red runner

Hi everyone!  How are you all doing?  Right now we are poised for a snow fall in London, but I am very cosy inside my little flat.

It's been a busy week and I for one am glad it is Friday tomorrow!  The week started with a trek out to Richmond on Sunday to do the Red Run for World AIDS Day in support of a wonderful charity called Positive East, who do work with HIV positive people in London.  It felt great to be doing something for a good cause, and good for me too - it got me training for a race again and in this freezing weather anything that helps keep me motivated is great!

Tom and I took the tube out to Richmond and then walked to the park.  It didn't look like very far on Google Maps, but it took us an hour - it was a bit over 5km, the distance I was about to run! Heh heh.

It's funny, no matter what distance I've done - half marathon, 10k, 5k - it is always relative!  Never think you're in for an easier time because it's only a 5k! Ha ha!  I was thinking I might be able to do it in under 30 minutes - and you know what, I probably would have had it not been for the mud, the hill that was stuck in halfway through, and then the stairs!  My time was 30:24 - take a minute off if it hadn't been for the damn stairs!

Still, it is on par with my times for the 10k (1:01) and the half (2:21) when I considered myself at my peak, so if anything my speed is a bit better, so I'm happy!  And despite the mud I did enjoy the challenge of the stairs and the hill!  It made it feel like a real adventure!

My darling hubby was there to cheer me on, and after I collected my goody bag (Alpen bars! Yummo! And free condoms - well it was World AIDS Day, LOL) we headed back to the town to catch the tube home (another 5k!).  The park was absolutely stunning, strewn with the last few treasures of autumn, and while it was very cold it was a clear day and it wasn't raining.  It felt like we'd escaped to the country for a few hours.

I treated Tom to brunch at Giraffe - the less said about that the better really, let's just say if I hadn't been so damn hungry I would have sent it back! - and then we got hot chocolates from Starbucks for the train home.  I love the soy hazelnut hot chocolate from there - a treat for special occasions.  It tastes like Nutella!

Once home we collapsed!! :P  And posed for silly photos:

Even though it has been a busy week and every morning when my alarm goes off it feels like I'm getting out of a coffin (!), this week has involved lots of cool things like Christmas shopping, coffee with the fabulous Cilla (who I wish lived here!), writing (I reached 60,000 words the other night so am very happy), wine tasting, cheese eating, giving a scary but good presentation at work, powerful ashtanga yoga  and baking bread:

My word, it was nice!  And full of grains, just the way I like it.  I am thinking of trying my hand at sourdough, I have some friends who have had success with it.  I am somewhat freaked out though by having to feed the starter every day - I've even read stories of people who have taken their sourdough starter on holiday with them!!  Have you tried it?  Would you recommend it?

Tomorrow I'm planning (best laid plans and all) to get up early so I can have a smoothie (am I INSANE?!) and avocado on toast for breakfast before the avocados go off (I'd actually forgotten I had them, the bananas were hiding them!).  I usually take breakfast to work with me, but find toast doesn't travel all that well! Ha ha.    The weekend should be fun, we have a dinner party (hosting!) and I'm also going to finish my Australian leg of the Christmas shopping, in order to meet the international posting deadline!  I can't believe it's only four weeks to go!  When I was little, it seemed like an eternity waiting for Christmas.  Now, I can't get over how quickly the year flies and you flip over another page of the calendar and there's Christmas again! And I can't believe how old I sound by saying that :P

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Any secrets to getting it done quickly/easily?!

Have a happy weekend everyone xx

twenty questions

I found this on one of my favourite crafty blogs Meet Me At Mikes.  I don't normally do these sorts of things but thought it might be fun for a change!  Join in on your blog or in the comments if you like!

~~~~

Sweet or Savoury? Ummm...both?!  But in all honesty I would have to say I'd take cheese on toast or a pile of marinated olives over chocolate mud cake 90% of the time, so I'm a savoury person!



Dresses or Jeans? Dresses!!  I love them (but you all know that!)


House or Apartment? House!!  I love our little flat but it is so small and I am aching, aching for space!!


Shop Online or Offline? I like to do both.  But things like clothes and shoes I've never had much luck ordering online with because I find sizes vary so much from place to place (grrrr to lack of standardisation!) and I end up having to return shit which makes me crabby.... ;)


DVDs or Downloads? Well, in our house it's currently Blu-Rays because Tom has a Blu-Ray player he can't get enough of!  I love BBC iPlayer for all the TV shows I invariably miss out on.


Cocktails or Juice? 50-50.  The Porn Star Martini I had on my hen's night was AMAZING!  But lately I've been downing the Super Greens juice from the cafe up the road like a junkie!


Chocolate or Strawberry? CHOCOLATE!! Hands down!


Laptop or PC? Laptop.  Or, in my case, netbook.  Having something light and portable I can carry around with me has changed my life!! 


Magazines or Newspapers? Magazines.  I read the news online!


Facebook or Twitter? Twitter.  I like Facebook for being able to stay in touch with people back home, but the novelty of it has worn off for me!

CDs or MP3s?  Both! I love the ease of MP3s and love listening to podcasts, but I love having something physical as well.


Kids or Pets?  Right now I'd say pets!  I really would love a puppy.  But there has been talk of babies lately in the Lovenest, so who knows...... ;)


Macaron or Cupcakes? Macaron!  I love the lemon flavoured ones from Laduree.


Walk or Run?  Run!  I went for a slow one last night and it felt great.  But I absolutely love to walk everywhere, it is my preferred mode of transport!


Breakfast in Bed or Breakfast Out? Out!  I love going out for breakfast, it is one of my favourite things to do.  I have never liked breakfast in bed because I get crumbs everywhere, and questionable brown stains.


Market or Supermarket? Market!  If I had a choice and unlimited budget, that's where all my shopping would be done.  I miss the South Melbourne markets, and going to the Queen Vic markets every week to get my fresh fruit and vegetables.....I don't miss having to take it all home on the train though ;)

Sourdough or Grainy? Grainy.  I love seedy bread.  There's a lovely loaf I used to buy called "7 Seed Sourdough" so I could have both ;)


Heels or Flats? Boots!  Some with heels, some are flat, but I love them and they add instant chic to any outfit!

 Late nights or Not? Late nights!  I am a night owl, and always have been.  I find it so hard to get up before 9am!! :P


Coffee or Tea?  Tea!  We have a tea cupboard in our kitchen to hold all the different kinds we have, there's about 20 at the moment!  Tea has always been one of my passions.  However, having a blog called Skinny Latte makes me think I should pick coffee......this is awkward.....I do love it, but not as much as tea!! Skinny Earl Grey just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? :P

Join in? I'd love to know a bit more about you :)

autumn is......

Photo by Allotment 2 Kitchen, used with permission.

My mate Inner Pickle has been doing a little "nothing says summer like" photo series this week and instead of getting envious about the sun, sand, surf and homemade ice blocks (!) I thought I'd write about the couple of things that are rocking my world in this beautiful but freezing autumn we are having!

So, autumn is........

.....making soup. I made Allotment 2 Kitchen's brilliant parsnip and wild rice mulligatawny soup on Monday night, and both Tom and I were in ecstasy over it. It is the most delicious soup I've had for ages!! And Allotment 2 Kitchen is my latest blog crush, it is an absolute delight. If you're vegetarian, love to cook and appreciate freshness and seasonality, you will love it! I've already done a meal planner for next week with all the recipes I want to try!

....red wine. As you might have been able to tell from my last post, the summery Pimm's, gin and tonics, and even beer, have been relegated to the next year pile and we're making our way through some delicious reds, which seem to suit this time of the year perfectly. Last night was Chilean Cab Sav to accompany the "sort of minestrone" I made.

....leaves falling and landing on your head or your back while you're on your 7pm run :) I thought it was a spider last night :P whoops. I love seeing the piles of leaves that have been swept up neatly as I walk to work in the mornings. I saved a particularly pretty leaf to paste into my journal.

....reading, reading, reading! Piles of novels up to my waist. Read the most amazing novel last week, Swimming by Australian writer Enza Gandolfo. I want to tell you more about it, but it was possibly the best book I've read all year. Rich, textured, detailed and honest writing that flooded me with memories of Melbourne, of heartbreak, of longing. I also came away from last week's dinner party laden down with various Kiwi literary treasures on loan from Sas and Ash. Emily Perkins' short stories in Not her real name are exquisite.

....apple and plum crumbles. With Greek yoghurt :)

....yummy cold weather clothes. I got these from the King's Road the other day:

It is dangerous for me to go clothes shopping at this time of year! I love autumn and winter fashion.

.....ordering new winter boots.

....cleaning. I know this seems like something that would be better suited to spring (!) but because I spend more time inside, in my home, when it's cold and dark, I want it to be a haven! And the detritus of my daily existence negates this whole haven idea! On Sunday I finally cleaned up my side of the bed, much to Tom's amazement. He has been gently suggesting for months that the stuff on my side of the bed might possibly have morphed into something alive, as it was obviously breeding. I have finally sorted through it, and oh my God was there junk - receipts for random things from Waitrose, envelopes which I have saved for the purpose of writing down the sender's address into my non existent address book, wedding memorabilia, train and bus tickets from all my European jaunts over the last 18 months, catalogues showcasing X's Winter 2009 collection (!), the boxes which held my engagement and our wedding rings, library books I have obviously renewed but not been aware were still in my possession, 2 "cuddle buddies" (travel pillows which are very comforting to sleep with), I won't go on........but it feels wonderful to have cleaned up and have space.

....toasted sandwiches. I eat these all year round (!) but there is something especially lovely about biting into a warm, oozy with cheese and tart with homemade chutney toasted sandwich as the sky begins to darken or the rain is lashing to the ground outside.

....writing. Last night I tried to crack the 60,000 word barrier on my novel, and was only 300 words away but the chapter reached it's natural end and it was after midnight and I was falling asleep....maybe tonight will be the night? I have also started keeping a paper journal again, the first since I got married. I am tempted to do an Anais Nin and call it "Journal of a Wife". It is all very random but feels good to have my thoughts and ideas documented in a non-Twitter way.

....blackberry and nettle tea. It makes me feel like I'm living in the woods with fairies and field mice in Brambly Hedge.

.....drying all the clothes inside!

....yoga classes. I have started going again in earnest, in my quest for balance over the colder months and also, as work on my novel intensifies, to keep my muffin top at bay! I'm finding as the nights get icier and the dark creeps in earlier and earlier each day, yoga is a wonderful way of addressing that need for balance.

....walking home in the dark. Tom and I often meet at a cafe after work where I've been writing for an hour (he finishes later than me) and then we walk home together, through the park when it is usually deserted except for the geese and ducks settling down for the night. There aren't many lights in the park so you need to walk carefully! We feel the soft piles of leaves beneath our feet, and hear Big Ben striking the hour, and see the Eye lit up, talking about our days and holding hands through fluffy, fleecy gloves. The walk is always faster with him.

Image via weheartit.com

What are you enjoying this autumn, my friends?
(or spring/nearly summer if you're down under?)

have you ever wondered what a dehydrated banana looks like?

Well, wonder no more!

This little doozy was taken to work by myself, author of this here blog, with the intention of consuming it sometime in December 2009.

However, over that period I was in charge of editing a very large handbook and hence desk was covered in paper from Christmas onwards and thence through the entire winter.  Desk became known as the sinkhole.

Banana pictured above was discovered underneath a pile of draft chapters sometime in March 2010, possibly as I prepared to do a little tidy up in preparation for my week off to go on my Arvon course.

It was perfectly preserved! Not rotted, as one would have expected, but fully dehydrated by the over used but obviously effective heating system at my office, during what was possibly the coldest winter in Britain for many decades.

It also explains why I drink around 4 litres of water a day at the office!

Pictured banana could not be reached for comment as it was disposed of immediately after posing for a few snapshots (on very poor camera phone).

Author this here blog is still mortified but intrigued by the incident some eight months later!

What is the worst thing you've ever left somewhere/under something for months on end, only to find it somewhat.....um....disfigured?! 

my new favourite drop

Mount Difficulty Pinot Noir.

(the name is very fitting, considering how long it took me to write this little post this evening!) :P

Best consumed while talking to lovely Kiwi folk, patting a lovely, spirited kitten in front of the fire and eating fig salad, roast potatoes and chocolate tart. After a few of these it is easy to get the words "geography" and "geology" mixed up, as my husband found out :P

Having all but emptied our local Oddbins on Saturday afternoon after discovering our wine rack was empty but for a bottle of Cava my father bought while he was here in August, we will be venturing back again to buy every one of these precious bottles we can lay our hands on!

It is definitely pinot weather here. Autumn leaves, rain, grey skies, seeing one's breath when walking.

What's your favourite drink at the moment? It doesn't have to be wine :)

step by step sunday spag bol

Yesterday, after a big workout and the fact it got dark at 4.00pm (sob!), I was in the mood for some slow cooking and stocking the old freezer!  I present to you:

Skinny Latte's Step by Step Sunday Spag Bol

First of all, assemble the ingredients!

Before we begin, I must warn you that when it comes to cooking it is very rare for me to be precise! I tend to just throw in a handful of this, a dash of that, and whatever needs using up, so it is very rare for me to make the same dish twice.  In cooking and in life in general, I like to do my own thing and am not very good at following the rules!  If it's only me (and poor Tom!) who has to eat the results, I will throw caution to the wind most of the time! So as long as we're clear on that, game on!

To make a giant batch of sauce - ie: to serve four and then freeze two giant tubs of it for a rainy day - I used:

3 brown onions, diced

4 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole

Fresh rosemary, sage and bay leaves

4 or 5 large carrots, chopped

4 or 5 large stalks celery, chopped

2 medium courgettes (zucchini), chopped

5 or 6 large chestnut mushrooms, chopped

250g soya mince

250g red lentils

2 packs chopped tomatoes in juice (equivalent of 2 cans tomatoes)

1 small tin of tomato paste

2 "Spag Bol" stock cubes

Water to cover

About half a bottle of merlot (any red wine will do)

Smoked paprika, salt, pepper, tamari soy sauce to taste
2 tablespoons capers

To serve: cooked spaghetti, baby spinach, and grated parmesan cheese

In your largest stock pot, spray a light film of cooking spray and when the pan is hot, add your diced onion, garlic, carrot, celery, courgette, mushrooms and herbs (except the bay leaves).  Saute until soft but not golden.  

You can add a little water or wine if it is starting to stick to the pan!

Once the vegetables are starting to soften, add the soy mince and lentils (you can just use all lentils if you like - I had some soy mince to use up) 

Looks strange I know, but it tastes really nice when cooked with other things!  On its own it smells like Weetbix :P

Then add your packs of chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, spag bol stock cubes (I just saw these at Sainsbury's and wanted to try - just use plain vegetable stock cubes otherwise), red wine and water to cover. Also add some salt, pepper and some smoked paprika if using. I love how the paprika gives a nice depth to the sauce.

Mmm!  Wine!  I added quite a bit because I like how rich the wine makes the sauce.  You might not be an alkie, sorry, prefer such a rich taste like me ;) so feel free to just add a splash!

Stir everything in well and stick the bay leaves in at the top so you can fish them out at the end!

Bring it to a nice boil.

Then pop Mr Lid on top, and reduce the heat to a simmer.

Now go and find something to do for the next two and a half hours!

Hmmm.......what shall I do?......

Take silly pictures of self.......

 Go and find sexy husband.......

 Pounce! ;)

Put feet up with cup of tea and stack of zines............

Have a shower (no picture, sorry! Ha ha!)

Put out washing in the dark!  Brrr!!  Wonder why previously mentioned sexy husband never seems to have any matching socks.

Finally, the house will be smelling like an Italian kitchen.  Yuuuum.

Stir the mixture, making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom.  You might need to add more wine or water, as the soy mince and lentils will have absorbed the liquid.  It's a good idea to go and check it regularly (depending on how reliable your stove is).

Taste!  I find at this point I usually need some more flavour zingers to lift the earthiness of the slow cooked vegetables and lentils.  I added a bit more wine, some more paprika, some tamari soy sauce (this sounds so weird, but tamari or shoyu really works in vegetarian food!  A tip borrowed from Kathryn!) and a few tablespoons of capers:

At this point I would also have added some sundried tomatoes, if I had any lying around.  You could also roast some fresh tomatoes with balsamic vinegar and sugar and add them here.  Anything really to intensify the tomato flavour.

After you've made your additions, leave the sauce to simmer a little longer and continue to taste and taste until there's a party in your mouth, and everyone's invited! :P

Cook your spaghetti (or other pasta: you can also serve it with rice or use as a filling for baked potatoes....but then it would be rice bol or pot bol! Oh God, don't make pot jokes Phil!).  I also added a bag of spinach to the cooked hot pasta and let it wilt in with it while making the finishing touches to the sauce.

Remove the bay leaves and get out the kitchen vibrator! (hand held blender)

 I'd had a shower and changed out of my workout gear, just in case you were wondering why I have a different top on :P 

Slowly and carefully (that sauce is damn hot!) puree the bigger chunks of vegetables and garlic cloves until you have a nice smooth - but still with some texture - sauce.  Have another little taste and add anything else you think it needs - salt, pepper, etc. 

Oh, so yummy.

Toss the pasta with a ladle of the finished sauce, and then pile into bowls and put more sauce on top.  Sing songs from Beauty and the Beast as you do so.

Dust with lacy shreds of parmesan.  It is a poem in a green bowl.

Dig in, savour and enjoy!

And maybe have a small glass of red wine with it......if you didn't put it all in the sauce :P

things i love #30

Image from swoonetumblr, found via weheartit.com

Image by me! taken at La Fromagerie, Marylebone

Image by Jennifer Causey/Simply Breakfast found via weheartit.com

Muesli and granola.

Or "moosli", as my grandmother has always pronounced it!

For most of my life I had been fairly unimpressed with muesli and granola, until I was about 20 and bought the very first Donna Hay magazine that had just been launched in Australia and in it there was a very basic, idiot-proof granola that was basically oats, chopped up fruit of your choice (I had apricots), chopped up hazelnuts and then drizzling the lot with maple syrup and putting in the oven for about half an hour to bake and crisp up. You then let it sit and cool. The melting little pools of maple syrup hardened like shards of toffee. It was delicious. I would crunch my way through the entire tray, sprinkling it on top of yoghurt or Le Rice (like Muller Rice) and thinking "mmm, I think I might like granola after all."

Muesli, on the other hand, with the exception of the Uncle Toby's muesli bars which were the lunchbox staple of every child who grew up in Oz in the 1990s, had always been something that tasted like cardboard, to me, with a few handfuls of sultanas thrown in! This all changed in 2005 when my friend Mary introduced me to this:

After that, this was my breakfast staple! My old faithful readers will have heard me harp on about Carman's before! It is so utterly delicious, toasted to a turn with crunchy nuts, dried fruit (including my favourite apricots), honey and cinnamon. It was the perfect partner to my favourite low fat Vaalia yoghurts, or to the thick, decadent Tamar Valley yoghurt if I was feeling indulgent. For a while I ate the fruitless one, but went back to the Classic Fruit. My mum always brings over a box or two when she visits, and I always bring one or two back when I make it over there. I haven't seen the muesli for sale here in the UK, but I have seen the bars (which I haven't yet tried). Has anyone seen it?! I might check the Aussie food shop in Covent Garden.....

So, to quell my homesickness for Aussie muesli when I first got here, I made my own! I went to my local Holland & Barrett armed with a list and came home to make the muesli of all mueslis! I used Kathryn's recipe from here, used my favourite dried fruits (apricots and cranberries), and it made an absolute stack that kept me going for months. It was fun adding everything in layers to the giant cereal container and then shaking it to get everything mixed through!

And it's so moreish. Something this good for you shouldn't taste so nice :)

One of my favourite places in London, Wholefoods, has a wonderful make-you-own muesli bar which I frequented when I lived a bit closer to it (across the park)! This was where I was introduced to the fudgy, candy-like delicacy that are dried strawberries! Sadly they don't offer them in the make-your-own bar any more, perhaps because they cottoned on that people like me were taking more strawberries than they were oats and cereal :P The other week we were there and I felt a pang of nostalgia, so I made myself a little treat bag of make-your-own muesli to enjoy on ur four day weekend. Yes, that's right - my idea of a treat is not cheesecake, or a bag of chips, but muesli! The teenage me must be spinning in her grave!!

I've recently got into dried mango, thanks to it featuring quite a bit in my fortnightly graze box, so compensated for the absence of dried strawberries with that! I also indulged in lots of different nuts and seeds, and flakes of sweet white coconut. This muesli was bee-yoot-iful.

While I thoroughly recommend making your own, when time is short my favourite supermarket finds are Dorset's Full of Fibre muesli, which has lovely flakes of coconut in it, and Sainsbury's own Honey Nut Crunch granola! The latter proved very addictive to my sister who came to visit earlier this year - so much so I sent some over for her birthday a few months later :)

Homemade muesli or granola also makes a lovely breakfast bar or healthy slice to have on the go - a lifesaver for busy mornings (or when you sleep in, a la me!). Or just eat it as I do, with your favourite yoghurt or milk, and savour. It's healthy, delicious, and so satisfying. My favourite breakfast, hands down.

Now just to get that one pesky sultana out from under my "8" key on my work keyboard :P (whoops!)

What's your favourite breakfast? Are you a muesli/granola person too? :)

remembering margaret scott

This drawing of Margaret Scott is by Hobart-based artist, potter and desktop publisher, Cate Lowry

© Copyright Cate Lowry, ACYS, 2002 Source: The Write Stuff

When I was sixteen years old, my school held a kind of activity day in late October in the lead up to the end of the year and the Christmas holidays, when attention levels were drooping and we were in need of some fun, with the HSC (Oz equivalent of GCSE) exams on the horizon for most of us. The day was filled with workshops in various recreational activities designed around the theme of "Let Your Lives Speak", as per the Quaker ethos.

I signed up for the creative writing workshop which was to be run by Margaret Scott. Margaret was a poet, novelist and well known intellectual, both throughout the state and on a national scale, and at this time she was a regular on Good News Week. Students and teachers alike were abuzz with excitement about her coming to the school - I, on the other hand, almost exclusively inhabited the world of nineteenth century literature at that time (oh, how cool I was!) and didn't really know who she was. I was just interested in doing a creative writing workshop!

She gave us a topic to write on and we were given fifteen minutes to write a piece, and then we went around the room where everyone read theirs aloud. I was surrounded by students who I knew really fancied themselves as the top dogs of the arts at the school, and most of them eagerly volunteered to go first, with Margaret offering some brief comments, but nothing along the lines of "oh my goodness, that is amazing for one so young", which I think they were expecting! (I'm sure you all went to school with people like that!)

It came to my turn and I read my piece. When I finished, no one said anything.

Margaret started saying something, but then she trailed off and looked right at me. Her eyes were so perceptive I felt like she could see through me.

"Would you read that again?" she asked.

Being an insecure teenager with no confidence in my abilities, my immediate thought was "why? What's wrong with it?!" I felt very stupid! But I seem to recall the rest of the people in the room looking at me with a mixture of awe and envy. So, I read it again. Of the whole group, I was the only one asked to read again. And then the piece was discussed for almost the rest of the session, until one of the teachers supervising remembered that there were a few more people to get through! I can't even remember what it was about, but I seem to recall everyone's comments on the hidden symbolism in my piece making me sound far more in command of the craft than I actually was.

I never told anyone about it at the time, but I look back on that episode now with pride. Sometimes in my low moments I think back to it, and think that if a piece I wrote made a fine writer and scholar such as Margaret Scott have to think twice, then maybe I do have something.

It's a memory I treasure. Thank you, Margaret.

She passed away in 2005. It was only in the last few years of her life that I got to know her through her work, not just this memory. I love her poems, particularly the housework ones (which I'm trying to find a copy of) and I recommend trying to find her novel Family Album - if you're in Australia you should be able to get a copy from most libraries. It's a lovely book.

Do you have a moment like this that you look back on, to spur you forward? Please share in the comments :)

~ ~ ~ ~

CASTAWAY

Sometimes a neighbour's look, a post-card, a telephone call

will carry you up the shore of another life

and leave you gaping amazed at sudden jungle

a world away from the dolorous desk

the spruce back-yard, the brick-and-tile in Rosebud.

This glimmering shade's cacophonous with

unfamiliar names of long-dead pets and teachers,

side-streets in distant cities and faithless lovers.

The canopy's alive with flitting shapes unknown

beyond the confines of this island.

Here is the castaway's camp, his palisade,

contrivances he's fashioned year by year,

stores he saved from the wreck of his old ship

before it sank from sight beyond the reef.

Fragments of once-proud sails now patch his roof.

A saw, a pannikin hang by the bed

where every day he wakes alone at dawn

to a view of mountains. Those peaks rise

over the trees in a blue scrawl whose message

you seem to have read from a different angle

on the wall of sky to the east of your own island.

© Margaret Scott

back to yoga!

Image from weheartit.com

After a long absence from my regular Wednesday ashtanga class, I am back there tonight!  I even carried my turquoise yoga mat from home, all the way through Central London (no tubes today), to prove my dedication.

Being in the twilight of autumn now, with a thick, dark, frosty winter ahead of us, I'm doing everything I can to keep myself balanced.  Having become very focused on my writing, more so than I ever have been in my life, I've noticed my fitness becoming a bit neglected, which of course is the last thing I want.  I don't know why I live my life in extremes like this - when I was doing triathlons and half marathons, I didn't have any time for my work (and as a result, always felt like something was missing).  Now that my work is flowing, better than ever, I find it hard to find even half an hour to go for a run because I don't want to tear myself away from what I'm doing.  And then it's midnight and I need to go to bed.  And then another day begins.

So it's all about balance, baby, balance!!  I really am looking forward to doing some downward dogs, folding myself into a sleeping tortoise, hovering in crow, floating into shavasana, and just thinking about something else.  Then I'll walk home, through the lamplit parks and the thick crust of autumn leaves on the streets.