a work in progress

Yes...this is the same bagel recipe I have been working on for ohhhh a couple years now??! Julia at Sweets & Meats asked me to produce some bagels for the store, so I woke my starter from it's slumber (the same one that travelled from Oregon with me last year) and started to feed it. I changed my hydration rate to 100% for the sake of the bagels. I also tried an overnight ferment in the refrigerator (which proved to be a bit cool) and next time I will boil them less time....that being said, they came out pretty damn good and I was happy with the trial run! More testing in the week to come and hope to have them out for sale by mid week...wish me luck!

ooooohhhh, mexico

So. I just spent an intoxicating week in Puerto Morelos, Mexico at a yoga retreat. My roommate was Hannele who is a WONDERFUL photographer...sooo, I am going to let you see her beautiful photo's of the beach, yoga, and the ruins check her out at: http://www.hannelelahti.com/blog/.

It's good to be back, missed the beast so so much and I really missed having my hands in flour... more foodie stuff to come, I promise. It's been a bit busy with the holidays and all. I will try to get more pictures up of food!

Happy New Year all!

HAPPY SOLSTICE!

Okay...not quite, but almost :)

After a bit of a trek through the back woods of Union Maine we found a tree that would "due." The sun was setting and he needed a tree.

Over streams,

down a couple of fairly steep embankments

and through some underbrush that had Finn second guessing whether or not it was doable he looked up and thought...that looks pretty good. Soooo, he sawed, and sawed and sawed I quietly wondered how the hell we would get that HUGE tree from the spot where it now lay back over the stream, up the embankment (did I mention they were snow covered??) and over all the tangled underbrush. The funny thing is, he didn't even think twice. Finn, I am sure, thought it a great adventure. I carried the saw.

The tree made it back, missing a couple more branches (which it really couldn't afford to lose) and was erected in the living room. I think it was ten feet tall. I think. I wish I had a picture to show you all. Maybe I will still take one. We decorated it with lights, antique ornaments, and oh, yeah, we thought it would be a great idea to string popcorn and cranberries. Wow, is that a project. Not quite as fun as it sounds and not one to be started at six in the evening when you really just wanted the tree decorated!

Anyway, it really did put me in the spirit of the holiday with the fire, the smell of pine, and yes, we even listened to Christmas songs (I can hear some of you groan...) it felt really nice sitting on the couch admiring the very tall, quite branchless masterpiece that we had just finished.

Happy Holidays and Happy Solstice hope everyone stays warm and cozy and celebrates with those you love!!

thoughts from 3 a.m.

It's been an hour and a half and I am still awake...so I rolled out of my cozy bed to find myself here, on my couch, wrapped in a down comforter thinking about my day. My yoga teacher training ended today (well, yesterday now). Yup, we graduated. Maybe that's why I can't sleep. Too much to think about. Boy I want to call Anna right now. Probably not up. It feels a bit like those early summer grey days in my brain right now, possibly because it is four in the morning my eyes are only half open but with the haze there is a stillness that feels just right. There is a warm bed waiting for me, I think I will crawl back in.

early morning dreams....

this makes me think of the wee hours of the morning, curled up in the middle of the bed with the smell of coffee creeping into the bedroom.

sohum

With a little help from:

the oldest sewing machine I have ever used...1960 something?? (seriously).. and successfully I might add.

and:

yup....that's him

we finished:

this afternoon.

Sohum (meaning I am that I am), written in Sanskrit is one of a piece of eight that will be attached together as a prayer flag for our teachers at Shiva Shakti as a graduation gift for all of their love, support and knowledge. That's right.... it is finally time to graduate this weekend though all of a sudden I oddly feel as though I am not ready and this magic rug will be swiftly pulled out from underneath me. This training has been more enlightening and life altering than anything I have ever experienced or ever could have imagined and it has created such a solid foundation for so much future growth. As I sit and study for my final, I know this is only the beginning.

Yoga is everlasting and unbound by any rules, it is forever flowing within just waiting to be awakened, stimulated and practiced eternally! Oh it is limitless and exhilarating, inspiring and hopeful. There are four words that sum up my ENTIRE experience:

Sohum

and

Jai Ma!

Imagine a woman...

One of the beautiful women in my yoga teacher training read this and took my breath away. This training has given me so many gifts and most of all a strong sense of who I am as a woman in the 20th century. I am forever grateful to all the women that stood beside me through the past eight months. Eternal OM SHANTI.

Imagine a woman...

Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is a woman.

A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.

Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.

Imagine a woman who trusts and respects herself.

A woman who listens to her needs and desires.

Who meets them with tenderness and grace.

Imagine a woman who acknowledges the past's influence on the present.

A woman who has walked through her past.

Who has healed into the present.

Imagine a woman who authors her own life.

A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf.

Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and wisest voice.

Imagine a woman who names her own gods.

A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.

Who designs a personal spirituality to inform her daily life.

Imagine a woman in love with her own body.

A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.

Who celebrates its rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.

Imagine a woman who honors the body of the Goddess in her changing body.

A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.

Who refuses to use her life-energy disguising the changes in her body and life.

Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.

A woman who sits in circles of women.

Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.

Imagine yourself as this woman.

"imagine a woman" Patricia Lynn Reilly, 1995

I am officially off to Mexico.

I will be spending my new year in a small fishing village in Mexico practicing yoga everyday.... twice (at least!). I will be graduating from my teacher training in December and I could think of no better way to begin a steady practice on my own than at a retreat. . . in sunny Mexico. It will be a fantastic eight days, I just can't get enough. I am also just finishing up my yoga for teens class at the high school and will start up again next semester. In the mean time I am looking into learning more about yoga for teens and possibly getting certified in yoga specifically for teenagers. They have been such a wonderful group to work with and I would love to open more classes for them. I also have an opportunity to help with a wellness workshop for high school girls teaching them yoga which I am so thrilled about and will start in January when I return. So many breathtaking events happening, I can't even begin to explain it all! Om Shanti!

candied apples

oranges with cloves making our cider yummy!

Sweets and Meats Market is as fall as it can get.  I have been able to play with caramelizing apples and making hot mulled apple cider.  There is always something new happening and we are already making plans for the holidays!  These past couple of months have flown by - Julia had her third annual Meatmus/Meat-a-palooza party (the table was graced with bear meat and venison ribs (?)), I am now teaching two teen yoga classes soon to be three this winter (with a possibility of using space at Shiva Shakti while my teachers are in India for six months).  All of this seems just right.  While Finn lays curled up next to me in our cozy cottage I am thankful once again for the path I am on. Om!  

word of the month: COZY

Have I mentioned I love fall?? Have I mentioned I love my home??  With the early setting of the sun and the cool evenings I have found comfort snugging in and reading two really great books:  Autobiography of a Yogi and Wheels of Life (a book on chakras).  There is nothing I want more in the world right now than to read good books, learn great things, and oh yeah, play with Finn!  Life is good on Spruce Head Island. OM and Namaste!

up date

So, I foolishly assumed that once summer was over, my schedule would slow down just a bit, but with the onset of fall, my life has somehow gotten busier.  I am coming up on my fourth week of teaching the Yoga Club at Rockland High School and it couldn't be better, I have never done anything that felt so rewarding.  Having six girls walk in to my first class, shoulders up around their ears, chewing gum, chatting like crazy and having those same six girls walk out of my class completely relaxed and gooey eyed!  The yoga had worked it's magic.  I am now up to eight students and growing.  They are really taking to the class and bringing friends each time which is fantastic.  So, my landlord Jon (wonderful Jon!) helped me make some blocks to take to class to assist them in their poses (I told him I could probably do it myself if he just showed me how....he smiled at me (I think there was a laugh in there too) and said I could sand them down).  I am so grateful to Jon, I now have beautiful blocks to help the kids along!

I spent today sewing little lavender eye pillows to encourage relaxation during Sivasana (not that they need much more, I have one gal that just falls right into a deep slumber five minutes in!)  But these should help!
I am so in love with teaching yoga, seeing the change in the bodies and faces of these teens after 1 1/2 hours is just magical!  I will be starting a second Yoga for Teens class at a studio downtown Rockland next Wednesday open to teens from all over, I can't wait to begin! Om!  

Hope this finds everyone happy and healthy and enjoying the turning of leaves and the cool breezes.

Happy Happy birthday to my mom!

I feel so lucky to have you as my mother, I thank you so much for being so forgiving, so loving, so supporting, so everything to me.  XOXO.  Have a very happy day! 

canning with mom

 

After a fall full of sunny days and warm breezes, Sunday brought a rainy gray day. . . a perfect day for canning.  As a child each fall we would go apple picking at a local orchard, we would bring friends and my parents would set us loose amongst the crooked apple trees to gather up as many as we could possibly hold...and more.  There was no limit that I can recall, which led to an abundance of apples, some that were eaten, some turned into apple grunt, pies, and crisps, some stored in newspaper lined bins for the winter, and the rest...mom would make into applesauce and freeze for the winter.  So on any given night we could warm some up on the stove add a little extra cinnamon and sugar and have it as an evening snack.   It has been a long time since I had that applesauce.  

It didn't take much convincing to get mom to come over to help make the applesauce that I remembered and can it for the winter.  She showed up, spices in hand, ready to boil, strain, and process the apples.  Of course, as usual, we had many apples and what went from a couple hour project, finally wrapped up at 7:30 in the evening for me making apple butter with the last batch of apples.  The cottage windows steamed up, the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg wafted through the small kitchen, Lulu came over, we looked at old pictures of The Barnacle and Uncle Phil (who was the original owner of the cottage), had hot apple cider, laughed, laughed more, and just enjoyed the afternoon.  

Thanks mom (and Lulu) for another great memory!

namaste.

Feeling peaceful and happy.  Coming into fall with all the changes and a very full schedule life seems to be flowing like the tides.  In and out.  A gentle spirit has entered the cottage and we have found our rhythm here.  Yoga is a daily practice now, I have begun teaching yoga for teens once a week which will turn into twice a week by the end of the month.  Life is full.  Life feels good.  Sohum.

early morning walks...

With all the summer craziness quieting down there has been one steady thing in my life, the 5:30a.m. walks and it is the time of year when the sun rises a bit later which means 1. we had to break out the "bear bell" for Finn and 2. I am blessed with seeing the colors of the world in the sky that just take my breath away every morning.  These photos don't do it justice of course, but you can just imagine this amplified and with the cool fall morning and the stillness that occurs just before the sun emerges from the ocean....oh what a beautiful morning!  I wish everyone could be here to experience it with me...