- 20-24th May
Residential retreat at Eden Rise is May 20-24th. Places are available.
- 7th June
Reverend Master Daishin Morgan will be visiting the first weekend in June. The temple will hold a morning meeting Sunday 7th, where he’ll give a talk. It’s a ways off, so I will be mentioning this again in future newsletters along with more details. I don’t yet know whether this meeting will be available on Zoom or not. This event is listed on the calendar as a regular Sunday meeting.
- 13th June
11.00am Saturday 13th June, Sangha social outing to Stover Country Park, Newton Abbot. The County Council website website with description of the park here. More details of the meet-up will follow in future newsletters. Hopefully we’ll have nice weather for a bimble, a packed lunch picnic and generally hang out together in a nice setting. The idea came about at the recent steering group meeting and it was mentioned that we might hold another social outing in the autumn.
July
2nd July will be the 6th anniversary of Reverend Master Myfanwy’s death. We’ll hold a short memorial service at the weekend, either on the following Saturday or Sunday (4th/5th), along with a bring and share lunch. Details will follow.
What’s been
The life of faith in daily practice continues here and that’s all that really matters. I’m glad that people have been coming to sit and join the living temple.
Building news
The proposed building extension is being financed with an interest free loan.
We carried out a soil percolation test in the garden over the last week of March. This was to ascertain the ground capacity to act as a soak-away for the additional wastewater from the extension. Thank you for the help with digging three fairly deep holes, I would have struggled (a lot) on my own. Climate change and the related flooding issues have meant that water companies are having to find ways to deal with excessive amounts of rainwater and so regulations around new builds have increased significantly recently (this may be on a regional basis). After a series of tests, it seems likely that the ground can accommodate a soak-away, which is probably the most straightforward of the options available.
Other news
I recently purchased and a pressure washer for the temple to clean the paving around the building. Thank you for the donation that encouraged this purchase to happen. A consequence of using the pressure washer is that it has revealed a need for some cement repairs to the drive and patio, so that’s a job for the summer.
We’ve had some lovely spring weather of late which has encourage me to venture into the garden and get my hands dirty a bit. The lawn is being left to see what comes up, so probably no mowing until late summer, we’re meadow’ing it in other words. We may introduce some wildflowers next year if they don’t make an appearance themselves, though if the extension goes ahead this year or early next, most of the area is going to get trashed for a time.
In gratitude
Thank you for all financial contributions. Thanks to a generous donation of a set of garden furniture, a table and six chairs (I may try to get a parasol for the summer), you can now sit outside and it’s lovely in the warmer weather. A donation of decorative fabrics, and for help with pruning in the garden and for driving me to the shops when the temple car was out of action.
I wish you all the best,
In Gassho
Willard
This news post is edited for the website; it is a version of the newsletter sent to subscribers.