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Yup, I'm still alive and still around!
My husband and I are planning on starting a food forest on about 2.5-3 acres of our property. While we own it, it's been farmed by someone nearby along with the acreage owned by a someone else since well before we've come. But we've been talking about starting a food forest there for some time and decided we'll start actually doing it this year. I'll need to get "before" pictures this week. We're hoping to restore some wildlife and get some food as well. Food forests, once established, are fairly low maintenance, though it won't be that for the first few years. We're going to meet with an expert so I'm trying to not plan it too specifically just yet. But of course I'm kind of cheating. I mean, chestnuts and hazelnuts; apple, plum, and peach; blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry. It's hard not to think it all out! Meanwhile our one neighbor informs up that the owner of the rest/bulk of the field is in talks with someone to sell it off to them so that they can use it to start an alpaca farm! Just thinking, I might have some rather wooly neighbors in in the near future.
Maybe I should take up spinning?
I had a weird yoga class last night. I go to a rather low-key, destress yoga class on Tuesday nights. For the past year now, I've been doing yoga daily (it helps keeps the anxiety in check) and while yes I do the more strenuous stuff, Tuesdays are a treat of really yin style gentle yoga. But the yoga instructor couldn't make it and another one, new to the studio, came in as a last minute substitution.
She was really, really different.
So my usual instructor, (H) has a social work background and started her career by teaching yoga to women who were victims of abuse. She talks in a voice that is almost absurdly calm and quiet. She always ask permission if she's going to touch you (which she rarely does). She suggests you do things. The whole thing feels absurdly hyggely, especially considering we're not always contorting our bodies in the most ideal of situations (that said, she chooses a lot of full body positions that are somehow as delicious as they are straining).
This person was the opposite in just about every way. She came in, spouted her credentials, discusses how she is doing advanced training under some person I (and probably no one else in the the class) ever heard of, gave us a vocab lesson and was generally very instructor-y. She was very specific about how we were supposed to do each position and, as we did it, lectures us on how it was supposed to do what in Chinese medicine. There were few full body moves, and much of what we did didn't flow but had a kind of disjointed feel to it. She used essential oils on us without telling us what was in them (I asked before I let her put any on me) and she also physically adjusted people's pose without asking or even telling us that she was going to do it. Which is something when you're eyes are closed and your trying to breath a certain way and relax/meditate only to find someone suddenly pulling on your shoulders.
Thankfully she's only subbing. But I think I'll not be making it to the classes she'll start teaching next week.
I just started reading Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari. I haven't gotten all that far yet, so I really can't review or even recommend, other than his premise is interesting (especially for me lately) and as of a chapter in, I've found his writing clear, engaging, and easy to follow. I tried reading Pride and Prejudice, but the only copy I had was from my college days and is littered with my notes. I thought that wouldn't be a problem, but I found it too distracting when reading for pleasure. I'll get my hands on a clean copy after I finish Lost Connections.
My husband and I are planning on starting a food forest on about 2.5-3 acres of our property. While we own it, it's been farmed by someone nearby along with the acreage owned by a someone else since well before we've come. But we've been talking about starting a food forest there for some time and decided we'll start actually doing it this year. I'll need to get "before" pictures this week. We're hoping to restore some wildlife and get some food as well. Food forests, once established, are fairly low maintenance, though it won't be that for the first few years. We're going to meet with an expert so I'm trying to not plan it too specifically just yet. But of course I'm kind of cheating. I mean, chestnuts and hazelnuts; apple, plum, and peach; blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry. It's hard not to think it all out! Meanwhile our one neighbor informs up that the owner of the rest/bulk of the field is in talks with someone to sell it off to them so that they can use it to start an alpaca farm! Just thinking, I might have some rather wooly neighbors in in the near future.
Maybe I should take up spinning?
I had a weird yoga class last night. I go to a rather low-key, destress yoga class on Tuesday nights. For the past year now, I've been doing yoga daily (it helps keeps the anxiety in check) and while yes I do the more strenuous stuff, Tuesdays are a treat of really yin style gentle yoga. But the yoga instructor couldn't make it and another one, new to the studio, came in as a last minute substitution.
She was really, really different.
So my usual instructor, (H) has a social work background and started her career by teaching yoga to women who were victims of abuse. She talks in a voice that is almost absurdly calm and quiet. She always ask permission if she's going to touch you (which she rarely does). She suggests you do things. The whole thing feels absurdly hyggely, especially considering we're not always contorting our bodies in the most ideal of situations (that said, she chooses a lot of full body positions that are somehow as delicious as they are straining).
This person was the opposite in just about every way. She came in, spouted her credentials, discusses how she is doing advanced training under some person I (and probably no one else in the the class) ever heard of, gave us a vocab lesson and was generally very instructor-y. She was very specific about how we were supposed to do each position and, as we did it, lectures us on how it was supposed to do what in Chinese medicine. There were few full body moves, and much of what we did didn't flow but had a kind of disjointed feel to it. She used essential oils on us without telling us what was in them (I asked before I let her put any on me) and she also physically adjusted people's pose without asking or even telling us that she was going to do it. Which is something when you're eyes are closed and your trying to breath a certain way and relax/meditate only to find someone suddenly pulling on your shoulders.
Thankfully she's only subbing. But I think I'll not be making it to the classes she'll start teaching next week.
I just started reading Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari. I haven't gotten all that far yet, so I really can't review or even recommend, other than his premise is interesting (especially for me lately) and as of a chapter in, I've found his writing clear, engaging, and easy to follow. I tried reading Pride and Prejudice, but the only copy I had was from my college days and is littered with my notes. I thought that wouldn't be a problem, but I found it too distracting when reading for pleasure. I'll get my hands on a clean copy after I finish Lost Connections.
