I am currently visiting Britain. I spent Christmas with dear friends near London, my birthday with my daughter and grand-daughter, and am visiting the Amida Mandala Temple in Malvern which is splendidly situated with a panoramic view across the vale
Read more…SECOND DAY OF SOLITUDE
Morning:
Oh, the chill!
Thick autumnal haze sharpened by a north east breeze;
brings a hint of Lapland,
but no reindeer in sight.
I light a low fire
to air the house
though cold is no enemy to me;
cousin of the dark, my old y
Cold Days
It is another frosty morning. Frost on the east window is thicker and climbs almost to the top of the top pane. Nonetheless, it does not feel quite so cold. Paradoxically, this may be because objectively it is colder. Yesterday it did not g
Read more…A day's work in pictures
Very nice stairway. I don't know how much it weighs, but I can't lift it. It needs to go in the wellhole that you can just see at the top of the picture.
I decided to sleep on it.
The next day I put up some scaffolding and s
Read more…After the meeting with my sangha in Zen Centrum Den Bosch, I return to Yvette’s home. At Yvette’s I saw that it was almost nine pm. I opened my laptop to see if David was online.
I have been in the Netherlands for two weeks. It is nice that somethin
Read more…I am all ready for the drive home. It has been a very pleasant experience of being on my own but knowing that I fit into a family who fits into a Buddhist family in England and that family fits into a bigger family internationally.
The family servic
Early it was one of those mornings that makes you truly glad to be alive. Calm, clear, bright with blue sky and the sound of the rooks competing with the wood pigeon. I nealy missed it because there is grey cloud edging in from the West and we can ex
Read more…I like to rotate the physical jobs so today it was liming walls. My technique has gradually improved and today I got quite a bit done. My son kindly bought me some extra tools for my birthday so they were in action today. Liming is rather different f
Read more…Last night there were millions of stars, so I knew we would have a frost and this morning the air is sharp and the sky is pale blue. Not a cloud in sight. Here is some of last night's ice in this morning's sunshine
... and here is Tara come to inves
Read more…Life here is pretty simple. Today, for instance, it has been mild and windy - a good drying day - so I decided to do some clothes washing. I did two loads, coloureds and whites and got about half dry by evening. In the afternoon I made a chocolate c
Read more…It is a considerable satisfaction to see progress in our projects here. The fact that we now have more space and flexibility in the use of the buildings affords a considerable improvement. I find myself continuing to marvel at what has already been a
Read more…Well there was no typhoon today, only grey clouds and a mild temperature. In fact it has been the first day of the year warm enough for me to work in the upper room and not bother with a fire in the kitchen. Tara stayed out all last night and has bee
Read more…This morning Tara slept a bit longer then usual. She woke us up at six in the morning. She wakes us up by nuzzling at our fingers or ears and purring very loudly. This morning David decided to get up at six too, in order to have the advantage of a fr
Read more…Spent this afternoon bringing to the surface a rock estimated to weigh about 350 lb to incorporate in the crazy paving path we are laying. Once that is in place it should be pretty stable.
In the evening in honour of the full moon we had a fire to th
Read more…Today we were once again at Oasis as there was a celebration for Misha's birthday. We had a service with Quan Shi Yin chanting and reading of the litany and then we met for a vegetarian meal and conversation. Much of the conversation revolved around
Read more…Nice to have a report from Mo about the event in Britany last weekend.
This morning I took Elja to Urciers, a village not too far away, to connect up with a car going to Netherlands. She has a variety of errands, mostly medical and family, to attend
Read more…Although, no doubt, we shall have more cold, wet and windy days yet, I think I can declare that here in my little kingdom on the hill, yesterday, Valentine's, was the first day of spring. There was something differnt about the air, and today, suddenl
Read more…The clocks have changed,
an extra hour in the day -
put it in the pantry
to eat later.
The old codger is suddenly singing at breakfast
to the Buddha of Light
between the cereal
and the fruit.
Today the doctor
checks me over
lines me up for tests
to investigat
Wintery weather is upon us. Today it is wet and windy. We went in to town and did some shopping and everybody is wrapped up in big coats.
My main project recently has been building a bathroom in the barn. At this time of your it is not much usable be
Read more…FIRST DAY OF SOLITUDE
Geese! How high they fly, filling the sky
with their ardent urging,
pressing southward in
a long V across the blue heaven.
Here below I move rocks, earth and sand
and sing the dharani
of immortality
amrita sambhave!
There is s
