Dereling Naunce

I went to the library,as I do most days, and got out one of my favorite books , Love From Nancy, the Letters of Nancy Mitford. I checked it out two years ago, but remembered all of a sudden it was there.I was ENRAGED to find the section where her actual books are still taped off due to mold problems (OH LORD). So I have to suffice with her letters instead.

I have a bunch of her sayings on the tip of my tongue, such as Dereling (darling), which is apparently close to her long,drawling accent.If only there were a video of her! sigh! I can't wait to read her accounts of tortoises mating, hedgehogs, her views on Fascism, teasing her parents and every other human she encountered in her life.

She moved to France after the second war, and became something of a social stop off for fellow English expatriates. But she could not abide Americans! But the sad part is Nancy never found happiness in her personal life. She fell in love with Colonel,later Ambassador, Gaston Palweski, but her feelings were not reciprocated. Eventually she moved to Versailles from Paris, to a little house with a big garden, and she later died from Hodgkin's disease there.

Rain!

It's been raining a lot on and off today..which is great if you can stay home,make warm foods and tea, do yoga and read.Not so great if you have to get to classes and make sketches for a landscape painting. Especially if yours truly did not bring an umbrella.

But oh well. I am looking forward to making some nice warm food tonight. Cranky and very tired so taking a night off from running.

This is what I feel like doing....

I Feel All Shiny and New...

LIKE A STURGEON!

hahahaa

Well I thought I'd post a few of my favorite holistic health and skin care tips, because there's nothing that feels better then when you feel happy.

-For smooth and shiny skin mash about 1/4 of an avocado and let it sit on your face 10 or 15 minutes. You'll notice how shiny and soft your skin is afterwards. Avocados have a lot of healthy natural oil in them.

-For shiny hair, massage a tablespoon of olive oil into your hair and scalp before you go to sleep.Make sure to tie an old t-shirt over your head, unless you like the oil olive smell all over your pillow ( or bed mate)! Shampoo it out in the morning and notice the gleam of your hair.

-if you have puffy eyes, take an old tea bag and put it in the fridge for a while.Then place on top of your closed eyelids.This will reduce the puffiness, as well as calm your senses.

-For those nights when you just can't sleep (if you're a woman,they are around the full moon and also around the new moon), take a hot bath with lots of lavender oil. Saturate your pillow in lavender oil as well. If you still cannot sleep, go for a short walk and see if it helps. Try some warm soy milk with honey. The worst thing to do is to turn on any lights or electricity, as this will stimulate you and counter effect your natural rhythm.

-If you are feeling depressed, GET SOME EXERCISE AND SUNLIGHT! Don't hang around your computer or television! Go for a run/walk/bike ride, do some yoga, head to the nearest pool. Regular exercise gets your blood flowing, your brain more active, not to mention your muscles, will help you sleep better, laugh more often, and avoid such things as obesity and osteoporosis later in life.

-When you're bored, read or do something inspiring. The books of Eckhart Tolle are truly life changing. If you think you can do something,don't hesitate.Even better, if you aren't sure if you can do something, forge ahead and give it a try anyway.What have you got to lose, a dvd by yourself ? There are so many experiences we miss out on every day, so don't be unsure or negative!

Viva la Macka!

Electricity is Optional

I don't know about you, but I certainly participated in Earth Hour this year. Seems like most of my neighbors did not.How ironic is it that in huge metropolitan areas such as Sydney,London,Beijing,Chicago,Paris and more got the message, yet a neighborhood did not? IGNORANCE...but then again I am not surprised, given the likes of most of the people here.

Anyway, I kind of cheated.I thought of doing yoga outside under the moon, but I ended up reading with flashlights instead.I took a nice hot bath afterwards by candlelight and incense smoke. I took pictures but as usual my camera cord is missing.

This morning as I stepped into my shower a little centipede was playing there.I know the chances of them biting you are unlikely,but I still used the shower hose to squirt in down the drain. That's what it was after anyway, moisture. At least I didn't kill it.

Well when I get the pictures I will put a few up.

Going Back!

To a city that's special because a man whom I loooooove lives there...

Summer Planning

My family and I have been hashing out, re organizing, scheduling and arguing about the summer trip plans the last day.It is exhausting but worthwhile, because you really need to organize things before hand ,especially if your destination is an Eastern European country with lots of islands and numerous ferries (and missing ferry schedules online,thanks Jadrolinija YOU SUCK.)

As usual it will be in a hurry but I have organized to have six days on the island with my cousins, lots of swimming, great produce and good walking and hiking around. However I am side stepping several rushed car trip days,which have been hastily organized because my sister,being her totally control freak self, had to go and change their itinerary. So now she arrives four days after me, two days after my father and two days before her husband, who only has five days in the country (INSANITY). They plan to squeeze in Berlin,Paris and Croatia in two weeks...typical over planning which I would never attempt to do. I wish I could have three weeks there, but then I would miss a week in Berlin and my stay on the farm would be shortened to a week and a half, and two weeks is the ideal time for country farming.

I am excited most of all to see my cousins and swim a lot and hike around, it's much more favorable then on this humid island. Dry heat is infinitely more bearable, the water is silky and cold instead of germ and bacteria filled as in the tropics here. I am of course looking forward to time with my mother in Dubrovnik ( we have on measly day,but oh well) however I won't be in Zagreb and will my miss my friends this time. Since they always have exams in July I won't be interrupting their studies though, and really Dalmatija is much more my style than the hot, crowded capital.

Viva Hrvatska!

Hello Wind and Rain,We Meet Again

I was SO excited to hear we were going to have another storm! HOO HA!

And in celebration I composed a song to the tune of  The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel:

Hello, wind, my old friend

it seems that we meet again

I have put on my running shoes

this will take away my mid term blues

In the sheets of rain I ran alone

I learned more than at home

Because the redness of my cheeks

Has been a highlight these last few weeks

Oh I don't how I lasted so long without you

Rain and wind, wind and rain

Please stop by soon again

Because without you

this island is a humid hellhole.

TA DA!

and I did run in the sheets of rain and wind it is such a wonderful endurance workout.I'm reading some stories by Richard Brautigan,that man is SO HILARIOUS!

"I saw thousands of pumpkins last night 
come floating in on the tide, 
bumping up against the rocks and 
rolling up on the beaches; 
it must be Halloween in the sea"

"This morning I saw a coyote walking through the sagebrush right at the very edge of the ocean ― next stop China. The coyote was acting like he was in New Mexico or Wyoming, except that there were whales passing below. That’s what this country does for you. Come down to Big Sur and let your soul have some room to get outside its marrow." 

Passion

I feel a lot of things at times, but one thing I am nearly consistent with passion. I have unusually strong tastes,vices and virtues, they are all very apparent.I can't stand to see or hear anyone or anything being hurt...I seem to seek out being alone rather than around others, I need to be outdoors or near a window as much as possible.I'm not a physical person,only with a few people whom I am very close to.

I put my feelings in some things without realizing it.If you've ever had an argument with me, it usually is halted by me running off somewhere, trying not to cry.I get that emotional gene from my mother, but I think my genes in that area are a lot more pronounced.It's hard for me to hide my feelings, I suppose that is why I can be a sort of recluse at times.

Things that really set me off,in a positive way, are windy and rainy weather, hot tea, finding a comfy nook to read in, being in nature, a great yoga class, and petting animals. I think when some people meet me they are surprised I talk so much and have such strong opinions about things.I am literally "secret" after all.I certainly protect myself a lot, probably more than is needed. The only negative thing about being a passionate person is that you tend to get disappointed quite easily. In yourself, in others, how things are done or managed or built. I wish people put as much passion into things and their lives as I do, because it could really change the state of the world.

puuuuuurrrrrrr

I love cats.I always have ever since I can remember.Chasing after the orange cat on our street in Seattle,across yards and peering under cars where it fled to.There's just something about them I can both relate to and find extremely alluring.Their grace,their independence, softness, their furry eyelashes, the vibrato feeling of their purr.There is a cat who sometimes meets me when I come back from running on the levee.Since I haven't been in a month, I haven't met my feline friend.I think it's obviously fate that this particular feline is around only when I have exercised my three miles.

I love you cats.

Once Upon A Day

Sometimes I feel quite melancholy...but the misconception people seem to have is that melancholy is a bad thing.No, I don't think so. For me it's a point where your emotions are on the point of surfacing and you are choosing not to act on them.A sort of detachment.Is that a bad thing?NOOO.I think it's something we need to do  more often: notice and accept our emotions and then , if they are such that they will ruin your day/mood/environment, simply watch them pass on by.

In one of those rare contrary moods I sometimes have, I'm eating buckwheat waffles with cherry preserves and peanut butter as my second dinner.My first was fried garbanzo beans with yam and ketchup.But I felt contrary.Why not mix up your palate once in a while...

Run Run Run As Fast As You Can..

So I started running again! well it's not much- only 20 minutes or so around my old elementary school grounds.That was the only place I could find that had soft grass,no children,infrequent dog walkers, and plenty of water fountains.I do about 4 or 5 laps, going up and down the individual lawns in front of each annex. My cheeks are very pink and my armpits nice and slithering warm after.I've had so much energy and have been sleeping quite well,too.And the mostly vegetable diet is going well, made Croatian style vegetables for lunch.Dva krumpira ( two Yukon Gold potatoes),blitva (like spinach,but I used beans) and I added fresh tomatoes.You boil the vegetables and mash them with garlic and olive oil.Mmmm! I still can't make it as good my mom's, but it is satisfactory.

And for the potato ignorant, here are the nutritious benefits...they aren't little time bombs of merely starch as you think!

(from one of my favorite sites, World's Healthiest Foods

Our food ranking system qualified potatoes as a very good source of vitamin C, a good source of vitamin B6, copper, potassium, manganese, and dietary fiber.Potatoes also contain a variety of phytonutrients that have antioxidant activity. Among these important health-promoting compounds are carotenoids, flavonoids, and caffeic acid, as well as unique tuber storage proteins, such as patatin, which exhibit activity against free radicals......Vitamin B6 is involved in more than 100 enzymatic reactions. Enzymes are proteins that help chemical reactions take place, so vitamin B6 is active virtually everywhere in the body. Many of the building blocks of protein, amino acids, require B6 for their synthesis, as do the nucleic acids used in the creation of our DNA. Because amino and nucleic acids are such critical parts of new cell formation, vitamin B6 is essential for the formation of virtually all new cells in the body......Analysis of Red and Norkotah potatoes revealed that these spuds' phenolic content rivals that of broccoli, spinach and Brussels sprouts, and includes flavonoids with protective activity against cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems and certain cancers. Navarre's team also identified potatoes with high levels of vitamin C, folic acid, quercetin and kukoamines. These last compounds, which have blood pressure lowering potential, have only been found in one other plant, Lycium chinense (a.k.a., wolfberry/gogi berry). How much kukoamine is needed for a blood pressure lowering effect in humans must be assessed before it can be determined whether an average portion of potatoes delivers enough to impact cardiovascular health..... Vitamin B6 plays numerous roles in our nervous system, many of which involve neurological (brain cell) activity. B6 is necessary for the creation of amines, a type of messaging molecule or neurotransmitter that the nervous system relies on to transmit messages from one nerve to the next. Some of the amine-derived neurotransmitters that require vitamin B6 for their production are serotonin, a lack of which is linked to depression; melatonin, the hormone needed for a good night's sleep; epinephrine and norepinephrine, hormones that help us respond to stress; and GABA, which is needed for normal brain function....Vitamin B6 is also necessary for the breakdown of glycogen, the form in which sugar is stored in our muscle cells and liver, so this vitamin is a key player in athletic performance and endurance.

So stop picking on the potatoes! EXCEPT FOR GRASS,YOU MUST STOP THE FRENCH FRIES.Deep fried foods are not healthy at all,in fact the few times I've had them the stomach aches and indigestion have been exceptionally memorable in a negative way.

http://www.whfoods.com

I have to remember to take a day off from yoga tomorrow.In traditional asthanga practice, yoga is not an everyday element but it's only 5-6 days.It's a bit hard to remember when your body is practically programmed to wake up and head for the mat though.My practice has lengthened to 50 minutes, but this is only on the days when I don't have to bustle off to Honolulu for classes,and when I don't have yoga classes.So that is Friday,Saturday and Sunday.Better than nothing!

Namaste

Power Up!

I want to recommend to one and all to try a few days of mainly fresh fruits,steamed vegetables for lunches and dinners! It's amazing how light,clear headed,energetic and happy you feel! Well,that's just my reaction,but I think most would have a similar one to mine.If I could,I'd have fruit in the morning, but I need a meal to get me going,so it's usually a flax corn cranberry cereal or oatmeal.I was looking forward to using the food processor but apparently the order didn't go through.Annoying. But I really have been loving sauteed kale with quinoa and fresh avocado.Mmm!

 A great and much needed snack is a spoonful of Maranatha peanut butter.I used to have it with apples until I did some research into Ayurvedic diets and discovering that Vata,the most sensitive and which pertains to me, is not supposed to have apples.They make you very light and kind of throw things off kilter.If I could have any snack, it'd be a vegan blueberry cheesecake.Now that's delicious!

Another benefit about being vegan is your fat and cholesterol intake is very low.I've been having roasted pine nuts because I don't really get any fat, except Earth Balance, and you do need a little good fat in you. Both my parents have slightly high LDL cholesterol, so that is something I need to watch out for later on.It may be partly genetic and not be controllable, but I think that not consuming dairy/high fat products can positively affect it as well.

Off to make dinner!

YUM YUM 

This Little Bird

Sometimes I watch birds and am envious of how free they are.Well not those gross pigeons with tiny brains and all stinky from the gutter.

There are little finches that fly in a flock, happily chirping and free,landing on trees and making me smile.

Took the Kisha cat to the veterinarian today.She is 15,senile,always meowing loudly for food,and when you pet her get a bunch of tail in your face.Not too cute,especially when she had round worms.Thank god that episode is over!

Anyway,she gets so scared that she shuts up.It's pretty miraculous.And everyone says how sweet she is! Well if they want to be awoken at 3 am by a hungry series of high pitched meows outside their window, please go ahead. She is a nice cat, but just so loud and obnoxious. Plus, she is a shame to the feline race in that she has N E V E R caught a bird.Shakes head in bafflement. I mean I've caught a bird,and I don't have claws!

I've been thinking about soft animals and textures a lot, must be the wind over here.I wish it was cooler so I could indulge in my scarf habit every day.That would be so nice!

Saw Seven Brides For Seven Brothers today...if you haven't seen, don't speak to me until you have...the short guy in the grey suit cracks me.He has the worst dancing of any person in it,too manic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjsjsudv49o

But it is a funny movie,all kinds of lines you can't believe got passed in the 1950s.Russ Tamblyn is Gideon,the youngest brother and an amazing gymnast.

Oh old movies! I love them.I shall go on ..hahhaha!

Sabrina, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLbr-3_U4z8&feature=related

True Words by Rumi

Not Intrigued With Evening

What the material world values does

not shine the same in the truth of

the soul. You have been interested

in your shadow. Look instead directly

at the sun. What can we know by just

watching the time-and-space shapes of

each other? Someone half awake in the

night sees imaginary dangers; the

morning star rises; the horizon grows

defined;people become friends in a 

moving caravan. Night birds may think

daybreak a kind of darkness, because

that's all they know. It's a fortunate

bird who's not intrigued with evening,

who flies in the sun we call Shams.

Book Beauty

Here's the end of that story about the old woman who wanted

to lure a man with strange

cosmetics. She made a paste of pages from the Qu'ran to fill

the deep creases of her face and

neck with. This is not about an old woman, dear reader. It's

about you, or anyone who tries

to use books to make themselves attractive. There she is,

sticking scripture, thick with

saliva, on her face. Of course, the bits keep falling off.

"The devil," she yells, and

he appears! "This is a trick I've never seen. You don't need

me. You are yourself a troop

of demons!" So people steal inspired words to get compliments.

Don't bother. Death comes

and all talking, stolen or not, stops. Pity anyone unfamiliar 

with silence when that happens.

Polish your heart with meditation and quietness. Let the inner 

life grow generous and handsome

like Joseph. Zuleikha did that and her "old woman's spring

cold snap " turned to mid-July. Dry

lips wet from within. Ink is not rogue. Let language lie

bygone. Now is where love breathes.