Sheep Round-up on Erraid

Towards the end of our travels, we spent a week on Erraid, a small island off the west coast of Scotland, which is stewarded by members of Findhorn.  While there, we had the opportunity to participate in a sheep round-up.  Basically, everyone got into a long line (within sight of whoever is to our left and our right) and then we swept across the island, gathering sheep along the way.  We did have some sheep dogs to help, but Simone is now convinced she was a sheep dog in a past life!

Crossing the inlet from Mull to Erraid

The "Wishing Stone"

Making candles

Cleaning up

Barcelona!

We spent a wonderful few days in Barcelona with some friends who live right in the heart of the city.  The kids loved the "Ramblas", an avenue where there are cool markets and lots of people doing street theater.  Our friends also had a kick scooter that Simone loved getting around on.

The Rich Maharajah of of Magador

The bad news is I have been having more technical difficulties and have not been able to work on video footage since Italy.  The good news is I have a video of Simone and me performing in a Community Share at the Universal Hall in Findhorn last night. Monique didn't record my intro or the beginning of the song and the video is a bit grainy, but it's still fun.  The lines you miss at the beginning are:

There was a rich Maharajah of Magador
Who had ten thousand camels, or maybe more
He had rubies and pearls, and the loveliest girls
But he didn't know how to do the Rumba

Enjoy!

Torri Superiore

After Damanhur, we spent a few days at Torri Superiore, a small ecovillage near Turino in NW Italy where members have worked for years to restore a medieval village built into the mountainside.  We visited with some old (and new) friends and also used Torri as a base to explore the surrounding region and particularly the towns of Dolceaqua and Apricale.

Our friends, Massimo and Lucilla.

The girls really enjoyed playing out front.

Just one example of their rennovation work.

Open air eating!

On a walk near Torri.

Simone makes friends with Shaun the sheep.

A river near Torri.  It was beautiful, but COLD!

Pema in the streets of Dolceaqua.

Exploring Apricale.



















Eating Torte in Apricale

Damanhur

When we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on May 6, we picked up our rental car and made a beeline down to Damanhur, a community in NW Italy so Monique could participate in a World Midwifery Summit that was taking place there.  Founded in 1975, Damanhur is a large spiritual ecovillage with over 650 members and many more in the "wider community".  They are perhaps best known for their "Temples of Humanity" which they built into a mountain - in secret! - for years before they went public.  We couldn't take pictures of the temple itself, but if you're interested, check out their website at: http://www.damanhur.org.

The video below is of one of Damanhur's Nucleo (sub-communities) called the Treehouses where Macaco, one of our hosts and guides showed us some of their work with using biofeedback machines to communicate with plants.  Macaco used to be a jazz singer and you can see her singing to a small tree - and the tree singing back!

Where we stayed (in the small bungalow below)

Macaco, one of our main hosts and guides

The main building in Magilla, the nucleo we stayed at.  Check out all the solar energy!

In front of the Open Temple, a space created to connect with Divine Energies.

Some of the community artwork near the Open Temple.

More artwork.  Notice the baby dragon in the egg!

A Sacred Grove left to nature.

Just one example of artwork on their many buildings.

Some of their cows grazing on grasses (they are free range)

Bylakuppe

At the end of March, we stayed for 3 days at Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement near Mysore.  It was an amazing opportunity to learn about and experience Tibetan Buddhism and the plight of Tibetan refugees in India.  The community had a similar feel to Dharamsala, where Monique and I spent a wonderful week about 12 years ago.  The girls enjoyed watching the monks chant and visiting with students at the community's school.  We even celebrated Passover while we were there.  It was interesting to note this similarities between the Jews exodus from Egypt and the Tibetans exodus from Tibet.

Our host, Tenzin's family (and our fellow faculty Larkspur and Ethan)












Tibetan Monks outlining a sand mandala

Pema showing off the Buddha in the Golden Temple.

Celebrating Passover!

Some random photos from India

 

Thali lunch at Solitude, Auroville

In front of ruin of Moghul Fort in Gingee

Shadows of students on top of Arunachula Mountain, Tiruvannamalai

Trying on a $500 Nehru Jacket in Bangalore

Simone helping to lash a floor onto a new capsule

Dressed up for final dinner in Auroville

Our "cohort" (co-heart) of eight students at our final dinner

Our typical mode of transportation around Auroville (we were "trend-setters" by actually wearing helmets).