Dream Monastery

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

Yep.  Garden.  Biiig garden.  With lavender, tea roses, and crawling ivy attatched to the gazeebo in the centre.

You know, hop vines would work just as well as ivy on the gazebo, but be more... practical (ahem... beer... ahem).  :-)

Oh, handicap acessibility, please. Ramps, wide doors (i've tried an electric wheelchair, and I think I might be a little hard on doorframes for a while) lifts/elevators where needed. There's this thing called 'universal design' that's supposed to be accessible without looking 'institutionally accessible'. Plan ahead...

Ramps and lifts are good and all, but would a rigging system that flies a person in a harness around the room Peter Pan-style count as handicap-accessible?   

Also, we may need extra electric wheelchairs.  Partly for visitors, but mainly for races. 

[Aggie]

Also, we may need extra electric wheelchairs.  Partly for visitors, but mainly for races. 

Oh, the ones for races shouldn't be electric.  How about biodiesel?

[Opsa]

 

I have a bunch of rugosa roses and they make HUGE rose hips. They are also tough as nails and usually bloom before most of the Japanese beetles swarm. They even do well at the beach, in case we wind up near a beach.

Beach property insurance is very high, though. So we can make our own beach-like setting. Remember at TOP when we were discusing saltwater pools? Gotta have one of those!

I just wrote in the Lottery thread about how we might generate income for ourselves and charities. Didn't think about jellies. That would be a good one, too. Also herbal things, like soaps and smudge sticks would be cool.

[Aggie]

I'm seriously looking to plant a bamboo forest sooner or later, and sell cut bamboo in the raw (to local craftspeople and artists).  Some manufactured products would do well... where else would you find domestic bamboo?  Some of the giant edibles are cold-hardy enough even for Canada; the US would be a snap.

Oh, and I'd like a hotspring, please!  Piped in with bamboo....

[Sibling Chatty]

Lots of bamboo...

I love bamboo cuttings in my tropical arrangements.

Umm, I have not mentioned the floral prep and design areas, have I??

I'll need room for flowers from the cutting gardens as well as the ones we have to buy, and sufficient refrigeration for the others. Room to store the vases and containers, etc. A small rose cooler, a decent tropicals cooler...and a regular one with room for lots of variety.

If we book in weddings in the chapels, we can do the flowers, cater the reception in either the gardens or one of the great halls, and maybe even do a 'bed and breakfast-type' guesthouse for wedding guests, as well as a honeymoon cottage or two.

[Opsa]

Hmm, that reminds me, I wonder if we're ordainable as our own order?

[Sibling Chatty]

It might be possible. We'll need to see.

The Reverend Sibling Opsanus Tau presiding at weddings would be pretty cool.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

And a big honkin' library would be vital, I think.

What sort of library?  I see one in two major parts:

* A big, open airy room, with lots of windows and many setting areas around comfy couches and low tables. Shelves tucked in between the windows where practical.  Fireplace at either end, for reading by. Gaslights, for reading at night (warmer light than electric - more nostalgic <heh> Efficient, too, and provide additional heat for cold nights. )

* But, to one side, the real bookstacks begin.  Too-tall stacks, requiring short step-stools to reach the upper shelves.  Narrow (barely wheelchair-enough-wide) so as to get the most in for the space.  Endless rows, with dark cul-de-sacs, and a low stools here and there, for a "quick read-through".  Large enough to connect to Library Space, of course. 'Ware the Librarian! (and don't call him a monkey ... )

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

* But, to one side, the real bookstacks begin.  Too-tall stacks, requiring short step-stools to reach the upper shelves.  Narrow (barely wheelchair-enough-wide) so as to get the most in for the space.  Endless rows, with dark cul-de-sacs, and a low stools here and there, for a "quick read-through".  Large enough to connect to Library Space, of course. 'Ware the Librarian! (and don't call him a monkey ... )

I think for a proper library, we need a few things:
- lots and lots of interesting books, many of them very old
- multiple levels of mezzanines connected by a wrought-iron spiral staircase (know what I mean? The kind where all the pie-shaped steps are supported by a central round column) - with some sort of very Victorian-retro-funky "H.G. Wells-meets-the-ADA" elevator off to the side
- one of those ladders-on-tracks that they have in old libraries in movies   

[goat starer]

can we have the monastery tucked away high in the mountains just beside the sea in the middle of a desert surrounded by rolling fields and deep forests with majestic icebergs and waterfalls and glaciers and an oasis and trout streams and canyons.

on a tropical island

In antarctica

near my house so I can get there easily?

Thanks

[The Meromorph]

can we have the monastery tucked away high in the mountains just beside the sea in the middle of a desert surrounded by rolling fields and deep forests with majestic icebergs and waterfalls and glaciers and an oasis and trout streams and canyons.

on a tropical island

In antarctica

near my house so I can get there easily?

Thanks

Ahh! You want the real monastery, rather than the dream one.

Just come on down.
and up.
and round.
and over.
and in.
and out.
and by...

[DeadPoet]

I need high-speed internet access and an espresso machine; you can handle the rest .

[Sibling Chatty]

I'll ditto the high speed access, but Qwerty and I need a good supply of Barq's...

And a good massage therapist.

[DeadPoet]

Then, we need high-end Hi-Fi equipment in every room , with a room  to store the CDs / Vinyl     . A BIG room.

/edit: I know I'm an unromantic person .

[The Meromorph]

Let's try and remember we're daydreaming, eh?
This isn't the Specifications page, I'm expecting room dimensions and HVAC designs any minute...
Wax a little lyrical, my siblings...