Festival for the Eno!

I finally got out the Eno River Festival, and it was fantastic!  I haven't gone since about '99 or '00, and I can't believe I've stayed away for so long!  The first time I went was with my Uncle who is a hard-core environmentalist.  He had an impressive garden filled with all-native species, and he had a section of the Eno that he routinely maintained.  He'd go out there and fight kudzu and other invasive plants.  It was a magical experience wandering from booth to booth making things out of clay, observing amphibians, and watching the river.  

Although going back this year I was interested in different things, it had that same magical feel. It's a huge festival with a lot going on, but most can be classed in two broad categories: Environmental & Political and, Arts & Music.   There were several stages with a mixture of folk, rock, blues, bluegrass, and gospel music playing, and around these were little clumps of vendors with their wares: pottery, paintings, and knit/crochet/cloth goods.  So much pretty!!!  There were some gorgeous bags... **drool**  I started to feel like a bit of hippie when I started noticing the preponderance of tie dye and hacky-sacks.  Although there was a big emphasis on green technologies (composting, solar energy, rain barrels) the event was pretty politically broad-- the Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians were all well represented at their booths.  I stopped by the Libertarians to say hi.  They were very nice, and gave me a copy of 'Discover Liberty'.  They tried to convince me to register to vote as a libertarian...  

They were not the only ones who got my age wrong.  One fellow that I was talking to about solar heating asked what I do for a living now that I'm out of school.  At another booth I was a given a survey for people 18+.  Ah well.  I'm nearly there!  Only about 4 months left!  

Back to the music:  The rock was mediocre at best, but the bluegrass, gospel etc were fantastic!  There was a group of cloggers (above) who danced while a small country trio played fiddle  for them, and I LOVED THEM!  

On top of the myoozak and all the cool art in the individual booths, there were some incredible large sculptures floating around:

There were three guys hard at work on this sand sculpture.

This llama is made of recycled plastic bags!

Even more striking than the sculptures all over the place, in my opinion, were the trash facilities.  Yes.  You heard me: the trash.  Instead of just having trash bins, they had paper recycling, glass recycling, plastic recycling, and compost bins!  It was incredible!  They made sure that all the food vendors used packaging and utensils that were biodegradable-- no guilt!!

It's amazing how much technology for sustainable living is already available; maybe the world won't come crashing to end!

Pistachio Pudding is God

My week in the wilderness was awesome. There were breath-taking views etc etc... It's more fun to talk about what bugged me though. The younger girls were slowly but surely killing me. One randomly whacked another in the arm and then they started going at it. Their ridiculous argument continued on loudly for several minutes. Several minutes too many. I shan't claim that I have a high tolerance for loud, short creatures. "STOP IT RIGHT NOW! What is wrong with you?" "She started it!" "Yeah, but she continued it." "I don't CARE I'm finishing it." Another girl pretty much latched on to me. It was constantly "Jessie come over here." or frantic hand gestures to come closer whenever I was talking to somebody else. It was just plain weird.... "I can give you a foot massage!" "umm.... no thanks... that's really nice of you though..." or "Gosh, I keep talking to you like you're my sister!" "um..." Her sister is quite pleasant. Go figure.

Zoe (one of the leaders) was driving me crazy. Once, she walked up to me just as I had finished putting up my tent (complete with groundcloths and nigh-impossible to drive in stakes) and started saying "well... I don't know about this spot. that tree might come down any second."
"No, Zoe, I don't think it will. I shook it myself and it's also alive." "well, I still don't know." "Zoe, I'm pretty sure we'll be okay here." "well... If it were my tent..." "okay, where do you suggest?" "ah, ah,ah! don't ask me! You're supposed to be doing this on your own!" *Jessie thinks to herself: God damn you, you crazy old lady!* I take down the tent and move the whole shebang to less desireable rocky spot where she says: "This looks better!" "uh... Zoe? See that monster log caught in the crook of those limbs? There is no way in heck I am putting a tent under that. It sways in the wind." "oh. Why don't you move it back a bit" I do so... "Good" says Zoe. "Umm.. actually this is surrounded by a bunch of dead trees. They're wobbling." "Well, that looks like a good spot over there." Zoe points at the spot where I originally had it. She wasted a good 15 minutes of my precious time before dark. Time that I needed. I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE CUTE, YET STRONG-MINDED LITTLE OLD LADY!!

All in all: Good times were had.