Signs of Spring
The weather continues to improve. We are now eating outside in the evening as well as the morning and the sound of bees accompanies us now in addition to the great variety of bird calls. Each day we spot new species - today a chaffinch. The coal tits are getting bolder and coming into the walnut tree above our heads. I have seen two species of bees - the smaller variety gathering around an empty honey pot left outside, empty to us, that is, but not to the insects who found it a happy treat to clean out the remaining sticky coating. Then there is a larger bee that is busy visiting all the deadnettle flowers. Under our larger walnut tree there is a profusion of deadnettle and its mauve colour contrasts most beautifully with the bright yellow of daffodils and dandelion. We could not have made the scene more beautiful if we had planted it deliberately. This is a truly lovely time of year.
Preparing for the Big Day
On Easter Sunday we are to have an important memorial ceremony. We need stele to represent the figures commemorated so I go to the woodshed and make some from rough wood. I make some surfaces smooth and ;eave others natural and rough. This seems a good way to represent human nature. The resulting items are each unique, like the personages that they represent.
Much of the afternoon is taken up with preparations for the event. Over the winter we reduce the usable area in the meditation hall and use the other space for storage, Then in the spring we restore the full layout of the hall. This event makes a good time for the final stage of this transition. Adam and I take out the last stored items - a bench that we place on its summer spot under an overhanging tree, and a second table that we add to the dining area outside. Then we take the Chinese drum to the hall. Elja is arranging flowers and cooking. At the end of the day we have a rehearsal and run through the correography, the bells, and learn the tune for the chanting.
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