Long time no bloggy

Well, we've been quite busy, and forgetful. Hopefully there will be a couple updates in the next week or so because I don't think I'm going to cover everything right now. We just had our last market last Thursday. It was really great. Mike and I had been away in the U.S.A for 2 weeks, so Katherine and Brad had held down the fort while we were gone. We attended a vipassana meditation course near Boston, MA. 10 days of silence, and 10 hours a day meditating. Yikes! It was quite difficult but very healthy. My second course, and Mike's first. Mike liked it and we've both been meditating once or twice daily since we got back.(We'd like to make it twice but it's still difficult to find the time) For more information go to www.dhamma.org

After our course we helped out at the centre for a few days, and then got a ride and hitchhiked to Unity, Maine for the Common Ground Fair. It was positively marvelous. It's a fair put on by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. And it's huge! like 20,000 people a day. Mike and I volunteered setting up because we got there a day early and then Brad and Katherine came down on the weekend for a day and we got a ride back home with some friends.
While there, we went to workshops on: growing grapes, growing raspberries, growing strawberries, growing and storing root crops, crop rotation, tree pruning, seed saving, finding your spirit guide, solar energy, solar cooking, scything demonstration, scythe sharpening, homeopathy, homemade bike trailers.
There were also lots of booths with info, and books for sale on all sorts of subjects. We bought books about homemade earth-ovens, yurts and tipis, sustainable architecture, a unique village in columbia that is a major environmental/sustainability success story, and one about the Buddha and Angulimala(a terrorist/serial killer that become a monk). And needless to say, there was delicious food, and a farmers market!

So. now we are back home and still have a bazillion things to do and work on for the coming winter, next spring and beyond. The most important one: reading Lord of the Rings! I started reading Lord of the Rings aloud to Mike, Brad, and Katherine last week, and it has been a lot of fun so far. We just visited Tom Bombadil and are now staying at The Prancing Pony in Bree.

Hey dol, merry dol, my hearties!