Down East – Yoga, Colour and Quiet time

Mount Desert Island has long been one of our favourite places. For the past two summers our schedules have not worked out to allow us a summer holiday there.

Then a few weeks ago my husband had a week’s holiday. I asked permission of my students and both of us, and the cats, were on the road.

The colours were incredible. A Harlequinade of every imaginable shade of crimson, carmine, magenta, scarlet; gold, ochre, flame, saffron; plus henna and year-round greens. We wanted to stop every five minutes to capture the glories.

 

One reason I go to Maine each summer is to re-connect with Laura Neal, another yoga and meditation teacher, owner of Yoga @ Cattitude in Bar Harbor.  Earlier this summer I could not unfortunately attend when Laura was ordained a Zen priest. This time we shared a meditation session and I enjoyed yoga classes at the studio.

Temple bells from the Fair Trade shop hang in my Yoga Space, a reminder of these island days.

We stay on the quiet, west side of the island. In Moncton we live on a busy main road and like most people are surrounded by noise every day. The silence in Maine was so restoring. Rather like being wrapped in a cocoon. It was almost tangible; waking to soundlessness, going to sleep in deep, deep velvet quietness.

 

Lobster from Thurston’s was a treat, as were popovers and lunch at Jordan Pond, another of our much-loved locations.

  

Few places can compare with the small beach and bay in the village. That’s where we often sit, read, meditate, watch the water and the gulls.

  The stones are so beautiful that though we go to the beach saying “Just three stones each”, it rapidly becomes obvious there are so many; white striped, mottled, smoothed by the ocean. These are now memories in our garden.

En route to Ellsworth on the mainland a must-visit is the colourful Bali shop. A few years ago I found a great mirror there for our fish-themed bathroom.

Most of the fish décor I have designed and made and I found some small wood fish in Bar Harbor with which I intend to create my version of a collage I saw priced at $65. At the Bali shop we found an interesting tin fish.

Another favourite place is the Courthouse Gallery in Ellsworth. We were lucky to attend the opening of an exhibition of Still Life paintings and a talk by the artist Harold Garde, about his 60 years of painting.

More fish and beach inspired art here delighted me.

Back on the island, near Bar Harbor I discovered Serendipity. A committed vintage, ethnic and pre-loved clothes buyer I was happy to find a mirror-embroidered Pakistan caftan and equally happy to know all proceeds are donated to the town’s food bank.

Northeast Harbour is always a visually evocative town to visit. Shaw Jewelry shows some of the most creative jewellery, often incorporating beach stones as well as precious ones.

Streetscapes included this garden Ganesh/elephant and a fabulous vintage car.

A week is never long enough to respond to all Mount Desert has to offer, but after two years away it provided enough memories to keep us happy until next year.

Enjoying Sackville

A couple of weeks ago we spent a warm late summer day celebrating the arts and enjoying the colours in Sackville.

Sackville is a picture postcard heritage town on the Tantramar marsh at the eastern edge of New Brunswick.  This print by Robert Rutherford, seen at Fog Forest Gallery,  is of the Tantramar River

Compact, welcoming and easy to walk around, it exudes a great feel of community, combining heritage and culture with academic excellence. Home to Mount Allison University with its complex of century-old and sympathetic contemporary buildings, Sackville was Cultural Capital of Canada in 2008 and one of the top ten finalists in the 2011 Cultural Centres of the Maritimes.

First stop was the Owens Art Gallery, the oldest university art galley in Canada. Outside a mixed media installation ‘Salt/Marsh’ by John McEwen,  features two classical urns symbolising culture and a wolf representing the natural beauty of the area.

 Current exhibitions on our visit included a traditional Salon hanging of more than one hundred works. Upstairs an intriguing ‘Paper Doll’ installation of mixed media ‘clothing’ with a collection of cut-out paper dolls and their costumes, providing a fascinating side-light on poet Sylvia Plath’s skill as an artist.

The Owens permanent collection of more than 3,000 works, has paintings and sketches by the international artists such as Romney, Whistler and Alma-Tadema; Group of Seven painters and noted Canadian artists such as Michael Snow, Alex Colville, Christopher Pratt, Mary Pratt. The last three former Mount A. faculty members or alumni.

Time for just one more gallery; it was down to Bridge Street and the small gem that is Fog Forest Gallery. Catching my eye here was pottery by Ghita Levin, Peter Thomas and Mary Swan. Tiny, embellished boxes from Janine O-Reilly and the fluid finely wrought mesh sculptural figures of Dawn McMutt were also attention noteworthy.

Walking around this charming town there were many vignettes to photograph and interesting shops to peek inside.

Time to spare before the evening recital we sat, enjoying soft late-day sun, by Swan Pond, reading and talking about our day.

Then enjoyed dessert and tea at the new Dancing Dog restaurant on Bridge Street.

Then we returned to the campus for a recital in the newly refurbished Brunton Auditorium performed by  Mount A.  faculty,  soprano Helen Pridmore and pianist David Rogosin. ‘ Songs of Love and Remembrance’ was an eclectic programme of songs by Debussy and Charpentier; the premiere of ‘In the Stillness of Breathing’ by contemporary composer Helen Hall, the Canadian premiere of ‘Soft Morning’ by James Harley and a third new work, Martin Arnold’s ‘Janet.

Hall’s composition was fascinating in its use of breath and silence,  with Helen Pridmore’s voice flowing easily from tenderness to dramatic insistence.  Despite the qualities of Pridmore’s voice, so well suited to the demands and surprises of modern music, ‘Janet’ was rather visually distracting with the use of a laptop, speakers and a tangle of wires on stage.

Looking at the Department of Music calendar for the coming months there are many excellent concerts, recitals and choral music to look forward to, many at amazingly reasonable ticket prices, some are even free.  

Sackville offers wonderful gifts of the necessary arts. We’ll definitely be driving the highway again very soon.

A Weekend of Healing. Touched With Grace

Healing has many faces and healing has no language barriers.

Last Friday I spent the day in Dieppe at a Breast Cancer Conference – Colloque CSNB - for breast cancer survivors.  Saturday I was in Nova Scotia, part of a group studying Reiki.

Breast cancer survivors, health professionals and executives attended the Conference. As well as telling them about the Warrior Women  - Yoga for Breast Cancer programme I offer, with assistance from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, I led the registrants and speakers in some meditative breathing, stretching and yoga flows between sessions.

Sitting for an hour or so tightens and stiffens any body, however informative the discussion. With translation help, sometimes, I learned later, with more humorous additons than my original comments, we shared some stretches that can be done anywhere to release tension on the body, then practiced a Warrior-Goddess flow of postures. All these women are truly Warriors and Goddess, which is why I created this particular flow for ladies who come to our classes. It’s always available to share with groups such as those gathered on Friday.

Early Saturday I was on the highway driving to Shinimicas just east of Amherst, for another day with Reiki master Gretchen Smith. Noting as I drove the difference a week or two had made in the foliage colours.

Amherst, first settled in 1764, was a thriving regional centre in the late 19th century. Evidence of this prosperity remains in the fine large Victorian and Edwardian homes seen along Victoria Street East, leading toward the rural farming area of my destination.

Reiki, a gentle touch of hands that transfers energy from the practitioner to a client, originated and developed in Japan in the early 20^th century by Dr. Mikao Usui.

Seven of us gathered round the table at Gretchen’s farmhouse where she and her family have a herd of cattle including my favourite Herefords, plus horses. The rain flowed all day but inside the room was filled with warmth, laughter, inquiry and a deep sense of healing. Gretchen served a flavourful, nourishing lunch.

We talked, a little about ourselves and backgrounds, why we were interested in studying Reiki and hoped to use in our lives and practice. We received an attunement, an initiation ceremony during which a Reiki master transmits energy to each student to open up our inner healing channels an energy flow.  Gretchen played her flute and each of us realised a special, individual experience – in mine I was encircled by all the pets, mostly cats, I have ever loved and been loved by.

Afterwards we practiced offering a sitting treatment to each other. Gretchen then demonstrated the hand positions and sequence before we took turns working on each other.

Finally we passed the sacred feather shared our thoughts on the day, offered thanks and each returned home, filled with new energy, peace and a touch of grace.