February 14-20

Tending the Orchard

The week just past began with a Valentine's Day wind storm and ended with a season opening work party. In between there were registrations to process, projects to organize, and an interesting meeting of the Wednesday night Theosophical study group.



Weather Watch
One of the prominent ways that people pass the time on Orcas Island is keeping track of the weather. And keeping up with the weather was especially relevant this week. There are several different online sources for weather news - none of which ever seem to be in complete agreement with each other - and one of the forecasts for the weekend was predicting a dramatic drop in temperatures for the weekend, down into the low 20's Fahrenheit (-6 Celsius) on both Friday and Saturday night.

With the work party coming, we were concerned that if we turned water on in the dining hall for the weekend, there might be a risk of water freezing and bursting the pipes. Ultimately we decided to take the risk and proceed with the work party...

President's Day Weekend
...with no regrets, as the weather was magnificent, with crisp air and clear skies. A capable crew of about 25 participants were in attendance and much good was accomplished. Particular emphasis was placed on pruning the fruit trees, but work was also completed in several other areas of the camp.

circling up

updating the job list

garden crew

picking up sticks

relaxation time

Where two or more are gathered...
After the work day was completed on Saturday, a healing circle gathered in the library and joined together in a healing meditation for friends and loved ones.

Perhaps more heartening than the physical work that was done was the following comment that was received from one of those attending:

I'd like to say how much I enjoyed being a part of the wonderful gathering of helpful souls this past weekend. Besides getting some experience tree pruning it also proved to be the perfect environment for doing some spiritual pruning, and this morning I awoke feeling a sense of renewal and excitement for this next season of growth and fruition in my spiritual life.

And isn't that what the real work of Indralaya is about?


Registration Update
In the week since we returned from our travels, it's been a challenge to catch up with the initial deluge of interest in our 2011 programs. Over 200 registrations have been received so far.

People seem to be appreciating the new look of the catalog. Over the weekend, we learned that it has yet to reach many mailboxes in Canada, though just today we heard from a person on Vancouver Island that it was in today's mail. So if you haven't received the catalog yet, it should be arriving soon. And of course information about all the 2011 programs and work parties is available online at www.indralaya.com.