A Cumbrian elf resort
I’m not in the habit of hearing voices in my head, let alone striking up a dialogue with them; but if someone is trying to strike up a conversation, surely it’s only courteous to at least bend an ear before walking away. That’s what I told myself in a coffee shop in Cumbria in 1998, anyway.
There is of course a preamble. I had taken a friend and her two children to visit the Manjushri Kadampa Buddhist Centre near Ulverston, as she had made several retreats there and claimed to have experienced astral travel while camping in the grounds. So the place had some significant memories for her, and when we arrived, I left them to wander around while I went into the café.
The main building at that time was a 19th century Gothic mansion built on the site of a mediæval Augustinian house founded in the 12th century as a hospital for the poor; the priory
