Thursday Long Form and Weapons May to August

Here's the rota for the next block of sessions at Monymusk. We'll be in the Small Hall 7-9pm and large Hall 9-10pm.

30-May     Marie
6-Jun        Neil
13-Jun      Paolo
20-Jun      Sandy
27-Jun      Anneke
4-Jul         Davina
11-Jul       Janet
18-Jul          -
25-Jul          -
1-Aug        Marie

Price will be £20 for 8 weeks or £4/week. The hall's not booked for 2 weeks in July due to the workshop in London. We're still waiting to hear when the work on relaying the floor and resurfacing the car park is going to be done.

If you can't make the session that you're due to lead then please contact someone on the list to arrange a swap.

Golden goslings on the Great River

This weekend I was mostly watching five terns swoop to eat mayflies, mandarin ducks with their tiny ducklings, grebes courting, cormorants diving, herons being attacked by crows, crows in turn being mobbed by rooks, ducks going about duck business, moorhens balancing, coots chasing each other, and in my spare time I was feeding these golden fellows.

 

And this big white one.

 

Sabre session

Thanks to Mark for a great Sabre session on Sunday, which was well attended, despite my having booked it on a Bank Holiday weekend. Here's some photos. Next week there will be sabre and sword sessions during the evening classes.

Get well soon

...to Chris L from Hackney class who has been down with a horrible bug. Also to Stuart, who has been severely ill and is now recovering at home. We send our love and best wishes to you.

The Second Circle

Thanks to Rob Truscott for this interesting video from his acting training by Patsy Rodenburg, whose ideas were included in an excellent essay Rob wrote about acting and T'ai Chi.

Heartwork clips

If any of my students would like videos of the front and / or back heart salutations, do get in touch as I have renewed my Yousendit service, so can send bigger files again.

Some more lovely things

Camden apple blossom

Gorgeous knitting at the Kaffe Fassett show.

A remarkably iridescent beetle.

Kaffe's needlepoint.

A sculpture garden in Dorset.

Wisteria in full bloom by the Regent's Canal.

Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux

I have just finished reading the excellent 'Strange Bodies' by my dear T'ai Chi brother Marcel Theroux. His last book, 'Far North', (review here), remains one of my all-time favourite novels, and this is as good and as strange, which I really appreciated. Just sat down for an hour after lunch today and polished it off, I hadn't even unpacked from my teaching trip to Scotland. Buy it for yourself, or for a friend's birthday, get your library to order it too... Fabulous, thanks Marcel, for another two days of page turning enjoyment, slightly frayed nerves and much food for thought. Trailer here.

Thanks to all who came for a wonderful weekend of T'ai Chi in Aberdeenshire, made even more lovely by an afternoon spent outside in the sunshine. Applications from the forms, uproots with 'open' in double pushing hands, new dance, sabre, sword and staff postures, John Kells' instructions for meditation, slipping... I think we had a fairly full plate after all.

Love and best wishes to all students, including those I saw only briefly, or who couldn't come this time: see you at the end of June for the last workshops before the weeklong intensive.

Tsubas and Bokkens

At last, a good source of high quality bokkens and very good tsubas (guards). The hana ones are perfect for our applications uses, and are stronger than the domoe.

Thanks to Davina for sourcing these. I will put an order in for tsubas next week, let me know if you'd like one and we can save on postage.

Aberdeenshire and a request

I am on DLR on the way to City Airport to fly up to teach this weekend. Lack of posts is due to redecoration house chaos, more news and pics when that is over. In the meantime, if any London student attending the summer intensive could put up a Scottish student for the workshop period, please let me know asap. Thanks.

Tonight !

This weekend's workshops with Caroline kick off tonight with weapons at Fetternear. More details here

Turriff Short Form, including beginners

The Turriff Short Form class restarts this week. The term will run from 13th May to 1st July , 7-8:30pm Monday at the Gateway Centre next to the swimming pool. The price is £56 (£40 concession) for 8 weeks.

The class is open to returners and new students will also be very welcome. No experience is necessary, just wear loose comfy clothes and flat shoes.

Please get in touch with any questions or if you need any other information.

Aberdeenshire Workshops 17-19 May

The next Aberdeenshire workshops with Caroline are this coming weekend. All sessions are at Balvack, except for Weapons which is at Fetternear Hall as usual. Great River students of any level are welcome to the Saturday sessions.

Friday 7-10pm: Weapons (Sword, Sabre, Staff)
Saturday 2-5pm: Short Form, and related study.
Saturday 6.30-9.30pm: Partnerwork.
Sunday 2-5pm: Long Form, Heartwork, One Posture.
Sunday 6.30-9.30pm: Dance, etc.

The price is £15 (concs available) per 3 hr session. Please bring food to share on Saturday and Sunday. Get in touch with your instructor if you need travel directions or feel free to contact me with any other questions.

121

I have a 121 left on Saturday morning 18th May at Balvack, let me know if you'd like it.

This week I have mostly been...

...camping in my tiny tent beside a tarn in the Lake District,

learning bushcraft skills with Ben from Woodsmoke,

roasting cray fish and crab over a long fire.

followed by bacon and amazing camp breads the following morning,

pit roasting whole onions with seaweed-wrapped sea bass and mackerel,

all of which took place here.

Best coffee ever: cowboy style, alongside trout,

which we prepared on hazel sticks.

Foraging for pig nuts- delicious.

 

Bannock slice cooking on a mini easel.

 

Orrest head path,

leading to a view over Windermere.

 

I shall certainly be back with Woodsmoke soon, hopefully in June for a week of all round bush craft, then in Western Scotland in September for the week-long Coastal Forager. My heart and body feel very well after the silence of Gaia House and the natural world immersion in the Lake District. Words are harder and harder to find, and I am less inclined to try. See you at class, hoping all is well with all of you who may be reading this.

Last week I was mostly...

...

Assisting Mark with the senior students at Balvack.

Sadly missing last night's Tuesday sabre session due to gut rot.

Hearing about Mark's excellent and busy beginners session in Aberdeenshire.

Admiring a huge plane tree outside Gaia House

Sitting and walking meditating in silence all week in here.

Visiting the sun hut at the top of the hill and finding this.

Appreciating the giant oak tree.