Breakfast for my first Sunday Gentle Yoga students.

A nice evening out at Buon Appetito, our local dining spo

Are you being monitored?

There has been a lot of news coverage recently on the US government's monitoring efforts.  Much of this discussion seems to be very naive and a little paranoid!  The best viewpoint we've read was presented by Jim Mullen who writes a syndicated column called "The Village Idiot".   Read this for yourself and see if you agree.

Face-of-Produce returns

It is raspberry heaven at Hangman Hill Road currently. To celebrate we are posting a face-of-produce inspired by the Old Man of the Mountains rock formation in New Hampshire.

We would like to dedicate this FOP to Keira Hancock, our niece, who is recovering from appendix surgery. Get well soon Keira!

Red currants

Today's bumper crop was a lifetime's supply of red currants. These should be good with salad, grilled chicken or even ice cream.

Busy bees

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEv2xYWvdZ8

Check out this link for a short clip of the early morning garden activities at Hangman Hill.

It's Gooseberry Season at Hangman Hill

It's a bumper crop this year. Send gooseberry recipes please.

Mid Year Exams for the Yogi

This past weekend was a Yoga Teacher Training weekend for Sheri at Blissworks Yoga and Healing Arts and marks her half-way point to completing a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Program.  As part of the curiculum Sheri has been learning the history of yoga, alignment principles, anatomy, the names of poses in Sankskrit, and the critical elements of a yoga class.  Last month Sheri taught for the first time with Kristin Price, who is also a Pfizer colleague.  Their theme was Superhero Yoga and had a lot of fun teaching their fellow teachers how to be super yogis.  They next teach a class together in September with a them that will be based in science, perhaps quantum mechanics or acid-base theory.

One requirement of the training is to complete a Seva project with her teaching team.   Seva in Sanskrit refers to a service which is performed without any expectation of result or award for the person performing it. Sheri, Kristin, Martin and Janet volunteered their time at Fiddleheads, a food coop in New London.  It was a lot of fun with the added benefit of Sheri discovering a host of treats including a locally made ginger beer.

The Fantastic Fiddleheads Teaching Team

Sheri and her 16 fellow students all passed their mid-term exam on Saturday and are well on their way to becoming yoga instructors.

Rain....and lots of it

We've been having an unusually rainy June, which is good for some parts of the garden and not others.  It certainly didn't help the strawberries very much!

However....it has been a good test of our new wall and the dry stream bed that we had constructed to keep the wetlands out of our basement.  In the attached photos and Youtube movie you can see where the 6" of rain that we received last week ended up.

Sheri's Birthday

Sheri celebrated her birthday in Waterville Valley, NH at the Gordon Conference.  It was a treat for Sheri and her friend Lynne to rent bikes and get off-road for a birthday bike-ride, just like the good ol' days in Madison, WI.

We celebrated together at home on the weekend.  On Saturday the rains from Andrea subsided and the sun came out in time for a trip to Watch Hill, RI to the Olympia Tea Room in the evening.  It was our first trip for the season and we enjoyed a really nice dinner followed by Grilled Poundcake and Strawberries to complete the birthday festivities.

The winners of the best birthday cards for Sheri's 2013 birthday are from Bruno (Uke can guess which one) and Dmitri, Julie, Bryony and  Kiera Hancock).  Many thanks to all for the cards, gifts, calls and messages.

Fresh produce

It's June, so it must be fresh strawberries from the garden for breakfast, lunch and dinner.