It was a clear, crisp morning on Saturday the 4th of August, the silver wattles in full bloom and the resident magpies were building their nests in the trees above the worksite of the Meditation Garden. We milled about and whispered while the Melbourne Zen group practiced their weekly Saturday morning meditation inside the CERES learning centre. Then it was time to continue the deconstruction of the fire circle. Working with a quiet sense of excitement and connectivity to our goal of creating a place for shared spiritual practice. We moved an impressive amount of concrete, to be reused as pavers at Joes Market Garden. We shifted ancient lava flows of blue stone rock to rest in our resource yard for garden paths to come. All this hard work was broken up by a healthy dose of rest and socialising over warm, home-cooked food.

The Meditation Garden is still in its early stages and there will be many more afternoons such as the one described here. Continued volunteer interest is needed help make the garden a reality. The next working bee is on Saturday the 18th of August at 10am and we are continuing to remove the blue stone wall, clearing an area for a new retaining wall, moving timber railway sleepers from the Honey Lane Farm for both disability access and a retaining wall as well as sitting around having lunch and eating lots of tea and cake.