Dear Yogis,

Yesterday morning I received a message from the SES on my iPhone.  There was going to be a big storm last night.  Dire warnings.  My bookkeeper who is in the SES told me to prepare, so I did.  The little stove was mouldering and warm, big pot of water on top (I will get an old fashioned “reservoir” when I see one), coffee pot and iron – all essentials.  My lap top fully charged and the big power bank also fully charged, lots of wood in and under cover etc etc…. little solar lights all powered up. Genny on the verandah for long term outage if it happened.  

It was nerve-racking remembering the last storm but I went to bed... I was woken a few times by rather large gusts, but slept soundly.  This morning, noticed we had welcome rain, but it didn’t come right up under the verandah as it did on June 9th 2021 (the BIG storm).  So all is well.  I hope that you prepared well as the weather is unpredictable, and the storm may yet come.

COVID AND CLASSES – The “Other Storm”.
I am sure you are finding it difficult to get groups together for anything, and especially yoga which is deemed to be non-essential.   Support staff away with covid, cafes, closed,  even our local op-shop and nursery closed, but we are getting used to it sad to say.  I think this is how life will be for a few years until we learn more about this virus.  We have to learn to work around it.

The most important thing we can do is to focus on our nutrition, and not focus on every little change we notice in our body.  There are changes, they will be more as our body comes to terms with the vaccinations we have had, and the virus we are exposed to whether we recognise that encounter or not.  As my older clients keep telling everyone, “just get on with it.  You can’t change where we are, we have to learn to live with it”.

However, we do have an arsenal.  We have our vitamins – keep taking them.  We have fresh green vegetables – if you can’t afford what is in the shops, go foraging.   I get greens for four meals out of seven from what other people think are weeds, and with this wonderful damp weather the paddocks are lush, and the “weeds” are in good shape.

Keep taking your “grapefruit mix” .  Cut and place in a pan or slow cooker 3 grapefruit, 2 oranges and 1 lemon (all of the fruit skins, pith everything), almost covered with water, and cook to a pulp – use a stick blender when they are soft.  Then put the mush in tiny ice block trays and freeze then bag.  Use them all the time in your water bottle and drinks.  Add some mint and a slice of lemon or lime for “A Garden in a Glass”.  This orange mix contains the naturally occurring form of hyroxychloroquin a chemical which is used to build resistance against Covid. It apparently cured Trump of Covid (enough said about that!).

Please don’t stop looking after yourself.  When you feel anxious, tired, below par, it is tempting to sit in front of the TV eating nice, sweet things.  It is a trap. These are the times when we most need to think of our yoga training, and get out there.  Do the 5 Tibetans, or go for a short walk (or a long one).  Remember what Billy Connolly said “There is no such thing as weather.  You are wearing the right things, or you are not”.  You could learn a new skill, or get into the garden.  It is the perfect time to weed and get on top of those pesky forget-me-nots before they flower and drop seed.   You could even forage and get a basket of edible weeds to make into a lovely herby, nourishing,  omelette for tea.  It is up to you.  You can wilt, or you can thrive.  The universe won’t care – but in the end, you will.

Dear Yogis,

Another reminder – some of you have not changed my email address.  Please change  it today to yogafirst2@bigpond.com

August already.  The garden is bursting into life, and portends a glorious spring.  I have all kinds of flower bulbs – Star of Bethlehem for the first time (a Bach Flower Remedy), bluebells, jonquils, daffodils, grape hyacinths (the first to burst forth) and of course tulips, but not many of these I am afraid.  Right at the moment my garden is GARLIC CENTRAL.  My clients brought me garlic which I planted, and I think they have all sprouted as well as onions, and my interesting “travelling garlic”.  I am really looking forward to spring.

OUR DOLL/BEAR MAKING WORKSHOPS.  1. AT THE STUDIO AND 2. ON ZOOM.
Start saving socks (2 longish ones needed) for a sock doll/Bear, or download the fabric pattern for a fabric bear.  I am going to devise a pattern to make a GANESHA SOCK DOLL, but this may be a way down the track – we shall see.  There is so much to do, and so little time.

Melvyn to the left was made out of two socks.  I have another which I call VERA (WANG) made out of two white, fur lined socks (so gorgeous to hug).  I will show you when I am finished – but I think that “Vera” is spoken for. They sell pretty fast.  I seem to be able to make easy monkeys, but GANESHA? We shall have to plod along with that.  NEEDED: Socks, long socks with designs … leave them in the letterbox – cheaper than posting.

I did pick up a pair of very large denim trousers from the op shop today which will become a bear (or two).  If you want to join me in making bears, save your old denims, download the pattern,  (www.myyogabooks.etsy.com) and get to it.  As I keep saying, Christmas is coming faster than we may like, and what with the cost of everything rising, being ahead of the gift giving with some bears may save quite a few dollars.

THIS IS MARMADUKE.  He is the bear that I will be making for you in kit form – Marmaduke here is tweed, but i will be making him a denim kit.  It will contain everything (and a template) except the sewing cotton, needles and the stuffing.    If the other bear was easy, Marmadule is super simple.  It will be one you can run up in an hour, or take an afternoon off and make one with your children )or a group), which you can pass along to a charity.The paper pattern is already and waiting for you on etsy.

If you need the complete kit with materials, that will be up there this week.  www.myyogabooks.etsy.com

Please keep checking in at the web site for when I put this up.  Yesterday afternoon when I was going to do this, I was engaged sewing together squares into blankets for the homeless through Rotary and the church, it was great fun and an opportunity to get together.

CIDER VINEGAR fruit CORDIAL .. Another way to save your dollars in a sea of rising prices.
Benefits

We make our own cider vinegar, and you can too.  I always have a mix bubbling away in the dark.  Check out previous Blogs or contact me for the recipe.
This cordial recipe, based on cider vinegar, herbs and fruit, is cheaper and better for you than even Bickfords Cordials.  And cheaper.

• Lowers blood pressure by promoting vasodilation (widening of blood vessels)
• Improves overall gut health and supports good bacteria
• Provides live enzymes that markedly improve digestion
• Promotes gentle systemic detoxification daily – an important function because of the daily pollution we are exposed to
• Stimulates circulation – effective for cold hands and feet
• Boosts energy and decreases fatigue
• Slows down aging by speeding up toxin removal and improving skin health

Fruit and Herb Drinking Vinegar Cordial recipe:   I have lots of dried fruit, and plenty of rhubarb that gives me harvest all year.    Fruit adds vitamins, minerals, flavonoids, and antioxidants to this beverage – along with flavour. You can substitute honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar or syrup or even molasses for the organic sugar in this recipe.

• 2 to 3 cups of raw fruit
• 2 sprigs of herbs such as peppermint,  lavender or rosemary
• A 2-inch piece of ginger and/or turmeric
• 1 cup of organic sugar or maple syrup
• 1 cup raw apple cider vinegar, with the mother

Directions:

1. Start by making syrup. Mix the raw fruit, fresh herbs, and sugar in a Mason Jar. Cover this mixture with a lid and place it in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. If you cook or boil it you will destroy many vitamins, especially C, that’s why we do it this way.
2. Shake the jar to distribute the sugar and herbs with the fruit, as often as you think of it. After 5 days, remove the syrup from the fridge.
3. Strain the juice and solids through a sieve or cheesecloth, pressing down hard on the solids to retain as much juice as possible.
4. Mix the equal amounts of fruit syrup and apple cider vinegar and pour it into a fresh, sanitized Mason jar with a lid. Label and date.
5. You can use this herbal syrup Cordial immediately, but letting it sit for a week will allow the flavours to deepen, meld and harmonize.
6. Add by the tablespoon to cocktails or sparkling water.  Try 2 tablespoons of this syrup (or your own mix) to 12 ounces of sparkling water for starters.  Add more or less to taste until you get it exactly as you like it.
7. This sweet vinegar cordial will keep up to a year if kept refrigerated.

How to use this sweet vinegar cordial to make inspiring summer drinks.  Use 1 to 2 tablespoons in a glass of sparkling water or plain water (Gin optional!)

Try these flavours:  blackberry,  balsamic vinegar, rosemary,  blueberry,  thyme,  cherry, lemon balm, rhubarb, ginger,
At the moment I have a jar of dried apple, rhubarb, dried cumquat and ginger at stage 1 in the fridge (soaking in coconut sugar).

Dear Yogis,

PLEASE CHANGE MY EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR CONTACT LIST.  IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED, MY NETCON ADDRESS IS FINISHING IN A WEEK OR SO, Chariot my ISP is closing its doors.  Technology has overtaken them.  They have struggled to supply a service all this year (it has been patchy) and they can’t keep going.  I have been with them for 30 years, so there are some changes I will have to make.  A nuisance and time consuming!)

Yesterday we had a VERY TINY yoga lunch, but that being said we had a wonderful time and solved the problems of the world as even a small group of women can do.  Please, please determine to come to our next one, mark it in your diary now – The last Thursday in August, the 30th, at 12 noon in the Victoria Hotel, Woodend.  Commit to this date, and let me know that you will be there.  I would like to book the meeting room just for us, but can’t unless we get a good number.

BEARS.  I have uploaded the first of my bear patterns to www.myyogabooks.etsy.com    The directions are all there for you to not only make a bear of your own, but also to get your group together and make bears for local charities.  It is easy enough to teach to children there are only three pattern pieces necessary (more are optional) and one main seam right around the outside of the bear.  You can upsize or downsize.  IT IS SIMPLE.  I just love making them and even DREAM about them.  Sitting up until all hours to add belly buttons etc.

I am starting some new bears today…. I will let you see them as i progress.

I also buy old knitted bears and animals from op-shops.  Wash, re-stuff, repair. redress,  and put new faces on them.  They go from scruffy, smelly, lumpy,  to beautiful.  I then give these away or sell them so I can make/fix. more to give away to children/people in need.  No matter the age, we all need something to cuddle and to love.