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!