So, what have I been up to then...?

Life in the (usually) sunny south of Spain has been wonderful these last couple of months, and has certainly made me appreciate internet access when I can get it!

Here's a link to a separate photo blog I've just started for the organisation I'm working with...check back for more updates later. I've got a whole stash of photos to work through here!

http://sunseedphotos.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Over and Over

I'm getting very lazy now about writing anything in this blog, and keep posting links instead - but there's so much out there to read! So, here's another that caught my interest:

http://www.infinityfoundation.com/ECITshrutiseminarframeset.htm


Tried a new yoga class last night - kind of anusara-inspired vinyasa class. So relaxing! I was genuinely surprised, as the description sounded quite intense. Unfortunately my calm dissolved as soon as I left the class (late) and had to run for the bus, which I then missed. That's the first bit of running I've done since about October on account of the dodgy hip, and no, it did not appreciate it. Might have to try and end in the class in a slightly more peaceful way next week.

Also went to see Blood Brothers. Tragically depressing, which I maybe should have expected, but failed to find out what it was about beforehand. I was also very distracted by the fact that one of the cast looked so much like Jamie Cullum that I kept forgetting to pay attention to what was happening. So, hmm, no big opinions...

The Asylum

Kneehigh are amazing!! Haven't seen them for a few years as I've been elsewhere in the summertime, but went to see The Wild Bride at The Asylum on thursday night and was totally blown away. Fantastic performance, and with such great live music all the way through - I wish I could play multiple instruments with such ease!

If you get a chance, check them out - they deserve a little of everyone's time:

http://www.kneehigh.co.uk/

Digging for Treasure

Flights to Spain booked!! I'll be off mid-September to the sunny south for a few months of nature and blissful quiet. Excited? Oh yes. Hip is grumbling less, so I guess all the physiotherapy efforts are paying off; bring on some scrambling over rocky Spanish hills and some hikes through the valleys.

 Just been unearthing my first potatoes of the year - what is it about rummaging around up to your elbows in dirt, hunting for spuds, that instantly produces a sense of childish wonder?! Could not have been happier had someone just turned my house into a chocolate shop. Fabulous. Guess what's on the menu tonight...

Read this poem this morning on the Rilke blog (http://yearwithrilke.blogspot.com/2011/08/may-what-i-do-flow-from-me.html). Love it:

May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing it and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

                                            - Rainer Maria Rilke

Yoga Days

Love it! http://www.bandhayoga.com/keys_psoas.html This sequence is really great for those, like me, with hopeless balance and shaky legs. Seriously hard work too, but by the time you get to bridge at the end it really does feel worth the struggle and wobbles.

Spent the last week with family, bombing around Cornish beaches, rivers and lakes, often in the rain. Shattered now, but worth the effort. Uni's off the cards now - relief at the decision made, though the outcome of that's another story - so I've got some Spanish plans to make and in the meantime I've dug the Michel Thomas CDs out - that man is a genius!

Reading The Deeper Dimension of Yoga by Georg Feuerstein at the moment. Great book of short essays on all manner of yoga-related stuff. Like this: http://www.infinityfoundation.com/ECIThappinessframeset.html Fabulous.

Smugglers, Tolverne

St Mawes Castle

Port Issac

Decisions yet to be made

Hmm, so, what's new? Quite a lot surprisingly.

I've been debating with myself a long time over whether or not to take up my university place in September at Manchester for a variety of reasons - changing priorities, hip (and hand) problems, career direction... I'd just decided, finally, once and for all, to pull out of the course which is highly academic and theoretical in favour of spending some time with an environmental organisation in Spain which is orientated towards sustainable living and alternative technology. Fabulous. Decision made.

Then, I got a wonderful email from the university on monday saying I've won a scholarship - all tutition fees paid. It's great to have got the scholarship, which is something students are automatically entered for but I never even considered I would have a chance of getting, but now I'm in a dilemma. Have to let the uni know by tomorrow if I'm accepting the scholarship. All friends consulted say take the scholarship, but I still find myself with doubts, not least because most of their reasons cite 'free cash', 'better CV' and 'better job opportunities'. If they were reasons lined up towards happiness or wellbeing, I'd be inclined to agree, but purely financial and career opportunities don't seem to be holding much sway. But then, how often do you get offered a scholarship in a lifetime? Would I be completely crazy to turn it down?!

Scholarship quandry aside, it has also been a week of doctors and physio appointments. Quite frustrating ones at that. Another doctor joined the diagnosis debate on monday by completely disagreeing with the the previous doctor about the hip impingement, but can't say what else could be causing the problem. Seems like the general consensus is that progress with my hip will be slow - 6 to 12 months!!! - and there's not much more they can do to help it along its way. Keep doing the physio; don't aggravate it. Logical advice, yes, but perhaps not the most helpful in practical terms.

I guess the problems I've had with my hip are another reason for my reluctance to go to uni. I know what I'm like when I'm studying. I throw myself into an academic world and lose perspective on a lot of other things, like listening to what my body is saying to me. Also, what if it flares up badly again for weeks rather than just a couple of days as I've become used to dealing with? If my hand gets worse, typing and writing both take a skydive out the window. Maybe if I step back from things into a quieter environment for a year or so, I am actually more likely to spend more time keeping up the physio, as well as my daily yoga and meditation practice which I've really come to value over recent months.Maybe, maybe. If, if, if.

I just don't know! Strange how scribbling my thoughts down in a blog can make a difference to how clear my mind feels though. 24 hours to make a decision...watch this space

Healing Ecology

Makes a change from reading about how doomed the environment is...

http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2010/05/Loy-Healing-Ecology1.pdf

Scotland

Spent last week on a yoga and meditation retreat up in Scotland in one of the most beautiful places I have ever come across. Meditating three times a day, two and a half hours of yoga every morning, fabulous veggie food and the company of some fascinating and inspiring people. I've even been swimming in the loch, which leaves me no excuse when it comes to getting back to Cornish beaches.

I get a great feeling of space by travelling all the way to Scotland to go on retreat. It really is so far away, it helps me switch off completely from the things my time and thoughts get hung up on at home. I find there's nothing I miss whilst I'm there at all, and love the simplicity of living in such a quiet and rural situation. My determination to sort my hip out and get out to Spain has deepened a lot over the last few days, especially after some lengthly and productive discussions with like-minded people. Even though I'm now back in the south west, the sense of freedom that I found in Scotland hasn't left me, and I'm looking forward to what's ahead.

"We've got most of the things we need to survive around us. It's a matter of knowing how to collect and gather them" - Jason Webster

Loch Voil, Scotland

Evening beachtrip

Such a gorgeous evening here in Cornwall. I love this time of year, when the days are long and the light is so pure and clean. I'm making the most of the empty evening beaches - won't be too long before summer fully arrives in the guise of campers, caravans and flocks of tourists who dither uncertainly in the streets like confused flamingos. It wouldn't be Cornwall without the summer tourist rush, and it's good that we get so many great festivals and happenings throughout July and August, but I've always loved this time right now. The quiet before the wonderful storm. And it really is beautiful.

Carne Beach, Cornwall

Perfect spot for evening meditation

Drawing lines in the cold, damp sand

She forms the words that lie softly on her lips,

As if those she loves will read them

All those thousands of miles away.

These thoughts,

Soon to be written into deep white waves

And whispered to the ears of distant shores.

She stands small and alone,

A pale figure in the midst of this open beach,

Calmly singing her hymns to the sea.

Sustainable Living II

And another:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/textile-recycling-challenges-industry

Sustainable Living

Makes for an interesting read...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/sustainable-lifestyles-leisure-behaviour

Grandmas are great fun

My grandma has language students staying with her on homestay visits, and from time to time they can’t do their homework, she can’t help, and so we get phonecalls of desperation begging us for answers on the most random things. Who was the tenth king of England? What’s a town in Dorset beginning with a J?? Who was the Roman God of agriculture???

Clearly, this is where I’ve been going wrong in my short career as an English teacher. Why spend time on fluency and conversation when all the students really need is to be able to complete an average pub quiz. Needless to say, most of the time we don’t happen to have that information on the tip of our tongues, but a quick trip to google can normally fill in  the blanks.

Last night was something else though – food and drink idioms.

Picture it. One bewildered Italian student with a piece of paper of photocopied pictures of foods and blanked out phrases. One grandma who has lost her reading glasses and whose hearing is not quite top notch. One dodgy phoneline. And, to make the entire exercise a bit more tricky, the photocopy hadn’t come out very well and even between them they couldn’t tell what half of them were supposed to be, and quickly reduced themselves to giggles.

“Potatoes maybe, but smaller…like peas. Except peas aren’t knobbly. No, not peas. Eggs? Or raspberries? Maybe nuts. But bigger…no, I think they must be potatoes, but not normal ones. Those special kinds of ones you get sometimes that look different. They’re stuck together. Or, it could be…what’s the word for that food, you know, pizza! No, not pizza….um…spaghetti!! Is there an idiom with spaghetti?? ” (sadly not grandma, no)

Now, how any picture, however badly photocopied, can potentially resemble potatoes, peas, eggs, raspberries, nuts and spaghetti(!), I simply cannot begin to imagine. Did have fun trying though! I’m almost tempted to take the train up and take a look at this crazy homework myself.

However, four phonecalls, two books, some frantic googling of random possibilities (egg feed? raspberry feed? pea feed? beer feed?...chicken feed!) and a lot of laughter and guesswork later. Hurrah! Sense of achievement!! The poor language student went straight to bed, completely exhausted and no doubt more confused than ever about this list of completely random phrases that make no literal sense and which she will probably never use anyway.

Maybe crazy and impossible homework is the way forward. Might apply that to my next group of unsuspecting students and see what amusement comes my way…

Wimbledon Fever

It’s that wonderful time of year again. Totally addicted to Wimbledon and it’s only day three of the championships. Wimbledon and procrastination go hand-in-hand, so it’s not working out to be a productive week! The TV which has not been watched for ages (aside from one amazingly cheesy volcano disaster film the other day when my joints were not cooperating) has now been on since lunchtime and I am completely glued to Venus Williams vs. Kimiko Date-Krumm. Come on Date-Krumm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fabulous match. Keep stopping typing to watch the dramatic moments! Eek!!!

Tennis aside (another fantastic point just won – go Kimiko!!!!!), the garden is flourishing in the rain and we’ve now got more salad leaves springing up than we know what to do with. Delicious peas and strawberries have been demolished already. The potatoes have woven themselves together into a kind of protective forest canopy – not quite sure how I’m actually going to wrest any potatoes from them – and the beetroot has picked up the pace and at least looks vaguely like it belongs in a veggie garden now.

Got some new physio exercises the other day after a rather painful encounter with a cheery physiotherapist up at the doctors - certainly making my muscles work very hard and aching is preferable to pain any day so I’m confident that it’s a good thing. Self-management of my problematic joints without painkillers is the ultimate goal, and I’m hoping this is a good start to heading in that direction. The yoga and meditation are going well – forehead straight to the top of the shin in a seated forward bend today without even a murmur of discomfort from my hip. Happy day!!

…final set, 6 games apiece…I’ve just found myself cheering at the TV and shall have to give up my plan to do anything productive this afternoon and go share in the drama. Go Kimiko!!!!!!!!

Ambling

I seem to have inadvertently switched my hamstrings for a pair that are several sizes too small. Ouch. Tried stretching them out by ambling around Antony today. They've got incredible trees in the gardens there. Simply beautiful.

Beauty – Grace Nichols

Beauty

is a fat black woman

walking the fields

pressing a breezed

hibiscus

to her cheek

while the sun lights up

her feet

Beauty

is a fat black woman

riding the waves

drifting in happy oblivion

while the sea turns back

to hug her shape

Distractions

I’ve been so distracted this week that I never got round to updating on here. I’ve been reading lots, practising some Spanish and relishing in the rain that has come just in time to save the vegetables in the garden (and they are delicious -homegrown veg tastes so good!). I’ve surprised myself by really enjoying growing veggies this year. I don’t have much interest in growing things that can’t be useful, but it’s been a very interesting experiment that I’m thinking of expanding this autumn.

I’ve got some fascinating books on the go at the moment: The Cage by Gordon Weiss, which is about the conflict in Sri Lanka and I would really recommend it; Sacred Sierra by Jason Webster, about his life on a mountain in Spain; some Schopenhauer, some Rilke…and a wonderfully light read by the wonderful Lloyd Jones called Here at the end of the world we learn to dance. Love it.

The spiky massage ball that I’ve been using on the muscles around my hip really seems to be helping a lot, so I’m moving around a lot more than I have been in recent months, although it’s still quite exhausting. This newly found freedom, plus my reattachment to yoga and recently discovered interests in both organic growing and meditation are leading to new possibilities for autumn forming in my mind. I’m reconsidering uni in favour of working for an environmental organisation in Spain that I’ve wanted to visit for years and years. Either way, autumn is now in sight, and that makes my impatience with my hip easier to manage. It’s great to have a goal, even if I’m not quite sure which goal to aim for yet.

Here's a lovely Rilke poem I came across yesterday:

Whoever you may be: step into the evening.

Step out of the room where everything is known.

Whoever you are,

your house is the last before the far-off.

With your eyes, which are almost too tired

to free themselves from the familiar,

you slowly take one black tree

and set it against the sky: slender, alone.

And you have made a world.

It is big

and like a word, still ripening in silence.

And though your mind would fabricate its meaning,

your eyes tenderly let go of what they see.

Milestones

Just walked 2 miles around a lake. No crutches, no painkillers. I would never have thought that could feel like such a huge milestone, but all these joint problems have made me realise how much I take for granted. What a perfect afternoon.

Finland

 

 

 

Sauna at Villa Elba, Kokkola

My thoughts are drifting to Finland today, with the places and many wonderful people I met there. I hope you are all well and happy. I'm sorry to have not seen you in so long but I think of you often, with a smile, and feel inspired.

Sunset in Naantali

Drawing lines in the cold, damp sand

She forms the words that lie softly on her lips,

As if those she loves will read them

All those thousands of miles away.

These thoughts,

Soon to be written into deep white waves

And whispered to the ears of distant shores.

She stands small and alone,

A pale figure in the midst of this open beach,

Calmly singing her hymns to the sea.

Spanish lesson for the day

Even more than the bizarreness of the story that a luggage thief in Barcelona hid in a suitcase to get inside the luggage compartment of an airport coach, I love El Periodico for producing a 5-stage diagram of how it was possible:

http://estaticos.elperiodico.com/resources/pdf/8/4/1307480433648.pdf

 

10 years of ballet black

10 years already? Really?! If only they had more performances over the summer...

http://www.balletblack.co.uk/index.html

Hips, Yoga and Fidgeting

"Remember to fidget"

Ah, the voice of reason. Not that I've ever needed any encouragement myself, but it is the kind of thing that gets you scowled at surprisingly often. Along with some praise for yoga and a spiky rubber massage ball seemingly designed to inflict pain on muscles people never knew they had, it's been an interesting morning.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I'd never even realised that hypermobile meant anything more than being a bit flexible but a bit of googling has proved that's not necessarily the case. I'm desperately hoping that 'third time lucky' applies to diagnosis as much as anything else, and that I'll get my hypermobile joints back under control sometime soon with a bit of physio, some lovely yoga and a lot of fidgeting.