I hope everyone in the states had a lovely Memorial Day Weekend. I made myself a super-extra long weekend by taking a few additional days off during which I attended my first yoga day-retreat at Kripalu. I’ve been practicing yoga consistently for about a year-and-a-half, though of course I’d been exposed to the asanas before then throughout my life. I’ve always been good at meditating, though I don’t make enough time for it as I should, so I was excited and nervous to undertake my first full-day retreat. No need to be nervous though; the yoga was all much more gentle than I am used to and the tailored environment made several hours of meditation a breeze.
I took lunch and dinner outside where after eating mindfully, I snuck a few peaks at my phone (shh) and engaged in the distracting (from meditation) activity of drawing the scenery. Drawing and journaling aren’t against the rules, but looking at my phone is definitely discouraged.
As I often do before a long hike or a camping trip, I packed a small set of oil pastels and a small spiral-bound sketch-pad. This set is brand new with slightly less vibrant colors than my old set. Better for neutrals, but still not perfect. I also recently bought myself some blender oils. Below is the resulting sketch.
In other news my garden is finally fully awake. The trees have all filled in lush and green and we’ve had enough rain that the grass isn’t burning yet. Plus my years of dutiful weeding and consistent lawn maintenance is finally showing cumulative results. The irises are going crazy on year seven of spreading. Soon I’ll need to divide them and I’m not looking forward to the massive undertaking.
I’ve also successfully established poppies in a new location, now they frame both ends of the south-facing bulb garden, currently overgrown with summer blooms now that the tulips and hyacinth are done. Food-wise things are very herb-heavy. The lettuce and spinach didn’t take off this year but we’re drowning in perennial herbs and so much chamomile self-sowed because I didn’t turn the garden soil because I wanted carrots, dill, and chamomile from last year to seed. Well, I got what I asked for…The dill was a pleasant surprise because I had forgotten that it even went to seed!
