New Year, New Art

A dear friend, Audrey, gifted me with some artwork this holiday.

"After Image" by Mary Fussell

The piece is a watercolor original by CT artist Mary Fussell. Audrey is a bit of an arts community fixture and sponsor - and I have no doubt this piece is worth far more than I deserve or want to know.

It's lovely and has found a place of honor in my home. My art collection is somewhat eclectic and random - photographs by myself, by friends, and by strangers, a number of pieces of bird in various media and techniques, some framed posters and prints, and a few random abstract pieces I have been gifted, or purchased at charity auctions or benefits.

I do not really collect art per se; art, I think, collects me. 

An Undiscovered Country

Being a Type A yogi (an oxymoron, if ever there was one) - I do have my favorite teachers.

There is S, who I can always rely on to bring my practice back to it's sacred source, to ground my in alignment and posture and breath as he reconnects my practice with the divine. There is N, who unwinds my back and never leaves my tender lumbar region tweaky, and makes me laugh as she takes me deep into myself. There is M, whose flirtations with fluid vinyasa and heart-opening anusara bring delight and poetry to my practice, as her strong practices harden my body. C, of course, my first teacher and a continuing source of nurturing and learning as I begin my own teaching career. And B, the master, who never fails to take me deep and draw some truth and some catharsis from this body that my spirit is experiencing and exploring.

And now, a new teacher. One of my fellow teacher trainees, in fact. I've taken two classes with her in recent days, and in both cases, was delighted to find myself challenged, intrigued, learning, falling deep into myself. At one point during tonight's practice I made a note to myself "remember this stuff, it's really good to incorporate into your own teaching", but by the end of practice I was so deep into myself and the moment, that mental notes and thinking about something as tenuous as the future were lost. It was yummy deep yoga goodness.

During savasana, I crawled under a blanket despite the internal heat and the warm room - my usual indication that a practice has crossed over from the everyday into the sublime.

One the way out, I commented to another teacher (who happened to be web-surfing on Netflix) - it's like discovering a new television series on DVD. So many delicious hours of experience as yet undiscovered, a brand new resource.

Pass the popcorn!

Canoe trip: CT River and Selden's Creek

We're not all that sporty (although I do have kayak envy) but our friend Audrey wanted to do something outdoorsy today so we hit the CT River with a canoe. We put in at Deep River (where the Essex Steam Train meets the Riverboat) and paddled north, crossing the river a little ways up (being careful to not get hit by speeding motorboats in the channel nor tipped by their wake) - then into Selden's Creek. I had the middle seat, behind Zippy.

We encountered:

....A great white heron, which Audrey thought was an egret but when it took to flight, it was much larger


A family of swans with grey cygnets (one of several families we saw)


Flora growing atop a tree fallen into the river

And finally, a preening yogi. We also saw an osprey, fishing, a bunch of lesser birds, and lots of recreational boaters.

Lovely day, but boy are my arms tired!

Balloon Weekend

Spent last evening and this morning at the Plainville Balloon Festival.

Last night was a "glow" - balloons inflate but do not fly off, and after dark, they fire a special burner to get the balloons to light up. The Kirkwoods were the first to inflate, with an old balloon (affectionately known in the trade as a "rag bag") that they inflated and permitted folks to go inside of for a $1 (donation to the Plainville Fire Department)


Other balloon teams soon followed, including Bill Colyer's "Last Penny", who tethered (ascended a few dozen feet, with straps attached to the earth to keep them down). There were plenty of folks willing to plunk down a few bucks for a tethered ride, both Last Penny and Party Time were busily ascending and descending all evening.


Once it got dark, the balloons glowed. A handful of balloons participated, including Last Penny and the Barn (see below).




Finally, team Berkshire Balloons glowed, at the hands of pilot trainee Kristen, inflating Robert's small home built balloon. The winds were a bit tricky, and as the evening darkened we deflated and packed up, and settled down for the fireworks display.

This morning, the field started to fog in, with morning haze coming off the nearby Quinnipiac River. Balloonists flew, nevertheless, keeping low to the ground but occasionally popping up to the clearer skies above the cloudbank.


Robert took a brief flight from Norton park over to a nearby school, where we traded passengers and I went for a foggy ride down Rte. 10 to a nearby park where e got in with the help of a drop line. I was up long enough to grab this photo of the balloon shadow on a cloud (with a little brightness / contrast tweaking)


A pretty icky day to fly, and true to form, the skies cleared and turned beautiful as we were packing up.

We capped off the morning with breakfast at the Plainville Fire Department - quiche, bacon, sausage, and pancakes.....

Some Friends

Because I was netsurfing this morning to find their email addy's, I give you Eland Ra Arts, Craig Norton Photography, and Playtivity.

The universe keeps sending people like this into my life, and yanno, I really ought to open myself up to these wondrous gifts....

Kirtan: Friday, September 14, 8:00 – 10:00 pm

KIRTAN WITH SHANKARA & FRIENDS - West Hartford Yoga
Friday, September 14, 8:00 – 10:00 pm
$5 suggested donation

Join us for an evening of devotional singing, chanting, and personal expression. Kirtan is part of an ancient form of yoga known as Bhakti, or the Yoga of Devotion. The meditative quality of the music promotes a joyousness of spirit. Shankara leads our group in chants and songs in Sanskrit and English, from ancient Vedic text to traditional American music. Kirtan is for everyone, the experience itself offers possibilities of personal discovery or simply, the joy of raising one's voice in song. Allow yourself the gift of making a joyous noise. It's all about the spirit and the feeling. Bring yours to share! Expect surprises and unannounced musical guests!

As always, I am overjoyed to be one of the "friends" - we've gotten together to work on the chants. More bass this time around, but I'll have both guitar and bass per usual. See you there!