*This report was originally written by Sorn during his long tenure as Ritari. It has been reposted here in an effort to collect all our resources on our new site.
On June 17, 2012 Keeper of Seasons Hall met to celebrate Midsummer in the Sandia Foothills, using the same ritual site as the previous year. As with 2011, the city and surrounding areas had been suffering drought, but it was not so severe that we had to worry that our chosen site would be closed to the public.
After meeting early in the day in the parking lot for the Michael Emery/Bear Canyon trailhead, we headed to our ritual site. It was already fairly warm when we met, and the heat combined with the early time to make our group more quiet than usual as we hiked. Aside from insects and spiders, which seemed to be in more evidence than the previous summer, we saw little wildlife.
Erich led our blot this year, and after he’d announced our purpose in coming together and hailed the powers of the season (including a request for some relief from the heat and dry weather), each person present made personal hails. The remainder of the mead, a special brew that had been presented to Erich in recognition of his embroidery prowess, was poured in offering.
We shared breakfast after our hails and offering, enjoying one another’s company and the food that had been brought, including fruit, doughnuts, and pickled herring. The gnats that had troubled us five years ago had returned (though they seemed to mainly be interested in only one or two people), so it was not long after everyone was done eating that we decided to return to the trailhead. On the way back, we spoke of new happenings in our personal lives and in Heathenry in general; when we reached the trailhead, we said our farewells until our July public meeting.
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