NEWS and MUSINGS

The outside of our main building, once a pair of gamekeeper's cottages, hadn't been touched in years so we decided to hang the expense and get it repaired and painted before the wisteria regrows. We would have liked to have had it done for Magha Puja but the weather has put a bit of a damper on that idea. Well, more than that really. After a real push yesterday to take advantage of two sunny days that the BBC had promised to at least get the front done in time for our celebration tomorrow, a mammoth downpour last night washed away a good bit of our very expensive paint that we couldn't really afford. Moral: everything's uncertain and take the BBC weather forecast with a pinch of salt.
Incidentally, our choice of colour was inspired by the villas at Sri panwa where we stayed on the island of Phuket at the end of January.
Already this morning the paint is being patched up and made ready for tomorrow - see the last three pictures in the photo album 'Painting the Forest Hermitage'. There are pictures there of yesterday too, you'll find the albums under the Photos tab near the top of the page.
And we are trying out our brand new marquee that we found on eBay. At least we'll have somewhere dry outside where people can eat tomorrow, as long as it doesn't get destroyed by a storm in the night.
If anyone wants to come and help today, you'll be very welcome. And tomorrow we'll still need some help but mostly we'd like you to come and join our celebration and witness Sid's going forth. We start at around 10:30 tomorrow and the ordination is at one o'clock.