A glimpse of a living God World Environment that you can experience first-hand, the Zen Garden has been under construction for over three decades and continues to expand and develop with donations from Zen Meditation students around the world.
Again, early in the morning, just at sunrise or slightly before, the early bird gets the worm, meaning the photo. Early morning light plus fog makes a great effect, but you can only catch this a few times a year, and then you have to be lucky and persistent.
Of course, when taking your camera out into rain, fog or snow, you’d best be prepared to guard the lens — a big, wide lens shade is highly recommended, and a waterproof poncho will keep the whole rig, including your face, mostly dry.
Flourishing, Thriving, Prospering, that’s what my Zen Garden has done over the past 40 years since I planted those little things in the ground. Many of the plants I put in are well over thirty feet tall, and most of them were among the ones I was told wouldn’t do well in this environment, especially the broad-leaves, but they proved hardy enough.
Martin Silverwolf sent this Heartstone for the center of the Zen Garden back in the 1980s. It is now surrounded by other donated items from many schools around the world, making quantum linkage between all the schools whose Heartstones are represented.
The Tree House was popular as a play and sleeping space, quite large enough to accommodate a dozen or more full-grown adults on its highest ledge. It had been built by community members for the use of the youngsters. It was taken down when it started to crumble, and not a minute before.
I walk the Zen Path every morning and take my camera with me when it’s foggy or the light is especially good, so I can share this experience with others. Taking photos does not break the meditation, unless you’re new at it, in which case, don’t worry, it’ll happen.
Another beautiful foggy morning yielded this photo of the top of the garden before the new woodend gates were built and installed. The roadway has not yet been salted with cemented gravel, and the farm has just begun to produce. A nice early photo of the Land as it was before development.
“These won’t grow,” I was told back in 1987, but it’s 2015 and they’re doing just fine. Sometimes you MUST listen to the mavens, the experts, and obey their instructions if you want good results, but sometimes, once in a while, the mavens are wrong. I didn’t know any better, so planted them in spite of the impossible odds, and somehow, they survived, possibly as a result of living in a reality zone that isn’t quite the same as you find just anywhere.
The Great Oak stands proudly, near the brick-walkways and the Tea Garden by the Big Pond; it has always been the favorite spot for garden parties and tea ceremonies, along with the tea house and the Contact Shrine.
This is the Big Pond, still awaiting completion. You can designate your donations toward the Zen Garden Project, to help us finish this very large pond in the very center of the Zen Garden. It needs a very large liner and a very large pump and filter system.
“Stay on the Path” reads the bright yellow sign at the side of the bricked walkway down the center of the Zen Garden. Good advice at any time. Again, the broad-leafed plants flourish without much care, and the plants live very harmoniously with each other, which is more than I can say for humans.
You can see the fog in the distance. Keep in mind that these photos were taken throughout the year, and that fog happens in any season, if the cloud cover descends low enough over the foothills, which is where we are, and fog happens often here in our little valley.
Early springtime is the best for the greenery, but it’s hard to get out there when the weather isn’t quite warm enough yet.
I waited until the sun blasted into the East side of the greenhouse, then snapped this shot, trying to capture the feeling of early morning farm work. Note the cacti in the background, all of which now resides in my cactus garden at the rim of the Zen Garden’s South Side.
I like “high value” graphic statements, and so was happy to catch the clear plastic greenhouse covers against the foggy early morning sky, with just a hint of greenery off in the distance, and lush vegetation in the foreground and midground. Green and wet and smelling of rain.
You’d think that all we ever get is fog, but the fact is that I have to work hard to get out there in the fog at the right time to get the effect. Note the textures of the hay bales and the wooden poles on either side of them– only with this light will you get that deep sculptural surface effects.
I found these rough-hewn and very weathered ten-foot long wooden split-rail logs and hauled them down to the upper garden gate, then dug dozens of deep holes with a pole-digger, drove the logs in with a sledge-hammer and this was the result, a dark grey textured contrast in a field of solid green.
I’m cultivating several varieties of long Egyptian grasses, but have stopped growing pampas grass because of the amount of serious pollen it gives off during pollen season and beyond.
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I’ll post more in the next blog, to make the downloads a little less serious.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby