Dear Yogis,

After changes upon changes things are more or less the same.  Good line for a song, but not such a good line for zoom yoga classes.  After months of zoom and lockdowns, I am thinking of re-instating the MONTHLY Teacher Trainings.  Not weekly.  I spend a good deal of time preparing and researching for classes on my own.  So, the next teacher training ZOOM will be Monday 30th May at 6.30.  It will be a one and a half  hour session, and the cost is $25.  About the same as when we were in the studio, but quite different to the “every Monday class” which was $25 for one hour,  each week for four weeks.  I guess that popular zoom classes were a covid aberration – if we have another lock down (and there probably will be one after the election), we will know how to do it.  If you want a change to this, or if you have a preference – then let me know.  You lead the class, and right now you are informing me by walking away.  Not the best option I would have thought!

I think I have got Studio YOGA Times right.  I have new students, and people coming back to class.  All good.  And I am enjoying it too – even better.  Monday, Wed., Friday and Saturday at 1pm and 2.15pm  Restorative and Hatha.  2.15 to allow one class to leave and the next one to turn up with the littlest fuss – necessary when it is super cold, raining or snowing.

ART

I am beyond excited and want to share my excitement with you.  The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators in the USA have featured my art and my time with them in their Journal.  Four full pages in colour – how amazing is this!

It makes great sense of the art classes I ran all through covid, and the posters and pieces I have done since then.  I hope that you will sign up to my next art classes now that Covid is receding (it will always be with us – I know that).

BACK IN THE USA.

For the last number of years now thanks to covid, we have been studying the Gita.  The story of a battlefield.  Well we have a battle coming towards us, and like Arjuna, we must decide what to do.  We can run away, we can leave the field, but that is not what is being asked of us.  We have to fight those bringing the battle to us, but it is HOW we fight that is important.  Read the Gita, and then (like Ghandi) follow the path it puts before us.  Remember I am a child of the 60’s and 70’s who marched for women’s freedoms.   Friedan, Steinem and Germaine Greer were out in front – but it is almost as if they had not been there.  We are back at the barricades…

Roe Vs Wade is in the process of being overturned (if you don’t know what this landmark case was, google it)  You may not think that it effects us – but guess what, it does! I sat in Church on Sunday and learned that at the most recent Synod of the Church of England,  there was a motion by a very powerful few,  to disallow the ordination of women.  Can you believe it? I am led to believe that the day was saved by the vote of a forward thinking Bishop,  but it was the thin edge of the wedge, and I am sure they will gather their forces and try again.   

When the powerful conservatives in the USA remove the rights of women to decide what happens to their body, and removes their reproductive freedom (for starters), it gives confidence and maybe support to the “conservatives” here and around the world.  Half the States in America are set to ban abortion. This will give power to the legislature and to men that they should not have in this day and age.

FYI: I wonder what will happen to architecture.  We have thrown ourselves into open plan dining, kitchen,  lounge rooms to get women out of a closed kitchen and into the family.  Will we see closed up kitchens returning?  Houses reflect the status of women, kitchens especially.

You may think that we have abortion on demand here in Aus.  Well mostly we don’t.  We can have an abortion under “certain conditions” (unquote) and it has to be OK’d by one or two doctors depending on which State you live in.  Does that sound  like you are in charge of your body/ your freedom?  We need REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH JUSTICE, and we need it for all women, worldwide.  As well as the right to decide whether this is the right time for us to have a child linked to affordable, available abortion – we need paid maternity leave for men as well as women – reliable, accurate, professionally delivered sex education in every school  – and we should enshrine the right of every child to affordable education from an early age.  Children should be raised in safety and with dignity.

I believe we need the pill to be freely and economically available in the same way condoms are, and “the morning after pill” to be freely and economically  available at Chemist stores to purchase over the counter no questions, no permissions..  I also think women should be taught to recognise what is happening as their body changes,  by using basal temperature and mucus charting.  There are alternatives to the pill, but they are not taught.

We must change and consider a GENDER EQUITY AMENDMENT in our constitution.  I believe we  urgently need a referendum to decide about Women’s rights as well as well as aboriginal rights.  In order for this to be achieved we need to get politically active.  One person crying in the wilderness gets no-where..

I do believe that every child has a right to life, but I do not believe we will achieve this by banning abortion.  Women who see no way out will get an abortion, and the safest, both long and short term is one carried out by a doctor – not by a backyarder, and not by the desperate act of the women herself.  

HERBALS…

Nettles are available in the gardens at the moment for harvesting to include in a salve, a tincture or even as an addition to your vegetable stews/steaming.  It is one of my very favourite vegetables and after years of trying I now have nettles growing from self seed, which I use for tincture, for pesto, and steamed.  It never looses its glorious emerald colour.  Even my children loved it.  I would make a white cheesy soup and then write their names on top in nettle puree.

My children called it KINDERGARTEN SPECIAL because I took some to their kindy at one time and everyone tried it.  I actually used to teach cooking at Macedon Primary School – more like “eating” rather than cooking because there was no kitchen.  I took along foods and showed them how the herbs and vegetables were grown and harvested,  and what they tasted like in cakes, soups, biscuits…  I was inventive and the children loved the sessions.  THE YOGA OF FOOD. 

I WILL SEE YOU ON THE MAT, (or on email yogafirst2@bigpond.com) 

NAMASTE – JAHNE

Dear Yogis,

I love making, mending and working in the garden, and this weekend passed it is exactly what I have done.  I cleaned and put a new band on my hat, beaded a new hat band, made a little owl cover for a heat bag, and prepared the garden for the arrival of quails.  I am not sure when they will arrive, but I have them on my mind, so I guess that they will.  I am ready for them.  I have the little house and run in a protected area close to the house – in fact I can see it easily from my desk in my studio sitting room.  I have considered quail because they will eat scraps, and garden waste, and from this produce fertiliser and eggs.  They are small, won’t wander off, and are productive.  All good.

DARNING: Just in case you thought I am the only one who makes and mends, here is a photo of Prince Charles.  He sometimes mends (you can see patches and worn places even on special suits), but here is a beautiful jacket that clearly could do with a mend… a patch or two would not go astray.  Even the places that have been patched are wearing out.

I also made some jam in the bread maker loaned to me by Jane (thank you).  Although there was a recipe for marmalade, and that is what I made, LEMON MARMALADE.  It was only marginally successful.  It set, it tasted like lemon marmalade, but were I to do it again I would use more sugar (2 cups instead of one and a half), and cook the rinds before I put them in the bread maker.  The rinds were barely cooked.  I followed this with a yeastless caraway and date bread.  Now, this was hugely successful and the main problem was to stop eating it.  It wasn’t “cakey”, and very tasty.  I am not sure you need a bread maker though.  Either of these can be made in other ways.  The jam in the microwave, and the bread in the oven.  I have both of these and now I have the recipes so I don’t need a bread maker, and it only made 2 jars at a time.

HOUSEHOLD REMEDIES:  As you know, I try to replace the store bought items in the house for cheaper/better/purer replacements, and one of these replacements is FABRIC SOFTENER.  We are so used to popping softener in the wash.  We are even encouraged by the design of the washing machines – mine has a special receptacle for it.  Here is my recipe..     This recipe is perfect for towels and sheets especially.  I like it because the sheets retain the lavender smell which as you know aids sleep (not that I need this!)  You can use a different essential oil – it is up to you.

FABRIC SOFTENER INGREDIENTS:  500g Epsom salts, 250g baking soda, 30 drops essential oil.  Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and store in an airtight container until you are ready to use .  Put two tablespoons into each load of washing.  I have a book “SUPERFOODS SUPERHERBALS” which you will find on Etsy that will give you lots of hints and tips to make and save.  www.myyogabooks.etsy.com

COVID AND THE ELECTION.  No-one is talking about it in spite of the fact that we have one of the highest infection rates in the world, and we are underreporting by a factor of two. At this stage we are where the world was in 1920.  The Spanish Flu was considered to be over – that was not the case, people relaxed and more deaths, more infections occurred.  We are reaping the benefits of the high vaccination rate, however, 10% are still vulnerable.  Deaths are not going down – 37 deaths a week going upwards.  Imagine if 37 deaths occurred on the road every week!  We have effective antivirals, but people are not being offered them.

Given in the first 5 days antivirals are hugely effective, and they are freely available and on the NHS. We are not organised around this, and we have people dying who don’t need to.  The real worry is that animals can become infected, in this way the virus changes and can come back into the population.  Norman Swan says that it will be the cause of  another pandemic.  We also have the flu virus which is mutating.  This scenario is now a part of our lives.  There will be another pandemic, and we have to be ready for it – remembering the lockdowns and interruptions to our lives over the last couple of years.  Are you ready for another pandemic?

CURRENT STUDIO/ZOOM SCHEDULE: (Studio Yoga – Mondays and Wednesdays at 1pm are Full)

WEKLY STUDIO/ZOOM SCHEDULE  (PLEASE BOOK AHEAD – NO DROP-INS, sorry)

ZOOM: Mon. 6.30 Gita, Tues. Herb workshop 7.30, Friday 6.45 Tarot –  $50 for 4 Friday classes.
STUDIO YOGA:Mon. 1pm (full) 2pm, Wed. 1pm Restorative(full), Friday 1pm Hatha,  SATURDAY 1PM RESTORATIVE or HATHA YOGA.

NEW CLASSES.  I am starting a new gentle hatha class from Monday 16th May at 2pm, and looking to put on extra weekday classes as demand increases.

MONTHLY LUNCHEON:  Thursday 26th May at 12noon at “The Vic” in Woodend (If you are running a bit late, relax, it’s OK – drop in for dessert).

CONSULTATIONS: Tarot/Bach/Bowen or a combo – by appointment only.  $85 including remedy (including postage if zooming)  Past-Life (QHHT taught by Dolores Cannon) $250 via email or in the studio.  The reading includes Time, date, place of the prior life. To discuss,  email  yogafirst2@bigpond.com

I WILL SEE YOU ON THE MAT

NAMASTE – JAHNE

New User Pass – $75 (a great way to try out the Pass!)

• Four Class pass (Stretch Hatha Yoga) or Restorative
• Zoom weekly Sangha meeting with Jahne (Monday 6.30)
• Valid for one month