Saff and I are embarking on a weekly journey.
Every Sunday, we will cycle from our cozy abode down to Kensington Market to enjoy the sights and many sounds of its character. What prompted this? Aside from our love for the city and riding our bikes, it began with Angela.
Angela runs a really wonderful yoga class in the Market. I've been a few times since she started in the Fall, and Saff is a recent convert to the likes of her Hatha yoga, restorative poses, pranassage, &c. Because of the inner warmth and calm we feel after her classes, we've decided that this is what we want to experience on a weekly basis - something like this is integral to our whole being, our well-being body mind and spirit.
Then along came the Workshop! I got an e-mail from Angela's yoga studio promoting a wealth of experiences for us to choose from, and since we recently discovered the world of Tea, this one in particular struck our fancy. It's about growing your own medicinal herbs (NOT herb -- herb-zz), planting them, learning them, watching them grow, and finally harvesting them for teas in the Fall.
Our first 3-hour workshop was yesterday, 6 of us seated around the studio with 2 workshop leaders. It was very relaxed, conversational, and we got a whole dump of information. One of the instructors, Dylan, is a Chinese medicine practitioner, so quite a bit of that information spoke of the different qualities one can find among herbs, i.e. cooling, warming, acrid, sweet, bland... Complete with a taste test! I couldn't believe the bitterness of "Huang Lian", which cooled the heart and made me feel a bit light-headed (and that was only 1/100th of a dose!). Mercifully, Dylan quelched the bitterness with a sweet concoction of licorice, goji berry and date which was for tonifying the "chi", and to nourish the stomach and spleen. With each of the 5 teas, it was neat to notice inwardly where the body felt it (I got some in the temples and kidneys!), and how it made you feel afterward (mostly quite grounded and calm).
After the workshop we had 2 hours to enjoy before Angela's yoga class, so went grocery shopping, had a bit of lunch, and sat on the steps listening to a seeming Kurt Cobain wannabe, complete with messy hair, earrings, dress over the jeans, and a very junior guitar. Interesting to watch him, too, as he would sing-attack people after they passed by, especially if little kids looked at him funny. He was a huge contrast to the beautiful violin music we heard on the same corner last week! We also caught sight of a couple of really happy Easter bunnies singing Down By The Riverside. And advertisements for planning Pedestrian Sundays. Ah, Kensington....
Angela's class was awesome, as usual, and we left feeling rejuvenated and happy. It was quite a difficultly windy ride home. Sometimes it's hard to maintain one's balance in the wind, especially with groceries in tow! Thank goodness for bike lanes downtown, or anywhere for that matter. (Hmm, given the current climate about bike lanes, I have a feeling that will all be covered in future posts......)
We arrived home safe and sound to hungry kittens, soup to make, laundry to do, lunch and clothes to prepare for the next day... But we didn't feel grumbly about our chores one bit. What a sweet day!
