Photos from our time at the Heartland Pagan Festival. You are not allowed to take photos of the festival...or the rituals, or any other photos that would show the faces of the people attending the photos. So our photographs are pretty limited in scope and don't really show what it was like to be at the Festival. Mainly just photos of us.

There are no photos of Will Burris who we had the pleasure of hanging out with at the Festival. There are no photos of the happy people wandering around and working together. No photos of all the amazing vendors tents. No photos of just all the amazing sites and sounds. It was a great time...and a meaningful experience. O.K. Here's what we have, with captions...

Jamie and I went out Thursday night, cut a hole in the woods, and set up camp. We wanted to save our spot.


We set up two tents...




...and a shelter area, in case it rained.


Our campsite was away from the "tent city" that was the Festival itself. It was great being down in the woods. This is me (Mark).


Jennifer made this shirt out of one of the shirts I brought with me. It was pretty hot outside.


Jamie hanging a mirror for taking out her contacts...


Jamie and Jennifer, eating my vegatarian Chicken and Dumplings. (I forgot the chicken in the freezer at home.)


Mark cooking the Chicken and Dumplings (minus the chicken), and tending the fire.


Jennifer's view of things in camp.


Jennifer knitting a sock in the middle of the woods!


When the sun was hottest, we were shaded by the trees above our camp.


Mark...


We weren't allowed to dig new firepits, so we used a portable patio fireplace for our fire.


Jamie, getting her new grill ready for some breakfast cooking.


Jennifer...


There was an alter to Ganesha near the main ritual circle...


...offerings had been left by others for this Hindu god.


Here they are building the fire for the final fire and closing ritual of the Festival. It had to be about 10 feet tall, and built in a clever spiral.


Dustin back at camp.


Mark, prepared for the rain. And we got a lot of rain. Mostly at night, with occasional sprinkles otherwise.


Camp was a little messy, and muddy after we had lived in it awhile.


We weren't the most disciplined campers...and our gear was all over the place.


Our camp was all trees...


...and mud. Deep, deep mud.


On our last day there, we were recruited to do some mud bathing in a huge mud pool on the edge of camp. Here's Jamie...completely mudded up.


Jennifer, covered in mud.


O.K. I (Mark) got in the mud too. How could I resist?


Dustin, also muddy as can be.


Mark, Jennifer, Jamie, and Dustin...all packed up and ready to go.


I would recommend this event for anyone that is interested in getting away from the mundane world, and just having fun out in nature...

Mark

OMG. That mud bath looked like soooooo much fun!!!

It looks like you all had a great time. Wish we could have been there. CJ made me stay home and help build a patio. lol It's all good though. It looks pretty good! After all that sweat and labor - I'm pretty proud of it!

Excellent...I'm glad you guys have a patio built. That will lead to many great days and evenings of fun.

Heartland was great...

Mark

Tara. let me know when you guys are having the patio party!

Ha! While Jamie is inviting herself over, I might as well invite myself as well...



Mark

LOL It's not quite party size. It's pretty small. I think 12x6 feet. But will work! I think we can do beers and social hour on my lil patio. Maybe CJ will grill for us...

Hmmm...let me look at my calendar. I do need to celebrate my late birthday still...

Uhhh wouldn't be a party without DUSTIN!!!

Everyone would be invited! I still need to look into this...

oops, I think I started something! Sorry Tara!

HA! It's all good. It's for my GV family!