Wet Weather Walkabout

Aloha everyone, ready for another trip round' the monastery with Rajanatha? Ok, lets go.

Bonsai master Tandu Sivanatha replaced the banyan bonsai in front of the Kadavul Temple Tank recently. These beautiful trees have taken years to mature into their pots and develop the character they have today. Even the dead branches, or deadwood, is sculpted and shaped to give beauty and balance to the tree.

This small leaf Jade bonsai is truly magnificent. Note: if you pronounce the word as Ban-zai, you will sound American and we dont want that. The correct pronunciation is Bon- as in \"bone\", and sai- as in \"sigh\". Bonsai.

Nirvani Tejadevanatha looks into the great white light! The spark of light is the arc of a full circle of electricity going through a metal rod.

Ok, you saw this coming. Since I love yeast and bacteria I had to add this on my walk. This is the monasteries sourdough culture! In French the term for sourdough bread is \"Pain au Levain.\" It is essentially a SCOBY or symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast! Lactic acid, acetic acid and saccharomyces complete this mix, adding wonderful sour and tart flavors to bread. The culture is fed with flour once a week and kept in our fridge. The monks bake on the retreat by adding some to their dough and Voila! No need for instant dry yeast, which is often bland 🙁

You could technically call this \"poolish\" since the culture is abit wetter than normal french style levian. ok ok, back to the walkabout...

Sivanathaswami recently added a light to the Lambodara fish tank. The light really brings out the colors in the fish!

Our Ganapati kulam is empty! Monks are on vigil doing puja, editing books or taking too many photos of yeast 🙂

Aloha and Farewell everyone, till tomorrow.

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