October 22-28

watery reflections

The Indralaya Board of Directors came together this last weekend for their annual business meeting. During the meeting, votes for the annual election were tabulated and Meg Sather was elected to a second term on the Board. Meg was also elected to serve as chair of the new Board.

Victoria Bennett was also appointed to the Board. She will replace Jeannie Chamberlain, who was completing her second three year term on the Board and fifth year as the Board chair.  Thank you, Jeannie, for your years of service!

      

Jeannie                                       Meg

In other action, the Board reviewed the program schedule for 2013 and voted to keep next year’s housing and meal fees at the same level as this year, while program fees will go up slightly.


...and now for a word from our sponsor

This Week At Indralaya celebrates its 2nd birthday this week. Since beginning in October of 2010, there have been exactly 100 posts and approximately 16,400 page views. Interest in the blog has grown steadily and the busiest month to date was July 2012, with 985 visits. 86% of those who have visited the blog are from the U.S. and Canada. The remaining 14% are spread around the world. The blog has been visited by people from all seven continents. Russia is the third most frequent visitor, followed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Brazil, Indonesia and Australia.

after the rain the sun came out

October 14-20

We returned from our break on Sunday. Jacob and Spencer took care of camp while we were gone. Upon our return we learned that while we were gone, there had been some interesting correspondence touching on Indralaya’s early history. Frederick McClaren’s granddaughter, Diane Schubring, had contacted the Orcas Island Community Foundation and they had forwarded her email to Helen Bee.

In the 1920s, McClaren was loosely involved with the Theosophical Society in Seattle through his friendship with Webster Shepard, who used to sail up Eastsound and moor his boat in Judd Cove below the McClaren farm. Shepard mentioned to McClaren that there was a group of local theosophists who were interested in holding a summer gathering of theosophists. He offered his farm on Orcas for the gathering and the first ‘camp’ was held in the summer of 1927. This first camp was very successful, with around 45 people attending, so the group of theosophists who had spearheaded the whole venture negotiated an agreement with the McClaren’s that involved the payment of back taxes and other considerations in return for which the property was turned over to the newly-formed Orcas Island Foundation.

Frederick McClaren

Following up on this initial contact, Diane posted several interesting historic photos on the Indralaya facebook page, a couple of which are posted below.

An early picture of the tree at Madrona Point, looking NE towards Buck Mountain. 

Today

The stone table that now resides below the dining hall near the labyrinth.

As already mentioned, there are several more photos that Diane posted on the Indralaya facebook, including some interesting shots taken from the top of Lookout Mountain looking down on the property.

October 8-14

During the Fall Harvest work party we determined that the hornet nest that was found in August (see August 16-22 post) was no longer occupied and cut it out of the tree it had been built in. The nest had seemed to be quite inactive for several weeks, although every so often a hornet would be seen coming or going. 

dismantled fencing tape 

Curiously, at about the same time that we noticed that the nest was no longer active, the fencing tape that had been placed around the tree was torn off its stakes over the course of two nights by some unknown creature. It was as if an invisible guide were advising us that the hornets no longer posed a threat and that this favorite meadow sitting rock was once again available for use. 

Jen & Meg

We left Indralaya on Friday and are taking a week long break to rest, visit with friends and attend a few  concerts. Our musical odyssey began on Friday night when we got together with Jen Moffat and Meg Sather for dinner and attended Jen’s performance with the Seattle Women’s Chorus.

Marshall & Leonie

On Saturday we met up with Marshall Peabody and attended Bob Dylan’s Seattle concert.

Zach holds down the bar

Leonie participated in a day long foot massage training on Sunday. Afterwards we headed to downtown Seattle and dropped in on Zach Geballe at the Dahlia Lounge, where he tends bar on Sunday nights.

October 1-7

cider production

Much of the week was focused on preparations for the Fall Harvest Work Party, which began on Friday and continued through Monday morning. With a crew of over 80 people expected, there was plenty to do ahead of time. The week also saw the return of maintenance staffers Thea Patten & Mike Schifsky and we began contacting program leaders and scheduling for our 2013 programs. 

pre-program set-up

a fresh batch of bread

tea time macaroons

Robin, Annabelle, and Mariana

apple prep & good conversations

The weather was splendid and the work party went well. Over 85 gallons of apple cider were produced. Installation of the exterior siding was completed on Heather cabin, more cabin wood boxes were built, the garden was tended to, kindling was chopped, trees were watered, great food came out of the kitchen, and the dock was cleaned and stored for the winter.

many hands make light work

thank you apple trees for your abundance

September 24-30

meditation altar

For many years the Indralaya program season has either begun or ended (and occasionally begun and ended) with a silent meditation retreat. That pattern was followed again this year, as participants in the final program of the 2012 season entered into a shared silence on Thursday evening that continued until Sunday morning.  

who pulled that third rabbit out of their hat?

Although many still associate Indralaya with an abundant rabbit community, for most of this year the resident population has been down to a precious two bunnies. These last two survivors of the calamitous (from the rabbit point of view) arrival of mink about a decade ago, possess certain magical qualities. For one thing, they seem to have the mysterious ability to bi-locate, and are often in close proximity to human activity occuring anywhere within the area defined by the Resident Manager’s cabin (our house at the top of the hill), the labyrinth, the solarium and the Grove. They are also known to nibble grass around the edges of one’s shoe and one of them even paid an after dark visit to the stage during an evening campfire earlier this year. It took awhile to recognize that these were the same two rabbits regardless of where they might appear, but the notched ear of one of them is a clear tell-tale.

Amazingly, out of the silence of this last weekend’s retreat, on Sunday morning a third rabbit mysteriously manifested and joined the dynamic duo. Does this 50% percent increase in the resident population auger well for the future? Only time will tell...

Linda, Marcia & Bill

We were sorry to say good-bye to the above three volunteer staffers at the end of the retreat. Indralaya has been graced by their presence since the Theosofest program in early September and they have been a big help in many areas.