Last week, I spent most of my time lounging around in a field in Derbyshire at New House Organic Farm.

I was there for the Rainbow Circle Magic Hat Gathering, which I had previously attended to celebrate Beltane earlier in the year. Obviously this time, it was for the summer gathering, which also coincided with the eclipse earlier this week, and was a little bit of a delay in celebrating Lammas/Lughnasadh to allow for the absolutely stacked celestial events last week.

I managed to run a few craft sessions. On the first day, I made some pinhole eclipse viewers from cardboard boxes and tinfoil. These were quite fun to make – a real throwback to primary school that brought back fond memories of the ’99 eclipse I witnessed in Germany. They were – however – somewhat eclipsed (see what I did there?) by someone with some rather incredible eclipse-viewing glasses.

We spent the first evening gathering under the eclipse, watching it progress, and sharing our different methods for viewing and recording it. It was rather surreal to experience what felt like a sunset, only for the sun to return for about an hour before actual sunset. It was then on to our communal meal – some bean burgers and salad, donated by one person fresh from their garden. As the sun set, we gathered around the fire. As it was a new moon, I shared some bay leaves and different ingredients for people to use in manifesting. As the night sky settled in, it was on to looking out for shooting stars, as we were also there during the Perseid meteor shower.

For those unfamiliar, Rainbow Circles are essentially gatherings that ask you to pay what you can. They’re centred on living together and contributing to the community. For me, I was providing workshops on the aforementioned pinhole viewers, as well as bringing a large roll of paper to paint and draw as a group (not unlike my project at the Ashfield Show). I also volunteered to make a chickpea curry for the camp – although the less we say about my rice, the better.

Central to these camps is the daily meetings where we discuss the chores needed for the day, who is going to be cooking, workshops we’re offering, building tasks, issues at hand, and the future of the camp. It’s essentially a little experiment in commune living in lovely surroundings.

Although not ideal for sharing blogs and posts, I also barely spent any time on my phone at all, which is a nice brain refresh sometimes. I did get a few bits, but nothing much.

I think I’m starting to prefer these smaller gatherings and camps over the idea of a large festival (when we’re talking tens of thousands) when it comes to wind-down time and I’ll definitely be searching for more for next year – and perhaps see if I can squeeze a few more in before the summer ends.

@theopaqueelephant

I’m beyond thankful for the rain we’re getting this week, but ooooooh was lying under the trees on an organic farm in the sunshine last week lovely thank you rainbows 💖 #creatorsearchinsights #derbyshire #britishsummer

♬ biting bullets – ridgeclub

I feel like I’ve been so busy over the past few weeks, that even though I’m sharing on the blog more frequently, I’m not really sharing much in the way of resources. Things are starting to settle a little bit more and I’m getting into more of a routine, so I plan to be back to sharing resources from September. Thank you for sticking with me. My number one key is also no longer working – I’m feeling a little lost without easy access to exclamation marks, ha