Playlists for Yoga Practices

Calling fellow yogis, yoga teachers and yoga practitioners!

I’ve been playing music before and after my yoga classes and I’m finding that it does wonderful things for getting everyone on a similar energetic page before starting/closing the class.

However, I’ve been playing the same music now for a few months and I’m starting to get tired of it.

If you like music before, during or after class, what kind do you like?

Any and all suggestions are welcome, from Krishna Das to Beyonce.

Restart

Frog (verb): to unknit, rip back, unravel, unwind or undo.  Usually accompanied by tears, chocolate and alcohol, amounts depending on the severity of the situation.

Ene’s scarf is frogged.  All the way back to the cast on.  I recast on all 375 stitches and knit back across the first row.

Why put myself through this pain and suffering?  Here’s what the lace border should have looked like:

correct border

This is what it looked like in too many other places, including the center point of the scarf:

ugh

So I’m back at the beginning and I will be paying MUCH closer attention to my stitches.

nascent stages ... again

Dreams of a Yogi-Librarian

This article from Slate’s affiliate Double X on making a living as a yoga teacher got me thinking (and daydreaming) about teaching yoga full time, owning my own studio, and musing on my current career as a librarian.

In my latest daydream, I (and perhaps a friend) own a chic yoga studio where we and our band of fabulous yoga teachers lead students through classes that combine a great work out with empowering and inspiring teaching, and also provide space to breathe and relax.

Then I wake up.

Luckily, I have a solid career as a librarian that allows me to find my creative and teaching outlet as a part-time yoga instructor.

It seems that yoga teachers are suffering the same market-glut as librarians.  Suddenly, there are more of us than there are jobs, though at the present moment in the economy, that’s the case with every job.

As librarians, many of us in our 20′s and 30′s have been told that it’s a great time to be a librarian since all the good jobs will be opening up as people retire.  The “graying” of our chosen profession will lead us young ‘uns to a holy land of employment with benefits and meaningful and valuable work.

And then I wake up.

Again, being one of the lucky ones I don’t have to worry so much about my job, rent and meeting student loan payments (damn you Sallie Mae!)  I feel fortunate to have a job, even though it’s not really what I want to be doing with in my profession.  That’s how and why I found yoga — another lucky happenstance.  I needed an outlet for activity, creativity and teaching.  If there’s one thing I lack in my current job, it’s an outlet for connecting with students. What I have now works for me, but I wonder about others out there.  Others who are following their daydreams to reality.  If the Double X article is any representation, it’s a long hard road.

Farm Share Canceled

Yesterday I learned via Twitter (thanks @eatboston!) that a large farm share in the Boston area had been canceled.  Knowing the struggles that Steve and Parker Farm had been going through, I immediately started hoping and praying it wasn’t them.  Alas, Steve has had to suspend the CSA portion of his farm.  A post on Facebook says this:

“Due to the unprecedented poor growing conditions of the 2009 season,which has caused enormous crop losses and is putting the future of the farm in grave danger,I am forced to suspend CSA drop offs for the balance of the season.I will be issuing refunds in the form of vouchers that can be redeemed at the stand at the various farmers markets I attend during the 2010 season.”

A follow up posts suggests that Steve might be trying to work something out for a final delivery, but nothing’s been finalized yet.

It’s a sad situation and my heart breaks for Steve and the rest of the crew at Parker Farm.  They worked through awful conditions and suffered the loss of so many of their crops.  What did survive brought so much joy and many, many new, good and creative meals to my little apartment.

Like many have said on Facebook and in other forums, I don’t want a refund.  That’s not the point of a CSA, short for Community Supported Agriculture.  You take the good with the bad.  This was a bad year and we all suffer the loss.  But hopefully, it’s our subscription fees for the CSA that help the farm survive through the lean seasons.

The fall harvest is just starting to ramp up, so please get out there and support your local farmer’s market.  Not sure where the nearest farmer’s market is?  Check LocalHarvest.org for a full listing.

Interested in participating in a CSA?  Sign ups start soon for the 2010 season and, again, LocalHarvest.org is a great resource for finding either a farm near you or a drop off point if you’re in a city.

Your support matters.

Gimmick or Godsend?

Huffington Post has a fun article looking at the various props, toys and what not associated with yoga.  The responses of people voting on each item with a 1 through 10 scale, 1 being total marketing ploy and 10 being an absolute essential.

A couple of the items made me laugh because they truly are ridiculous.  The yoga sandals and the weird looking purple foam bolster are just too silly to contemplate.

I also had a good chuckle when the posted the Savasana Wrap from Lululemon.  Despite the crazy price tag, I have it on my Christmas wish list.  I’ve tried it on and while I certainly wouldn’t drag it to yoga class  (a blanket? in a 95 degree studio??) I would wear it as the very cute jacket it’s meant to be.  Let this be a lesson for Lulu — get too clever and it’ll come back and bite you.

The comments are funny as is the feedback from people who practice or teach yoga.  (Shout out to the commenter who pointed out that neti pots are ancient Ayurvedic science and not a new fad.)

My yoga essentials are my el cheapo $12 mat purchased five years ago from a local grocery store and my Yogitoes for when I practice in a heated studio.   I’ve been considering a travel mat, but that’s still in a nascent stage.

What about you?  What do you find totally gimmicky?  What’s necessary for your yoga practice?

I wonder what Ogden would say about this? (Mmmm, goji berries.)

Knitting Update

Last December I cast on for Ene’s Scarf in a luscious sock-weight yarn in deep burgundy and black.  I’ve been slowly picking away at it as my schedule hasn’t allowed a lot of quality knitting time.

I haven’t touched the shawl in a good couple months.  The last time I looked at it I realized I had made some pretty hideous mistakes at the beginning.  We’re not talking a couple missed yarn overs, but some massive, pattern-altering mistakes.

I’ve only completed chart 1 and 2 which make up the border of the shawl, so in the grand scheme of things, not that much.

I know what needs to be done … frogging lace is so heartbreaking.

::sigh::

Consolations and words of knitterly wisdom are welcome.

Farm Share – Week 15

Light week this week, which worked out great since I’m out of town Thursday to Sunday.

csa week 15

Apples, green tomatoes, green bell peppers, arugula, radishes and turnips.  No plans for any of this so if you have any recipes that use any of these ingredients, please share them.  I’d love to hear your ideas!

See you on the other side of the weekend for what I think is an interesting post and good discussion fodder on teaching yoga.  Students and teachers take note

Farm Share – Week 14

Wow — actually posting on pick up day!  I don’t think this has happened since the first week.

This week’s haul included a lot more fruit, which I’m psyched about.

week14

Kale, tomatoes, cucumber, ginger gold apples, eggplant, green bell pepper and a delicious melon that tastes like watermelon but has a beautiful pale yellow inside.  I think the eggplant are going to go into a curry dish (I’ve had a hankering for some good curry), probably along with the green peppers.  The apples will be great midday snacks, and the kale, I’m hoping, will keep until the weekend when I roast up a chicken and use the carcass for stock, because I’m thinking kale and bean soup sounds yum!  Not sure what I’ll do with the rest, but I’m sure it’ll find a home in someone’s belly!

Last week I made a bean salad from the Penzeys Spice catalog — it came out so pretty and colorful that I had to take a quick picture of it.

bean salad

The grape tomatoes came from Ed’s garden and the goat cheese is my own addition because everything’s better with cheese, right?

Also, I wanted to share this fun photo from the weekend.  What do you think it is?

?

Any guesses?

It’s bacon fat from cooking breakfast bacon, poured into two plastic cups nesting inside one another.  The inner cup warped and melted, while the outer cup stayed solid.  The color reminds me of the amber pieces that wash up on beaches in Denmark.  Who knew bacon fat could be so beautiful?!

Farm Share – Week 13

At this week’s pickup, my farmer had a sign on the back of his truck asking for any donations possible.  Due to the horrendous growing season and the loss of his original delivery truck in an accident earlier this season, he’s really strapped.  Poor guy!  I gave what I could, but it really heightened the important of local support for these farmers, especially through the lean years.  If I want the continued luxury of fresh, organic, local produce I too have to step it up and be responsible.

This week’s delivery was lovely!

week 13

Arugula, green tomatoes, orange tomatoes, a delicious reddish/purple heirloom tomato, onions, cilantro, green bell peppers, two golden delicious apples and broccoli.  The green bell peppers and onions went with me to Seekonk for a Sunday BBQ.  I’m making a three bean spicy salad from the Penzeys Spices catalog, spring 2009.  The broccoli got roasted and served alongside some panfried dumplings for a quick pre-yoga class dinner with a friend.  The rest waits for me to get home and do something with it before the next delivery on Wednesday.

Once I get back to Cambridge I’m thinking of making a cilantro pesto to keep through the week and serve over the weekend with some whole wheat pasta and roast chicken.  It must be a sign of fall that I’m craving a whole roasted chicken and all the yummy stock I can make out of it.  The green tomatoes will become a green tomato salsa.  The arugula makes a great salad base and I’m hoping to get at least one more salad that looks like the one I made last week from the leftovers of the last CSA delivery.

baked salmon salad

With green beans, roasted potatoes, tomatoes and arugula from the farm share, this was the best summer salad I ate all season.  The salmon was wild-caught from Whole Foods and it just so happened to be on ridiculous sale.  Win!

What are you cooking with this week?  Any Labor Day BBQs on your plate?

What I Read – August 2009

This was a great month for reading and a week’s vacation in Maine helped create some quality downtime to really get involved in some great books.

Links take you to my reviews on Goodreads.com and the * marks books that I highly recommend/enjoyed.

*In Too Deep, Portia Da Costa

Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine, and the end of France, Michael Steinberger

*In The Bleak Midwinter, Julia Spencer-Fleming

*Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase

A Fountain Filled with Blood, Julia Spencer-Fleming

*Out of the Deep I Cry, Julia Spencer-Fleming

One Thousand White Women, Jim Fergus

*We Took to the Woods, Louise Dickinson Rich

All Mortal Flesh, Julia Spencer-Fleming

*To Darkness and to Death, Julia Spencer Fleming

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, Richard W. Wrangham

How about you?  What did you read this summer that you really liked?