{"id":3388,"date":"2018-03-30T14:17:04","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T14:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=3388"},"modified":"2018-03-30T14:17:04","modified_gmt":"2018-03-30T14:17:04","slug":"spring-snow-yoga-fishing-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/spring-snow-yoga-fishing-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Snow, Yoga, Fishing, and more &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ballintemple.com\/index.php?option=com_acymailing&amp;ctrl=archive&amp;task=view&amp;mailid=21&amp;key=3sxOeVXK&amp;subid=1-qOcGfaQWRKjTOM&amp;tmpl=component&amp;Itemid=217\">Ballin Temple newsletter, here<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"acymailing_online\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ballintemple.com\/images\/club\/birdonhorserock.png?resize=800%2C143\" alt=\"birdonhorserock\" width=\"800\" height=\"143\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"acymailing_online\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"acymailing_online\">\n<h3>A little bird said &#8230;<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Beast from the East came and stopped spring for a few days.\u00a0 We treated it as a special occasion.\u00a0 We had to.\u00a0 We couldn&#8217;t drive out for a couple of days. So we fed and watered the animals, checked on guests in the cottages, thawed the pipes that needed thawing, and took a lot of photos!\u00a0 You can see a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/astraeanet\/albums\/72157692697675491\">selection of snaps here.<\/a>\u00a0 It was also a good excuse to stoke up the fire and enjoy a quiet evening or two at home &#8230; \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding=\"2\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ballintemple.com\/images\/other\/IMG_20180302_114707b.jpg?resize=320%2C179\" alt=\"IMG 20180302 114707b\" width=\"320\" height=\"179\" align=\"right\" hspace=\"5\" \/><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ballintemple.com\/images\/other\/DSC_0121b.JPG?resize=320%2C180\" alt=\"DSC 0121b\" width=\"320\" height=\"180\" align=\"right\" hspace=\"5\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Yoga<\/strong>, yoga, yoga.\u00a0 It was never my thing. In fact I&#8217;ve always thought it was a bit weird since it didn&#8217;t seem to actually be exercise and took a lot of time.\u00a0 Living with a yoga guru meant that I got a bit of an inside look and started to appreciate its challenges.\u00a0 I even did a couple of lessons over the past two decades which were both cathartic.\u00a0 The philosophy of yoga, at least as I&#8217;ve picked it up, has always appealed.\u00a0 At its essence it is about unity and the oneness of existence is an idea that has great appeal and increasing foundation in science.\u00a0 But I never really tried yoga.\u00a0 Until last November when Pam launched Yoga for Men as part of Movember.\u00a0 I let the beard grow a bit and joined the class.\u00a0 It has been good for me.<strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ballintemple.com\/images\/other\/privateyogahomepamb.jpg?resize=200%2C221\" alt=\"privateyogahomepamb\" width=\"200\" height=\"221\" align=\"right\" hspace=\"5\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It reaches parts of your body you didn&#8217;t know existed.<\/li>\n<li>Pam guides you to stay in touch with your <strong>breathing<\/strong> which helps adapt breathing techniques to other spheres of life and is a foundation of meditation.<\/li>\n<li>Pam&#8217;s technique encourages <strong>mindfulness<\/strong> so you practice that at the same time, with its consequent benefits of reconnection and stress relief.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I don&#8217;t need to mention relaxation because that&#8217;s what everyone loves &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shavasana\">shavasanaaaaa<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>So I&#8217;ll definitely encourage yoga for everyone.\u00a0 If you&#8217;re a guy you might be more comfortable with more men in the class so you might prefer <strong>Yoga for Men<\/strong>, but you can go to any yoga class.\u00a0 BTW, there are women in the Yoga for Men class.<\/p>\n<p>I feel lucky that we&#8217;ve got such a dedicated, experienced teacher in our midst.\u00a0 I would have served myself better by trying it sooner, but better late than never.\u00a0 Check out the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pambutleryoga.com\/classes\">class options here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>fishing<\/strong> usually opens on 10 March, but it was pretty quiet here.\u00a0 We haven&#8217;t operated the salmon syndicate at Ballin Temple for some years now owing to deteriorating riparian habitat.\u00a0 The regulations for fishing for salmon are on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fishingireland.net\/\">Eastern Region Fisheries Board website: <\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fishingireland.net\/\">http:\/\/www.fishingireland.net\/<\/a> Salmon fishing is restricted in numbers and size, so we won&#8217;t encourage it. (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.fishinginireland.info\/\">Get your salmon fishing license here.<\/a>) Trout fishing is usually good on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ballintemple.com\/nature-club\/fishing\/beat-map\">our beat<\/a> and is a pleasant way to spend a summer&#8217;s evening.\u00a0 Please <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ballintemple.com\/more\/contact\">get in touch<\/a> if you would like to fish here.<\/p>\n<p>St Patrick&#8217;s day was special this year.\u00a0 Ireland beat England to win the Six Nations Championship.\u00a0 You can imagine how quiet it was in the afternoon.\u00a0 The St Pat&#8217;s parade at 2pm in Tullow was only 20 minutes long &#8211; it used to be a couple of hours.\u00a0 Then after that few people could be seen in the streets, unless you went in to the pub.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s the crowd at the Tara Arms:<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding=\"2\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ballintemple.com\/images\/other\/IMG_20180317_160343b.jpg?resize=400%2C225\" alt=\"IMG 20180317 160343b\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" \/><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ballintemple.com\/images\/other\/IMG_20180317_160353b.jpg?resize=400%2C225\" alt=\"IMG 20180317 160353b\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ballintemple.com\/images\/other\/S3200004b.JPG?resize=101%2C181\" alt=\"S3200004b\" width=\"101\" height=\"181\" align=\"right\" hspace=\"5\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And the snow began to sprinkle down, so that the following day there was a gentle white blanket covering the countryside.\u00a0 We ventured in to the woods and explored parts I&#8217;ve not walked in years.\u00a0 It was magical.\u00a0 We quietly found our way to the &#8220;pulpit&#8221; and &#8220;altar&#8221; overlooking the river. (You may wonder how this sanctuary got its name.)\u00a0 Many trees were down, which is sad, though more will grow.\u00a0 There is plenty of work to be done removing them and if you would like <strong>timber<\/strong> for the fire, please drop a line.\u00a0 And if you would like to reconnect with nature and enjoy the ancient woodlands, please <a href=\"http:\/\/astraea.net\/shop\/nature_club_basic\">join the club<\/a>, drop me a line and ask for a tour &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The weather even brought down timber in the garden.\u00a0 A huge cedar dropped another branch under the weight of snow and wind over the St Pat&#8217;s weekend.\u00a0 We started to clear it and then decided to trim the whole tree severely.\u00a0 We did that on Saturday after I guest hosted a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/edchatmena?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;src=hash\">slow chat<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheTomButler\/status\/977505268467752960\">Nature vs Artificial Intelligence<\/a> which reinforced the benefits of exposing yourself to nature. (<a href=\"https:\/\/storify.com\/bashaer\/nature-vs-ai\">Storify archive here<\/a>.)\u00a0 There&#8217;s a brief article about that little logging experience here:<a href=\"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/natures-the-teacher\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Nature\u2019s the Teacher<\/a>, including a video some of the cutting.\u00a0 (BTW, please be cautious about climbing trees and using tools, especially a saw.)<\/p>\n<p>The cold weather in March slowed things down. I&#8217;ve only planted a few garlic and germinated tomatoes.\u00a0 Hopefully I&#8217;ll catch up this week and put in the potatoes, onions and broad beans&#8230; So much to do, so little time &#8230; \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>Looking forward we&#8217;ll probably have a <strong>walk<\/strong> on Easter Monday so watch out for that.\u00a0 And if you want to escape the city for a while, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ballintemple.com\/cottages\/prices\">check out our <strong>cosy cottages<\/strong><\/a> for a holiday &#8211; clean air and water, plus nature, included free!<\/p>\n<p>Equinox has passed, the days are longer, enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>Tom and Pam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ballin Temple newsletter, here. A little bird said &#8230; The Beast from the East came and stopped spring for a few days.\u00a0 We treated it as a special occasion.\u00a0 We had to.\u00a0 We couldn&#8217;t drive out for a couple of days. So we fed and watered the animals, checked on guests in the cottages, thawed &hellip;<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/spring-snow-yoga-fishing-and-more\/\" class=\"more-link pen_button pen_element_default pen_icon_arrow_double\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Spring Snow, Yoga, Fishing, and more &#8230;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homenandgarden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-SE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3389,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions\/3389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}