Ravenwood Returns

Freya’s Folk presents RAVENWOOD


When: July 4th. 2013 - July 8th. 2013

Heathen Campout/Fun & Frolic & Blots in N. California



Event Details: Join us atop the "Sleeping Lady" (Mt. Tamalpais) for a mellow weekend campout with fun, frolic, and a feast. Learn about the American Vinland Association, Romuva, and the California Utlandr Alliance. Enjoy Heathen fellowship, workshops, and merriment around the fire with the Politically Incorrect Song Singers (P.I.S.S.) Loggats Tournament, (with prizes), special events, and guests. Tentatively scheduled are Pasha & the Pagans, Della & Stephen's handfasting on Satyrday; & Seidr with Hrafnar & Diana Paxson. More information will be sent with your registration (in June).

Vendors welcome, but must donate an item worth at least $20.00 to the raffle. Workshop/ritual presentations welcome/encouraged. All Registrations or cancellations must be received by June 26th. Late registrations accepted only if space permits. No on-site registrations. Any one NOT registered will NOT be admitted. Registration includes three or four nights camping, feast on Saturday, one raffle ticket, and a commemorative item. Tent camping only. Our campground has flush toilets, water, sinks, and food cupboards. We have both campsites with a limit of 75 people (but there are several motels nearby for the less hardy) from 2 p.m. Thorsday till noon Manisday. Tree worship on Thorsday. Other daily blots & symbels. Annual American Vinland Association & Utlandr Alliance meetings. If you'd like to present/perform, please contact us.

What to Bring: Food & camping gear & $ for Heathen shopping.

Price/Donation: $60 each (Thorsday-Manisday); $55 each (Friggsday-Manisday), $100 couple, $25/vehicle

Children 13 and under are FREE.

Event Location: Panoramic Highway in Marin City

Event TIME Details: 2 pm Thorsday - noon Moonday

Directions: Entrance is opposite Mtn. Home Inn on top of Mt. Tamalpais about 20 minutes North of San Francisco. Map is sent with registration. NO on-site registration! Full refund if cancellation request is received by June 26th.

Websites: http://www.freyasfolk.org, http://www.freyasfolk.blogspot.com

Mailing Address: 537 Jones Street, PMB #165, SF, CA 94102

Upcoming events

.This Friday (4/26) is the Opening Reception at Pittsburgh City Hall (N on Railroad Ave. off of Hwy 4) from 5-7 pm. It's FREE, and I have two paintings and two stained glass pieces in this show which is on display till 5/2. Art will be on floors 1 & 3, and refreshments on floor 2. On Sat. 4/27, I'll be at the NROOGD Beltane, and 5/3-5 I'll be vending at the Beltane event in Wilseyville. Happy Walpurgis to all!

Adventures in the Heart Land

Dear Friends,

A belated Valentine's greeting to you all. Some people receive cards, candy, and/or flowers for Valentine's day; some go out for a romantic dinner or something else entertaining, and sometimes I do, too, but not this year!



But let us go back in time a few weeks to 1/23 when I went to the clinic to see if they could think up something new to help with the tendonitis in my thumb. No, nothing new, but the doctor said my blood pressure was too high. "Of course it is," I reply, "every time I come here I am upset and in pain."



"Well, she says, "This is the third time you've been here and it's been too high each time, so I'm going to put you on HCTZ and lisinopril, and please return in two weeks to have your BP checked."



I dutifully took my pills every morning for two weeks, but felt just awful. I was tired, dizzy, had a mottled rash on my forearms, was short of breath from carrying a bag of groceries inside, and had no energy.



On 2/6 I returned for my check-up and complained of my reactions, and thought maybe I was allergic to one of the meds, but the nurse just told me to take one in the morning and one in the evening and see what happens. What about written prescriptions so I can get this refilled? Well, you'll have to make an appt. for that and come back next week. Great, I thought, but was too tired to argue with her.



On Sunday, 2/10, I'm out in the backyard mowing the grass which is usually a 15-20 minute job, but I had to stop and sit down every five minutes because I was sooo exhausted.



On 2/13 I called for an appointment with a doctor for the scrip, but they wouldn't give me one, and told me to just come in at 5 for a BP check, and the nurse could write me a scrip! I was flabbergasted, but went to the clinic, and when they finally saw me I bitterly complained about the runaround, and repeated my concerns about being allergic or something, and in addition to relating the lawn mowing incident, added that I used to substitute teach the exercise class at the center, and now could barely make it through it. OK, she says, but your BP is good now at 127/74, and I'll go talk to someone about refilling your meds. Well, she comes back, and says it's a slow night at the clinic, and it is, since I'm the only one in the waiting room, and even though I don't have an appointment, one of the doctors will see me. So I go through my tales of woe with her, and she says, this doesn't sound like an allergy, I want to run an EKG. So, two nurses come in with a machine and test me, and about 10 minutes later, the doctor comes in and tells me she doesn't like the results and she's sending me to the emergency room at the county hospital. "Do you have anyone to drive you or should we call and ambulance?"



Aaaaahhhhhhhh! My brain starts thinking that since I don't have insurance, that this ride is going to cost me $2-3K, so I politely decline, and being the true child of my father that I am, I drove myself to the emergency room in Martinez about 15 miles away. I still have no idea what's wrong, and I'm a little shocked, but I get there about a half hour later, and even find parking!



I walk in, there's no line at reception either, and I check in and before I can sit down, they call my name, and start shuffling me around. They put me on a gurney in the ER and wheel me into one of their curtained examination rooms, and the tech looks at my EKG, and says he doesn't think it looks that bad, but he's going to run his own. He doesn't like the looks of his though, and says they're going to admit me and keep me overnight for tests and observations. I'm going to move ahead past all the gory details of being hooked up to all kinds of monitors and having blood drawn every 4 hours, and proceed to finally being transferred from the ER to a room after 6 hours. For those of you familiar with my travelogues, I must mention that having not been allowed to eat or drink anything for over 9 hours, then at one in the morning I was treated to a can of ginger ale and a box of "lean cuisine" macaroni & cheese which I devoured as best I could with one arm in a BP cuff and the other with a clip on the end of a finger. After my gourmet repast, I was so exhausted I fell asleep almost immediately.



On Thursday at 7 am, I received my "cardiac" breakfast of coffee, pancakes and oatmeal, and a valentine card from one of the staff. I wasn't hungry and fell back asleep, but ate it all around 8 when they checked my vitals. At 9 the bloodsucker was upset that I'd eaten, and went away without any of my blood.



After that, it was one information seeker after another, filling out forms and going for tests. At one point, they asked for a contact person and number, and I gave them Greg and Rachael's info, and they asked me to call them to confirm. I did, and Rachael sent Greg straight to the hospital even though they were half way to San Jose for PantheaCon. I was off having my first treadmill test, and I only lasted 2 ½ minutes before I had an angina attack. It felt like someone had punched me in the jaw. They gave me nitroglycerin and kept taking pictures. They determined I had an 88% blockage in my artery and said they were transferring me to John Muir for heart surgery. Greg was there by then and followed the ambulance from Martinez to Concord. John Muir is in the top 2% of cardiac units in the country so I was in excellent hands, and even their hospital food was pretty good.



I was prepped for surgery and had an angioplasty and a stent inserted. I was sedated, and the operation only took about an hour. I was released from the hospital the next day around 11 am. Greg drove me to the pharmacy for my scrips and then home to pack and take off for P'con. They were running the hospitality suite for 3 groups and offered me one of the beds in the suite for the weekend. (They didn't want me to be alone and brood all weekend - and I'm so glad I went - thanks, gang!) Greg called ahead a few minutes before we arrived and asked for some people to be sent down to help with my things since I'm not allowed to lift more than 10 pounds nor strain my groin, and one of the volunteers was Ed Fitch. Even though I was only presenting one workshop on Saturday, Glenn & Joy gave me a full pass so I could come and go as needed. Friday night I finally had a shower.



They were having a Covenant of the Goddess meeting in the suite, and I put in a 5 minute appearance and said hi to many friends and well-wishers including Dan from Eclectia. I spent an hour sorting out seven new prescriptions and taking pills and went to sleep. On Saturday I awoke around 9 and made some notes for my lecture, and in walked Dodie from Winnepeg. She was there to present a documentary funded by the CBC about the "Winnepagans." We've become friends over the years from attending Gaia Gathering in Canada.



I visited the Druid suite down the hall and said hi to some friends, and Allen from NWC helped me down to my lecture room, and he worked with the tech guy to set up the pc with the projector, and my friend Angel from DC was there, and she and her boyfriend helped put out all my Lithuanian books and CD's and brought over a chair so I could sit when needed next to the screen. The talk went very well, and I received a round of applause when I informed the crowd that Jonas had made me an "Ambassador of Romuva." I always wanted to be Madeleine Albright when I grew up; she always seemed to have such a good time. I guess I'm still working on that growing up part.





I had a great weekend relaxing and recovering and want to thank every one who looked out for me. I did stay Saturday night for the scotch tasting in the Asatru suite, took Rachael and Greg out for breakfast on Sunday and then drove myself back to Antioch where Pasha had just pulled up to help me unload, and then we went to the Antioch Lapidary Club's annual show and had a late lunch at my current favorite Chinese place.





Rhoda came by to see me on Monday, and Nicole stayed for two nights, so I have plenty of wonderful friends checking up on me.

Local Travel

Just returned from the opening of my show at the Impulse Gallery at 259 Railroad Avenue, in Pittsburg, CA. The show runs daily through Feb. 9th, and I'll be there that day from 3-5pm. I didn't sell one of my paintings yet, but I did sell one of my signed and numbered and framed prints of the "Raven." Please contact me if your interested in one of my prints. They sell for $15-$50.

Long, strange trip it's been

3/9-11/2012 Delhi/Hotel Malik

On our last day in Haridwar, we checked out of the Grand Basant and had hired a car and driver back to Delhi. Traffic was heavy and it took over 8 hours although our driver stopped at lovely fast-food roadside restaurant with international cuisine and English menus. Rachael had French fries with her entrée. Quel surprise!

 I had booked a hotel in Delhi near the airport on hotwire. It was only a three star, but it was better than the Grand Basant, and the room service had meat dishes, and their cheese sandwiches were especially good after our week-long diet of mainly egg rolls, fries, and cookies. The hotel Malik looks rather decrepit from the outside, but the interior was spotless, the staff obsequious and attentive, and they had amazing retro purple chandeliers and beaded light fixtures (Highly recommended - malikcontinental.com). The shower curtain (the first one we’d encountered on our travels) was purple, and once again there were moth balls in the sink which this time I removed and put in a bag in a drawer in the closet. That night I awoke to a terrible smell – it was the water! The smell is so awful that only the smell of mothballs can cover it up. The hotel supplied us with pitchers of filtered water which had no smell at all. I dutifully put the moth balls back, and kept the bathroom door closed as much as possible.

The second day we went shopping in the neighborhood and found an Indian version of a K-Mart and bought ready-to-make Sari fabric kits for under $10. I also bought a lovely and silly flashing red, white, and blue “om” sign for about $2. I had to go back to buy another one for Rachael. We had chicken with mushroom soup one night and lamb with onion and spinach on our last night there. On 3/11, we returned to SFO just in time for Bouquets to Art week at the DeYoung museum in SF, and I commenced packing in earnest for my move to Antioch, CA.

May 2012 - O CANADA

Seems like I just returned from India, and I had two months to pack and move from Walnut Creek before going off to Canada in May for several events. Once again, Kim hosted me; this time in her new home she’s renting since she just sold her old one a few months ago. She’s much further along in her unpacking than I am.

The first event I attend is called “Gaia Gathering” and is held every year in a different province/city. Last year was Montreal; this year is Toronto, and it’s at University of Toronto. Kim also takes me out to the Art Gallery of Ontario and other tourist places. And I find some kewl ones of my own. This trip I learned new intricacies of the Toronto public transit system.

I’m so happy. On Saturday on the way to Jangbang, I stopped at Fortune Computer and bought the netbook of my dreams for less than $300 (an Asus Eee pc). It’s the first computer I’ve ever owned that I actually like. We had such a blast at this tiny Korean bar. I even sang “Dirty Old Town” with Dr. Myers and others. At closing time I asked the owner about a triple elephant-headed table that was mostly obstructing the hallway to the washrooms. He sold it to me for $20, and Derek carried it back to Kim’s car from the bar. 

After we arrived back at Kim’s, I could hardly wait to set up my new Asus. We charged the battery, turned it on, and a black screen appeared with an error message stating that “windows had failed to install.”  Waaahhhhh! Well, the next day was Sunday of Victoria Day weekend, and although the place was open, the tech guy wouldn’t be in till Tuesday. I was so busy and tired on Tuesday that I didn’t take the subway (an hour each way) in till Wednesday. It was so worth the wait and most of the stress; not only did they give me another new one, they set it up with skype, AVG, a new e-book reader, Microsoft office, and a purple carrying case.

5/26 MIDWEEK

Have been having vivid dreams and spoke with Greg and Inija today on skype. I enjoy skype. If you have it, my skype name is cprudence21. Found a black goose-neck lamp for the guest room for $2 at a yard sale a few blocks from Kim’s, had lemon meringue pie at Wendy’s house, and then hung out at Timmy’s (Tim Horton’s) after watching a lame sunset in the froggy library park across the street. Am reading The Enchanted Cup, Trojan Odyssey, and Elephant Walk simultaneously. No wonder I’m having odd dreams. My shoulder pain is all gone, but my neck and knees still pain me now and then from the car accident I had on 4/13.

Kim finally tried my cheese bagels from SF and loved ‘em, and she made us Shepherd’s Pie for dinner with Orzo salad! This weekend I’m off to Flesherton to stay with David & Carol at their art gallery and home there. Both their children will be visiting that weekend for Mom’s six location “Art for Food” party/show/opening.

David and I go out the afternoon of the show and visit all the venues and wind up at the last one for lattes and butter tarts. The show was wonderful, and it turned out I knew at least half the artists and another half dozen guests from all my travels and adventures in Canada over the last 25+ years. I started telling people I’d come for Carol’s show (which was partly true!).  The food was amazing; the owner of the cheese shop even made raclette – a Swiss dish I’ve enjoyed in Geneva. I know it was the middle of nowhere, but Flesherton is a “happening” place. The next night, I joined three couples for a fiesta memory dinner celebration with photos of their trip to Mexico. We started with margaritas and ended with Mojitos and a maple flan Carol had made for dessert. True Canadian cuisine and delicious, too.

Final Days in Haridwar

At the end of the conference, the University awarded five honorary doctorates. One of them went to Jonas Trinkunas, and Vytautas accepted on his behalf. Vytautas told me on 3/6 that he had skyped Inija and found out that the operation to stop the gangrene in Jonas’ feet was successful, but he lost some toes and has hypertension.

3/8 Holi (pronounced “holy”) Full Moon

We had decided to stay an extra day in Haridwar to recover since our only expense was food. It was full moon and a Hindu holiday called “Holi.” We walked over to campus with the intention of going online in the computer room, but everything was closed for Holi. We stopped back at the Guest House for coffee and to see if anyone else were around, and the Latvians were all on their way to visit ashrams. Two of the gurus who had attended the conference had invited them. The Lithuanians were welcome also, and invited us to go along. Rachael declined, thinking a trip to the foothills of the Himalayas might prove too stressful, while I was delighted to tag along. We waited and waited for the bus to show up, and when it finally did, 20 Latvians (including their composer), and the three of us representing Lithuania, climbed aboard with their kankles (seven-stringed instrument played like a dulcimer) in traditional dress with several Indian guides and friends for a raucous and uproarious ride above Rishikesh. The Latvians sing and dance at the drop of a hat – The Latvian worldview is ethics, esthetics, and music – and this trip was no exception. The dividing line in the middle of the almost two-lane road is merely a suggestion, and once again I was happy to be with a group so I didn’t have to watch how close we came to annihilation every five minutes. It was very odd, though, watching the abysmal poverty, squalor, and hardship as we drove along, and wondering why all of them didn’t just kill themselves. I don’t think I’d want to live under those conditions. One of the saddest sights I saw was Indian women going out at dawn to gather dung and form it into patties to use as fuel. And, of course, women are not allowed to drive although they may cling to their husbands with babes-in-arms on the back of a motorcycle. We passed a billboard with an ad for gasoline showing a man holding a gas pump handle like an AK 47.

Indian Traffic

 No wonder so many see meditation and other disciplines as ways to rise above/blot out their surroundings. I did learn from the second guru that one is not supposed to kill oneself as that would be killing god. What an interesting mythology!

At each ashram we were graciously received, and the Latvians performed beautiful compositions on their kankles. At the second ashram (which was another hour or so higher up in the mountains), we leapt off the bus, and ran to the river before speaking/singing to the assembled masses. The guru gave us all prayer rugs/shawls, and thanked me for being a “managing trustee” of Romuva, and spoke about Christian oppression, and promised not send any missionaries to the Baltics as long as we kept up our good works. We were invited to stay for dinner and were seated in chairs and waited on by men while the others went through cafeteria-style lines (these lines included some American friends of mine Andras Corben and Patrick McCollum).