June update

Sadhu and welcome to all the shiny new dharmacarinis ordained at Akashavana last week. It's lovely working here at Tiratanaloka, as it means we get to know so many women and consequently most of the women who go to Akashavana. It's always exciting when the new names come out and we get to practice pronouncing those less obvious. Hopefully most of them will come on the big mixed Order weekend at Wymondham in August to be introduced to the Order publicly.

We've had a few women express an interest in the Refuge Tree retreat listed in the previous blog, but if you do fancy a smaller and hence more intimate retreat here, then do please consider coming. September is usually a lovely time of year in the Brecon Beacons too, so could be another incentive to come. Dharmacarinis also welcome of course!

We have a What is the Order retreat starting on Friday, with Kulanandi and Vidyagita coming to lead a German group too. After that we have a week of community time when we plan our programme for next year, and have Dhammadinna to stay as our president (and friend). We're planning on having a new roof put on the whole conservatory early in the year and so will probably have a retreat in February and then close until the Easter holidays in April. It's going to be a zinc roof with a couple of skylights as it won't let in so much light, but the aim is to also stop it being like a sauna in the summer or deafening us all when the rain comes down the rest of the time! It's a big undertaking and we're grateful to Gil, our architect, who designed the community end a few years ago. We're also looking into having a ground source heating pump at the moment, as we'd like to be more environmentally friendly, but we have to look at the practicalities too. We'll keep you informed.