I’d wanted to link to this touching obituary for a well loved dog a couple of days ago. Better late, than never all.

Darcey. Darcey-Dog. ‘Dee-Dee’ to her many friends. A dog-lover’s dog. Big black amiable giant with a heart of gold. You could roll around on the floor with her for hours. Her sense of fun was just amazing. Cheeky, obsessed with food, she could hear a sweetie paper at two hundred metres in a hurricane.

They say it will be dark when we get up tomorrow morning at 5.45 a.m.

The sense of Autumn is in the air, it has been much cooler today, cold and changeable. Now wind and rain, now sunshine and showers. Now onwards to our normal schedule.

It’s been almost a year since I arrived back in England. And it is at least a year since I took a look at what is out there in terms of Buddhist Podcasts. Perhaps I wasn’t looking that hard however I only remember a small hand full. Now there is a shed full of them. Uh! I’ve been wanting to weave that expression into a blog for days!

It was my sometimes walking companion who told me the origin of the expression, a shed full. Preston Meditation Group, many years ago. Have another chocolate biscuit Reverend, don’t worry we have a whole shed full of them! More than enough for all.

Thanks to Buddhist Village for the link.

Now in sombre and grateful mood, a good and long time friend in the Sangha has turned a corner and will live on. It has been a long haul, long for him and long for his wife and family. And long for all of us travelling by their side. He is not completely out of the woods. Yet close.

At a distance I’ve been witness to such courage, and faith in action. Qualities I’d wish to emulate, ones we would all no doubt wish to emulate. And if any should doubt in the merit of sustained practice that doubt can be dissolved in the light of these past months.

Let us bow in gratitude to the highest Truth.

Some weeks ago I visited Mount Grace Priory in North Yorkshire. Mt Grace is the best preserved example in England of a Carthusian monastery, where the monks lived as hermits. One of the individual cells has been reconstructed and restored and furnished, to show how the monks would have lived.

The ‘cells’ are more like modern day starter homes. In the restored cell, pictured here with figure, there are three rooms downstairs and one large one above with a weaving loom. All of the monks had some practical work such as weaving, spinning, book binding and the like. Each monk had a garden, a privy and a short length of cloister. Food was given them through a hole in the front wall by lay Brothers who basically took care of them and the administration of the monastery.

The film Into Great Silence, which I mentioned some weeks ago, was made in the large Carthusian monastery in France. Quite an austere life.

In contrast and a million miles away from the simple hermetic life, which I do not hold up as an ideal by the way, take a glimpse at the details of a prize winning shed in Reading Berkshire…inspired by Roman architecture. National Shed Week indeed?!! Only in Britain!

You can guess what’s happening. I’m talking ridiculous dog talk in an attempt to get a reluctant dog to take his evening constitutional. Come ON! My voice deepens to bass in an attempt to establish authority. It works, for a few steps.

Eventually we are on the lane and heading for the bottom road. There is to be found a footpath sign on a wooden post. It points up towards the monastery. This public path cuts close to the main buildings then on up through the fields to the top road. We rarely have people walk this path and when we do they will stop to chat in a friendly fashion.

On the same public footpath sign is pinned a white arrow. I only found out about it’s meaning recently. Our two dogs are fine together, off the lead, however it’s a very different story if they meet while on the lead. The white arrow helps walkers, dog walkers, to make sure the dogs go in different directions. If the arrow points to the right, that’s the signal to turn left, and vice versa. This system works for the most part but like all systems human fallibility kicks in sometimes. Oh well, we try.

My walk this evening reminds me, once again, to remember to speak in a friendly, and respectful, fashion. I think animals respond best this way. As do humans.