A little bit of heaven on earth

(click on any photo to enlarge it)

It can mean different things to different people, but to me it's a few days spent with friends in a lodge surrounded by fields and trees, open skies and star filled nights.

It is golden trees,

BIG trees, and

silence deep enough to hear condensation from the trees hitting the carpet of leaves below.

It is long shadows

 

and hikes.

It is a place to sit and relax together  

or alone.

A place in which to create art: big

and small.

A vast space in which to hammer away on a tiny piece of silver

A small jewel of a chapel for morning prayers and compline.

Delicious communal dinners

Children playing

Even the Mantra Trailer

and sock synchronicity.

St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church's annual retreat at the Bishop's Ranch in Healdsburg, 75 miles north of San Francisco, where I just spent two half days and one whole day filled with all this and much, much more.