Spring Storms
In the small deciduous wood immediately behind the Dhamma Hall shrine, spring was being heralded daily with the loud drumming of a female great spotted woodpecker. Sunshine instead of snow came for most of this week and the gorse has been shining bright gold. Though a strinkling of frost sheltered in the shade of the stone walls and there are clumps and drifts of snowdrops here and there.
At dusk above the monastery hundreds of crows pass overhead flying together. What's interesting is how the flock shifts as if directed from within by individuals or teams which on one occasion lead, and other times follow. As darkness falls the community of monks return one by one to their various rooms and personal shrines. This flock too is guided from within by its own kind of internal frame of reference.
On Thursday Spring changed her mind. She sent the sun home, and now Spring's storms have come to test the trees. The loud daily herald of our great spotted woodpecker drumming has fallen silent. However none of this has prevented Caroline coming to offer Thursday's Dana, and no winds could stop Cathy, Kathy and Rita on Friday.
