Today is one of those days where you would like to hit the rewind button as far as the weather goes. It’s grey out, all fifty shades of it and there were high wind warnings out. They were too little and too late. Our winds here at The Institute are terrible to behold. They rage and howl and will knock your house down if you’re not careful. As of right now we have the deck furniture up on the eleventh level heading for Kansas. The hot tub was last seen rolling through the interns tent area, much to their dismay, and at least half of the large livestock is missing. We heard them as they went over the top of the mountain but they soon fell off the radar. This does not bode well.

When conditions get like this it is easy to fall into some form of despair but we have a secret weapon to combat wind-caused depression. It is our underground Japanese garden that is fully protected by at least a 1000 solid feet of rock. We have converted one of the grottos that lie beneath the North keep into a small Japanese garden. It has the usual strolling gardens, teahouse, and a small lake, actually more of a large pond, with the Turtle island just off the West bank. There are small quarters for the resident gardener and his wife and of course a full-sized greenhouse to store the plants for the different seasons.

It’s where this post is currently being written as I often come down here to get out of the wind. The sound of the screaming gale outside usually fades at about the 500′ mark so you begin to relax even before you enter the garden. it ‘s time to feed the Koi now and Ushi-san normally leaves their feeding to me as he knows how much I enjoy it. Later I’ll call up to the surface to check how things are going but right now I need to meditate.