Regent Park

This afternoon at the office we had a screening of some National Film Board films about Regent Park in the 1950's and 1960's. Mostly touting how wonderful this housing project is and how much better the area would be. Onenof them was narrated by Lorne Greene.

In the first one they where showing us the "slums" of Oak street that ended up being turned into our modern day regent park.

Didn't quite turn out how they intended now did it?

Several of us who were previewing them commented that these slum building seemed surprisingly similar to the fixer uppers we all seem to live in and that all cost piles of money now

The more sarcastic among us have now named our houses "Slum Chic".




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:King's Highway 401,South Stormont,Canada

Yoga Book

It't kind of funny. Last week I ha been looking at yoga books and the one I wanted was a little out of the range I wanted to pay at the moment. It was that iyengar book I was talking about before.

So of course this wee I'm given a lovely gift card for Indigo for my Birthday (which isn't until next week).

So the book has been ordered (yay) and there was enough leftover to treat myself to Season 2 of True Blood when it comes out in May.

Life is good.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Subway

A Good Sunday

Today was a glorious day.  It was beautiful weather, had brunch with good friends and visits with not 1 but 2 small people today.  They made my day with their giggles and smiles and just general good natures.  Such beautiful girls they both are.

Apparently my blue heart necklace is very very attractive to wee ones.  They both zoomed in on it.

Now I think it is time to attempt to bake something.  I have a sweet craving and nothing sweet hanging around.

Meditation Bandwagon

I'm admitting it. I've been terrible at mediation lately.  I really have to get myself back on the bandwagon.  Meditation is one of those things you know is good for you and you feel better when you do it but seem to procrastinate about.

I think one of my impediments to meditation regularly is my constant need to be doing things and accomplishing stuff.  Intellectually I know I am accomplishing something with mediation, but it doesn't feel like I am at the time.  Or maybe I'm just not looking after myself well enough.

Things to ponder, things to ponder.

Not so much knitting production this week

It's funny.  I have all this knitting I need to do for baby hats and the like and I've done not much this week. Two reasons really.   The first is that I've been doing a lot of very repetitive data work at the office (read drag and drop, drag and drop and repeat) so my right hand has been acting up a little bit.  It does seem to be feeling a little bit better now.  But also one of my cats bit my finger in the midst of a treat frenzy this week. Index finger right where the pad hits the mouse.  So that's been on the owie side too.  

Hopefully this weekend I'll get some in.  I have 5 baby hats to knit before too long.

Anti Gravity Yoga

Ok, I so want to try this. I might even be willing to do a trip to London (Ontario) to try this!! My cousin who lives there was telling me about it and she wants to try it after she has her baby.

Not traditional yoga at all, but pretty neat.

Video about Anti Gravity Yoga

Anti Gravity Yoga Website


I'm hoping that a studio in Toronto will try opening a studio for this.  I know it will be all trendy and the like, but that's ok.  I'll still go.  

Yoga Book

Last night after yoga, one of my friends that goes to the Yoga classes and I stopped of at Indigo to see about getting an Iyengar book as I've decided I really need to start trying to remember the Sanskrit names for all the poses.  We ended up having a chat with an Indigo lady who was asking us about yoga while we looked.   I didn't buy anything because the book I found that I was interested in buying (B.K.S Iyengar Yoga the Path to Holistic Health) was $50.  A little bit too much for me to spend right now.  Although I noticed that it's even more at Amazon.com.  Owie.  But it looked like a really good book.  So I'll think about getting it at some point.  Just not right now.  And there may be another couple of books written by Mr. Iyengar that might be a little more affordable.  We'll see which one I get.

We then wandered about trying to avoid purchasing a ton of books in the store as we both have book buying habits.  Although we did find one book we would buy for someone as a gift:


It was hilarious.  I think we listened to almost all the Zombie translations.  There was also another book on how to defeat your clone.

Amazing person

A few minutes ago I was having a brain fart on the name of our yoga teacher. So off I went to the website to see if her name was listed.

Since I was there, I thought I would read all the yoga teacher profiles and one really really stood out for me.
Ida Robinson.

This lovely woman started taking yoga classes when she was 65 and loved it so much she has become a yoga instructor. This woman rules. I can only hope to be that accomplished at something I pick up when I'm 65.  I haven't met this wonderous person, but I would hope to some day.

Link to profile here: http://www.yogacentretoronto.ca/teachers.html


In other news, it was a really good class I took tonight.  I'm going to be sore in the morning.  

Sometimes I'm such a geek

I spent a most fascinating afternoon yesterday researching the history of the office building I work in at the Toronto Reference Library. I haven't gotten that absorbed in any research I have done in awhile. The time flew by while i was checking the city directories and the like for information. I even paused a couple of times to see things like who was living in my house in the 1920s and the like. I think there may need to be more trips to the library in the future to find out neat things about different buildings in the city.


I also think I need to take a trip to the Toronto Archives for fun sometime soon.

Pets & Photography

My brain is a little melted today as it would seem I am sick. I had no voice all day and people at work kept wanting to chat with me. Tonight I babble about my love of photography. I love taking pictures. I'm not always good at it, but it's fun. Every once in awhile I come up with a good one. Fantastic even. Today's photo is of one of my cat Cranberry that I particularly like:

It would seem that most of my photography is of my pets and Aussie Rules Fooball Players and my finished knitting projects.  I think I need to expand the list of things I photograph.

Yoga Toes Update

So I've been using the Yoga Toes I mentioned in a previous post.  I think they might actually be doing some good.  I noticed today in my yoga class that my toes were actually spreading apart a little bit.  This made me on the happy side.

Now back to nursing my cup of lemongrass tea and hoping that my voice comes back.

Hats, Hats and More Hats

All of a sudden it would seem I know a whole pile of people having babies in June. I now have 5 hats that need to be done for June. I think I missed a memo or something. Off to the yarn store with me on Saturday morning I think. Many of them I think I can make with my current stash, but there are at least three that need to be specific colours. In other news. The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee keeps making me cry this week. One of the blog writer's cats died last week of old age and I keep tearing up when I read the posts about wee Drewey. They are sad but positive. I'm such a sap.

Biking.

Sunday morning I was all excited about the idea of going for a bike ride. I haven't been on my bike since the middle of November and I really miss it.  Last year I really started bike riding again and I've got plans to try doing some distance biking this year.


I hadn't gone out on Saturday night so I was up at a reasonable hour an got myself all dressed up in a my biking gear and away I was going to go.
Then..... denied. The tires were flat. I forgot what happens when you don't ride your bike for 4 months. This is usually an easy problem to solve as we have more than one air pump for inflating bike tires, real tires and footballs. But no, apparently my fancy bike has a special tire valve that I didn't know existed. But a trip off to MEC yesterday and voila for $1.25 I now have a valve adaptor and tires full of air. All set for riding now, but I look out the window and see rain. So no riding for me today. I have a couple of other items I should pick up for the bike, but they didn't seem to have them yesterday in the spring rush. I need some new gloves. Mine fell apart last year. But all they had were the expensive ones. Perhaps next time.

Yoga Paws

Again with the gadgets I go.  I got Yoga Paws a couple of years ago when I was going to Australia with my husband when he was part of the Canadian Northwind (Canada's National Austrialian Football Team). I figured it would be a good way of being able to do yoga and not have to bring a mat.  Because who really wants to take a mat on an international flight.

Sadly, the only Yoga I did do was at the Melbourne Baths where they had mats for us.  I think I'm going to have to try them out and see if they really work as advertised.  But speaking of yoga in Australia.  That was the coldest yoga I've ever done.  I was there in winter and the room we were doing Yoga in wasn't heated. I felt like I should have been wearing a sweater and I was ever so glad I had the blanket at the end.

Even though the Yoga was cold (I'm sure it's fine in the summer) , the rest of the facility was fantastic.  There was a wonderful salt water pool, sauna and whirlpool.  I think I swam most of the days we were in Melbourne.  I really wish we could have a facility like that around the corner from our house (it was literally around the corner from the hotel).  I think it would be a gym I would join.

Beets

Over the past couple of months I've take more of an interest in cooking and trying new foods etc... than in the recent past.  I've also been trying to work more and a wider variety of vegetables into our diet.

I've rediscovered one of my favorite foods.  Beets.  They are just tasty tasty tasty.  Lately I have been roasting them with sweet potatoes and onions.  Super super tasty.  And I have on my list of things to try, a beet humus and mashed potatoes with beets. 

The only thing about them I don't like is how pink my hands become when I'm working with them.  

Gratitude Journals

Gratitude journals are an awesome thing.  I learned about them in the second part of the meditation classes I took in 2009.  I was a little on the skeptical side at first.  I often am with these sorts of things.  Mind you I'm slowly changing my mind about being skeptical.

However once I started the exercise I found that it having to think of 2 things or more (depending on the exercise that week) each day that I was grateful for, put me in a more positive frame of mind.  

So you would think I would keep this up if it makes me feel good.  Nope, it gets tossed into the "Roundtuit" pile.  I really do have to make more of an effort to keep it up.

Most of the information on keeping gratitude journals suggest keeping them in a lined notebook.  I being a geekish type tends to use my online journal instead.  I just tag my entries gratitude so they are in the record of everything.  

If you are looking for some resources on how to go about keeping a gratitude journal you can check out the links below:

ehow's guide to gratitude journals

30 Days to Gratitude

The Secret Gratitude Book