The End of Experience Week and the weekend

Thursday morning it was really nice to sleep in. I slept until about 9 naturally. I felt rested, not having anywhere specific to go. It's nice to have a slow morning. After going to the food shed to get more breakfast food, we started cooking and people slowly started arriving for breakfast. Leaf and I met Rog, who runs the herb garden by the CC. He gave us a bunch of chives and rosemary for our potatoes and eggs. As we began cooking, people began to show up, including David and Staci. It was a really nice breakfast, everyone contributed. Most of us skipped lunch as breakfast had taken until about 11:3o.

At two we had work departments and I made my way back to the kitchen after a day away. We were 6 Brits and 3 Americans, so Andrew(the focaliser) decided we were going to make a British meal. We made Nut loaf, and mashed potatoes. As usual it was a very fun shift.

After dinner we met for a group sharing and a man named Gordon came in and talked about "Personal & Planetary Transformation." He basically talked about his experience with social action and balancing nourishing yourself and activism. It was interesting but very familiar for me. I left when we tuned out but some people stayed and talked and from what I hear, people had a lot to say.

Friday morning was completion. It was basically a time to reflect on the week in a group. I found myself thinking about how anxious I was before I came, up to saying goodbye to mom at the airport, but also how as soon as I made it through security, I moved into a state of zen I suppose. I was just there in that moment, not concerned about the wait, or the plane ride or anything. I stayed that way until I got to Inverness and was just too tired to go on. I just wanted to be here already. But that feeling of zen and total patience and community is also what I felt as soon as I got to Newbold House the first night. Instant acceptance by the group. I didn't feel like I had missed anything, I felt immediately at home. And this week has just increased that feeling, if that's possible. I've also been able to reflect a lot on how I am in these types of experiences. And I've come to the conclusion that it's very easy for me to get super involved in what's I'm doing and come home unable to bring things back with me. So, I'm trying to keep a strong connection with my roots, while being fully present in my experience. This involves writing this blog as fully as I can, talking to home via skype, but also realizing when I need to just experience. It involves lots of reflecting I guess and recording. That's the simplest way to put it.

The afternoon was our last work department for FX(Findhorn Experience week). My last day in the kitchen. I ended up preparing butternut squash with Elizabeth and we decided to save the seeds, which were going to go into the compost, and roast them with some salt and pepper and herbs. We didn't get to it until Saturday night...so I'll write about it when we get there in the timeline....

Friday night dinner is an exciting time. For one thing, it's the one day of the week that the kitchen prepares dessert. There is also a bar with beers and wine for sale. This dinner was also especially special for FCS as it was our completion dinner for FX week. Emma and Staci had decorated the table and we all sat together. It was really nice to have everyone there in a social situation. A lot of us hang out at night, but having everyone together, dressed up for dinner was super nice. I feel really good about this group.

I had KP but afterwards I spent some time connecting with home and then made my way over to one of the other bungalows, Diane's, where a bunch of people were hanging out. We drank a bit and went through Rise Up Singing and Dragonfly's songbook and just played music together for a long time. I sang Kilkelly and Star of the County Down and got a lot of compliments on my voice, which was nice as I am usually very nervous about singing by myself in front of people. The drinks helped, but I think it was more the group that helped. I just feel very comfortable here with these people.

Saturday: Ina and I took the bus into town to exchange money and had a bit of an adventure. We were supposed to meet the bus at Tollbooth Street but somehow missed it and ended up walking the 4 miles back to The Park. We could have hitched back, which is much safer here than in the US, but it was a nice walk despite the cold.

I spent the rest of Saturday relaxing, just sitting and knitting and hanging out. After dinner some of us went to the hot tub, which was incredible. It's an old whiskey barrel behind the Universal Hall. We hung out there for a while, taking turns jumping into the cooling tub and then back into the hot tub and then all met at Long Meadow to share a few drinks and hang out. It was a very relaxed evening. The perfect end to a lovely day. Elizabeth and I also roasted out squash seeds with incredible success. We did a batch of ones with rosemary, one with chives and one with both. All batches had salt and butter greased the pan. They are delicious still. I'm snacking on them right now.

This morning I woke up early, which surprised me, but was nice as I still had to make up my mind whether to go to Friends Meeting or Taize singing. I ended up going to Taize, and although one song kind of creeped me out, it was really nice to sing. Taize is a fairly Christian practice, but I enjoy a lot of Christian music so it was still nice although the beliefs are not my own. Brunch was delicious as usual, although no chocolate fountain this week.

At 12:30 I went to Sunday Slot in the upper CC, which is a regular time for sustainability and world justice talks. The speaker was a man named Frank Cook, who is at Findhorn giving a workshop on fermentation and wild foods this weekend. His talk was titled "Community as Food Security." He mostly talked about his experience with plants and how many plants in the wild are totally edible and how modern culture tends to view weeds as weeds and not as food, medicine etc. One plant that stuck out for me is one called pigweed commonly. It's a part of the Chenopedium family and is a common weed all over the world. Frank brought in one that he had found this morning and told us that it's basically quinoa. And instead of importing and paying a fortune for quinoa, we could be growing it ourselves in Scotland(specific to today) but anywhere it grows. You just let it grow all season, and it will grow tall--up to 3 meters I think--and then chop it off, hang it upside down with a bag over the end of it and collect the seeds. I know how much food is out there but I've never really tried to take action on it. Frank's talk inspired me as I spend so much time thinking about food, but since graduating have taken little action on the issue. I did work at The Living Earth and talked to a lot of people about my ideas, but I feel like I could have taken some other action that made me feel more accomplished.

I've spent the remainder of the afternoon taking pictures of The Park to post, writing this entry and walking on the dunes. I found a big hill of sand to climb. It was beautiful to see the water, the village and the windmills in their respective directions. I did, however, get some sand down my pants sliding back down the dune. Ah well. I think tonight will probably be fairly low key. Dinner soon and then some connecting with home and then whatever is up.