Jerusalem

In the office here is a blank screen, a dried up empty pomegranate and a head with a dearth of inspiration. Outside, the ground is dried hard. Or at least it was. But with the newborns rain-dancing in the fields, water fell through the early dark of Wednesday, replenishing the fish and giving a last sparkle to the faded chandelier of cherry. Good for those lambs too, whose mothers can get on with eating, and give over chasing the sheepdog.

For a moment however, it put the success of Ajahn Sawaengs’ Sun-Chant to the Digging Gods in doubt (he’s been hoping for dry, as the sewage surgeons stand poised and ready to carve through the memorial garden). But by eleven of the same day, with the skin of the path carefully prepared, the sun shone and his efforts were vindicated – it’s been fine overhead ever since.

Two days earlier and down in the kitchen, we celebrated St George’s day in style and transferred the porridge making from Serbian hands to a citizen of the Queen’s Commonwealth. That was the best we could do, there being a paucity of Englishmen (and no Scot). At a similar time, Marion’s magic mop-holder was fixed to the back wall; a simple and pleasing device which one wants to use more than is necessary. Perfect for St George’s day too - having cleaned the windows onto England’s green and pleasant land, I stepped out the back door, seized my bow of burning gold and took to the larder. Fleetingly it became a chariot of fire...

Before I realised it might benefit from the following:

• fruit
• green veg
• honey
• long-life milk

Riding down to the stores, I learnt that the following non-food items would also be helpful:

• small bread baskets
• fire wood
• mopheads (for the bows of burning gold)
• stamps (eg. Large Letter, £1, 2p, 5p, 1p)
• superglue

Returning, I concluded that gratefully we have plenty of toothbrushes, instant coffee, towels, pasta, lentils, spices, onions.

Regeneration

Perhaps the monastery has a life of its own. If so, then now is the dawn of a dark night – what was disembowelled, empty, abandoned, grieving the loss of caretaker and winter guardian, can now barely contain its own renewal. Everywhere are signs of Spring and Easter, the New Years of Thailand, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Her Majesties Revenue. As if in welcome to the returning community the place is fringed with the whites of hyacinth and tulip, flowering clematis and a chandelier of the purest cherry blossom. A few walls beyond, the grass of the walking garden (threatened on the one hand by the freshly strimmed, strimming, Anagarika Chris and on the other by a Royal and Ancient greenkeeper) shows no sign of relenting. And for those of us at the front of the house, waking up is waking up into morning light and bird song from beneath the eaves.

It also means waking up to a toilet glad to receive you: for after a six week transplant operation the new bowels of the monastery are beginning to move – at the weekend the sewage system was commissioned for use following years of work and planning, a good deal of money and a massive investment of time, energy and expertise on the part of a few close friends of the monastery. Work however continues. Probably it will be a couple of weeks before the retreat house toilets are connected. More digging is about to begin behind the Dhamma Hall. Parking will remain problematic for a while longer.

But the news from the kitchen? Well, with the drains connected we’re no longer shipping buckets of water from room to room or tumbling it over the back wall. The dreaded washing-up rota is resurgent. Many hands are making light work of the spring clean and unearthing the odd foosty fruit that got away last year. The kitchen manager returned from his work-related Italian study-tour singing the praises of cheap and abundant fennel, all the while brandishing a shiny silicon spoon, donated as a hint about the state of the wooden ones he’s won in the past. And yesterday Abramina celebrated her 21^st birthday with a Dana offering – oh the sweet spring promises of youth! Perhaps your heart too is young, open, generous and clamouring for a Dana list. I hear it is so. Therefore, in response to requests from supporters, here’s what the spring clean revealed would be helpful:

• soft fruit
• honey
• long-life milk
• small bread baskets
• coarse metal pan scourers (without sponge)

Away from the kitchen the following would also prove useful:

• fire wood
• large letter stamps (1st or 2nd class)
• superglue
  

Thank you but we have plenty of lentils, spices, toothbrushes, instant coffee, pasta, towels and apples.