Big Stretch
I just got back from a yin yoga class. I’d never been to one before, but the outdoor community yoga I was going to go to with a friend tonight got rained out, so we retreated to an indoor class at the studio I’ve been trying out.
What attracted me in the description was, “mostly floor-based postures which allows for release of muscular tension & stress.”
As it turns out, it is all floor-based postures, and not just that but you use all the props available — blocks, bolsters, and blankets — such that you are ideally not exerting yourself at all and let gravity do the work of stretching out your body.
In a 60 minute class, we did just seven poses. The room was dark and the music was quiet and deep. Afterward I chatted with my friend for a few minutes and we both had to blink and wake up a bit. It was a bit like coming out of a good massage.
And, it was the perfect amount of movement for the day after hay day.
Today I:
Conditioned my boots (this was due next month but I wanted to do it before subjecting my boots to more hay dust and grime)
Hay dust left; fresh conditioner right. Folded laundry and sorted a big ol’ bag of hand-me-downs from C’s cousins
Started — and made decent progress on — the scrap quilt
The scraps: Leftovers from January when I made oven mitts for a charity sale. I have so much leftover, wacky fabric. After looking it over, I decided to go with the starry/rainbow fabrics with the white and leave the pastel cows & ducks for a different project.
The pattern I chose is called a disappearing nine square. There are many different ways to make your blocks, but they all start with a 3x3 square and then you cut that nine-block into quarters and rearrange them. It’s magic! I didn’t pick a pattern in particular… I decided on a general size of the blanket, chose to start with 5” squares (so the 3x3 square is 14”), and just started going.
By the end of the day I had got all my 3x3 squares sewn and quartered and could lay them all out. I think what you see below is how I’m going to end up doing it — it’s quite random and fun which feels right for a scrap quilt. I put it all down in my living room and my first thought was, I can’t wait to have a picnic on this quilt! What a great feeling.
Today I felt:
So you remember that one time I said that it was a bummer there was no real life equivalent of the video game health/energy bar? I lied, kind of. My Garmin watch gives me a little “body battery” readout that estimates how much you’ve got left in the tank based on how much stress & rest you’ve experienced throughout the day, based on your activity level versus your resting heart rate. It’s on a scale of 0-100 (but 5 is as low as it will go).
Yesterday I was around 30 at lunchtime, after hauling hay. I was at a 5 by bedtime. Last night I got what felt like a decent night’s sleep, and when I woke up I had only gotten back up to a 23. So. That is how good of a workout moving hay is, I guess.
But I felt good. This morning I felt groggy and like I could happily lay on the couch and watch Sanditon all day. But, I folded the laundry and eventually remembered to write my morning pages, and I think something in there gave me the tiny spark I needed to get going on the quilt.
Tomorrow:
Tomorrow is another farm day. The hay shed is completely empty, so I don’t think there is a possibility of moving bales tomorrow, but I suppose there is a chance that tomorrow we start cleaning out the shed and part of that work is to re-bale all the loose hay on the floor.
Wish me luck.