’t call it music) was not my scene and some times the strength of the bass pumping at you was enough pressure to disturb your own heart beat.

Saturday night was the ‘Man Burn’ I watched this from the distance, I am not big on fancy fireworks shows.

I proudly put my 'Temple crew' pass on my hat (which I wore everywhere except to bed) and this got me extraattention, free meals and a chance to chat to many extra people, so many people loved this great Temple we had created.

The temple had a huge surface area, this was soon put to good use by the participants writing messages and creating memorials to people and pets, by the time the temple closed it was covered in messages.

Sunday was spent preparing the Temple to burn, this included adding many trailer loads of timber that other camps wanted to get rid of.

I volunteered to be on the burn perimeter, watching the crowd, this perimeter was 280m in diameter but we needed all of that as once she caught the fire was really hot, my back was cooking and people in the front rows were crouching behind blankets and jackets so they could watch it. After 20 minutes just 6 piles of hot coals remained.

I spend Monday thru Wednesday with many others cleaning up the remains, we collected about 1.5 cubic metres of nails and screws using magnetic brooms and rakes.

The burn area is covered with gravel before the burn to prevent burn scars occurring and when clean up is finished there should be little sign of the temple or the huge inferno that occurred there.

I also helped to pack up our theme camp ‘Minitroplis’ before heading back to civilisation (Reno) on Wednesday, I managed a couple of free night stay again at the Grand Sierra Resort and to start with it was fine as the hotel was full of Burners, but by the time I left on Friday most had gone and it felt strange being ‘Civilised’. I caught the bus back to San Francisco and then jumped on my plane back home, I still wore my Burner hat and big coat and they helped me stay in ‘Burner mode’ in my soul.

  For me this was not a life changing event as that had happened at my first Kiwiburn, this was a reminder I was on the right path

 There were all kinds of music and art on display and I only saw some of what was on display, So many theme camps so can not visit them all, So much happening all the time so can not hope to see but a fraction of it.

 A bike is needed to get around as the site is so big, I was thankful of the second hand one I brought in Reno, flat tyres are a fact of life but there was a bike repair camp just along from our camp and I used it several times.

 Playa post was cool, I got a postcard delivered to my tent from a dear friend to tell me where she was camped.

September 13 2011
Our Moonfest started fairly well with a good sized group of drummers showing up including some fresh faces, I spun some fire and chatted and collected hugs from people, then the rain came down, it got pretty wet but the serious drummers kept going, even when the fire spinners left, then it worked and we drummed all the rain away, thanks to the people who came, extra thanks to those who outlasted the rain, drumming or dancing into the night. It shows again that it's hard to stop crazy drummers.

August 1st 2011
I started suffering from the flu on Tuesday so I decided to slow down (a little) and let my body catch up…. so I had a couple of quietish days at home sorting out stuff then it was Friday and I was off to Ohope for the Mind Body Spirit Expo. Last years show there was cancelled after the hall was damaged in the floods and we have been looking forward to our chance to return. I decided it would be best to avoid hugs and close contact with my friends over the weekend due to my flu, this was painful because I am so used to sharing hug energy with all these lovely people. The Ohope community hall has no vodafone coverage so my EFTPOS machine would only work if you wandered around the carpark praying, this made it much harder to provide our cash out facility to customers. It also meant that I had no broadband coverage on my computer. On Saturday night in frustration I went to the supermarket and brought a king size choc bar, but there was no real contest and it was soon demolished, it never stood a chance against me. Sunday was another beautiful but cool day and I was again kept pretty busy talking to customers, packing up at the end of the day took me the usual 2 hours but I was not the last stall holder to leave (that’s the advantages gained by 10 years of doing this, even if I am the only big stall holder that does not bring extra help). The drive home was pretty good and I didn’t need to stop for a nap so I was home by midnight… then crawl into bed for some much needed sleep… Monday was a busy day collecting building materials for the Kereru lodge steps up to the barn and collecting a couple of couches from Josh that I am going to fix up and store until Kiwiburn, they will make life at ‘Greeters’ much more comfortable. I also got a comfy leather chair that I plan to fix for our camp…. And yes the excitement of Burningman is starting to build for me…. It’s only 1 week until I leave….

July 25 2011
At the moment the days are just rushing by… lots of good shows where I am earning some money and I am often doing some casual work during the week as well, I have now paid for my tickets to travel to Burningman, now I just have to earn some money to pay the bills that will keep coming in even when I am away.
I have also realised that this is probably the closest thing to a ‘Holiday’ I have had for about 10 years, for a whole month I will not be trying to earn a living… that seems strange. But I will be working hard for most of it.
I have also thrown myself into a selection of other things to get a full experience, as well as helping to assemble this amazing temple I have volunteered to do a shift as a Temple Guardian, a shift on the Regionals desk talking with Burners and telling them about BM and KB. If the temple is completed on time I have offered to help setup the Regionals centre and packing down of our Minitropolis camp as I plan to stay over for a couple of days and avoid the crazy rush to escape Burningman.
On the way south I made a stop at the Kiwiburn site to remind me how big the beach area was and help me plan some stuff for next year, I also spent several hours cutting back the blackberry where it’s overgrowing our beach area.
The Palmerston North Rock and Mineral club have an expo every two years and I really enjoy it, they are a lovely friendly bunch of rock’a’holics and it’s a fun show.  
Many of our regular customers attended and I was more surprised than usual with what sold, you just can’t guess what customers want, I also got some nice pieces from a couple of the other club stall holders to add to my personal collection.
Last time I left this show I got snowed in at Waiouru, this time the weather report was so bad I quickly packed and didn’t stop for dinner until I got to Turangi, racing the cold snap the whole way back to Auckland, just stopping for a nap when I felt tired.
I stopped in Albany at 5am outside the place I a working, time for a coup[le of hours nap then have a shower, breakfast and do a days work in the warehouse.
Last stop before home was to empty the PO Box and there was my shiny new Machine Readable Passport, another thing ticked off my list for Burningman !

July 18 2011
Friday morning was a rush of unpacking the Moonfest stuff and packing all the extra MEF stuff, then collect Daniel, get caught up in a traffic queue after an accident on the motorway, put the new MEF signs up at the turnoff, get to camp (where many are now waiting), unload food, drink, drums, stereo, toilet paper etc, now move the van to the hall and unload the tables and stall stuff. Now I can catch up with some more hugs, find some helpers to chop coleslaw and slice up steak ready for dinner. We decided to wait a bit longer for a few more  participants to arrive before we got into the opening ritual, Tania and Gavin were the leads and despite my warnings I was allocated the element 'Air' (several years ago when given water I called down the rain). The evening was fine but chilly and we decided to hold the ritual around our beautiful big MEF tree, by the time I welcomed 'Air' into our circle the wind was blowing very chilly, lol. As always the ritual created some lovely energy to share and when we finished we all participated in random hugs all around the place. After dinner we enjoyed some yummy mulled wine and did lots of networking (that's chatting or gossiping), making new friends and catching up with old friends. At midnight a small group of us made our regular pilgrimage to the cross roads to pay our respects to 'Hecate' (and as always a single car came thru while we were gathered in the centre of the road) the sky was clear and the moon was full and looking beautiful.
Breakfast starts from 7pm so Daniel, Taren and I were up and had coffee and pancakes available as people emerged, a full day of workshops, the pagan shopping centre and more networking kept people busy, as always the Wand/Staff making workshop proved very popular, taking over most of the hall and running over time, Jordan, Kat and I were kept busy guiding people into ways their creations could take shape with copper, feathers, seashells, crystals, leather and ribbon decorating many different types of wood. The healing workshop involved many participants and was very hands on, with several patients being helped by various people.
Saturday night is always a Feast and Kay, Kerry and Kat ensured we all had too much to eat even before the multiple deserts came out. (Thanks to my wonderful kitchen team). The lovely weather continued thru the chilly evening and many people chose to spend their time indoors, some great fire spinning was done on the grass with several new burners having a go. More lovely mulled wine was created from peoples donations to warm our insides. I am proud that MEF is a big happy family, we welcome old and new faces with open minds but just ask that you leave big egos behind.
The evening's Full moon ritual was run by the Cauldron of the Four Winds (we like to share the workload) and was included some 'may you never Hunger' as well as 'may you never thirst' and  everybody received one of Karen's lovely spell pouches. At midnight I returned to the cross roads to share my food, drink and thoughts. and that lovely moon continued to watch over us all. Sunday is a short day, after a shower and breakfast we have to pack our gear then everybody pitches in for the big clean up operation, once finished we gathered back at our MEF tree for our closing ritual that finishes with us all spiraling into hug the tree and each other, once completed we have yet another 'Hug Chain' and more hugs and group hugs break out all around, many of us are not ready to return to the 'default world' and want to continue to soak up the MEF energy that abounds here.
I give thanks to all those who participated in the festival as they always bring lots of loving and creative energy to share, and they continue to welcome new faces into our MEF family.

July 15 2011
 Thursday it rained and rained and I was seriously thinking about canceling "Moonfest" (our Full Moon Fire, Dance and Drum Circle), I checked my emails and several people were asking 'Is it still on ?' then I decided NO.. LETS HAVE FAITH AND DO IT, so I replied to all that 'All was Go' by 6.45 when I got there the rain had stopped, the ground was very wet but the sky was clearing, about 25 people also had faith, Anne had the hot chocolate to share, our troop of Good drummers held the beats together, our new drummers applied their energy, Josh varied between the Didgeridoo and Drum, a small number of us fire danced to the beats, the moon and stars took turns to shower us with their blessings and we all had a great night, so remember have faith and trust in Pete's Weather... and enjoy.

July 10 2011
Things have been interesting, I am try to get money to pay for my trip to Burningman in Nevada in August, the universe has obliged with some part time work during the week that has kept me pretty busy. On thursday night I attended the regular meeting of the ‘Cauldron of the Four Winds’, as always this was fun with new faces and old friends coming together, as a new idea of mine Anita and Gareth also video-conferenced in via Skype from Rotorua adding to the energy of the night.
This weekend was a show at Pakuranga with setup on Friday afternoon, instead of finishing at 7pm the venue closed at 5pm so I headed off to check out ‘The Melt’ at the Blockhouse Bay boat club, organised by our friend Fraser  this is an evening about Improv dance with the musicians as secondary figures creating the energy. The evening started with each of the dozen or so of us introducing ourselves to the group and expressing what we were here for, My drummer friend Bruce from Prana commented that he was happy to see me there (generating some warm fuzzies) I said “Hi my name is Pete, I am addicted to drumming” then we were into 15 minutes of us all moving and dancing to recorded music, this put us all in the context of dancers expressing the energy, then some of us gently took over instruments and we turned the recorded music off and started to organically create energy for the remaining dancers to express with their movements. It was an amazing night with up to half a dozen musios playing drums, shakers, piano, flute and guitar to create musical energy that varied in beat and tempo, a couple of times Bruce really got things rocking with Fraser backing him up and Dave, Col and myself adding a little something. Some raging beats and some quiet contemplation occurred, really inspiring. Before we left we all came back into a circle and shared our thoughts on the night, several of the dancers were overjoyed that they had control of the energy that was being created rather than it being a bunch of drummers out to please themselves (as often happens).

The weekend show was enjoyable and many regular customers came in for their hug and or crystal fix, I overheard one regular commenting to her friend that “Pete of Pebbles and Potions is well known and respected for his crystals”, this created more warm fuzzies for me.

Kerry, Kay and I had a Magick Earth meeting on Saturday night and made sure we were all on track with the happenings for this weekend’s MEF Hollyfrost.

Now it’s time to get the washing done and back to work on Monday…. Oh and Thursday night is our Full moon fire dance and drum circle, that I have now called “Moonfest”…. So much fun to fit in…

July 4 2011
This was about my 6th trip to Te Kuiti over the years, several have been mid winter ones like this one, during the week I had made an unexpected stop at an op shop in browns bay and invested $20 in a lovely big warm trench coat, I arrived in town late on Friday afternoon and called into the Warehouse where I also found Merino thermals were 50% off, another hint that it could be cold. Like the last few it was a Saturday morning setup, perhaps I am getting older or it's getting colder but I don't remember my hands getting so cold while unloading the trailer, I will carry some gloves from now on. The hall has a remodeled front entrance foyer and the lovely big warm gas heaters have been replaced by electric ones that hang from the roof and send very little warmth down. I lived all weekend in my thermals,  coat and woolly socks, but I stayed warmish, many familiar faces called in for their yearly crystal fix but numbers were down and if they drop much more, much as I love the people and the place it will be hard to justify the cost of coming here.

June 27 2011
This started as a short status update, like me it evolved…

My friend Gwydion Skinner mentions in his facebook status that he is "Finally at the place now where I can openly admit that I want acknowledgement for things I do to contribute to 'the community' that applies. The hunger is growing and now wanting to be seen more than I have before."
I do not agree with this attitude, there was a time long ago when I wanted the acknowledgement of others for what I contributed to my work and my community, years of frustration with little or no recognition for my hard work organising events in various social and sports clubs. Somewhere along the line that need for acknowledgement quietly died and I didn’t really notice it happening, but I still worked hard in the many and diverse communities I belonged to, throwing myself into making stuff happen because I wanted it to happen.
While working for Nike I soaked up their ‘Just do it’ attitude.
I learnt the joy of giving with no expectation of return or thanks and I took up the ‘Pay It Forward’ plan before I knew it had a name or had seen the lovely movie.
I developed my own philosophy of earning ‘Karma Fly Buy points’, and the universe started to redeem some of those points for me, gifting me with interesting events and amazing people coming into my life.
In the middle of all this personal growth my wife decided she wanted out of the marriage, out of working hard to pay the big mortgage and out of her business ‘Pebbles & Potions’.
This gave me the chance to make big changes in my life, leave the 'Default World' get out of the computer software business and take over her new age business, to go in a new direction, to find my own spiritual path and develop myself. Eventually after I got over the hurt I thanked her for giving me the chance to change.
At Kiwiburn I learnt about ‘Do-aucracy’ – If you see something that needs to be done, don’t just talk about it, or wait for somebody else to do it, make it happen yourself.
While living in Melbourne I caught up with a very old friend who I had not seen since I was a kid, I helped her to find herself again and rebuild a new life, and she helped me to understand that “Every day is another beautiful day in Paradise”, and how you handle it is up to you.
As ‘My Life’ evolved ‘My World’ got even better, I took notice of the messages given to me by the universe and I got the opportunity to participate even more, to became a part of more amazing Families/communities, I now spend more time than ever at wonderful festivals around the country working and giving but also having a great time in these lovely communities.
I now find myself receiving acknowledgement in the form of letters at Kiwiburn thanking the ‘Captain’ for making the Pirate ship so much fun and giving them the chance to really enjoy our great lake there. I must admit that this is now my favourite job.
I have emails thanking me for the energy and passion I bring, other organisers who encourage me back because of what I put out there for others.
I have become friends with so many amazing people around this country and the world. I have watched the members of my growing list of ‘Families’ (Belly dancers, Burners, Drummers, Fire performers, Jugglers, Medieval re-enactors, MEF, Pagan and Prana) have a great time at events I have been involved in.
I have now come to treasure these acknowledgments all the more because I did not need them for motivation and their value has now become priceless.

June 20 2011
Life has been busy with some casual warehousing work all week and then Saturday was another one day show, this time in Onehunga, the show was pretty quiet but again some regular faces came along with their friends and we did ok. At 4pm when the show finished we got stuck into packing down with some help from my adopted sister Kat, and I was away just after 5pm and before the rain returned. The rain driving home was really bad and some people were stopped on the motorway, by the time I got home it had eased off so I could unhitch the trailer and then head off to David & Karen's place out past Kaukopakopa. It was a Winter Solstice gathering of the Cauldron of the Four Winds, many of our Magick Earth family were in attendance along with some new faces I had only chatted to online. Those attending brought food, drinks and lovely energy and created a lovely weekend, I missed the first half of the proceedings but I had a really enjoyable time talking, drumming, etc until the early hours of the morning. Sunday was more relaxing with most of us spending time sitting or sleeping in Chris's big Quartz energy circle and more networking etc, both breakfast and lunch were wonderful with the community coming together to cook for each other and help get the place cleaned up. Just like MEF hugs marked the arrival and departure of everybody as well as every other excuse we could think of. Again thanks to David and Karen who opened up their place to all of us and to all of you who came along creating this lovely community. I love you all.

June 16 2011
Last night marked the start of our 3rd year for the "Full Moon Fire, Dance and Drum circle", to help celebrate Anne and I organised some warm drinks to share, special thanks to all those who came along and participated. The night was cloudy and not to cold and I counted about 60 people enjoying the night. Again the drummers created some really great energy and it is so much fun to Fire dance to those beats while bathed in moonlight.

June 12th 2011
At this point in the year my show schedule looked pretty thin, 4 weekends with just 2 one day ‘Mind Body Spirit Fairs’ so I had put out the message that I needed some help if I was to earn enough money to both survive and save money towards heading to the US to help build the Burningman Temple in August this year. The help arrived in the form of a phone call on Wednesday, was I interested in working in a warehouse picking orders ?, of course I was, while a boring job it’s some extra work just when I needed it, starting tomorrow.
So 2 days of 8 hours picking orders and then the first one day fair, up early and off to Kelston community centre, this was a new venue for us, a nice little hall and after a very rushed setup where I only put out half my stock I settled in for a good day, while not rushed off my feet I was kept busy enough and a good number of familiar Westie faces called in. One lady was having a tough time and needed some help rebuilding her self esteem, she didn’t need to buy anything because my gift of some rose quartz and a hug was enough to remind her what a beautiful person she was. The show finished at 4pm and we had to be packed and out by 5pm, another reason for just having a small stall today, having Leanne come in to help with packing enabled me to be out on time. I then went around to her place for dinner and to fix a door for her, when we all work together in this world, things are so much better for all of us.
Sunday was to be my day of rest, there was some lovely sun shining in my place and I spent several hours dozing in the sun, doing my best ‘cat’ imitation, then it was get some of the ‘default world stuff’ like washing and housework done, catching up on my emails and paperwork… not the most exciting of days but pretty satisfying.

Well Monday will soon be here and a week of picking orders, and don’t forget Wednesday night is our next scheduled Full Moon fire, dance and drum circle, as well as our Mid winter special it is also our second birthday… would somebody like to bring a cake to share, Anne and I will have some warm drinks to share.

June 8th 2011
The famous "Chewy and Bex" organised a Fundraiser for the Burningman 2011 Temple, like me they are heading over to the USA to be a part of the construction team for this amazing project. They brought togeather Chewy's Drumming group and Bex's Bellydance group and added a selection of their many personal talents along with their Fire family and other performers to provide lots of great entertainment for the night. They had a heap of great raffle prizes donated by themselves and their friends, many of them hand crafted. The Ultimate prize was the 'Mystery Box', won by Anne this was a full survival kit for Kiwiburn/Burningman, with contents ranging from a sparkly hat thru to a rain poncho, LED lights and cable ties, I know these contents will be used next year at Kiwiburn. It was great to catch up with many of my friends and the 4 hours just flew by. The grand surprise was Chewy involving us all in one of his Drum performances where we all have our hand drum and without saying a word Chewy gets us clapping, drumming and waving our arms about to his orchestrated beats, just watching the expressions and energy that flow from him during the performance is worth the money. They surprised themselves by the people that came and the money they raised but knowing these two nothing was going to surprise me, a big thank you to all those who attended and gave their time and money to make this happen. They are soon heading to Reno where they will be helping to build the panels that we will be assembling to the Desert at Black Rock City, to see more about the project go to http://temple2011.org/

June 7th 2011
The last 2 Queens Birthday weekends I have been busy organising the Magick Earth Hollyfrost festival, this year because I organised the Magick Earth Easter festival we decided to move Holly frost out to July 15-17^th so I would have this weekend free to head down to Gisborne for the Mind Body Spirit Expo. It was great to be back, setup was on Friday night so we could all have a small sleep in on Saturday morning before all the lovely smiling familiar faces arrived, there were also plenty of great new faces. Saturday night we had a bit of excitement after the show finished when a couple of fire engines arrived but thank goodness it turned out to be a false alarm. Unfortunately our drum circle didn’t happen as everybody else was busy with other stuff so I spent the night watching back to back ‘Dr Who’ episodes. Sunday was another quiet start before a busy afternoon, more of our regular faces came along to the show as well as some out of towners who I had a great chat with. Finally it was time to pack it all up and head back, I got to just the other side of Opotiki before I stopped at a beach to sleep, the big advantage to travelling with your bed in the van is you don’t need to plan your travel, you can just drive until you like the spot or feel you are getting tired and then take your nap, in comfort. Monday was a slow start before joining the flow of traffic north, back to the big smoke. Once home it’s a matter of sorting and unloading some of the stuff from the van, getting my clothes washed, and the van washed, then it’s dinner time…. My next 2 weekends are local 1 day shows then a couple of weekends off, then some more local shows… the excitement of Burningman and the temple build is building while I am also organising Kiwiburn and several other festivals… no rest for the wicked….

 May 31st 2011
Last night I parked on the sea shore and was lulled to sleep by the sound of waves crashing on the beach, this morning the tide was out and the waves had gone, I ate my breakfast sitting in the sun at the start of a beautiful day. As I drove through the gorge the road was well marked by natures scars, rocks spread across the road on one side, and missing bits of road on the other.
At first the river is big and wide, full of water that is still running off the countryside and joining into lovely waterfalls before merging with the main bulk of the river, a river full of white where the rocks refuse to budge and force the water to go around or over them, the hills are steep and wild, covered with bush and the occasional rock face, apart from this road there is no sign of man here.
As the road climbs the river diminishes, now down to a stream but still above it’s normal levels, the road climbs further and we slow down as the climb is hard work for my van and I have no rush, the temperature has dropped and mist cloaks the hills, the road winds and climbs still further on, splashes of sunlight start to break thru with patches of lovely blue sky, the stream dwindles to a trickle and then stops, or should I say ‘starts’ at a small spring surrounded by rock. As I approach the top the sky is now full of blue and glorious sunshine is everywhere. As I write this I am parked at the top, in full sunshine but up there is little warmth, just a small promise of what may be. I munch on a chocolate bickie and let the words flow, just the occasional vehicle going by to remind me of civilisation.  Not the perfect life but pretty good.
I later reach the civilisation called Gisborne, for $3.80 I swim a few length of the pool, have a great soak in the hot spa and have a hot shower, pretty good value I reckon.

May 29th 2011
We have some lovely friends in Rotorua and it seemed to be all go this time, first up I called in to see my Raptor friends at Wingspan, the weather was crappy but it cleared enough for the 2 falcons to have a great fly, and a good chat with me perched on my hand. Then into town to sort out a panic call from our friend Sharon who had mucked up her computer, followed by a lovely home cooked dinner with her and Frans before heading over to Anita's for a birthday party full of 80's music and some dancing with many of our Magick Earth Family. Unfortunately I had to leave before it got too late as I had an early start scheduled. Before dawn I was unloading the trailer and setting up for the Mind Body Spirit Expo at the sound shell, it was a very busy day with lots of customers both regular and new and lots of people wanting some cash out on my Eftpos machine. Finally 5pm arrived and time to close the hall, cook up some dinner then off to Anita's to catch up with the rest of the gang and head out to the hot pools for some terrible singing and a lovely soak. Eventually head back to sample the yummy mulled wine and watch a movie, then time to fall asleep in the van. Sunday morning was a chance to sleep in (until 8am), breakfast and a chat with our fellow campers before it's time to go in the hall and tidy my stall up for a new day. Sunday was a bit quieter and I got the chance to chat to a few fellow stall holders before packup time arrived, this takes me a couple of hours then it's load everything back into the trailer and I am now officially stuffed. Off to BK to grab some food and I find Dean & Cath in the queue in front of me, we chat over dinner then go our separate ways, I am stuffed and going for an early night. It's not always this busy or this much fun but I love my life and my many friends around the country.

May 22nd 2011
For many of us the big event of the weekend was the prophesied "End of the World" that was scheduled to occur on Saturday at 6pm, perhaps that's why there was no scheduled Spiritual show, instead I spent much of Saturday sorting crystals and making some new display cases. The apocalypse did not happen and I created a typical Facebook status that read "GOD incorporated would like to apologise for the non arrival of the May 21 apocalypse, we ask that you have patience with us as this was caused by an unforeseen error in the bible. We would like to assure the public that the problem is being worked on and another attempt will be made late next year. For more details please refer to your Mayan calendar."
Sunday Anne and I headed down to Hamilton for a Medieval Fair to catch up with some of my Medieval friends and I had a great jam session with some of the local drummers, I also collected a new nick name "Prana Pete".

May 17th 2011
Like last month the weather leading up to the night was horrible, storms everywhere, floods and high winds, again I decided not to postpone but just go ahead with it anyway. So I showed up with a van full of spare drums, fuel for the fire performers, the fire safety equipment, a box of percussion toys, my fire staffs, a gas cooker, a couple of kerosene powered storm lanterns and some blankets. Anne brought the milk and hot chocolate, about 40 of you came and brought your drums, fire toys, a digi, a Pan flute and lots of beautiful energy and so the gods rewarded us with a beautiful night, the sky was mostly clear so we could see that big full moon. The drummers again put up some great beats and towards the end many of us really got dancing to the grooves. My thanks again to all those who participated and also those who threw some money in the hat to cover my costs (without the hat money I can't supply all that stuff).

May 16th 2011
Whangarei is a town we have been going to for many years and where we see so many familiar faces and friends it is like a second home, this visit was no exception. Lots of familiar local stall holders along with a few fresh faces. As always the Whangarei healers did a great job helping people. Saturday generally starts busy with people going to the farmers market over the road and then coming over to see us, so many friends to share a word or a hug with. Sunday was a quieter day and the weather was a bit showery, but then it did stay fine long enough for us to all pack up and load our vehicles. Thanks to you all for a lovely weekend and I look forward to returning in november.

May 9th 2011
I decided to spend time making some additions to the website so I could explain more about my favourite festivals, in the process I found a number of pagan information pages that I had started ages ago and then forgot about, they are intended for the newcomer and are based on some leaflets from the Pagan Awareness Network in Australian, so I pulled finger and got those pages finished as well, I then found some pages that I had missed in my last big tidy up so they got the font change etc.... to me part of the responsibility of having a web site is keeping it up to date. Enjoy....

May 7th 2011
One day shows are hard work, up early drive to the venue, unload before the sun comes up, then setup stall, trade all day (hopefully busy) and then pack down and head home. Saturday was one of those days... good numbers of customers so we were pretty busy for much of the day, I was pretty tired by the time I got home, thanks to all those who came along, as always new faces mixed with familiar ones and some good hugs to be shared with our spiritual family of stall holders.

May 2nd 2011
This was a busy weekend, it started on Friday night with the Kiwiburn Decompression party / Temple fundraiser, it was great to catch up and share some hugs with some of my Burner family. The big news here is that I have been accepted as part of the Burningman Temple construction crew this year, I am manifesting that I will be there for 5 weeks from early August, now I just need the universe to help with the money for the travel, I am so looking forward to this unique opportunity to be involved in building an amazing Temple and being at Burningman for the first time.

Not enough hours of sleep later I was in Albany setting up for the BIG “New Spirit Festival”. The show opened after lunch and I had a very busy start with lots of lovely customers including many regular faces. Later in the afternoon things quietened down and at one point I got to spend time talking to a lady who was looking for help with self confidence, to me I saw a lack of self love and we discussed some possibilities to help remind her of her own special worth, she found a couple of lovely heart shaped word stones, I could see the indecision in her eyes so I told her that I would give her one as “A Special Present to her” and she decided to buy the other one, the hug she gave me told me that I was right and that perhaps she had not been ‘given’ enough by herself or anybody else. I am seeing far too many people undervalue themselves and forget to ‘Love themselves’.

At 6pm the show closed and I headed home for a very quick dinner, get changed and off to Tanya’s to celebrate Samhain, I was very glad I made the effort because the two dozen of us there for the lovely ritual included several friends I have not seen in ages as well as those from last weeks Magick Earth Festival.

Still not enough hours of sleep later and I was back at the show, Sunday is a long day with the show going from 8am to 7pm, there are some great workshops happening so your customers tend to come in waves between the workshops. Many from Saturday came back including the lady I gave the word stone to, she was looking more positive already. Because it’s quieter when the workshops are on you get the chance to meet and chat with some of the other stall holders and I now have some other products to look into further. Finally the time to pack it all up and head off arrived, we plan to return to the same stall next year. Thanks to all those lovely customers who came and chatted and purchased, we look forward to seeing you again.  

April 26 2011
This was the first time the Magick Earth Easter Festival had come north of Taupo and so it was going to be bigger than any we had done up here. A small group of us arrived on Thursday afternoon so we could get some extra MEF time in and get things organised, (we will go for this early start again next year). I had decided to ignore the weather report and bring the Tepee down, the first job was to unload all the food, drinks, stall tables, stock etc before we threw some meat on the BBQ and got some dinner happening, the jelly for desert went down a treat with all size kids, a typical MEF night then got underway and I brewed up a pot of mulled wine to warm everybody up, interestingly the Magick Earth newbie’s outnumbered the regular faces at this point.

Friday dawned fine and we were busy with setting up stalls and getting people settled in then a lovely opening ritual around our lovely Magick Earth tree at the front of the camp, this finished with our Patented ‘Hug Chain’, I was busy with workshops in the afternoon, it was standing room only for my Crystal workshop. Glitter and bubble attacks went on all weekend and involved kids of all sizes. Dinner was right on time and then I brewed up another pot of mulled wine. A typical Magick Earth night of networking, drumming, fire spinning, chanting etc ensured before I headed to bed in the early hours of the morning.

Saturday was another beautiful day, yummy pancakes for breakfast then get organised, the stalls were busy with the Tat shop being a popular place to hang out. The Morning Yoga was pretty popular and the Chanting workshop included those chants that would be used that evening, a highlight for me was helping Kay with her ‘Beginners Guide to ritual Workshop’ where we then encouraged the group to take on the Saturday night ritual, most of them had never organised a ritual before and they did a really great job, my personal highlight being everybody in the circle saying 1 word about what the festival meant to them, I will use this idea another time. The evening got off to a bang with an impromptu Taiko concert with Rachel and her friend giving us a couple of great songs on my big drum ‘Abby’. Dinner was a roast feast followed by several yummy deserts, like many I ate too much but there was still some food left at the end, my cooking team of the three K’s (Kay, Kerry and Kat) do an awesome job of feeding us on a limited budget. After the ritual more drumming, dancing, chanting, my yummy mulled wine and networking etc followed. At midnight many of us made the regular trip down to the cross roads to pay our respects to Hecate. Unfortunately Lilly later took a tumble down the stairs and we had to carry her to bed, for many of us sleep was minimal that morning.

Sunday was a bit quieter, Lilly’s leg didn’t look too good so her sister packed their stuff while Lilly played the part of Cleopatra, things got more complicated when their car decided it didn’t want to go home, eventually the AA man could only tow it away. The workshops continued and as always things were busy at the wand / staff making one where Jordan and Kat were kept busy helping people create some lovely pieces (check out some in the Magick Earth photo album). By mid afternoon it was decided medical attention was required for Lilly so I borrowed Kerry’s car and took Lilly, her sister and their gear to Thames hospital (everything else closer was closed) and waited until her family came down from Auckland to take over, (eventually it was decided the ankle was broken and the collarbone cracked). I missed the coming of age ritual for a couple of our young ladies but got back just in time for another yummy dinner, supper was an impromptu share your left over chocolate and marshmallows and again it showed how much our MEF community believes in sharing. The Pagan round table discussion gave those present a chance to share what was happening in their neck of the woods and reminded me just how much we have happening up here in Auckland these days. The evening then moved to a Samhain ritual organised by the Guardian Elm Circle of Auckland, with cakes from the afternoon’s Pagan cooking workshop. More of the usual Magick Earth evening antics followed including more of my mulled wine and eventually I headed to bed. When I awoke a few hours later it was  4am and only Kat and Anita were left sitting around the Tepee fire. I joined them and Kat soon departed to bed, leaving me to share the time with Anita, by 6am many of the camp were up for our Anzac Dawn service, this was simple yet very moving, then it was on to breakfast, start cleaning the camp and packing everything up. The Closing ritual was held inside as even the gods were sad the festival was over, another hug chain and then it was back to cleaning and packing, some had to leave as they had long journeys home but we had plenty of help to get everything washed and done. I finally got away by lunch time but the traffic was stop start all the way, taking twice the normal time to get home. I am now buried in wet towels (we have to supply all such things at the camp) and busy unpacking. I have quickly unloaded all the photos I took to share. Note the special limited edition magical Witch teddies and Magick Earth Bears.

Thanks to my team of cooks and helpers who work hard to ensure our stomachs are well filled.

Thanks to all those who came from all over the country (including Taranaki, Wanganui and Wellington way) and shared their love and beautiful energy. Thanks also to the Weather gods for holding off the crap weather that had been forecast.

The camp managers think we are wonderful and we have been allocated the camp for the next 2 Easters and of course we will be back July 15-17 for our 4^th annual Magick Earth Hollyfrost festival.

Special thanks to Polli and Ed who started the Magick Earth tradition and endured an 8 hour drive to get to the festival.

The Magick Earth family continues to grow and evolve, we all come together to build a beautiful community and I am happy to be the spark that keeps igniting the energy that you bring.

April 19 2011
The rain was pretty bad all day but I decided to 'keep the faith' and not re schedule our Full Moon Fire, Dance and Drum Circle... but first up I had a Jambalaya committee meeting and debrief, we have found many things we can do better next year and I am again keen to make this wonderful event happen. There are also some great photos appearing on the Facebook Jambalaya page then it was off to Mt Eden where I noticed the wind had come and blown the rain away and left the sky lovely and clear, then the wind dropped right down, leaving us a bit chilly but with an awesome Full Moon. Quite a few new faces and we had some really good drummers come along and create some really great energy and tight beats, not many fire spinners and no belly dancers... but there is no such thing as 'the perfect night'. Thanks to all those who came along and shared their energy. Extra thanks to Sarah & Brad for the yummy hot chai they organised, it did a great job of warming up our insides.

 April 17 2011
Paeroa is a small town that is pretty dead on Sunday so we decided for a Friday & Saturday fair this time, and it seemed to work better. The members of the 'Inner family' were all present so we also spent time discussing many of the finer points of what was to happen next week at Magick Earth.  On Saturday night I had a drum circle scheduled but nobody showed up so I headed back to Auckland to catch some of Clare's "Going away party", she is off to the other side of the world but will return in summer, I am known as the Kiwiburn Pirate Ship Captain by many and I enjoyed the chance to have some fun, as a good host Clare had also arranged space for guests to crash in comfort on the floor.

April 11 2011
There was an unexpected phone call from a friend and next thing I have filled in my weekend with a trip to Thames, Paeroa and Waihi putting up signage for next weeks Paeroa show and then carry on to Tauranga for their new monthly market at the historic village. Despite the last minute nature of this plan a couple of my regular customers still managed to find me sitting at my stall under a beautiful autumn day. Then it was time to pack up and head to Rotorua for their regular bi-monthly Sunday market, it was years since I had been here but there were still familiar faces to be seen in the stall holder community. This time it was a couple of our Magick Earth family members who found me and at one point I was under a bubble attack from 3 of these ladies, a lovely way to spend a sunny autumn weekend while still earning some money.

April 4 2011
This trip has taken me beyond Levin for the first time in a few years and yet one of my first customers remembered me from the last time I was down south at the Upper Hutt show, another happy customer with a new purchase. After chatting to couple of lovely witches it turned out that they are newbie's who have already booked to come up to our next Magick Earth Festival, and so I could explain more about it. The weekend was one of new faces and it helped to recharge my heart to be helping these people and encouraging them to find themselves in this changing world.

March 30 2011
I sat on a wall at Frank Kitts park as the sun went down, the wind came up and the temp went down. I watched the towns businessmen walk home, they may have a lovely like but I am glad to no longer be a part of it..... the local fire spinners soon came out and Pirate Captain Lumos is well remembered by many of them, I had a great night.... thanks to you all....

March 28 2011
I am sitting in my campervan beside the sea watching the waves as I catch up on my website updates and emails, far more fun than sitting at home working. We are starting to get organised for our Easter Magick Earth Festival and registrations are starting to come in, I am NOT the only one who is getting excited about the thought of catching up with so many of our MEF family and pagan friends. The big news of the week was that Kiwi and the team who built Megatropolis at Burningman last year have won the bid to build the Temple at this years Burningman (Aug 29-Sept 5). I have booked out the time in my diary and now I am manifesting the money required to get over there and help this international team that includes many of my Burner family in helping to make this dream come to life.

March 27 2011
From New Plymouth I headed south to Wanganui to catch up with dear friends who live near the beach at Castlecliff, I later found out that my friends "The Barons of Tang" were also staying at the same beach at the same time, it's a small world. Leaving there I headed on to Palmerston North and the Total Wellbeing Expo. I parked outside the shops and on my return I had a lovely note from some of my fire friends welcoming me into town, I am blessed that my job brings me into contact with so many lovely people.
Friday night was the Festival of Cultures parade and as part of it our friends from the University Fire Club did a gig followed by our friends "The Barons of Tang", while chatting with the band members before the show I admitted to being a passionate fan of their music but that it was just synchronicity that this was the 3rd gig of theirs I had shown up at. 
The show was pretty good and many of our regular customers came along to chat before  purchasing an item, and some lovely new customers also came for a chat while pursuing the merchandise, in these tough times I noticed many customers taking longer to make up their minds on the purchase and many came by several times before making their decision. Thank you to all those lovely customers for their smiles and encouragement as it's that kind of energy that keeps me loving my job.

March 22 2011
While at Womad I was invited up to Dawns place for a ritual with Alyssa and friends from Divine Organics, one of the benefits of  traveling the country is all the lovely people I get to meet. About a dozen of us enjoyed a beautifully simple ritual with no notes, just sharing from the heart our thoughts and blessings of the harvest that was summer and Womad. I give thanks again for all the beautiful friends I have.

March 21 2011
This was my first Womad (World of Music, Art & Dance in the lovely city of New Plymouth), I had tried to get there in the past but life got in the way each time, it was a full on 3 days of music, almost too much as there was no time between bands to get to the next stage without missing something. My new favorites are HANGGAI, a Mongolian band who can really get you up and stomping to their beats, they don't speak much English but music transcends the barrier, a Mongolian beer drinking song is recognisable without understanding the words. SIDESTEPPER are a great Columbian band who have 3 singers up front who really work to get you dancing to the beat. Calypso Rose is an amazing 71 year old lady who can really make the Calypso energy happen. My favorites from Jambalaya THE BARONS OF TANG were there also and I was rocking up front for both their gigs, Annie (the amazing percussionist) even recognised me during setup for their second gig. The artists played hard for us and I was one of many dancing hard to feed the energy back to them. I also saw and heard some amazing throat singing, learnt more about Afro, Cuban, Columbian and Jamaican music, as well as listening and dancing to it. The weather gods played their part and gave us beautiful sunny days and clear nights so we could see the lovely full moon in all her glory. I found many of my Prana and Jambalaya family there and I plan to return next year for another dose.

March 15 2011
More lovely people, both new faces and regulars came along to our latest show in Pukekohe. It is always a great place and I was mostly busy serving the smiling faces that showed up at my stall. At the end of the show I packed up and headed down to New Plymouth to spend several days helping to setup at Womad, this volunteer work is not that hard and a great way to get a free ticket if like me you have spare time but are short on money. The people down here in Taranaki sre pretty friendly so far.

March 7 2011
Jambalaya, it’s not a festival to just watch, like all my favourite festivals it’s about participation, it was 2 days packed with interesting workshops and some good gigs to watch….
As a committee member I have attended meetings, talked to people, passed out flyers, talked to more people and now Friday was time to help setup the event, and my stall full of musical instruments, juggling and fire toys. Once it got dark I gave up and headed indoors where the post parade party was still going strong, lots of musical bands and lovely dancers. It was here my new love for Samba bands began.
Saturday lived up to the weather forecast… rain, lots of it, so I gave up and put my stock away to prevent rain damage and joined in the festival workshops, the mellow Gamelan percussion was a stark contrast to the wild and crazy Samba drumming with Mestre Fred, our Taiko Drumming friends Tamashi also did a lovely gig, the weekend also included many informal drum and dance sessions that just happened (as they do when you get a bunch of musio’s together). Arte Kanela’s Flamenco dance show was so full of passion it got to me, and I don’t normally like that type of dance.  I danced in the rain with many other dedicated participants and my new favourite band is “Barons of Tang” who take Gypsy music and put a whole new updated twist on it (any group who have sax, bass sax, double bass, clarinet, trombone and a large array of interesting percussion and hand drums will get my attention).
Sunday started crappy again so I left the stall closed and helped get the site clean and tidy for the new day, then it was more workshops, more informal drumming and dancing, more interesting gigs to watch. Then repeat  (a bit like our mate Sam Rogers and his circular song workshop). I played with some interesting instruments with Fraser Bruce and I will be op shopping for more interesting percussion instruments from the kitchen. I was blown away by the dancers at the Jambalaya Dance show, many of these performers were amazing little kids.
 I also caught up with many of my fire spinning/Kiwiburn/prana/drum/stall holder friends.

Somebody else commented to me and I agree that here everybody was equal, the artists were approachable people you could chat to, there were no prima Dona’s.

The creator of Jambalaya, Heidi Hughes shares my passion for events where people participate instead of just watching, and I thank her and the team of hard working people who are helping her to make it a reality.

I will however hold Heidi to blame for infecting me with Jambalaya disease and I never want to be cured.

 Feb 20 2011
Alexandra Park was the latest "Total Wellbeing Expo", Saturday morning was a frantic rush to get all the stuff up the lift and setup for the 11am start when the customers started arriving. There were reasonable numbers thru the event and some of our local Pagan friends made the most of the chance to come along and buy some lovely product from me. Being one of the bigger shows is also meant that I got to catch up with some of the other stallholders who we had not seen since October last year. That night I was told by my 'Adopted sisters' that we were all off to the local Chinese restaurant for a team dinner, the dinner was lovely and pretty cheap. Sunday saw many more of our regular customers and some new friends calling into the stall to get their crystals, books and giftware, before packing it all away and heading for home, tired but happy.

Feb 18 2011
Another Full Moon Fire and Drums event has come and gone…. I thank all of you who came along an. If you want to learn about fire spinning you can chat to most of the fire performers, they are a pretty friendly bunch and usually happy to loan you a toy and teach you some moves.
Because it’s my passion, and to help performers we also sell drums, fire (and LED) poi and staff’s and bulk Kero (for a better price than the local shop), just have a word with me or drop me a message or a text (ph 0210572722).
 A special thank you to all those who put donations in my hat when I came around, without them I would not be able to cover the cost of the Kero we use, any left over  allows me to get some more percussion toys and drums for everybody to play with.
I will not be there for the March Full moon event as I am finally getting to Womad (working as a volunteer in the build week to earn my free ticket), I know that you will all have lots of fun until I see you all next !!
Keep that drum beat happening and that fire spinning in your heart !

Feb 7 2011
Saturday was a pleasant day but not as busy as I would have liked, some of our friends called in to buy some things and share some hugs. I had advertised a Drum Circle on Saturday night and a couple of us were sitting in the car park getting ready when 2 car loads of people pulled up, it was our friends Chewy, Bex, Nathan, Dean and some others who were down here to do some recording and had seen the signs and not knowing it was me organising it had decided to come along.... it seems that when I need support for my drum circles the universe is happy to provide it. Sunday was a happy but not busy day, the other stall holders are happy to return to Raglan so I have booked it just before Christmas when we can again enjoy the town in summer.

Feb 6 2011
Well the day started well with a good interview on the local community radio station, then just before I left it went downhill with a call to let me know the council had double booked the Raglan town hall on us, a couple of phone calls later and the council guy had found us an alternative venue just up the road at the Old Arts Centre, now to add some signs to ensure people can find us at the new location.

Jan 31 2011
Well I have spent the past week on site at Kiwiburn, helping with setup, finishing construction of the Pirate ship, Helping setup the Greeters area, building shade space down at the beach and setting up my own 'Pagan Camp'... it was all a heap of work but for a 6 day festival so may as well be comfortable.
I have also taken heaps of Photos that will get loaded up here later in the week when I return... I am currently staying on for a couple of days to help with pack down and to give more of the workers here a chance to cruze the lake on the pirate ship. We have 'paddock post' here that delivers letters to people all around the camp, I have a collection of letters thanking me for the Pirate ship and the Kayaks I brought along, it's these letters, all the smiling faces and personal thank you's that make the time and money I put into the festival worth while. The secret now is to take some of that Kiwiburn Energy and hold it in my Heart until the next Burner Event, we are already talking of a small Auckland based burner weekend late in the year, possibly Guyfawkes. Where else could somebody lose a bag with valuables in it on a wet night and when they went to lost and found it was there, the finder had dried the bag and all it's contents, somebody else turned in a lost $5 note...
Saturday night was my birthday as well as the Big Burn of 'The Man' and 'Cows with Guns', it was the best possible way to celebrate my birthday I send my thanks and love to all those who participated in making Kiwiburn such a special place.

Jan 23 2011
The Weather at the Taupo Joust went from damp on Friday to a downpour on Saturday night and then cancelled on Sunday. Despite the Weather the  Re-enacting community pulled together and made the best of a damp situation. Friday was the practice day and a good number of public came along to watch it, we were very happy with the customers in the park during the day, after a hot dip in the creek we had fun fire spinning and enjoyed watching some medieval dancing. Saturday was windy and finished up with showers but again the public came along and supported the event and the traders, when the rain set in we joined others in the shelter in the big marquee and enjoyed a great jam session with some musicians. Between the various festivals (Prana, Taupo Jousting Tournament, Magick Earth, Kiwiburn and NZ Juggling festival, to name a few) there is a great variance in the subject matter of the festival but the sense of community that comes together and the beautiful energy they create is the same. I give thanks to all my lovely friends who create and inhabit these lovely communities.

Jan 20 2011
Well the weather gods smiled on us again and the people came, another mixture of familiar and fresh faces for our January Full Moon Fire, Dance and Drum night. Although we started with only newbie drummers our circle had a good sized group of experienced drummers pounding out some strong beats later in the night. As always a well behaved group of people, including two people celebrating their birthdays just came to enjoy the show and chill out. One group of friends went off to the side to perform a full moon ritual before returning to our party, I like that some people do their own thing while partaking of the whole evening. Thanks again to all of you who joined our community of music, fire and dancing.

Jan 17 2011
Having a weekend without a work show meant that I could head down to the Kiwiburn site and spend several days building the New and Improved Pirate Ship. A team of half a dozen other keen Kiwiburners were also getting stuck into their Art Projects early. The weather was lovely and so each afternoon when it became too hot to work I headed down to the lake to cool off, now I just have to get the Greeters area organised and My Pagan theme camp where some of my friends will be staying.... lots of hard work but lots to fun too.

Jan 11 2011
The Orewa show was hot and fairly quiet, despite this we drummed up some great energy on Saturday night down by the beach, I was joined by my old Orewa regulars of Bo, Menno and John and we soon had a great crowd of strangers joining in the drumming and dancing. Two car loads of our MEF family (Janet, Kerry, Kay, Judith, Tracey and Anita) also came down to join in the fun and we had a great couple of hours, one lady over on holiday from New Mexico wants to get some percussion toys and do a similar thing when she gets home, I told her to go for it, the more people who get into the healing power of the drum circle the better this universe will be.

Jan 7 2011
This months Talking stick moot was a smaller group as many of you were on holiday so it was decided that we would bring some inspirational writing and share it with each other. In a small group this worked out really well, we had some really beautiful and inspiring works and we got to listen to and discuss pieces and subjects that we would not normally read, it was a definite success.

Jan 4 2011
Prana is a special place, nature has provided a beautiful venue, and the people who make up our Prana family are also beautiful, they come from all over the country for this special new year festival. It is a chance to share hugs, knowledge, ideas, songs and dance with like minded people. As always I held a beginners Drum Circle workshop most afternoons and most nights I spent time encouraging people to drum and dance to the wild tribal beats that were being created in the Big Teepee, not finishing until the early hours of the morning. We finished our year with several hours of drumming and dancing then after a short break we drummed and danced in the new year for another couple of hours. Hard work but so much fun !!, my hands will take several weeks to recover. On the way home I was passed by a car full of my customers smiling and waving, to me that sharing of "Good Energy" is a key part of what Prana is, attending festivals like this is my life and my business, I feel that I have the best job in the world !!.