Off to Vancouver to indulge in Yoga

I am off to London on Sunday and Canada on Monday and I am so excited. I am spending the first week on Vancouver Island staying with my best friend, Sam, and her lovely little girl, Rosie (plus Derek may I add), where we are booked to go off skiing for a weekend - this will be my first attempt at skiing and is even more exciting as it will be my first time and it has been an ambition for a long, long time.

Then I spend almost 3 weeks in Vancouver on my own undertaking a Level 1 and 2 Yoga therapy course with Phoenix Rising, who have been leading the way with Yoga therapy training for many years. I am flying back via New York so I can have the opportunity to check out some New York Yoga studios and enjoy some classes, New York style.

I was in Vancouver in June 2009 and had such a fantastic time with my friend Hayley, before visiting Sam. There is so much Yoga in Vancouver and lots of lovely health food shops and salad bars and I can't wait to really embrace it all this time.

It's a new moon this Thursday, so yet more new beginnings - quite a relief after the intense - and rather unsettling - energy of the recent full moon.

Happy times.

xxx

Wassailing fun!

I was delighted to be invited to the 2011 Wassail last Saturday courtesy of James of Rocquettes Cider. The ancient art of wassailing involved us all coming together to celebrate the coming year and wish for plenty of long hot summer days and a plentiful crop of apples and...yes...some great cider.

Not that I am a cider drinker, but it was fantastic to be involved in this event. I took my friends Jo and Sam along with me and we met everyone else at the Last Post for some hot cider before walking down the road making lots and lots of noise (children shouting, me banging a spoon against a saucepan, Jo hitting the maracas so hard one of them broke, Sam banging a baking tray, someone blowing into a bugle, James humming his harmonica, more people banging singing bowls and saucepans and everyone making stupid amounts of headache-inducing noise) all the way to the orchard.

Once at the orchard the noise continued to wake the orchard (last year was apparently good and it worked because they had much more apples than usual) as we stood around an apple tree glowing in candlelight, before James read his Pagan rhyme and blessed the tree with what I assume to be cider, and people hung medallions of toast from the branches to feed the Robin who is guardian of the orchard!



So much fun!

Back at the Last post we were treated to the sounds of "the John Welsey Stone" who played a lively set of "Raw humped up sounds in the Wassail tradition". Plus there were hotdogs if you were so inclined - no vegetarian this year though!

It was a night of coincidences and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time meeting up with old friends and making new ones in the process.

So let's hope for lots of apples this year and more wassailing fun next year!

xxx

Full moon delight!

Wow, what a full moon day!

I was very fortunate (thank you Universe) to start my day teaching an 8am Yoga session at someones house with stunning views over Pleinmont, Rocquaine and Lihou Island, (my favourite part of the island something to do with the Wicca energy perhaps!) so we practised while seeing the light of the rising sun reflecting off the clouds, lots of pinks and oranges, with the lovely sea below.

I was also fortunate to have time in the afternoon to take a walk out at Pleinmont on my own and visit the fairy ring and optimise the full moon energy with my own little celebration until I was joined by a young family on their walk, who must have thought me most weird with my pendulum spinning around! Strangest thing too, a helicopter landing on the Hanois lighthouse - I have never seen that in all my years of living on Guernsey, very surreal!



Beautiful afternoon of walking through the Pleinmont pine forest all on my own, listening to Deva Premal's new album, which is simply sublime, what an inspired and enlightened soul...

"lokah Samasta
Sukhino bhavantu
om shanti, shanti, shanti"

(May all beings be happy, and may all thoughts, words and deeds contribute in some way to the happiness of all beings).

I have been chanting this endlessly and feeling rather uplifted by the potential of life. There is a lot to be said about the energy of chanting such Sanskrit chants.



I popped to Vazon for a moment of quiet time, sitting on the steps watching a lone surfer in the waves, and I am sure he felt the same joy as we witnessed the moon rising beyond La Grande Mare hotel...WOW. I took a few photos and drove to Yoga rather jubilant, wondering if all the other drivers had noticed this incredible - totally incredible - play of nature. Insane.

I was out for dinner in the evening otherwise I would have been tempted by another trip to the fairy ring but decided I can wait until summer - the question is, am I, and other moon and Wicca lovers, liberated enough to really take our clothes off and get wired dancing around the fairy ring...I am putting it out there girlies!!

I missed the moon setting this morning, I didn't even think, I was up and everything, but sat in relative stillness instead...hoorah, the energy has grounded, because that was a full on full moon and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Happy letting goes and new beginnings - and hopefully those with bad backs this last week will feel them improving now!

xxxx

Sunday in Guernsey

I was up at 6am yesterday morning and enjoyed a practice before the sun rose and I taught at 10am - for me it was highly enjoyable and I hope others felt the benefits throughout the rest of the day and beyond - before a private at 12.30pm with fantastic views over the rough seas on the West coast.

Mum, Dad and I went for walk around the lanes at L'Eree, it was beautiful, very little traffic and investigating all the green lanes - my Dad has a incredible knowledge of these and it was rather fascinating passing fields and houses I have never seen before on Guernsey. Yet again it made me realise how fortunate we are to live over here - if you make the effort to get off the beaten path (as always) and get out and about, then you will no doubt find many hidden gems on this beautiful Island.

This was emphasised somewhat on Countryfile on BBC1 later that evening when friends, Joseph and Sarah, opened up their greenhouse to the television crew. The filming made Guernsey look incredibly beautiful - dream Island like - and made me long for those lovely light and bright summer evenings and all that tasty and fresh, locally-grown produce.

The rain returned this morning but had cleared by the time I finished in the office today, and after a cup of tea and catch up with a friend, I drove down to Vazon in time for sunset. It was incredible, truly, the moon (almost full - Wednesday is full moon by the way, but you can already feel the heightened energy) was rising and the sun setting and creating sublime clouds full of oranges, pinks and reds, and down at the beach the surf was pumping and the sea full of surfers. I sat on the beach and wrote in my diary, giving thanks, before braving the freezing cold sea - okay I was in for a matter of seconds, just enough to dip in the water and get my hair and whole body wet, neti my nose and run back up the beach again!

Still, it was a lovely feeling, especially to nip over the road and warm up in the steam room at the Grande Mare before enjoying a proper swim!

Ewan is now flying into Sydney, and hoping to visit my brother Ross, who is now back to work in Brisbane - I cannot even imagine what the city looks like in the after math of the floods. He says summer has finally arrived, humid and sunny days and surf too, lucky thing!

Still I love the seasons, and Guernsey really is a beautiful place to be - and for once i am not just trying to convince myself - it is all in the mind anyhow!

xxx

Cosmic dancing at the fairy ring

Sam and I managed a walk out to the fairy ring and around Pleinmont headland yesterday, very grounding, what with all the trees and views of the incredibly rough sea. This has to be one of my favourite spots on the Island and even better when there is hardly anyone else out and about. We took the opportunity to take some photos - Devika would like one of me in cosmic dancer for the Trust's logo.

We were thinking about a swim in the sea but settled on the Grande Mare instead due to the fact we didn't have towels - I am keen to get back in however, Chris says it is about 8 degrees at the moment, so it won't be easy necessarily but another grounding and indeed cleansing experience, especially as I have been teaching quite a lot of different people recently, and I believe we all exchange energy somehow.

I visited my friend, Sue, for tarot card readings in the afternoon, before cleaning the house and preparing some food for an evening with the girls - Hayley, Christine, Sheila, Sam and Sarah, all came along, so much fun, Deva Premal in the background, lovely healthy food, all of us contributing something, angel cards and the i ching and chatter about Yoga, life, and giving birth!

So all in all a great day. I am very lucky to live on Guernsey and to have so many great friends and earth angels - blessed, especially when you consider all the destruction going on around the world. Thank you.

xx

January sunrise

I was fortunate to witness the incredible skies this morning as the sun finally, finally, decided to put in an appearance once more. It is amazing how much better one feels seeing bright skies again (well winter bright skies!).

Off to enjoy nature today and get some fresh air!

xx

Nature's destruction and prayer

What a week. It would be inappropriate to waffle on about what has happened in my life when that energy could be better used sending a prayer and thought to all the millions of people who are suffering as a result of nature's unpredictable and powerful nature.

So instead, if you are reading this, perhaps send a prayer to those thousands in Brisbane, and yet more thousands in South America and the millions in Sri Lanka who have all lost homes - and indeed friends and family - from all the water that has fallen to earth.

Maybe we really should start paying more attention to our actions. Slow our way of living, live more in touch and from the earth and in harmony with our fellow human beings and indeed nature. And it starts with us, each and every one of us.

Sleep well, pray with hope, and listen quietly to the self.

And for those in Guernsey who knew Jamie Whalley, the spare a thought for his parents, sister, friends and extended family.

Love to one and all - for all we can offer is love, surely.

xx



xxx

New Year in London

I have been having a great time in London staying with Hayley. We have been to Coven Garden where I took great delight in visiting Cotswolds and investing in some walking shoes and a trekking magazine...all good intentions for the New Year!

Every day I have walked half an hour or so from Hayley's to TriYoga at Primrose Hill and it has been so refreshing to be able to attend a variety of different classes - I particularly enjoyed Claire's Scaravelli-inspired class, it certainly helped to release my lower back.

New Year's Eve and we celebrated with Hayley's housemates and a few of their friends at Hayley's flat. It was a lovely evening, not quite the same without Ewan here, but there you go, sometimes life is what it is and we have to simply accept, let go and breathe.



Hayley and I managed to do our own burning bowl ceremony, sitting on the front steps beside a busy road, setting fire to our pieces of paper for the letting go aspect of the ceremony in a saucepan...it was really rather funny. We then set our intentions for the New Year and get to read the letter again on New year's Eve next December!.

I joined a New Year's Day Yoga course with Louise Grimes and about 40 other students today! Louise is a fantastic teacher, really experienced and compassionate and she led us through a beautiful practice with an emphasis on letting go and twisting it out. It was the perfect way to begin the New Year especially as we took a sankalpa, which I am going to work with throughout the year.

So all in all a great start to the new year...they say that the attitude we adopt today, sets the tone for the whole year.

I hope everyone has had a lovely start to 2011 and there will be much joy and contentment and relaxation ahead!

xx