A teaching on impermanence

Today we started our dread work of changing the retreat hut at the end of our garden into ... Something else.

'ö-Dzin in his safety gear

It has not really worked out as a retreat hut. Only two people have ever used it for that purpose in the seven years of its life. It was a joyous and inspiring project creating it ... but turned out to be something of a white elephant.

A good start and looking tidier

It was not used and it gradually became unusable. Unfortunately—in our lack of expertise—we did not make the roof with a sufficient angle of pitch and so rain was able to penetrate because it did not run off properly. This got trapped in the roof and in the wall insulation. Also there was no air flow in the hut when it was closed up, and so it became mouldy and rotted.

Our plan is to keep the basic structural frame and turn it into an arbour with plants growing over it.