May 23-29

The Memorial Day holiday has long been designated as a work party weekend at Indralaya. This year just over 50 work party participants arrived and helped with a wide array of jobs around the camp. Many thanks to all who were here!

Naomi & Rachel

Among those attending were Indralaya moms Naomi Desranleau and Rachel Erickson, who came with their children Eames (4 months) and Bella (just over 1 year old) - Eames' first visit and Bella's 2nd - the next generation of Indralaya in the making.

Great food was served up by the kitchen crew all weekend, including this batch of Sunday morning pancakes.

Study Group potluck

Earlier in the week, the Orcas Study Group gathered in the dining hall for their end of the season potluck. The study group meets at Indralaya on Wednesdays from September-May. This past year was a good one, as interest in exploring theosophical ideas and concepts was strong throughout the year. Over the course of the year, participation in the group increased significantly, with many intriguing presentations and discussions.

The bird houses that were built earlier in the Spring (see the April 4-10 entry) have attracted their first residents! After several weeks of watching and waiting, a pair of Violet-green Swallows moved in over the weekend and began to build their nest.

Posting Comments
Your comments and responses to this blog are welcome and invited. Some have found the comment process to be confusing and perhaps a brief explanation of how it works will be helpful.

At the bottom of each weekly entry is a banner that includes information on when the entry was posted and blue text that says ‘__ comments’, with the number of comments for that particular posting in the underlined area. Simply click on ‘comments’, and the ‘post a comment’ box pops up.

Once you've written your comment, you are also required to select a profile before it can be sent. One easy choice in selecting a profile is to select ‘name/url’ and simply type your name in the designated area. After you've selected your profile, click on the ‘post comment’ button and the comment is sent to the blog for posting.

That's all there is to it - so please keep those cards and letters coming!

bird's eye view

May 16-22

The Cedar Grove
Out along the Nature Spirit trail lies a small cedar grove that can be reached by a short branch trail. This branch trail used to be a part of a much longer trail that wound its way across the forest. This old trail was known as the White trail. At the time the Cedar Grove trail was established in the mid-1990's, the White trail had become nearly impassable because of tree fall associated with the big winter storms of 1988 & 1989.

forest guardians

At the beginning of the trail that leads to the grove stand three great guardian fir trees. There is a sense of tranquility and stillness about these sentinel trees that is impressive.

entering the cedar grove

The grove itself is composed of a small clearing that slopes gently from west to east towards the Sound. There are 18 western red cedar that can be counted from the bench that sits in the middle of the clearing.

Arthur Lee Jacobsen, a well-known Seattle area tree and plant expert, describes the western red cedar as,

“a living monument to firm, unyielding resolve; deeply anchored in earth, strongly ascending towards heaven, mocking the might of the wind, resistant to rot, vigorously enduring for untold centuries”

symbols of human spirituality ~ how many can you identify?

Hidden under the seat of the bench are symbols representative of many different spiritual paths. The cedar grove is a peaceful spot, and well worth a visit during your time at Indralaya.

therapeutic touch in the meadow

A busy weekend
Over the weekend, 27 people participated in a training in therapeutic touch for beginning and intermediate practitioners. The program was led by Jane Cornman, Kathy Wilmering and Cedron Sterling.

Coinciding with the program was a meeting of the Indralaya Board of Directors. One of the questions that the board has been reviewing this Spring is around the question of providing internet access to short-term residential staff and people attending programs. After a full discussion extending over two meetings, the Board decided to continue with the policy of not providing wireless access to the internet.

This decision is intended to support the experience of Indralaya as a place that offers some measure of respite from a world that is awash in communications technologies and the perception of a constant need to be connected. In their place, it is hoped that those who visit and participate in the life of Indralaya can experience a more comprehensive sense of connectedness that transcends the limitations of technological gadgets. And, yes, the irony of expressing this aspiration in a blog is not lost on this writer!

May 9-15

buddha field

This week saw the passing of the last open week in the Indralaya spring schedule. From this point on, programs flow on uninterrupted all the way until the end of September! As such, the week was composed of a wide assortment of preperatory activities, culminating in the celebration of several Indralaya-connected birthdays that coincide on May 14 (Happy Birthday to Carol Bee, Steve Murphy, Tim Hulley and me!).

coconut cream birthday cake

Comings and Goings
Indralaya's garden coordinator, Chelsea Cates, returned from a visit to the John Jeavon's farm and gardening center in Willits, CA, where she has previously interned. Wwoofers John Magee and Ona Lindauer departed after a three week stay, on their way to a farm on Camano Island and the NW Folklife Festival at the end of the month.

first plantings of the season fill the garden beds

Brian Davies arrived on Friday and spent the weekend working in the library. Carol Bee came by to work with Leonie and Crystal on the long-time coming Indralaya cookbook, now being readied for publication in mid-June. And Rolf Eriksen dropped by on Saturday to help troubleshoot some issues affecting Wisteria cabin.

My week began in Bellevue, following a quick trip to Spokane over the previous weekend to attend our niece Laura Anderson's graduation from Gonzaga University. On Monday, on the way back to Orcas I met with David Spangler and Deborah Koff-Chapin to discuss their program (Subtle Realms & Creative Expression) that is coming up July 30 - August 4. We shared several ideas and it is apparent that this program has the potential to offer a wonderful shared exploration and expression of human creative and the artistic impulse.

Look, up in the sky!

Around camp, lots of work was underway, including organizing and cleaning the kitchen, painting Apple cabin, hanging a new door at Fir cabin, and a burn pile was used to clean up a lot of debris that has been accumulating around the upper cabins.

buddha field 2

May 2-8

The Children's Apple Tree

As May got underway, the meadow seemed to become increasingly resplendent with each passing day. This week the children's apple tree (the one tree in the meadow that children are allowed to climb to their heart's content) came into full bloom.

Weekend Program
It was good to welcome Erik Peper back to Indralaya after several years. Erik is Professor of Holistic Health and Director of the Institute for Holistic Healing Studies at San Francisco State University. He is an international authority on biofeedback and self-regulation, and attended the annual healing camps at Indralaya with Dora Kunz and Dolores Krieger regularly beginning in the late 1970's.

dinner discussion with Erik

Erik arrived fresh from a trip to Kobe, Japan, where he was training Japanese physicians in the use of biofeedback to address post-traumatic stress associated with the March 11 earthquake and its aftermath.

Wayne, John, Ona, Haley, Jake

Stalwart Staff
The full complement of our Spring staff were on hand this week. Wayne Hunt is here for a second year on fellowship. John Magee and Ona Lindauer arrived a couple weeks ago via the wwoofer program and have been stalwarts in the garden and kitchen during their stay. Another wwoofer, Haley Neddermann arrived on Thursday night and will be staying until mid-June. She is the sister of Audrey Neddermann, who was on the Indralaya staff last summer. “Wwoof” is an acronym for “Worldwide Workers on Organic Farms” an international program that Indralaya began participating in last year.

Jacob Doty arrived the day before Haley and is here on an internship that will last into the Fall. Jake arrived on Wednesday from his family home in Williams, OR, where he lives with his dad Rick and Elizabeth McNanny (Mark Seiler and Jen Edington also live on the property). Jake has been on fellowship at Indralaya previously and has been coming to Indralaya since his early teens. His primary responsibility will be to provide support in the kitchen.

It feels quite fortunate to have these good people here contributing to the life of the place. While most of our staff positions are filled for the remainder of Spring and into the summer, there is still space available so please let us know if you or someone you know might be interested in serving on fellowship staff.

Quote of the Week
During a dinner conversation, a participant in Erik’s program who was talking about past visits and treasured moments at Indralaya said proudly: “I got to wash pots with John Roberts once.”

April 25 - May 1

Pear cabin interior

Cabins Complete!

Work on renovating Salmonberry and Pear cabin began roughly 4 years ago and in the intervening years, two beautiful cabins have arisen in place of the tired and worn out buildings that were there before. After the final push of these last couple weeks, a building inspection was scheduled for last Monday and both cabins obtained final approval from the County.

Pear

Salmonberry

This significant moment provides an opportunity to express appreciation to the many, many, many volunteers who had a hand in the work of rebuilding these cabins. Particular thanks to Rolf Eriksen, who developed the plans and oversaw much of the process. Now it's on to Heather Cabin ~ with plans to submit our request for a building permit in the next week or so and begin work this summer!

Mindfulness Retreat
The weekend saw a gathering of 20 participants in a mostly silent mindfulness meditation retreat. Participants practiced group meditation in the library, ate meals together in silence, and had lots of opportunity to savor the natural beauty of Indralaya. Grace Crowley has offered this retreat at Indralaya since 2007.

Her first visit to Indralaya was in 1995, when she attended a yoga retreat with Pat Cawthon. '95 was also Leonie's and my first year here as resident managers and it was a bit of a shock for all of us to realize that sixteen years have gone by since then.

mindfully pitched tents

A New Tent Policy
Tenting has become an increasingly popular option for people attending programs at Indralaya in recent years. So much so that at times the meadow can seem overfilled with tents. In response, the Board of Directors has decided to place a limit of eight on the number of tent sites that can be reserved for any particular week.

The meadow is now nearly in full blossom. This past week all of the plum trees burst forth to join the pear and cherry trees, and towards the end of the week the apple blossoms were also coming out.

Blighted Madrones

The black leaves on many of the Madrona trees this year are a phenomena that has attracted the concern of arborists throughout the region. According to Herlwyn Lutz, who has tended Indralaya's trees for close to two decades now, the blight goes back to a hard frost last November at a time when the new leaf buds were just beginning to develop.

Who is that masked beekeeper?

And just in time to help with the pollination process, two new hives of bees arrived at Indralaya. They were welcomed to their new home on May Day - the traditional Western European festival day of Beltane, which marks the half way point between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. It was an amazing day for both bees and birds. Among the birds seen on or above the meadow were swallows, robins, junco, towhee, a kestrel, two vultures, two doves, various woodpeckers, an eagle, an osprey, crow, raven, geese and seagulls.

Finally, this week, the sharing of a new (?) sign that was recently sited in the shop building after it was given a thorough cleaning by Michael Short. Words of blessing that we heartily endorse!