Late yesterday afternoon I returned from Barncamp 2013, – a weekend of “hacktivism, workshops, entertainment, politics and fun in the sun” held at Highbury Farm up the beautiful Wye Valley a few miles south of Monmouth. Barncamp itself was open to attendees from Friday 7th June to Sunday 9th June. As part of the production crew, I got to spend a couple of additional nights on site, wearing out the view. Barncamp is a joint production between HacktionLab, FLOSS Manuals and Bristol Wireless.
My highs and lows of the event are listed below.
The highs
- Seeing the International Space Station (posts passim) pass overhead on the first evening.
- Ben Green’s wild food walk – something I’d been promising myself to do for years. I ate wild garlic flowers for the first time while on Ben’s walk.
- Not reading the online edition (or any other format) of the dreadful Bristol Post.
- A fine pub lunch – steak and ale pie -at the Lamb & Flag after my visit to A&E in Abergavenny (see below).
- Leading the Linux command line workshop on the Bristol Wireless mobile LTSP suite.
- Seeing lots of people I haven’t seen since the last Barncamp, 2 years ago.
- “Wow!” Charlie‘s one word tasting note for Laphroaig single malt whisky.
- Getting a surprised reaction from some for annointing the campfire hearth with Laphroaig before lighting (humour an old hippy as he appeases the genus loci, will you? Thanks. Ed.).
- Excellent beers all weekend (apart from the solitary pint of Nutcracker over at The Boat in Penallt).
The lows
- Getting knackered walking up and down the hill from the camping field to the barn and up and down to the village shop.
- Not catching sight of the ravens I heard all the week.
- Hitting myself on the left thumb with a lump hammer, requiring a trip to Neville Hall Hospital in Abergavenny and the insertion of 3 stiches (picture below).
- Having to come back to Bristol and routine.
And finally…
A big thank you to the folks at Highbury Farm, our hosts for Barncamp, especially Tez for the comfrey to help with my war wounds. Hope to see you again soon.
Hi Woody.
Content excellent.
Will email you.
Have you received this?
Gladys
Hi Gladys
Both your comments were received fine and have now been approved.
Depending on how often I moderate the comments, it may take from a few hours up to a day for them to appear on the site.
Anyway, thanks for your kind words about my scribblings. 🙂