To mark the first anniversary of the opening weekend, we present a picture show: Adhisthana at high summer.
Amid Herefordshire's wonderful landscape, the Sangharakshita Memorial Library is gradually taking shape. The building will eventually house Bhante's library and an exhibition space.
The old central arched portion of the library roof - translucent and leaky, patched with mastic, shaded with adjustable louvres which didn't work - has now been replaced by an opaque, leak-proof and insulated arch, much to the delight of Ajjavin, the building contractor.
Yashodeva has spent days tiling the central floor, to the sound of BBC Radio 3 (Wagner, Bach etc) He looks a happy man. As he says, "some have referred to me as a 'pig in muck'."
And the bookshelves have arrived! They were a bargain and have an interesting history, having been bought from the famous Foyles Bookshop in London's Charing Cross Road when it moved to new premises a few doors down the street.
(You may remember Adhisthana's other bargains and freebies: beds from the 2012 Olympic village in London; the design classic "40/4" chairs from eBay*; the free Javanese-style Buddha rupas impounded by UK Customs and Excise, offered to Adhisthana after being unclaimed for many months.)
Outside, Sanghadeva's gardens are maturing richly, a wheatfield awaits harvest, the oak trees are majestically green and a giant wooden vajra has appeared by the new fire-pit. Lastly, the natural wetland sewage system is growing lush on Buddhist waste water generated by two flourishing communities, for women and for men.
*(Why "40/4"? Well, forty of these chrome-and-bentwood chairs stack neatly just four feet (1m 22cm) high. Ratnadharini bought a job lot at around £13 each, compared with their normal sale price of over £100 each.)
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