Planning ahead

I just wanted to ask the members of ENI if they want a Summer Gathering arranged for 2012 and if so, what time of year would you like it to be and do you have a venue in mind? In the next few days I will try to add most of the main Festivals to the calender on this site, so we don't clash with any of them if we do choose to organise an event. If you have anything you want adding to the calender please put it in the comments of this post or email me, and I will add them.

Also, as it seems the number of regular attendees is getting smaller and smaller, what do you think to organising a recruitment circus fun day sometime in the spring when the weather gets a bit warmer? Or maybe staging an indoor event before then? I have had interest from some of the people that attended my hoop classes in Swansea, but their issue is one of transport to Pontardawe. There are people out there that would like to join us, but it's just a matter of finding ways to get them to the club or letting them know we exist.

The last thing for today is to let you know I am starting a 4 week beginners hoop class in Swansea on Wednesday 6-7.30pm 16th November - 7th December. There are 8 places left, so if you wouldn't mind spreading the word, I'd be grateful. All the details of the course can be found on my website.

See you Thursday!

Who's up for another Summer Gathering?

The Summer is fast disappearing, so if we do want to have another over night Summer gathering, we need to get organising it now. So far I have no venue or date and am open to ideas and suggestions. All I ask is that the places you suggest are as close to free as possible because I and a few others have very little/no spare cash. We could wild camp in the mountains, or find a place by the sea. Do you know a farmer with a bit of land we can use overnight to put up a few of tents to sleep in? Lets get the suggestions flowing and set this up before the sun sets on the Summer.

So the Gathering happened.

So the Summer Gathering is done and dusted, & I hope everyone that came had lots of fun. The weather wasn't ideal, but we did our best to get around it. The highlights for me where many & varied, but I think the one thing I remember most is almost being floored as my Wellington was pulled off in the treasure hunt. That will teach me not to hide any of the answers on my person when doing a treasure hunt.

I have a long thank you list to make, as this event could never have happened without so many people and all the work they did.

First and foremost I have to give a massive thank you to Ed for allowing us to do this in the fields and for all the work he put into setting up the site and throughout the weekend. I don't think I ever saw him sitting still for more than 5 minutes. Big hugs and love to you Ed!

There are others on the site prep list as well as Ed that all deserve many thanks. We have James, Val, Stu, Callum, and a few more people that I never knew the names of (sorry for not naming each of you), that helped dig holes and erect poled into them. They also built the compost toilet for us, and I have to say I don't think I've ever used a toilet in a more beautiful setting and cleared thistles and brambles. Thank you so much for everything you people did to make it possible for us to be there.

Now we have to go on to the event it self.

Thank you to everyone that dug and shovelled the wood chippings to make the car park and clear the drive. Thank you to everyone that held ropes, lifted telegraph poles, back filled holes, carried and fetched to help get the aerial rig built. I can't name you all as I was inside cooking or inside writing treasure hunt clues and didn't really see everyone that was involved and I wouldn't like to hurt any ones feelings by leaving a name out. I know there were many of you.

Thank you very much to Ro and Mari for all their help on Friday night. Without their help dinner would probably have been an hour later. Thanks also to Daniel M for bringing along the 2 pans of Chilli. I was told by the people that ate it that it was yummy. I hope everyone had enough to eat and enjoyed the food that was offered.

Now to all the pizza makers and carriers and all the fire stokers and oven tenders. Thank you so much for your hours of hard work either making the dough, topping the pizzas, ferrying them up and down the field or cooking them. All of you made it possible in that terrible weather for us still to have Pizza night. I know it took a little longer than had been hoped by some, but I am very thankful to you all for all your efforts. A special mention goes to Stephen H and Dan D. Stephen for organising the manufacture of the pizzas and Dan for spending lots of time making dough and for sharing it out with people that didn't have their own bases. To James, and Ed for keeping the oven going (and anyone else that stoked it too) putting in the pizzas to cook and keeping on smiling even though you were up there in the cold and rain.

Thank you to Peter D for being ready to host a renegade show, even though the weather made it a bit to hard to do . The wind was just too crazy for us to do anything outside.

To anyone that took the time to teach some one else something or took the time to pick up a stray can/bottle and bin it, to anyone that washed up or made others a cup of tea... to all of you that came really. Thank you for your input and for being there. I hope you all had lots of fun.

Yep, it's me again and It's the Summer Gathering again too.

I spoke to Ed last night and he is going to cordon off an area in the field for people to fire spin in, for those too lazy to go down to the beach. If you are a fire spinner/juggler, please only use fire in that area and nowhere else on the site. Thank you.

Ed has also said we can use his rocket burner oven on the Saturday night, so we are dubbing Saturday night Pizza Night. If people could bring along their favourite pizza base (whether it be home made or shop bought) and a topping, we will lay out all the toppings on a trestle table and everyone gets to make their own pizza. It will be pot luck what toppings appear on the table... if you can't eat a pizza without a certain topping it's up to you to make sure you bring it. Once made they will go in the oven to be cooked. Anyone not liking or wanting to eat pizza will be chased around the field by a small but savage mole... or maybe not. If you don't want pizza but would like something else that's oven bake-able we can do that too. Just bring along the ingredients. Jacket potato or maybe baked squash. Does anyone have a trestle table we could borrow to lay this all out on? It would be great if we could borrow it please.

Peter Duncan has kindly offered to be the Compère for the renegade stage on Saturday night, so make his life easier and offer to come up on stage and do something. I hope you're all working on a performance piece . If you can do magic tricks, play an instrument, perform an amazing new trick with a staff, hop over human victims.. *cough* I mean, volunteers on your unicycle, lay on a bed of nails with a pony juggling swedes on your chest, Peter will welcome you up and give you a big build up to the small but select audience. It will be an acoustic stage, if you want music to go with your act, we might need to arrange some kind of battery operated new fangled gramophone thingie that the kids all use now (says the 100 year old granny). I think I know the man with the thing we need (flutters eyelashes at Jamie whilst hiding her zimmer frame behind her and tucking her incontinence pants back up the leg of her bloomers).

In case of rain or wanting to stay up late and chat, I will be putting up a large tent as a games playing room. I already have a deck of cards, Polarity, Scrabble, Backgammon, & Chess, but would love a Buck-a-roo, Operation, Cluedo, Bananagram, Sets or any other silly simple game that people can play whilst chatting. Do any of you have some you wouldn't mind bringing along?

Lastly, on Saturday afternoon there will be the treasure hunt, so if you feel the urge to dress up as a pirate please feel free. We will have face paints on site if you want to paint on a patch or dastardly moustache to get in the spirit of things.

See you all soon!

Summer Beach Gathering less than 2 weeks away

I've been answering a few questions over the week or so from people coming to the gathering, so I thought I'd post all the answers here for all to see, in case you were wanting to ask the same things, but just hadn't got around to doing it.

1. How much is it to come to the gathering?
The Gathering is free. Ed is kindly allowed us to camp in his field and all he wants in return is maybe a bit of help with weeding around his organic veggies or, if you are up for it, a chance to learn how to build with straw bales and cob by providing the man/woman power it takes to dig up the soil, mix it with water and a bit of straw, by stomping on it and then pressing it onto the bale walls. I had a go at this last Monday and it was like making giant mud pies, just like I did when I was a kid. It was great fun.

2. What time can I arrive?
Any time after 6pm on the Friday, unless you have volunteered to help cook the Friday night buffet meal.

3. Will all the meals be provided for us?
No. We are only making the Friday night buffet meal to welcome people onto the site, because we felt the last thing people would want to do after a day of work or travelling is to have to put up a tent and then cook. There is nothing to stop people arranging to cook together for the rest of the weekend if you feel like it. It does cut down cooking fuel/time per person and it does mean that people can take it in turns to cook and wash up, so we would encourage that.

4. Is there lots of parking space?
There isn't unlimited parking space, so we would encourage you to lift share and car pool where ever possible. Ed does have hard standing at the top of the field and there is space out on the triangle outside the field, but the fewer vehicles we have, the less fuel used, and the less field space used as a car park.

5. What do I need to bring with me?
You will need camping gear, clothes that you don't mind getting a bit grubby, food, shoes suitable for a field (there are stinging nettles around) and shoes for the beach if you don't like to be barefoot, swimming costumes if you are braving the sea, circus toys, acoustic instruments if you wish to play, a sense fun and a smile.

On the camping gear list remember it is still fairly cold at night, so bring a roll mat/mattress to sleep on, because being cold from sleeping on the ground is no fun. Remember the rule of camping that one layer underneath you works better than 2 layers on top of you at keeping you warm. A woolly hat works wonders too.

6. Will we be able to use fire toys?
All circus equipment is used at your own risk over the weekend, and that goes for fire as well. Only use fire toys if you are competent with that prop unlit. Do not decide that spinning fire poi looks cool and learning to spin a 3 beat weave with lit poi is a good idea. It really isn't. We will be aiming to go to the beach to use fire toys. Ed farms organically, so I don't think he will want us to spin off paraffin on his land, but I will need to check that with him. The beach is in walking distance, but at night you will need a torch to find the way as it is a footpath through trees.

7. Is there going to be a timetable of set things to do?
There will be some optional things for you to join in with that will be at set times, but most of the weekend is going to be open for you to do whatever you want. The Aerial training will be at set times, as will the treasure hunt. I'm offering to teach beginners - intermediate hoop moves, but am willing to do that through out the weekend. I was hoping we could set up a story telling time in the evening too for the kids bedtime, to help them wind down and go to bed.

We will have the 2 blackboards out so people can request lessons on one and offer tutorials on the other, so keep your eye on those if you want to learn some new skills.

This weekend will be very much what you make of it. The more you put in, the more you'll get out of it.

8. Where is the Gathering?
If you need directions to this please contact me.

9. Does it matter that I have no circus skills, or am just a beginner?
Not at all! We all started somewhere and were beginners once, so come along an join in and learn as you have fun.

10. Can I come just for the day?
Yes. If camping isn't your thing, or you are busy for part of the weekend, come and play just for the day.

11. What time do we need to leave?
We aim to have all the tents down and packed away by 6pm, so that we have time to tidy up and make sure we leave the site as we found it. This will be made much easier if people don't leave litter laying around over the weekend. We will provide bins and recycling by the camping area. The field is Ed's home, so please show him and his field respect.

If you have any more questions please feel free to ask them either here on the blog, on Facebook or in person and I will try to answer them for you.

See you on the 20th!

Three weeks to go

I've been working on some ideas for the Summer Gathering 20-22nd May and these are the ones that seem to be liked by most people I have run the ideas by:-

All weekend we will have 2 chalk boards for you to write workshops requests and workshop offers on. This way we can match up people wanting to learn and people willing to teach. Anyone wanting to run a particular workshop can contact me in advance and we will set up a time and place.

Friday Night :-

• A group meal, prepared by myself, James and a couple of volunteers. The idea behind this is that some people will have been at work all day, and others will have travelled a long distance to be with us, so preparing a meal after setting up your tents is going to be the last thing you want to do. It also gives us a chance to all get to know each other whilst chatting over dinner. We are thinking of covering the cost of the food by having voluntary donation pot.

Saturday :-

• Morning yoga.
• Weeding (this is our way of repaying Ed for the use of the field).
• Aerial training :- James will be running three 1 hour workshops with a 1/2 hour warm up before starting each. There will be trapeze, corde lisse, and silks. They will be split up through the day (he will do the same on Sunday if you all aren't too achy from Saturday).
• Hoop tuition :- I'm going to offer from beginners to intermediate hoop tuition.
• There will be a treasure hunt for adults and kids. It will be in teams, so that the kids can help out the adults with some of the harder clues.
• An evening Renegade stage. Renegade gives anyone that wants to a chance to get up and show off. If you can sing, dance or do a new trick, or you have an act you want to try out, you will be welcomed onto the stage with a big round of applause. I'm looking for a compère for this.
• Bedtime stories to help everyone have a good nights sleep.
  

Sunday:-

• Morning yoga.
• Weeding.
• Aerial training.
• Skill swaps in various props.
• Parachute games.
• Story telling
• Games:- We'll play some circus games, such as gladiators, coin juggling, handstand endurance, pillow & hat fight, etc.
• Packing up and leaving the site as we found it.
  

If you have any more requests of things you'd like us to do please post in the comments section of this post.

I'm very excited. I can't wait to see you all!

Summer Beach Gathering 2011 update

The Summer Gathering 20-22May, is less than a month away now and we are planning the details, so if you have any ideas on what you'd like to do over the weekend please do get in touch. We are thinking about having a Treasure Hunt for the kids (and the kids disguised as adults) on either the Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

For the Saturday evening I'm thinking of setting up Renegade stage, for anyone that wants to get up and perform, be it singing, a circus act, playing an instrument, comedy or just demonstrating the latest trick they have learned. We aren't talking professional acts here, just friends having fun and entertaining each other for an hour or so.

If we have enough interest, I was also thinking it would be nice if the people turning up straight from work or from a long journey on the Friday night, that there be a meal ready for them when they arrive. I was thinking that some people, with the Friday, off could turn up a bit early, set up their camping gear and then help to prepare and cook a group meal. This will only happen if enough people think it's a good idea and enough people volunteer to cook.

So what would you like to happen over the weekend of your Summer Gathering?

Summer Beach Gathering 2011 update

Hello everyone,

I have good news. We have a venue for the gathering and all it will cost us is a couple of hours helping out the land owner. The ever so lovely Ed, from the Swansea City Circus group, has offered us camping space on his organic vegetable small holding and all he has requested in return is that we do a few hours of weeding each over the weekend. Thank you Ed. His small holding is within walking distance of the beach and is close to a place where there is a covered area with a fire pit we can use if the weather is bad (not that it ever rains in on the Gower) ;-). Ed is down by Bishops Wood, near Caswell bay. So, get your camping gear ready and bring your gardening gloves, guitars, circus props and we'll have a fun filled weekend of circus, campfires, singing and fun. Ed has said that dogs are welcome, but only if they are horse friendly and the owners must keep their dog under control at all times and must clean up after their dogs.


Yippeeeeeee!

Dates for your diary

We have set the date for the summer beach gathering. The weekend of the 20-22 May will be the date, so get it booked off work, get the sun lotion at the ready and check out that your tent doesn't have any leaks. We haven't sorted out exactly which campsite yet, but I will do that before the end of next week. We are thinking of the campsite above the Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower, but will do a bit more research.

If you hate camping or have other commitments during the evening, but would still like to come along during the day, we'd love to see you there too. As said, in the previous post about the Summer Gathering, family and friends are welcome to attend too and each person coming will need to book their own place on the campsite if they wish to stay over night.

Two other things to add to your diary for the Elephant's Not Included meetings are that on the last Thursday of the month the first hour of the session the hall will be given over to the unicyclists to use as they see fit. It is a way to give them enough space to play unicycle hockey or to set up obstacles to jump or cycle around and generally have one wheeled fun.

The 2nd Thursday of the month the the first hour in hall will be used for a yoga class. The idea of this is to help us to gain strength, flexibility and fitness which will aid with all our circus skills. We will be inviting a trained yoga teacher to come and tutor us. Most of us are total beginners so if you have never tried yoga before don't let that put you off joining in. Hopefully this will lead to more people doing proper warm up sessions each week, which will help to prevent people pulling muscles and straining themselves when doing their circus skills practice.

Both these events are optional, so if you don't wish to take part in them you can turn up at 8pm on those days rather than 7pm when you'll be able to do the regular circus skills play or we do have the use of other space within the building at that time if you would like to use that instead, but be mindful that the ceiling height is limited, as is the general space, so you might have to tailor what you practice to the area available.

If any of you have other things you feel that an hour of hall time would be used for, please do bring it up with the committee members, so that it can be put to the group.

Now the big one. Last year on the 22nd April Jon Nash, Cath Davies and I opened the doors for the first meeting of the Elephants Not Included club and to celebrate this fact it has been requested we hold a party to mark the date. The closest club date to that day is Thursday 21st April, so that will be party night. Usual thing, bring a plate, and be ready to play some silly games. I'll post a reminder here closer to the day.

See you all next Thursday!

Summer Beach Gathering 2011

A few weeks ago it was decided by the group that we would like to set up a summer beach gathering. No details were arranged, but the general idea is that we find a beach with a campsite quite close (walking distance) down on the Gower, as it is so beautiful/close and spend the weekend having fun playing on the beach. Before anything can be arranged we need to know who would be interested in going and when is good for you. If you could give your name and 3 possible dates that you are free we can start to do the planning and booking a campsite. It would also be nice if any of you have any suggestions of good locations that you add that too.

The beach venue needs to be in a place that we can light a bonefire for warmth in the evening and for the fire spinners to be able to play without having people call the police, so basically somewhere away from a residential areas. The campsite for me can be fairly basic, but others might prefer one with lots of amenities. I'm happy to rough it for the weekend, but I know others are not, so I think there has to be at least toilets and showers on site.

The idea of this gathering is to have as much fun as we can with as many people as possible and to make that happen I am aware that a lot of members have families/children they would like to bring with them. As this is not going to be an official club meeting, but just a gathering of friends, there will not need to be the same restrictions as we have up at the Thursday night meetings as everyone will be responsible for their own actions on their own weekend break. It also means we can extend invitations to other like minded circus people. The booking of places on the campsite will be down to each individual, but we could try to gain a discount for group bookings for club members.

If you have any other idea or suggestions about what you would like to do please put them forward so they can be discussed, either in the comments here, on the facebook discussion board, or at a Thursday club meeting.

Thank you!