March 19-25

This week turned the corner into Springtime at Indralaya. As described in previous postings, it has been a quintessential month of wild and wonderful March weather. The early part of the week offered the same variability and then as the weekend approached the weather settled down and the sun came out for three beautiful days. This provided an opportunity for Leonie to get out in the garden and for me to fire up the mower and cut some grass that needed attention.

first bed of peas

tender young nettle

rhubarb

Registration Update

Confirmations for the two summer family weeks were sent out this week. Because of their popularity, all registrations for these programs and for the Deep Singing week were held until this month to give everyone a fair chance to register.

The Deep Singing week is now full with over 90 people registered. Registration for both family weeks is now at 160, with 83 people confirmed for Week One and 77 for Week Two - this means there is still a little bit of room left in both weeks, but probably not for long...

So far, over 650 participants have registered for 2012 programs and work parties. It is shaping up as another busy season!

blue sky/green trees

March 12-18

Monday started the week with some wild and wooly weather. The kind of weather that only seems to come in March. Over the course of the day, we had hail, rain, some sloppy snow, brilliant sunlight, high winds, and ... the grand finale: a rainbow over the waters of East Sound.

rainbow remnant

This week saw the return of Mike and Thea from their vacation in Hawaii. Thea got right into restoring the interior of Wisteria cabin, and Mike installed a larger water heater in Ocean Spray. On Wednesday, Leonie discovered that otters were again living under Kunz cabin (see Jan 17-23, 2011 post). This discovery led to a flurry of activity - setting up lights, playing a radio (CBC talk radio) and taking other steps to coax out the four otters who had taken up residence. By the end of the weekend they had gone elsewhere.

sea foam

Over the weekend, I attended a workshop led by R.J. Stewart. The workshop was quite worthwhile. The location of the meeting was Camp Edgewood, which is located in Milton, WA and was founded by Spiritualists in 1903. There is some alignment between the Spiritualist and Theosophical movements of that time, and I kept looking at the many old photos that were around to see if I would recognize anyone from the early days of Indralaya (I didn’t).

Camp Edgewood Labyrinth

While I was away, Leonie spent the weekend at camp with friends Allyson, Todd and Shaiyera Madere. Allyson was a massage school classmate of Leonie’s.

Todd, Shaiyera & Leonie at the beach

March 5-11

Leonie, Freya & a blossoming cherry tree

After returning from last week’s travels, much of this week was composed of catching up in the office. On Thursday afternoon, we had a surprise visit from Caitlin McKimmey, who was here on fellowship last fall (see Sept. 19-25, 2011 post). We learned that Caitlin has just been accepted into a Master's program at Harvard, where she will be studying ‘the discourse between religion and science’. Congratulations, Caitlin!

Over the weekend we were visited by friends Freya Secrest and Jeremy Berg. On Sunday, the four of us joined Tina Rose for a walk to the Doe Bay Restaurant. While there, we also visited with past Indralaya managers Shandra & River Augenstein.

We also learned that former managers Mark Seiler and Jen Edington are now the parents of a baby girl. Naia Rena Seiler came into the world on March 5. We’re looking forward to her first Indralaya visit, whenever that might be!

On the way to Doe Bay

February 27 - March 4

It was an enjoyable and fruitful visit to the national headquarters of the Theosophical Society (TS) in America in Wheaton, IL. We arrived on Monday evening and stayed until Saturday. Our hope in visiting was that we would have an opportunity to be helpful and supportive as the Presidency of Tim Boyd gathers steam.

Tim was elected President of the TS late last Spring. He is well acquainted with Indralaya and has helped lead several young theosophist programs at camp. He and his family (wife Lily and daughter Angelique) will also be at Indralaya this summer for the Connections program, where Tim will be leading morning discussion.

Minor & Leonie, Tim & Lily Boyd

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of people who have started working at Olcott (the national center, named after TS founder Henry Olcott) since our last visit in 2003. We enjoyed visiting with many of them, as well as with old friends from year’s past. We learned about some of the exciting things that are happening at Olcott (the national center), including the establishment of an elementary school. Olcott is a busy and active place, with a Quest bookshop, library and a wide array of program offerings, available both locally and via webcast. You can find out more by checking out their website: www.theosophical.org.

The national center, which was occupied in 1927 (the same year Indralaya began), is also a community, with over 20 people living in the residential section of the headquarters building and in various houses that are scattered around the 43 acre grounds. Most of the staff and community come together for lunch and afternoon tea, both of which are served in the dining hall on weekdays.

In addition to helping with various small tasks that needed doing over the course of the week, we were also able to meet with several department heads and explore ideas for future collaboration between Olcott and Indralaya. It remains to be seen what might come of these meetings, but we are convinced of the virtue of maintaining an ongoing connection and collaboration between Indralaya and other theosophical centers.

We flew back to Seattle on Saturday and then headed to Oregon for an overnight trip and visit with friends Robyn and Gary Finseth at their new home in Wilsonville.

Meanwhile, board member Crystal Mossman was staying at Indralaya while we were away. Over the weekend the Indralaya library was the setting for an OPAL Community Land Trust board retreat, and a tree pruning seminar tended to some of the meadow apple trees.