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Oh blazes it’s hot! Please note, I am NOT complaining … I’m just sharing.
Our home for the summer runs on an old electrical panel with old glasses fuses. This means that when we blow a fuse, rather than ‘flip’ / reset the breaker switch, we actually have to replace the old blown glass fuse with a new one. A bit of a pain, especially as parts of Dawn’s house is also run on the same breaker as our Airstream. So when running a toaster, nothing else can be run. Same goes for the Vita-Mix, microwave, etc. The thought of an air conditioner right now is hugely desirable, but with only 15 amps of power being shared between us both I fear that we’d be blowing fuses left, right and centre. Hence, we open all the windows, run our fantastic fans on high, extend all the awnings.
What’s a girl gotta do to keep cool? Hide in the basement / yoga studio is one option. The second option came up from visiting a health fair yesterday. A juice bar served a simple slushy-like watermelon concoction that inspired me in to making my own! So I’ve come up with a name that I will copyright (unless of course, someone has beat me to it prior to this moment)! Watermelonade 
Here’s the recipe for your cooling refreshing pleasure. Of course, any organic ingredients are preferred over the conventional variety. Go for at least organic lemons / limes:
 Watermelonade Refresher
- Cut up ⅓ to ½ watermelon (dependant on the melon size)
- Add 3 cups of ice (filtered water ice is best)
- 2-3 cups of water (to taste and for mixing ease)
- 1 whole peeled lemon (and if you’re feeling adventurous, add in a peeled lime!)
Directions:
- Combine all the ingredients in the VitaMix.
- Use the plunger to mix all the ingredients (the ice will freeze up without further plunger coaxing).
- Sweeten to taste (or not — I prefer the juice as is), using stevia, maple syrup or organic sugar, if you must.
- Garnish with fresh mint or basil leaves.
  Settling in to our new home for the summer, today was the beginning of something truly beautiful. An opportunity to practice yoga in a studio space within feet of our doorstep seems almost like a dream. So to make the most of our time here in Oshawa, I’ve made an agreement with myself … upon rising, each and every day, I will practice yoga, in whatever form that may take. Evolution of a daily practice has no time limitations or defined routine. It is whatever may show up for me in that moment. And today, it meant leading my own practise alone and finishing a beautiful one hour session with slaDE by my side. My husband joined me quietly, breathing and stretching in his own cadence and style. It was magic.
Dawn played tour guide around town, showing us the Friday morning farmer’s market along with the major areas of interest that would make life a bit easier and fluid whilst here in the city. A morning stretch in the park by Lake Ontario sealed the perfection of the day!
  Oshawa and yoga. Not something I particularly had in mind for the summer. But after spending the morning with my sister (who attempted yogaFLIGHT for the first time!), we made our way from Alliston to Oshawa, a small city just east of Toronto. Why Oshawa you might ask? Well, slaDE and I have been brainstorming about places to establish roots for the summer, and his friend Dawn (whom we met at the Yoga Conference several years ago) has a small brilliant home yoga studio — Breath of Light Yoga — with a long driveway that her and her partner might consider renting to us for the summer. It seems almost too good to be true, but we’ve set a dinner date for this evening, in the hopes of establishing a summer residence whilst helping out Dawn with her new business.
Having arrived early in to Oshawa, we set up our slackline and worked on our balance poses. Such a challenge for me, klutz that I am . But yet, I will continue to play in the hopes of bettering my skills at core & body stability, steadiness and sure-footedness.
Dinner with Dawn was fabulous. Her partner Craig had been called in to work, leaving the three of us speaking well into the night, discussing spirituality, yoga, web presence of our work and business marketing. It seems like we will be a spectacular fit … such an amazing opportunity for us all. I’m pretty excited about the summer, and what potential it will bring.
  My sister is an Arborist … a really interesting career choice. I am a lover of trees and therefore admire greatly her vocation. By definition, an Arborist generally focuses on the health and safety of individual plants and trees. A child of the earth in the truest sense! Aaron’s days are very early … this morning she was well into her day by the time I had awoken . Oh the life of a nomadic wanderer, having the luxury of waking at will, very much dependant on my choice of bedtime. For me, to not have to wake by alarm clock is such a huge blessing. And I hold on to that current truth as if my life depends on it. In fact, my sanity does depend on my quality of sleep … I am very grateful that sleep comes easily to me each night, where 8 hours is my optimal and typical timestamp.
Today was a gorgeous day in Alliston Ontario. Aaron suggested that we visit the local organic farmer who lived just down the road from her. Excited at the prospect of fresh organic produce, we happily hopped on to our bicycles and rode the mile uphill to an amazing selection of fresh seasonal vegetables, lovingly raised without chemicals or pesticides. Beets, cucumbers, carrots, garlic, herbs of many varieties, giant kale leaves, lettuce, zucchini and spanish onions adorned the old barn tables with a sign seated on the ground stating “Will be back shortly. Help yourself if you can. (Prices on board outside)” An honour system was in place for any produce tat was purchased. Nowadays, how often do you see this? I can count 2 other times in the past 3 years … once in buying flowers at a Mennonite’s driveway hut and once in California along Hwy 1 at a strawberry farm selling scones and jam. Such a system is incredibly heartwarming to see in our society where surveillance video cameras and signs threatening prosecution for shoplifters rule our retail purchasing paradigm.
 Sometimes the best laid plans can’t even come close to touching the perfection of spontaneous get-togethers. It so happened that my Father and Sister were vacationing for a few days with my nephew in the Muskoka area. After dropping off Forrester with friends, they were making their way through Alliston for a visit with Aaron. What a coincidence that we happened to be there! Trying to plan a gathering with my sisters is tough to do even with advance planning. Add my Dad in to the mix … it’s usually a once-a-year opportunity (think Christmas or Thanksgiving). So much to my surprise, here we were, blessed with an evening to catch up with my family (Mom & Pat are missed of course). Impromptu perfection at its finest. I’m a happy girl today!
 
  Weddings can be extremely chaotic, busy and stressful for those involved. Having the opportunity to park our trailer next door to the bride and groom’s house was indeed a special treat, in that we were able to enjoy the company of Carrie and Jovan’s family after the business of the wedding had subsided. They leave for their fantastic Ireland honeymoon on Wednesday. Perfect timing apres wedding, giving them plenty of opportunity to decompress before enjoying their alone time as newlyweds, the sealing of the deal and partnership so necessary after months of preparation and devotion to the big day.
slaDE, always a source of wonderful entertainment, hooked up the slackline to some trees in the front yard. It was an instant success in keeping the children occupied and joyful!
 Before the mad rush of an intense day of travel towards Sudbury, slaDE and I decided to spend the day unwinding and enjoying the delights of Nouvel Air (a dropzone 1 hour south of Montreal). Our friend and host Michel Lemay treated us to a late evening last night of conversation. But we were knackered and enjoyed a late morning lie-in before heading to the NovelAir dropzone. What a splendid facility — equally impressive but very different from their new flagship dz (Parachute Montreal). slaDE did video for Michel Lemay’s 4 way pickup team for a few jumps. And then we knocked out 3 spectacular 4 way jumps that had my mind reeling. They were some of the BEST skydiving jumps I’ve done in all my years. Fluid, peaceful, quiet and highly successful. We averaged 18 points on each jump. WOW! Pretty cool to get personal coaching and jumping with a National Champion. What a difference can made to my skill level!
We enjoyed an evening of raw food, great companionship and yogaFLIGHT amongst friends before reluctantly leaving, preparing ourselves mentally for the big trek ahead of us tomorrow driving cross-Province.
VitaMix Fruit Ice Cream Recipe (use organic ingredients if possible)
Fruit ice-cream / sorbet can be made quite easily with frozen fruit plus the addition of plain unflavoured yogurt if a creamier texture is preferred.
- The basic “rule of thumb” for making ice cream (or sorbets) in a Vita-Mix is 3 cups of frozen ingredients to 1 cup of non-frozen.
- You need to keep the ratio of unfrozen ingredients to frozen at approximately 1 to 3 or 4 for it to make a soft scoop type consistency. For a stiffer consistency, use only frozen fruit.
- If you can’t buy frozen fruit or berries, just freeze your fresh ones. By using ice, you water down the lovely flavours possible with just two ingredients (fruit alone or fruit and yoghurt). I get the best results from making smaller quantities. About 4 cups is a good size batch.
- Started by mixing on Variable speed 1 and increase to 10 quickly, using the tamper to push the fruit down. Once you see four ‘mounds’, you are finished!
- Use a spatula to scoop out your ice cream. Serve immediately.
   
 After a quick visit to check out the Skyventure windtunnel in Montreal (which is pretty impressive in its design compared to the other tunnels), we made our way to ‘Parc du Mont Royal’ to pursue a new-to-us type of play. Slacklining is very similar to walking on a tight rope. A 1 inch flat tubular length of webbing (similar to what rock climbers use) is anchored between two stable and solid points (often trees are used). Add the concepts of yoga with intense focus and breath, and you enter the company of the Yogaslackers. US based Chelsey Gribbon and Jason Magness define their version of slacklining (aka ‘slackasana’) as “distilling the art of yogic concentration. A very unique practice that totally redefined my idea of what balance and breath was all about. Intensity in mental focus and sustained full breathes are mandatory, similar to meditation in motion. In fact, the success to remaining on the slackline is fourfold:
- Commitment
- Core
- Breath
- Focus (‘Drishti’ is the sanskrit word for gaze, which in yoga, helps with balance.)
I went in to the workshop literally stating: “my balance really sucks and I’m not certain if this will be accessible to me.” Talk about putting my limitations out there for all to see! However, within the 2 hour workshop, I was amazed at my tremendous steps of bravery and progress. I’ll be honest … walking on a 1 inch piece of tensioned webbing is a tricky intimidating process, especially with my tendency towards klutz-dom. But with gentle persistence, encouragement and a big helping of patience, I was able to balance in ways that were unexpected and incredibly rewarding. So enamoured was I in the process, slaDE and I invested in our own slackline kit (a special line and simple tensioning system)! Expect to see us slacklining at a dropzone near you.
Here’s what the Yogaslackers website has to say about yoga on the slackline:
Despite the seemingly impossible nature of the act, it is achievable by almost anyone with a little bit of perseverance and patience. The practice has many layers, simultaneously developing focus, dynamic balance, power, breath, core integration, flexibility, and confidence. Utilizing standing postures, sitting postures, arm balances, kneeling postures, inversions and unique vinyasa, a skilled slackline yogi is able to create a flowing yoga practice without ever falling from the line. Once certain skills have been mastered the line can be set up longer – making it much harder to balance on. For a comprehensive listing of asana (poses) that have been done on the line please visit team member Adi Carter’s page.
 
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