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Carla Brennan's Blog

Reflections and Photos from The Big Trip and Beyond . .

Pinnacles National Park – June 1 – 4, 2020

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It took 24 hours to settle down after occasional feelings of distractedness and unease. It takes time to adjust to the pace of nature and to living in the open. Eventually that wonderful feeling of coming home arose. A home, I realized, I had been longing for every day. I don’t mean Pinnacles National Park but the fragrant green surroundings, the gently moving air, the random sounds of bird and insect. I said to myself, this is all I want to do, be in natural places like this and to sit quietly. Watch. Listen. Explore.

The thing about nature is that it is always changing, revealing something fresh, surprising, wondrous. Even in the exact same spot. By contrast, human civilization is dedicated to promoting predictability and control.

Instead of sheltering at home, I was sheltering in campsite, limited to where I could go on foot since the roads beyond the campground were closed to cars. Chris had his bicycle so he adventured farther afield.

A hummingbird visited, hovering nearby, flying off and then returning, checking me out several times, as if it were wondering if I was a giant nectar-filled flower. It decided I was not and disappeared into the bushes.

All day the acorn woodpeckers burst out of the tree canopy, grabbing insects midair and circling back into the shadows of the towering oaks. Rather than boring into bark for food they were cashing in on the wealth of flying insects. I saw scrub jays doing the same thing. I was not sure what insects were up there.

The insects I did see close at hand were the perpetually annoying gnats, the dawn and dusk mosquitoes and an occasional butterfly. The scrub jays, along with the California towhees, spotted towhees and juncos, also foraged on the ground nearby, looking for crawling creatures.

A raccoon visited us at least twice while we sat and read. It was persistent and fearless. During the night it left muddy footprints over the trunk hood as if it had used it for a dance floor. Then it slid off leaving a sloppy muddy trail down the side of the cab.

Every evening, about a half hour before sunset, I walked five minutes to a spot where I could see the ridge line of the hills to the east above the campground. It was there, given the right conditions, the California condors would congregate.

I only saw them there one night. Some of these huge birds were soaring on the thermals while others were roosting in the trees. At times I could count at least 10 to 15 birds. They were far away, but it was still thrilling to see them through binoculars or my camera’s telephoto lens.

There are over 300 California condors in the wild today. About 86 of them reside in Pinnacles National Park.

Our site was at the farthest point of a loop at the southern end of the campground. One edge of our campsite was hemmed in by an old barbwire fence. It was low in one spot so I climbed over it to explore what was beyond. The barbwire fence seemed like a relic from the past rather than a real barrier to be respected. I hopped the fence frequently. It took some careful foot placement to avoid getting scratched or hooked by the sharp wire points

Beyond the campsite, I found a long stretch of meadows and trees making up a riparian corridor. It paralleled the official trail along the main road leading to the upper trailheads. Few, if any, people leave the main trail to visit this area. A small, slow moving stream was at its heart.

The meadows I crossed were covered in dry yellowed grasses, the bright green of a few weeks earlier gone until next year. They were primarily invasive foxtails, a terrible nuisance and potentially a terrible ordeal to walk through. I was wearing running shoes that were usually comfortable for hiking. Within only a few steps the needle-like foxtail seedheads had burrowed through my shoes, through my socks and were attempting to penetrate my skin. It was painful and frustrating. I had to stop several times to pull out the offending barbs from my shoes. And, as you might imagine, they were near impossible to remove. The following morning I wore different hiking boots which were blessedly foxtail proof.

As I returned to the campsite from my first early morning expedition, scrub jays were numerous and active along the creek side. The dashes of blue attracted the eye and at times seemed out of place amid the greens and earth tones. All jays are noisy, their voices loud and harsh. But I also heard a call that stood out from the others. It was an hysterical shrieking, louder, more urgent and piercing than any of the other bird sounds. Then I thought, I know what this is, probably a young jay demanding food. Soon I spotted it, a fledgling on the ground with bright blue wings but still dark around the head and chest. It flapped its earthbound wings, hopping madly about, mouth agape. The parents were nearby and seemed unmoved by the theatrics, occasionally offering it mouthfuls of grubs.

You wouldn’t know there was a pandemic going on except that much of the park was closed. Few people wore masks, few stepped aside when they passed on the trail. There were small groups of young adults, college-aged I’d guess, who were not socially distancing or wearing masks. I am pretty sure they had not been sheltering in place together at home.

Most of the other campers were families with young kids, taking advantage of a place to get away from home and ride bicycles. It was a hard to be near so many strangers after several months with only Chris at home. I couldn’t help but think each one was a possible vector of viral doom.

I was late for this year’s wildflower party. The main event was over and most flowers had already left for the season. A variety of flowering shrubs remained, most with white blooms. Some of the still plentiful stragglers from the party were buckwheat and California wild roses.

I soon discovered one of my favorite flowers, the elegant clarkia, were still blooming. It was like finding little jewels strewn among the brittle straw of desiccated grass. These ones were small and delicate compared to the larger and more robust ones I saw here last year in April. But they had the same charming pinwheel shape and bright purple-pink color.

There were a few surprises. On a slope near the small creek were round flower heads of mini purplish small flowers. They were lovely and unknown to me; but I knew they were from the mint family, with square stems and fragrant small leaves. Later I would identify them as coyote mint.

Turning a corner on a longer hike on the second day I came across a large shrub maybe 8 feet across and 5 feet high with multiple arms ending in racemes of purplish flowers. From a distance I thought it was late blooming lupine and left the trail to get a closer look. The flower heads were something altogether different. The racemes were covered decorative fuzzy buds in a variety of colors: pink, whitish, purple. Every so often an elegant blue flower with long stamens emerged from the furry buds. These flower heads reminded me of party decorations or icing on a cake. So maybe the party wasn’t over yet! The leaves were fragrant and I guessed it was in the sage family. But it was much showier and more dazzling than anything I had seen before. I later identified as Woolly Bluecurl.

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Monarchs Rule!

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Monarchs Rule!
October 2019

My unscientific, total guesstimate says that the number of overwintering Monarch butterflies this fall is about the same as last year. That’s good; at least there doesn’t seem to be fewer. But, as you may have read in my blog and other places, there was a precipitous drop in butterflies from 2018 from 2017. Why? Climate change, habitat loss and possibly other causes.

These photos were taken at Natural Bridges State Beach and Lighthouse Field State Beach in Santa Cruz, California. Natural Bridges has a butterfly flower garden that attracts the hungry Monarchs and allows for close-up portraits. Most of the other butterflies are either flitting about or huddled together, resting in groups high in the eucalyptus and cypress trees looking like dried leaves. You need either binoculars or a telephoto camera lens to see them with any clarity. I am amused by all the people taking photos with their smartphones; they probably, at best, captured a few tiny orange dots here and here.

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More at Moss Landing

More at Moss Landing, CA
September 2019

If you’ve you been following my blog, then you’re already familiar with Moss Landing. It sits in the middle of the great crescent of Monterey Bay with Santa Cruz at the top and Monterey at the bottom. The harbor at Moss Landing is a draw for many coastal creatures: birds, sea otters, sea lions and seals. Even though it is busy with human activity it’s a place where you are almost guaranteed to see wildlife.

Chris was scheduled for surgery and we wanted a one night getaway before then. In the center of the crowded harbor is a KOA RV park. We’d talked many times about staying there but never had. I was excited to have the extra time to wander the harbor with my cameras. Usually I visit Moss Landing for only 2 to 3 hours stints. (This post actually includes photos from my most recent shorter visit as well as the overnight.)

The RV park was nothing special and was expensive by our standards but it worked well for us anyway. We could walk to the beach (Salinas River State Beach) and the harbor channel. We could also walk to several restaurants. We enjoyed a better-than-average Mexican dinner at the Haute Enchilada and a better-than-average Thai lunch at the Lemongrass Seafood Bar and Grill. We could even walk to a small museum and store devoted to Shakespeare. What more do you need?

As I said, Moss Landing is a busy place, not like our usual preferred camping locations. It has commercial fishing, recreational fishing, whale watching excursions, sailboats, marine supply businesses, restaurants, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and the nearby Highway One. And let’s not forget the huge powerplant that allows you to locate Moss Landing from a distance by its two towering smokestacks. Even during the night there was traffic on the highway, people coming and going in the harbor and groups of sea lions erupting into excited barking.

• Next to us at our campsite was a pristine late 60’s VW bus. Bright orange without a dent or speck of dirt anywhere. The 60s live on in California.

• During a previous visit to Moss Landing I discovered several Monterey cypresses where egrets and herons like to roost. These trees were an easy hike from our campsite and I visited them several times a day.

• In the low light of dusk, two otters were singlehandedly ridding the docks of their accumulated mussels. One otter took a large shell and whacked it against a cement piling, essentially using the dock structure as a tool to open the mollusk.

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Scenes from a Superbloom

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It rained a lot this winter. That’s what it’s supposed to do in the coastal redwood forest of Northern California near Santa Cruz. After seven years of drought, the last few years of close-to-normal precipitation have been a relief.

We don’t get superblooms here, just the expected spring flowers. Superblooms occur in arid areas that usually don’t have wet winters. I hadn’t been paying attention to the weather farther south so the news of a possible superbloom came to me late and I had to scramble to figure out how to fit in a trip. During the superbloom of 2017, Chris and I went to Carrizo Plain National Monument (CPNM). I was adamant about going again.

The deserts of Southern California, which have been in the news for their fabulous flower displays (and destructive crowds of people), are a 10-12 hour drive from here. But Carrizo Plain is a mere 4-5 hours.

We packed up the camper for a three night stay. The wildflower hotline said it was pre-peak at CPNM but I figured there would still be plenty to see. It was indeed stunning, a heavenly spectacle of color and verdancy. Yellows, followed by purples, dominated the hillsides and valley floor. Then came the oranges, blues, pinks and whites. Everything was held in a great embrace of green.

The first night we pulled off Soda Lake Road and bumped along a rough single lane dirt path into the hills where dispersed camping is allowed. We found a rise with an open view across the great plain to the Temblor Mountains to the east, with the Caliente Mountains lifting up behind us.

We saw little wildlife during this trip, only indirect evidence of it. The ground was pockmarked with the borrows of ground squirrels and other rodents with larger holes for foxes, coyotes and badgers. The holes were so numerous that walking became an obstacle course. The first evening, distracted by photography, I twisted an ankle in a dirt opening. I limped for a day or so and it is still a bit sore, two weeks later.

We saw only a few birds, mostly ravens and sage sparrows, and a couple jackrabbits. Walking with the midday sun, we kept an eye out for rattlesnakes, but none were spotted. The rodents remained invisible, even at dusk or dawn. At night I shone my flashlight across the ground, hoping to catch a busy nocturnal creature. But saw none.

We wanted to camp on the eastern side of the Monument which we had not done before, but several of the main roads across the valley plain were closed due to poor conditions. The CPNM Visitor Center directed us to cross over on Seven-Mile Road, just outside the park, to reach Elkhorn Rd. Seven-Mile Road turned out to be quite a treat on its own. The valley was covered with goldfields, hillside daisies, tidy tips and occasional phacelia.

Unbeknownst to me, this road also led to an iconic view (one I had only seen in photographs) where Highway 58 passes through the Tremblor Mountains. The hillsides glowed in gold with complementary patches of purple. Cars had pulled off the highway and lined the roads. Families trekked up a path to a fairyland of color. It was Sunday and it was crowded. After a few photographs we opted out on the hike and chose to continue south on Elkhorn to find a spot for the night.

We pulled off Elkhorn and had another vast view, this time facing west. Coyotes barked, yipped and howled at night and in the morning. Near us was a dry arroyo. I surmised this would be a good place to find flowers since it would have been wetter than the surrounding hillsides. It was indeed a wildflower haven. While the flowers in this part of the park were not so widespread to be seen from space (, they were abundant, delightful and diverse at close range. I saw varieties that were new to me such as desert candles, evening snow and blazing stars as well as familiar hillside daisies, phacelia, lupine, poppies, fiddlenecks, filaree, owl’s clover, cream cups, thistle sage and more.

The sky was sunny and cloudless the next two days. This sounds great, but it’s actually not ideal for photography. On the last morning I got up before sunrise so I could see the flowers and the terrain bathed in the subtle light of dawn.

Photographing wildflowers here also turned out to be grueling exercise for my legs. In addition to long walks, I was popping up and down constantly, doing deep knee bends, to reach the low to the ground treasures with my close-up macro lens. And I was always carrying weights, AKA two heavy cameras.

I longed to stay more days, go on more walks, find more and more unique flowers. But we had to leave. Before getting on the highway we stopped again at the pass through the Tremblor Mountains and this time I scaled the trail into the yellow rounded hills. I was alone and the view was breath-taking, pure magic.

I plan to go back but my schedule won’t allow it until the end of April. It will be post-peak then, but I imagine the late blooming varieties will still be showing off their fleeting, heart-breaking beauty.

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Happy Winter Solstice!

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Happy Solstice to All and to All a Long Peaceful Night!
December 21, 2018.

May the increasing light be the light of wisdom. May the world expand in its understanding, empathy and caring. May people respond with compassion and action to the decimation of the planet, to bigotry, to violence and war, to the general insanity around us.

Chris and I made the last minute decision to witness the Winter Solstice sunset at the Ohlone Solstice Stones in the Santa Cruz Mountains off Skyline Blvd. The weather was promising in Santa Cruz but deteriorated as we climbed the steep and winding Highway 9. The cloud cover became dense. Eventually we entered the clouds and were enveloped in a foggy wet haze. Light rain occasionally fell. We wouldn’t see the sunset tonight but we would go anyway, stand at the sacred rocks and say a few prayers and blessings for a troubled world.

The Ohlone Solstice stones (I’ve written about them before) include a rock with a deep “V” and a large round flat rock. The V lines up with the setting solstice sun as it sinks silently into the sea. The other rock, “turtle rock,” is said to be the origin of the Ohlone people.

A few cars were parked at the trailhead, but not many. We walked up alone, the woods and the views disappearing into silence and white space. We joined several others already at the sight. People were chatting in pairs and small groups, maybe 11 in all. I said to a women near me that we must be the “hardcore solstice people.” When the weather is clear, there can be sizable crowd. Sometimes a ranger is present.

The view looks west over several ridges to the Pacific Ocean. Tonight we gazed only into a murky void, maybe 50 yards of visibility at best. I’ve been there when the weather is worse, raining hard, blowing and frigid. So this wasn’t too bad. We would just have to imagine the sunset and check our watches for the timing.

About 5 minutes before the sun set, the group naturally fell into silence, just standing quietly, peaceably, together around the stones facing west. Just at the time of sunset, at the farthest edge of what we could see, a buck walked slowing out of the tree cover and crossed the grassy meadow on the slope below. Then a second buck followed him. Both carried handsome, impressive sets of antlers. They disappeared into the fog.

Eventually people began moving around, preparing for the short hike to the cars. Chris and I did our silent blessings, offering gratitude and a little tobacco to the spirits.

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My TGA: When Memory Becomes Unmoored

Below is an essay I wrote last year about a unique experience I had. A little different from my usual photos and commentary posts. Perhaps you know someone who had a TGA. I had never heard of it until I landed in the hospital.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Several people are crouching close by. They speak deliberately to each other and to me. I respond to their questions but I have no sense of what I am saying. We’re in a very small space. I am lying down. Is this room moving, is this a vehicle? Why am I here? The scene quickly fades like a darkening theater. A silent void remains.

I’m on a moving bed. A woman is having trouble maneuvering it. Then, in conversation with another woman, she realizes it has a motor and turns it on. We glide through brightly lit narrow hallways. Where am I? Quickly an enveloping shadow overtakes the light.

Another small bright white space. How did I get here? I am in a small bed. I see Chris, my life partner, sitting back quietly in a chair. J, a friend, is closer, leaning toward me. I am covered in a crumpled white sheet. What has happened? Was I in an accident? If I was, I remember nothing. I search my body for clues and discover no pain and no discomfort other than befuddlement. I can’t quite make sense of my surroundings but I do feel cocooned by caring people. I am not afraid.

One “wall” of the cubicle is only a sliding curtain and it opens to a hallway of brisk activity. People also sit at a counter. It looks like a bar but they stare into computer screens instead of drinks. Sounds crowd my head, louder than my thoughts. People chattering, the clanging of carts and equipment. Orders being shouted. A woman nearby screams unabated. Her wailing voice reeks of uncontrolled fear and pain beyond limits. I wonder what has happened to her. I know she is in the right place and I wish her comfort and quick relief. I hope she is not alone.

A man walks in and introduces himself. He talks about what is happening to me but I cannot remember what it is. Information disappears like water down a drain, flushing out to sea, impossible to bring back.

Where am I? How did I get here? J must have brought me. Where am I exactly? Clearly I am in a medical facility; I see people in scrubs. There are intricate machines, electronic monitors, tubes and wires decorating the room. The crisp smell of cleanser and rubbing alcohol is in the air. I know something serious has happened to me. But what could it be? Is it a stroke? I search for anything to explain my circumstances.

People continue to ask me questions. I can’t seem to find the answers. I am stumped. I know I should know but I can’t recall no matter how hard I try. I scrunch up my face in deep thought, make an effort to recover the correct response, give up, chuckle and say, “Now, that’s a good question!” I do not know the year, month or day, where I am or why.

I am in another room; I don’t remember being brought here. Medical devices beep and tubes dangle from my right arm. Only Chris is in the room. I wiggle my feet; I am wearing bright yellow hospital traction socks. I have on a blue print hospital gown and, surprisingly, my own black pants. Other people come and go.

Chris explains to me what has gone wrong but I can’t remember what he says. What disturbs me most is I cannot recall where I had been before. What had I been doing? What had happened to bring me here? How could I not know? Something terrible must have happened. I plumb the depths of my mind; there is little there to reveal my recent life. The previous hours, days, weeks, are now muddled, elusive. I am told that I am in Dominican Hospital. I have visited friends here but this is my first time as a patient.

I begin to remember more about forgetting. I watch and recall how everything in the moment seems clear but then fades like a train disappearing down a dark tunnel. Two nurses check my body for lesions and wounds – a necessary protocol, I assume, for anyone who might be in the hospital for an indeterminate amount of time. There are no sores. I remember that I was clear when they were here, we chatted as they looked me over. But now it has become dreamlike, distant and vague. I know it happened just a few minutes ago but the details are gone, the image smudged, dim. I tell the nurse that I am losing memories; she nods with understanding.

People reassure me; they say I will recover soon. From what? I am repeatedly tested for stroke. “Squeeze my fingers.” “Lift your legs.” I pass each time.

Chris asks me if I remember J. Yes, I recall she had been with us. Had she brought me here? This must have been hard for J. Just a few months ago she had been in this hospital to remove a cancerous tumor from her brain. This is probably the last place she wants to be. But I am lucky, her natural concern and her experience navigating the local health care system has come in handy. Chris hates anything to do with doctors and medicine. This must be difficult for him too.

Finding memories feels arduous. I reach inside but only discover empty, silent space as though my own mind is shunning me, refusing to respond to my entreaties. Someone again asks me what year it is. Such a simple question. 2013 comes to mind as an image, lighted numbers on a black background. The date is followed by several blank spaces as

if they are waiting to be filled. Interpreting the mind image, I think it must be later than 2013. But what year can it be? How many years later? I do not know.

How can the circumstances of my life slip away like this? I know I had had other plans, important plans, for the day but I do not know what they were. I announce, as a kind of joke, “I didn’t schedule this. This wasn’t in my appointment book!” It is important to acknowledge to others the shock of my situation, to acknowledge the uncertainty of my life.

Some memories of recent weeks are returning but the previous five days are still out of reach. Chris interviews me while making a video. He prods me to recollect, to find and gather the memory fragments that have fluttered away.

“What did you do on Thursday?”
I pause. “Uh . . . I don’t know.”
“It’s something you like to do.”
I contemplate this. Then an image of the seashore comes to mind. “I went to the beach! I thought I dreamed that.”

“And what did you find?”
I pause. “I don’t know.” Chris waits.
An image of a small container appears in my mind; I look in.
“Sea glass! . . . I thought it had been a dream!” I smile at the pleasant recollection.

My ability to think is slow and thick like old honey that is too congealed to flow. When I am asked a question, there is initially no inner response, nothing evoked, nothing triggered, nothing known. Then gradually, out of the darkness an image approaches. The words and meaning come a few seconds later, if at all. Probably in ordinary consciousness the process of shifting from image to words is so fast it seems to happen simultaneously. But for now I get to watch the brain work in slow motion.

New memories are beginning to stick. A little while ago, only feelings and mental impressions lingered; I couldn’t retain detailed information. Now, for longer and longer periods, new memories, instead of sinking out of sight into murky water, float nearby, available when I need them.

I think I have already been told, but I ask Chris, “Where was I? What happened there?”

“You were teaching a daylong meditation retreat with M. At the lunch break, you couldn’t remember the morning. You were confused and J drove you to urgent care. M called me immediately.”

“Oh my god! I don’t remember it! M was here from Boston?” I had a vague feeling that M and I had discussed this possibility when I saw him over the Holidays, weeks – or was it months? – earlier.

“I left M on his own? Is he okay? I need to talk to him, check in with him.” I felt some guilt. I must have arranged for us to teach together and now I left him to fend for himself in a strange city.

Chris responds quickly, dismissing my need to be concerned. “Don’t worry about M. He’s fine; he finished the afternoon. He told the group that you had to leave because of a ‘bug’.”

I’m amused by this. Yes, some kind of bug alright, but not a cold or flu, more like a insidious computer virus infecting my brain.

I am stunned and disturbed to realize I had lost all memory of being with M earlier today. At the workshop I would have been sitting in front of a large group. I would have been speaking, giving instructions, answering questions. Did I behave normally or oddly? There would have been people there I knew, like J, but they had all been erased from my memory. Chris says that M and I met the day before to plan our workshop. I don’t remember that either.

“Did people know there was something wrong with me?”

“Mostly not. But J thought there was something off at the end of the morning session. She talked to you for awhile and decided to bring you in to be examined. You had a CT scan and a EKG. An ambulance took you from urgent care to the hospital.”

I have no memory of the tests or the trip.

I dredge my memory banks for any images from this morning or the last few days. I realize the few mental pictures I do have, all have the same flavor. I can’t tell if I have dreamed, imagined or actually experience what I recall. This is startling. They are all equally dreamlike, difficult to retrieve, devoid of detail. Like a dream, they are familiar but they don’t seem to pertain to this waking world but rather to some other reality I haven’t really lived. I had assumed most of what I saw in my mind were dreams; especially since I feel like I have been asleep, totally absent, for days. I start asking Chris if specific events I recall are real or imagined.

The man in the white jacket I has met earlier returns. He tells me that he is a neurologist.

He asks, “How are you doing?”

I shrug my shoulders and raise my hands palm up, shake my head and smile, meaning, I don’t really know how the hell am I doing! Do you?

But Chris adds, “She is doing much better. She’s starting to remember things.”

The doctor explains, “You have Transient Global Amnesia. We don’t really know what causes it. Over the next few hours, you should regain most of your recent memories and your ability to make new ones. But you may never remember this morning. By tomorrow you’ll be fine. This probably won’t happen again. But we want to keep you overnight for observation.”

That’s okay with me. My body aches, a foggy confusion clogs my thoughts and I am tired, so tired. I am relieved to be surrounded by trained medical staff for the night and machines that monitor my well-being.

I ask Chris for my smartphone so I can look up Transient Global Amnesia (TGA.) My eyes burn and tire as I try to focus on the small glowing screen. After a few minutes I quit. But I first discover a few facts.

TGA is a rare neurological event. When it strikes, you lose the ability to make short term memories. Most people also temporarily forget the recent past, from days to months. You know who you, family and friends are. You still have what’s called “procedural memory”, you can do those things that you do by habit, like talking, getting dressed, even driving (although you might not remember where you are going.) Your personality, ability to interact socially, and even your sense of humor remain intact. Although basic memory returns, some people have cognitive and memory loss symptoms that linger for weeks and even months. The doctor didn’t mention this.

One of the most peculiar symptoms of TGA is the repetition of the same questions ever few minutes. It is like a video recording being replayed, with the exact same words, gestures and affect. Chris tells me I had done exactly this. Where am I? How did I get here? Again and again, forgetting that moments earlier I had been given the answer.

It’s most common in people between 50 and 75; the median age is 62. I am 62. There are many “precipitating events” common to people with TGA’s – hard exercise, sex, jumping into cold water, stress, a recent medical procedure – but it is not known why these experiences trigger the disruption in short-term memory. I had had a colonoscopy several days before. People who have a history of migraines are also more likely to have a TGA. I’ve had migraines since I was twelve. Occurrence is slightly higher in Scandinavians. I am of Norwegian descent.

It’s been 9 hours since I lost my memory. I now know the date, month, year. I know where I am and how I got here.

After Chris goes home for the night, I turn on the TV to entertain my stagnant mind and to enliven the stark impersonality of the hospital room. “The Matrix” is on. I am pleased and amused. Here is a tale that intermixes physical reality and mind-created worlds; it is an inquiry into what is real and what is not. Just up my alley tonight. Other movies come to mind that remind me of my situation, “50 First Dates”, “Memento”, “Groundhog Day.”

The new night nurse checks in on me.
As we chat, he asks, “Are you on the hospital staff?”
“No, why?” I am surprised by the question. Do I look like a doctor?
“Well, I heard you were teaching a workshop on medication this morning.”
I chuckle. “No, it was a meditation workshop!” I add, “Sometimes meditation can be as helpful as medication.”
After twenty minutes, I am weary of the movie and I retreat into the muffled quiet of the night-time hospital, the rhythmic beeping of machines, the murmuring of nurses, the soft rumbling of supply carts rolling by. It is hot in the room and the nurse opens a window. The courtyard fountain gurgles, adding a welcome soothing sound.

I am exhausted yet sleep seems unlikely with the headache, back pain, mild nausea and general malaise I feel. My heart and my spirit are heavy and fragile. It occurs to me that I could die tonight. Maybe I will slip into the darkness, that empty place of not-knowing and not return. Maybe death is like this not remembering, the same silent blackness into which my memories fade. If death is like losing my memory, then it’s not so bad, just a painless disappearing. A tender sense of fear and sadness arises as I recall my life and those I love. I know that someday, if not tonight, I will pass into that mystery.

It’s morning and I didn’t die. Despite feeling as though I hadn’t really slept, the night passed quickly, if uncomfortably. Chris has returned and we wait, a bit impatiently, for

me to get discharged. He’s at lunch in the hospital cafeteria, when the neurologist finally checks in on me and says I can go home. The doctor is confident that I will be fine. There is no follow-up treatment except to check in with my PCP. He repeats that the cause is unknown but speculates my incident might be related to my colonoscopy.

As I wait for Chris to return, I turn on the TV one more time. “50 First Dates” is on. I am delighted by the synchronicity. The Drew Barrymore character, like me, lost her short- term memory. Her cycle was one day; she would wake up each morning believing it to be the day before her head injury, every repeated new day after that lost. My short term memory, in the depth of the TGA, only lasted 1-2 minutes.

Relieved to be home, no longer a hospital inmate, I stretch out on the couch and watch the afternoon light stream through the silent redwood trees. All I want now is a warm shower and some sleep. All I want is to return to being someone who remembers.

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Don’t Hurt the Mushrooms!

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I walk through the forest for exercise and the feeling of aliveness in my body, to breathe in the refreshing exhalations of the trees, and to see what might reveal itself to me. After the rains begin in the fall, I also look for mushrooms and related fungi. Hiking in the Pine Flats area of Henry Cowell State Park last November, I wandered down a side trail encouraged by some mushrooms I spotted near the path’s beginning. However, I soon discovered that someone had recently stomped on every mushroom that grew on the side of the trail. The only people I saw were a man and his perhaps 10-year-old son. Were they the mushroom mashers?

Sadly, this is not uncommon.

I recall as a child being with other children who had been told that mushrooms were “bad” and should be destroyed. This was unfathomable and disturbing to me. I suspect this is still being taught. Mushrooms are associated with death and decay. A few are, of course, poisonous and can kill, others cause illness and hallucinations. But these are rare and easy to avoid. Cars kill and houseplants can poison; do we stamp those out? Mycophobia is the fear of fungus and, like all irrational fears, is based on what is perceived as unknown, out of our control and vaguely threatening. But mushrooms and the fungal world are truly our friends; they keep the world in balance.

My grandfather shared his love of mushrooms, teaching his grandchildren how to make spore prints to help with identification. He had books about mushrooms and a collection of his own photographs. Although I like being able to accurately identify mushrooms (and wildflowers and birds, etc.), I am actually most excited by the treasure hunt of finding them. The reward is in the surprise, the beauty and the unearned gift of witnessing an ephemeral wild thing.

I rarely pick mushrooms anymore and usually do so only if I plan to consume it. There are several species that are hard to get wrong and are reliably good to eat. But mostly I leave the prize edibles, the uniquely beautiful mushrooms and the commonplace ones alone, sometimes creating a record of our encounter through photography.

The true living organism of the fungi – the mycelium: all those white threads found throughout healthy soil – are the veins, lungs and nervous system of the forest. (The mushrooms are the fruiting body like an apple on a much larger tree.) There is generous exchange between the trees that create sugars from photosynthesis and the mycelium that transport minerals and fluids. They provide inter-plant communication and distribute the wealth of resources. This intricate web of tiny fungal fibers is so extensive that in a cubic inch of soil there can be eight miles of these cells. It’s called the “Wood Wide Web.” Listen to Radiolab, “From Tree to Shining Tree”

Did you know that fungi are more closely related genetically to animals than plants? Once considered part of the plant world (which is what I was taught in school) they now have their own separate kingdom.
Watch this TED talk, “Six Ways that Mushrooms Can Save the World.”

So please do not harm the mushrooms. If not for the mushroom’s sake in its attempt to reproduce, then for the nature lovers who share these trails with you. Each time a mushroom is spotted, respect its essential role in the forest and its rare appearance like an exquisite wildflower.

All mushroom photographs were taken in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Cruz County, CA between November 2016 and March 2017. Please do not reproduce any photographs without permission. Prints are available for purchase for some photographs. If you are interested, contact Carla at: You can also find Carla’s photographs, paintings and jewelry on her Etsy site (Stones and Bones):

This gallery contains 49 photos

The Big Trip Has Come to an End

October 4, 2013

The Big Trip has come to an end.

Just as it was hard to believe during the few weeks before starting our trip that we were actually going to leave home, it has been hard to believe over the past few weeks that we were going to be home again. We ended The Big Trip the same way we began it. Our first and last nights were with Chris’s sister in Menlo Park and our next and previous nights were at Mercey Hot Springs. This symmetry seemed fitting for re-entry.

Although I have written mostly about the outer journey – places and events – it is the inner journey that has been most important. I will continue to complete a record of our travels through stories and photographs, but my big job now will be to understand and integrate what has shifted inwardly. I do not know yet how much of that process I will put on my blog. It may take months, if not longer, to fully survey this new inner landscape.

During the past two week I noted that many of the tasks we had done so many times we were doing for the LAST time. The last time washing my hair under difficult conditions, the last grocery shopping in an unfamiliar supermarket, the last withdrawal from an ATM machine, the last time collecting quarters for a laundromat, the last trip photograph and, of course, the last supper. Some of these I am happy to leave behind, but others I will quickly miss. Endings, change, transitions, all hallmarks of impermanence. But beginnings and birth are also part of impermanence and I will be starting life afresh in Santa Cruz.

I had many reasons for going on this extended “drive-about”. To restore myself after a few too many years of demanding work. To re-evaluate, re-assess and re-vision my role as a Buddhist teacher. To clarify my deepest intentions for what I have left of this life. To give freer rein to the “wandering monk” within. To step out of routine and schedules and into immediacy and spontaneity. To be awed everyday by the natural world. To create space for my writer’s voice to speak. These were all fulfilled to varying degrees.

A deep bow of gratitude to the many wonderful people who supported this sabbatical year of travel and introspection. May the rewards of this trip be worthy of your faith in me. And thank you to those who spent time reading this blog; it helped me feel that the effort was worthwhile!

Chris said philosophically the other day, “The trip will continue once we’re home, it will just change.” Yes, we will still be on a journey, the mysterious trip of the unfolding present.

I will continue to be a student of Nature: inner nature, true nature and wild nature. And I will always be a student of wonder.

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The Beginning of Part III of The Big Trip

(Apologies to those who already read this, I am posting this again for technical reasons I won’t go into.)

After a five week stay, Chris and I left the Boston area on Tuesday, May 21st. As we waved good-bye to my sister, we felt the fatigue from working hard to complete everything before we departed. Now we’re on the road again, back in the saddle and down the trail.

(P.S. I still have blog entries to complete and post about our month in Florida, but I wanted to begin this blog anew with more current events.)

As we return to our camping, meandering lifestyle, it feels like we are beginning a new trip rather than continuing the old. We have about four months left before our expected return to Santa Cruz. A long stretch by ordinary vacation standards – longer than most people will ever take (between college and retirement) – but we are painfully aware that our initial 365 days of vagabonding freedom have greatly diminished. Eight months have slipped through our fingers becoming nothing more than memories, stories, and photographs. Time is the ultimate illusion and a trickster.

Our hiatus in Boston – what I am calling Part II – was an unplanned part of our journey but not an entirely unexpected possibility. I was called to Boston after my 91-year-old mother broke her arm. She lives in an assisted living facility near my sister west of Boston. The facility offers some care assistance but my mother’s new incapacity meant she needed extra help they could not provide. My sister oversees my mother’s care and was now overburdened by the additional demands. We also needed to make decisions about moving her to a smaller (i.e. safer) apartment and arranging for more long term daily care. During my stay, my sister and I alternated nights sleeping in my mom’s apartment. We felt she was particularly vulnerable to falling again then.

After considering a variety of options including other eldercare facilities, we settled on moving my mother to a smaller apartment in the same place she’s been living and bringing in a private care person every morning to help her get started for the day. This meant doing a significant downsizing of her possessions once again; it was the fourth move and fourth down-size since my parents left their large cluttered home in Pittsburgh in 2004. Our decision was not the perfect solution but it seems to be the best one for right now.

Two days after I arrived, the Boston Marathon Bombing saga began on April 15th. The violence of the attacks felt surprisingly personal. So many other disasters that have occurred in my lifetime have been in places far away or unfamiliar to me. Or they have happened while I was on a silent meditation retreat, so that my knowledge of the events was delayed and I missed the resulting media firestorms. On September 11, 2001, for example, I was into the third week of a four week solo wilderness retreat in the Sangre de Christo mountains near Crestone, CO. The Marathon bombings, in contrast, were nearby and events unfolded at places and streets I knew well. I had watched the Boston Marathon the year before with my mother and sister along the route in Natick, MA.

Local TV stations broadcast non-stop coverage without commercials for days. The “lockdown” order (which instructed everyone in certain communities to stay at home) was not issued for where I was (the town of Wayland) but it was enforced nearby. My brother-in-law stayed home from his workplace in Waltham while the manhunt was on for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Stories quickly emerged about people who had been near the finish line or had left shortly before the explosions, just barely being spared. Other tales circulated about people who knew the suspected bombers or knew someone who knew them. On that Friday of the final manhunt my sister went to the nearly large Natick Mall. In a shoe store, she discovered a sales clerk there knew Dzhokhar because her boyfriend was his roommate at UMass Darmouth. The boyfriend was being detained and questioned by the FBI.

The week’s events were surreal, dramatic, sad, incomprehensible and disturbing. It is hard now to imagine that they happened only six weeks ago. The magnitude of the dismay makes it seem like another time, not part of the continuum of recent life.

On May 8th I turned 60. Hmmm, such a big number, don’t you think? Now I have to get used to my age staring with a big fat 6. I was just starting to feel comfortable with 5s.

Because I was in Massachusetts instead of on the road, I was able to enjoy the warmth and generosity of family and friends for this momentous birthday. A group of old compadres gathered in Amherst, MA, on the 7th for an evening of shared food and reflections on aging. Some I had known since my 20‘s. Each friend offered a personal story, poem or quote about the mysterious process of getting older.

One brought a basket filled with folded paper slips with quotes inside and then, one-by-one, we each read our random selection. I started the round with the famous quote by Robert Browning, “Come grow old with me, the best is yet to be.” The perfect sentiment with which to embrace friends with whom I had already grown considerable older.

Is the best yet to be? My time at my mother’s assisted living facility recently, did not paint an attractive picture for one’s most elderly years. Certainly by 60 the best of my body’s attractiveness, energy and strength is gone and the best of my ability to remember details and to have access to my lifetime storehouse of knowledge is past. Of course, the only best moment of life there can ever be is happening right now, otherwise we are just living in memory and imagination.

I think if you are on a dedicated path toward greater presence and open-heartedness, then the bests yet to come in old age are limitless. Admittedly, some pretty big painful, scary worsts are probably in store, too. Fortunately, the worsts can sometimes become wake-up calls to understand what is truly most important, to seek who we are at the deepest levels, to discover where freedom and peace actually are and to forego the rest. My future bests might be: a heart completely relieved of the weight of judgement, worry and expectation; more awestruck moments connecting intimately with the breath-taking mystery and wonder of life; stepping into a profound acceptance of myself, of those around me and of this crazy, incredible place we’ve found ourselves; and finally, relaxing fully into the quiet joy and unflappable contentment that comes with the surrender into the here and now. I could go on . . . why not come grow old with me?

Astrologically speaking, 60 is the start of becoming an elder. It is the end of the second Saturn Cycle, one of the great sweeps of repeating cosmic time. Saturn returns to the position it had at one’s birth about every 29 years, marking a new stage and a new beginning. Going on The Big Trip during my 2nd Saturn Cycle has been the perfect way to explore the inner journey demanded by the Return. Old routines have been shaken up or thrown out the window. There is time to ask questions about my purpose and direction. Am I living in alignment with the deepest rumblings of my heart? Chris and I are the same age so we are traveling this astrological trajectory together. Below are some quotes by astrologers about the second Saturn Cycle:

“The Saturn Return brings about endings and new beginnings.  The universe will unveil unhealthy and incongruent living and working conditions that can no longer be tolerated.  This recognition can bring about enormous change . . .”

“As the body ages, depression and fatigue inevitably arise, yet as the body becomes less an object of vanity it’s a chance for the Spirit to rise . . . The hallmark of the second Saturn Return is that if you deal maturely with the old pockets of unfinished business you gain the gift that will last till the end—the gift of wisdom. You become an Elder.”

“At the second Saturn return (usually between 58-60, you are asked ‘Do you want to be a wise elder – or just older?’ You begin to realize that you only have a certain amount of time left to do what you came to do. You realize that you aren’t going to be around forever, that what you do now has consequences. What did I come here to do, and how am I doing with that? What have I left undone, where am I out of integrity with myself and others?”

The timing of my stay in Massachusetts fortunately allowed me to attend a weekend retreat with Lama John Makransky and Julie Forsythe. It was for the meditation teachers with the Foundation of Active Compassion (of which I am one). I was relieved to have the restorative break, to reconnect with old friends and teachers, and to get a “booster shot” of Dzogchen. (Dzogchen is considered to be the most subtle and profound teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist Ningyma tradition.)

The retreat was held at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield NH, the lovely retreat center for the Natural Dharma Fellowship, the sangha led by Lama Willa Miller. I had been there before for a previous FAC teacher weekend and another time to help lead an outdoor retreat with Bob Morrison and Lama Willa. That latter weekend in October 2010 was memorable for the six inches of snow that fell!

The weather in early May was beautiful, the silence delicious, the views over mountains and sky soothing. A short walk down the dirt road brought me to blooming trout lilies, bellworts, and red trilliums. A yellow-bellied sapsucker flew from tree to tree. Usually these weekends focus on issues of being a teacher and are partially interactive. This one was silent. Lama John focused on the expansive teachings of Dzogchen and highlighted the approach of Tsoknyi Rinpoche, another teacher of mine.

At the very end of the retreat, after silence was broken, lunch was eaten and people were beginning to disperse, a birthday cake with candles appeared before me and a round of Happy Birthday was sung. This was a complete surprise since only one person at the retreat had known my birthday was near. Fortunately, I had recently become lax on my gluten-free diet of several years and I heartily ate two large pieces of the moist chocolate with peanut butter icing dessert!

If you are interested in knowing more about Dzogchen, there are many books available. One recommendation is Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s, Open Heart, Open Mind. John Makransky’s book is, Awakening Through Love.

The time I spent in Massachusetts spanned the most magical mini-season of the year. When I arrived mid-April, few plants were green and the trees were bare. Only small buds hinted at what was to come. Some of the earliest spring flowers were visible –  crocuses and forsythia – but they were sparse, separated by barren-looking earth.

By the time I left five weeks later, bright greenery had burst forth in every imaginable place. A rainbow of flowers decorated the landscape. It was as if the forest, once naked and exposed, became modest and drew a green curtain over itself while the trees fully dressed themselves in foliage. The intimate inner sanctum of the woods, once visible from the edges, became opaque to the outside observer. Roads that had opened to the sky were now tunnels of green arms reaching overhead.

Our fresh beginning has been enhanced by the major home renovation project Chris undertook in my sister’s driveway. He added a three-way (propane, 12 volt, 120) refrigerator, the installation of which necessitated taking apart and redesigning the entire kitchenette/appliance side of the camper. I knew I would like having a fridge but after a few days with it on the road, I am ecstatically reminded that refrigeration is one of the truly great inventions of the 20th century. No more tripping over the cooler, buying ice, pulling soggy items from chilled water and keeping food at not-quite-cold enough temperatures. We even have a freezer that freezes. It’s changed the kind of food we can buy and therefore eat.

Our fresh start also began in a new part of the country. Part I ended in Florida and Part III began in New England. During Part I we gradually headed East. Now we are pointed West. Sometimes I think we are just starting to get the hang of this vagabond life. We will probably really know what we are doing, and why, about the time we return to Santa Cruz in October. Although the plan is to stop then, will I want to?

DAYS 59-65 Dechen Ling, The Retreat – Part 2

November 23 – December 3, 2012
Tonopah, AZ

“Round and round you go . . . where you stop  . . . nobody knows . . . “

I sometimes half-jokingly say that future historians will call this century, “The Golden Age of the Labyrinth”. All styles of labyrinths are appearing everywhere, at least in the U.S., at churches of every denomination, retreat centers, schools, parks, homes. If humans suddenly disappeared and alien archeologists landed, they might believe that labyrinths are the core of our spiritual life.

Although labyrinths are visually appealing and an attractive addition to any garden or large indoor space, I have felt rather neutral about their use in spiritual practice. Having done many hours of walking meditation – maybe weeks if all totaled – ambulating to deepen spiritual insight is very familiar to me. Walking meditation can be practiced indoors or out, in a back and forth path, around in circles or in a straight line, fast or slow. You can do it anywhere. Its purpose is to collect the heart and mind in the present, to disengage awareness from the mental chatter and connect with a deeper way of knowing and of being. Labyrinths have seemed superfluous to that purpose.

Of course, a labyrinth is an ancient form of sacred circle, mandala, and medicine wheel. They hold a special energy. They are symbols of the divine feminine. So, despite my indifference, I figure, you can’t really have too many of them.

I thought I might warm up to labyrinths if I used one repeatedly. I didn’t want to miss out on what they might have to offer. Here, at Dechen Ling, was my opportunity.

The path of the labyrinth at Dechen Ling is defined by small stones. The design weaves the trail in and out, getting you closer and then farther away from the elusive center, until you finally reach the end of your journey at the heart of the spiral. This is a lovely symbol for the way our spiritual path usually unfolds. We seemingly get closer to our deepest aspirations, to our true nature, and then we lose track, get diverted, distracted and appear to be going in the wrong direction. We forget where we are or become overwhelmed. The labyrinth shows you that, ultimately, every step you take with intention, leads you, eventually, to the completion of your journey.

As I walked this labyrinth for the first time in warm mid-day sun, I thought of other places that offered structured walking practice. For example, when I had a massive vegetable garden in Massachusetts, first thing in the morning and when I returned from work, I would saunter up and down the rows, just to witness the life growing there and to see “what was new”. Fresh sprouts, leaves, buds, new flowers or fruits, ripenings or rottings, vegetables stolen or damaged by the local critters who wanted some of the bounty. It was really an exercise in being present, in connecting, in leaving behind the detritus of a burdened mind.

So like the garden, a labyrinth is a device, an excuse, an attraction, that invites meditative walking, makes it easy to begin and end, and to do repeatedly. We humans are a forgetful bunch and are easily dissuaded from doing what we know to be most important and true. Anything that reminds us to pause and wake up amidst the bustle and distractions of ordinary life is of enormous help.

Each day I slowly paced the inward course of the labyrinth. At the center, the place of completion, I performed the 11-directions ceremony, a ritual based on practices from around the world. Best known are the medicine wheel rituals of Native Americans. This labyrinth was laid out on an east-west axis, making it easy to align with the compass points. I offered a pinch of tobacco (a substance sacred to Native Americans across the continent) to each direction in a gesture of gratitude after I had given thanks to the benefactors of the quality represented by each direction. I asked for guidance and protection. And I clearly set my intentions and dedicated myself to be “a voice for the earth and all life”.  You learn that spiritual qualities dwell both within oneself and in the natural landscape. The 11-directions ceremony, like the labyrinth itself, offers a structure to return us to what is essential.

After doing this for several days, I appreciated the metaphors imbedded in the labyrinth’s form. It reminds us that we are on a meaningful journey. Many people’s lives are adrift, without purpose, and they miss the potentiality inherent in being human. They miss the opportunity to walk a path of transformation, a path not about transforming into someone better or different, but in transforming into someone who knows who you really are, able to see past the superficiality of ordinary views and delve into deeper truths. The journey of the labyrinth symbolically takes you to the innermost center, the source, the still point.

Sometimes the words labyrinth and maze are used interchangeably. However, this type of labyrinth is the opposite of a maze. Mazes are meant to confuse and they foster getting lost.  Walking a labyrinth, you are guided, step by step, to where you need to go. The choice is not about which way to go but whether to surrender to a process that is greater than oneself, to follow the mystery to its end. There is an inevitability built into a labyrinth.

Traditionally, the labyrinth is described as a journey of shedding worldly concerns on the inward course to the sacred center, and then returning outward to the world again, renewed. This was not exactly my experience. The inward track felt like a focusing, an intensifying of intention. The center, a complete stopping, the moment of simple Beingness. The walking outward was the shedding of all separation and becoming more inclusive until nothing is left out.
The Labyrinth


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Mountain Glow

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In this Tiny Daily Painting:

Snowdrifts are delightful to recreate with oil paint. A distant emerald ridge frames in a lone street lamp and new snow is making quiet our little busy street.

Read more about my process, inspirations and other daily paintings on my Instagram.

Artist: Carrie Pill

Medium: oil on stretched canvas.

Size: 2"(H) x 2"(L)

*This painting is unframed with black painted edges.

Painted with only professional artist quality oil paints.

Signed on the back and front-2020 piece

Artist retains all reproduction rights and copyrights.
Copyright 2020 Carrie Pill

*Free shipping or local delivery!*
(I would love to deliver this piece if it's new home is within reasonable driving distance of Rutland, Vermont.)

Display pictures are a color reference only. Keep in mind that colors may vary slightly.

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Central Data Catalog

Citation Information

Type Journal Article - Rev. Roum. Géogr.
Title La Perception Des Dysfonctionnements Du Développement Urbain Vue Par Les Habitants De Batna (Algérie)
Issue 58
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
Page numbers 57-71
URL http://www.rjgeo.ro/atasuri/RR Geographie 58_1/Lamia et al..pdf
The study aims to describe how the people of Batna feel urban dysfunction. Inspired by the approach of Veolia Observatory on urban lifestyles, this study is based on a questionnaire conducted among 416 residents of the town. The results of this research have established a real diagnosis of the dysfunctions of the city as seen and experienced by people. This investigation, gathering evidence, documents and experiments, revealed different perceptions of interviewed citizens’ knowledge and socio-cultural and demographic aspects.

Related studies


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Biological Sciences
Term : Summer 2017
Catalog Year : 2016-2017

BIO 202 - Human Anatomy/Physiology II

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Description: Body fluid, cardiovascular, digestive, respiratory, urinary, reproductive, and endocrine systems in health and disease. Letter grade only. Course fee required.

Units: 3

Sections offered: Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Spring 2022

Prerequisite: BIO 201 and BIO 201L Corequisite: BIO 202L

Sun Number:
BIO 2202

Sun Notes:
  • Both NAU courses BIO 202 and BIO 202L must be taken to equate to SUN BIO 2202


text:
Chinese New Year and Mother Tongue Week

母语双周活动于１月２９日至２月１日举行。活动内容围绕华族传统艺术。学生利用休息时间到食堂学剪纸和陀螺彩绘，还有猜灯谜及玩传统游戏等。恰逢春节，活动 活动区还添设了挥春和写新年贺词的摊位。图书馆内设新春拍照区，反应热烈。学生乐与猪八戒画像合影，以过个难忘的猪年。１月２９日周会，全校学生于礼堂欣赏精彩的京剧表演《猪八戒学武》。学生看了演员逗趣的演出，开怀大笑，不再觉得京剧曲高和寡。

CCA Achievements

Starting 2019, there has been a change in competition format for Basketball, Table Tennis and Wushu Junior Division competition due to the Junior Division Review. The changes seek to bring about more learning and developmental experiences for primary school pupils so as to develop in them a sustained lifelong enjoyment and participation in sports. With the strong guidance of the school leaders, committed staff, competent and dedicated coaches, as well as the unwavering support of our parents, our young gentlemen were able to rise to occasions at numerous times and do our school proud.

2019 CCA Achievements

Sports CCA Division Zone New Junior Competition Format National
Basketball Junior N.A Overall Champion for Tier 1 N.A
Basketball Senior Champion N.A 2nd
Softball Senior N.A N.A Champion
Table Tennis Senior Champion N.A 3rd
Volleyball Junior 2nd N.A 2nd
Volleyball Senior 2nd N.A Top 8
Wushu Senior N.A N.A 2nd
Uniformed Group CCA National
Cub Scouts Frank Cooper Sands Award (Gold)

2019 Enrichment Achievement

Enrichment National
Tennis 2nd

Catholic Affairs

Lent & Easter 2019

March heralded many activities for Catholics, Christians and others who were interested to find out more about our Pastoral Programme. The Season of Lent began with Fr Joe Lopez celebrating the Ash Wednesday mass at the Secondary School Hall. This was followed by a Penitential Service where the Archdiocesan Northern District priests celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Prior to the session, the Jesus & I teachers led a group of 200 pupils to examine their conscience using the Lord’s Prayer as a guide to how they can draw closer to God each day.

During the Fridays of Lent, pupils who attended the chapel sessions prayed the Stations of the Cross. Videos were used to aid their understanding of the Passion of Christ. The Charities Week envelopes were also handed out during this period as a reinforcement of almsgiving – one of the three pillars of Lent. This year, a combined washing of feet liturgy was held at the Secondary School Hall. Having explained the loving actions of Jesus teaching his disciples “servant leadership”, Ms Soh led the feet washing ritual and washed the feet of 12 participants including parents, teachers and Catholic pupils. In the evening, the younger primary pupils reflected on the passion of Jesus with their older brothers in a combined “prayer walk” to the Parish of Christ the King and attended Mass of the Lord’s Supper there. Parents accompanied the younger ones as part of a family Lenten reflection. An Easter fair was organised by the Catholic parents in conjunction with the Parent Support Group and they had a great time running game stalls that taught the pupils Easter is more than just “eggs and bunnies”. Scripture and lives of our saints formed the themes of these game stalls and the students were rewarded with candies and bookmarks. A special magnetic bookmark was commissioned for this occasion and distributed.  This came with a special Easter prayer card that guided them in prayer during the Season of Easter.

Pic.Easter Fair

Pic.Prayer Walk

Pic.Maundy Thursday

Participation in Pei Hwa Hackathon Event

Eight of our Primary Four pupils participated in the Pei Hwa Hackathon, organised by Pei Hwa Secondary School. The event, comprising a training session and the competition itself, was a great learning opportunity for our pupils to deepen their micro:bit coding and basic crafting (“Maker Movement”) skills collaboratively with their peers, and innovate competitively to create products that resolve authentic real-world problems.

Bilingual Scholar

Chinese Language 华文 Special Assistance Plan (SAP) 特选学校旗舰课程

11th Chung Cheng Cup 2019/ 第十一届中正杯象棋比赛

12岁以下组别成绩不俗，蒋庚澄 （4平安）、黎冠宏（6 仁爱）和 陈勇康（5仁爱）荣获殿军；9岁以下组别也成绩突出，蒋庚恒（3良善）、黄铭峰（3良善）和吴昱彤（3平安）荣获冠军；谢邵捷（3良善）、李骐全 （3温和）、黄宏翔（3良善）获得了殿军。

Visit from The Primary School Attached to Beijing University (Beidafuxiao)/ 北大附小访校
公教附小与北大附小文化交流 (2019)

2019 Hong Wen School National Primary School CNY Chinese Calligraphy Competition

林晋宇 四坚忍 第三名
黄凯俊 四坚忍 安慰奖
陈睿璘 四坚忍 安慰奖
侯敏之 二忠信 优胜奖
陈俊勋 三温和 优胜奖
丁宇轩 三平安 安慰奖

24th Char Yong Cup Xiangqi Competition 2019 第二十四届全国小学茶阳杯象棋比赛

来自象棋提升班的10名学生于3月16日代表公教附小参加了由象棋总会举办的第24 届“茶阳杯”全国学生象棋个人赛初赛。我们的学生表现出色，十名学生都进入了决赛。不仅如此，蒋庚澄 （4平安）更赢得西北区U10冠军，蒋庚恒（3良善）获得亚军，谢邵捷（3 良善）则获得第六名。

两周后，第24 届“茶阳杯”全国学生象棋个人赛决赛在甘榜格南民众俱乐部举行。我校在U10组别成绩不俗。蒋庚澄 （4平安）荣获冠军，蒋庚恒（3良善）获得了亚军，李骐全（3温和）夺得第六名。

Bilingual Scholar

Mastermind is a classic code – breaking board game of logic and deduction involving a code maker and a code breaker. It pits one player’s wits and analytical skills against another. The idea of the game is for one player (the code-breaker) to guess the secret code chosen by the other player (the code-maker). The code-breaker makes a series of pattern guesses. After each guess, the code-maker gives feedback, for example, the number of pegs that are of the right colour and in the correct position and the number of pegs that are of the correct colour but not in the correct position.

These numbers are usually represented by small black and white pegs. Every year, the pupils enjoy themselves while playing the game. This year, the Math department invited the Primary 4, 5 and 6 pupils to participate in the competition. The response was overwhelming. All in all, it was a successful competition.

P5 Diversity of Cells Lessons @ Science Centre

Our P5 young gentlemen embarked on a learning journey to the Singapore Science Centre to attend the workshop on Diversity of Cells to deepen their knowledge on cells.

The objective of this learning journey is for our young gentlemen to explore and observe the variety of life forms on Earth, cells in particular, through a microscope and appreciate their significance. Cells that were covered in the workshop include yeast, pond organisms, animals, plants and bacteria cells. At the same time, the boys also had the opportunity to learn how to use the microscope to view these cells and identify for themselves the differences between various cells. They understood the application of using microscope to identify microorganisms or cells.

It was indeed an enriching learning experience for our young gentlemen where their curiosity was stimulated through this experiential learning.

English Language Week S.T.A.G.E.

(Show, Tell, Act, Gateway to Expressing your linguistic self)

Through authentic learning experiences, S.T.A.G.E seeks to encourage a love for reading, promote the use of spoken English and spread the joy of learning language in a fun way. The theme for 2019 is ‘Famous People’ and our focus is on non-fictional texts of the life stories of inspiring individuals and the positive qualities pupils can glean from their life experiences.


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Parkland performs

Ian White, vice-president of strategic marketing & innovation

Acquisitions and initiatives driving big gains

Screen Shot 2019-05-24 at 4.00.12 PM

Calgary-based Parkland Fuel Corporation has become one of North America’s fastest growing independent marketers of fuel and petroleum products by focusing on enhancing the customer experience and expanding internationally.

Parkland has an honest Alberta pedigree and a firm foothold in Canada’s oil patch. The company started out as a cattle operation in Red Deer before morphing into a fuel leviathan with some 1,850 retail sites that include brands such as FasGas, UltraMar, Pioneer, and Chevron as well as RaceTrac in the U.S. The company’s current format was launched in 2010 when it moved its headquarters to Calgary and renamed itself Parkland Fuel Corporation.

Today, Parkland delivers gasoline, diesel, propane, lubricants, heating oil and other high-quality petroleum products to motorists, businesses, households and wholesale customers in Canada and the United States. It is also a leading operator of convenience stores with banners such as On The Run.

"Parkland continues to deliver strong performance across the enterprise,” says company president and chief executive officer Bob Espey, reporting a standout fourth quarter with the company reporting net earnings of $77 million up from $49 million in Q4 of 2017. Net earnings grew from $82 million in 2017 to $206 million in 2018. On a full-year basis, fuel and petroleum product volume was 17.0 billion litres, up 27 per cent year over year, driven primarily by incremental business from acquisitions.

Coming to customers with greater choice

According to Ian White, Parkland’s vice president of strategic marketing & innovation, their growth and increased scale allow for improved capabilities. “However, local brands will continue to play an important role and we will remain connected to the communities with local leadership and retail operators. Building new sites and retrofitting existing sites is a core part of our strategy. On The Run (OTR) will be associated with all Parkland forecourt brands with the goal of 1,000 OTR locations across Canada,” he says.

“Over the years, meaningful, exclusive local fuel brands such as Ultramar, Pioneer and Chevron have been added to the Parkland family,” he adds. “This past November, we partnered with mobile fueling company Filld and launched this service in Vancouver to offer even greater choice to customers where they can come to our stations or we can come to them at their business or homes. We intend to extend this service across major markets in Canada.”

Parkland reports the collaboration and official launch of Filld’s service in Vancouver came on the heels of Parkland’s co-leading a $15 million investment into Filld’s Series B preferred shares. As part of its investment in Filld, Parkland will be the exclusive supplier of fuel to Filld in Canada, and a preferred supplier of fuel to Filld in the United States.

Filld was founded in 2015 as a flexible, safe, scalable last mile infrastructure company that delivered fuel to customers’ vehicles in the San Francisco Area and Washington, D.C. Under the Parkland partnership, Filld will expand its mobile fuelling services to  Canadian communities throughout 2019 beginning with fleet services, then expanding to offer consumer service once operational efficiency and sufficient density are achieved.

The Filld program is an example of the proprietary enterprise loyalty program that is currently in pilot, which will include the Parkland ecosystem of brands, products and services working together. “We see this as an important competitive differentiator for (Parkland Fuel) as we move toward a relevant, personalized experience for our customers. Parkland is committed to offering customers choice when interacting with our market-leading brands across the country. As the operator of the Chevron stations in British Columbia, this innovative fuel delivery solution allows customers the opportunity to have quality fuel delivered to them in a safe and reliable manner in addition to filling up at one of our locations,” says White.

Expansion, meaningful acquisition and development initiatives driving gains

Last year Parkland retrofitted 78 existing On the Run/Marché Express locations and constructed 12 flagship sites.

With an eye to capturing three to five per cent annual retail growth, Parkland will invest in new locations, new dealer growth, private label, their loyalty program, and enhancing the customer experience through the On The Run rollout. On the commercial side, the company said it will leverage the Pipeline brand to create a national cardlock network and invest in trucking and routing optimization technologies.

“Our development initiatives will see the brand rolled out across our Canadian network in the coming years,” adds White. “In 2018, we expanded our private label brand, ‘59th Street Food Co.,’ and are now offering 20 products at select Parkland locations. We are planning to launch an additional 20 private label products in 2019. In addition, we are currently testing our ‘Journie’ loyalty program in two Canadian markets, and expect to expand the program across our network in 2019.

“Ongoing optimization of our commercial brand portfolio in various geographies has seen certain legacy operations, particularly in Eastern Canada, successfully rebranded to Ultramar. This enables Parkland to drive future growth and sustained profitability under one aligned customer value proposition.

“Parkland has a track record of successful acquisition and is always assessing new opportunities,” said White, mentioning their latest acquisition that Parkland hopes will broaden its import and export capabilities and expand distribution and supply points.

In January, Parkland announced the closing of its purchase of 75 per cent of the shares of Sol Investments Limited, which is the largest independent marketer and supplier of petroleum products in the Caribbean, operating in 23 jurisdictions.

“The opportunity to expand to a new geography and market through a strong business platform like Sol is an exciting time for Parkland. The assets and infrastructure we have acquired are proven, well known, and will enable Parkland to extend its supply advantage into a new region,” concludes CEO Espey, who is upbeat about Parkland’s opportunities for continued growth and market gains.

Originally published in the May/June issue of Octane.


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Latest Customer Stories

Mastercard Reduces MTTR and Improves Query Processing with Unravel Data

Mastercard is one of the world’s top payment processing platforms, with more than 700 million cards in use worldwide. In the US, nearly 40% of American adults hold a Mastercard-branded card. And the company is going from strength to strength; despite a dip in valuation of more than a third when the pandemic hit, the company has doubled in value three times in the last nine years, recently reaching a market capitalization of more than $350B dollars.

Ritual's formula for a 360 view of customer acquisition data

At Ritual, we’ve re-imagined multivitamins — bringing high-quality nutrients to our customers and helping them make healthy habits a daily ritual. Those core beliefs and our use of data have helped us thrive in a crowded market. In a recent webinar, I joined my colleague Kira Furuichi, Manager of Data & Analytics, to share how Looker has supported customer acquisition and provided cross-team perspectives and insights that have helped us get ahead.

Rappi Relies on Splunk Observability Cloud to Meet its 30-Minute Guarantee

Hear from Rappi’s EVP Engineering, Alejandro Comisario about how as one of the largest technology startups in Latin America, the on-demand delivery service relies on the Splunk Observability Cloud for real-time, end-to-end visibility across its complex backend system of 1k+ microservices. Since COVID-19 Rappi has grown 300%, relying on Splunk’s real-time observability to eliminate app issues for customers and stay on top of its infrastructure, applications, and overall business. With Splunk APM, Rappi now has in-depth insights into service behavior and directed troubleshooting, bringing developers’ mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR) down by 90+%.

Grifols: Creating Flexibility and Speed through a Unified Data System

Bio pharmaceutical company Grifols is a global leader in producing plasma-derived medicines and transfusion medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic heightened the importance of their work and they needed a flexible, paperless, and unified techincal solution in place. See why they chose Appian for their control management system, and how they've reduced processing times in order to serve patients better.

Ritual's top 3 tips for nurturing a strong data culture

If you haven’t given much thought to your daily multivitamin, now might be a good time. At Ritual, we’ve re-imagined multivitamins — bringing high-quality nutrients to our customers and helping them make healthy habits a daily ritual (does it get more convenient than vitamins mailed directly to your door?). One of the ways we’re leading the pack is through our commitment to creating and sustaining a data-driven culture.

How a journey to the cloud helps a fintech leader deliver quality products

Securrency is a technology products company that delivers a complete suite of security and compliance tools. Their complex suite of financial technology needs to have top performance and security. Currently, Securrency has 50 developers working across their multiple software products and this software requires thorough testing. They have a dedicated QA team that does manual and automated testing.

Covea Insurance drives customer service innovation with ServiceNow

The insurance sector is incredibly competitive and tightly regulated, so being able to provide great customer service is vital to success. And having the right technology is imperative to delivering quality service. At Covéa Insurance, the UK arm of France’s top mutual insurance group, we provide commercial, motor, high-net worth, property, pet, and protection insurance to more than 2 million customers.

Instana Customer Case Study: Immocloud Unlocks Observability to Modernize Real Estate

Immocloud is a new online solution that makes managing real estate more efficient by fully digitizing processes between tenants and landlords. Users of Immocloud are able to provide restricted access to tax and bank consultants, as well as a variety of other necessary landlord partners, such as cleaning services and maintenance. A variety of digital services are offered through Immocloud, including banking integrations, document management, as well as landlord-to-tenant communication tools.

Standard Chartered Bank Embraces Digital Identity to Grow

Standard Chartered Bank is changing the future of banking by simplifying authentication for its customers --letting customers decide the best way to access their accounts and get things done, without jumping through extra hoops. In the ultra-competitive world of retail banking, customer service is the competitive advantage and identity is key. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Alan Chiew, Executive Director and Head of Technology at Standard Chartered Bank.

Enhanced customer experience: A conversation with Rogers Communications

The success of a modern business starts with recognizing the value of the customer and committing to provide a great experience. The best companies do this by putting respect and empathy at the core of every interaction. In today’s new era of work, delivering an enhanced customer experience has become increasingly connected with the employee experience. This creates new opportunities for organizations to drive stronger satisfaction for both parties simultaneously.


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***Due to Covid -19, staff are working remotely from home, following State Guidelines for Shelter in Place.  Staff can be reached through email and all updates and necessary materials will also be posted on this website under their participant heading- Coordinator, Director Mentors, Mentors. Stay in, and stay healthy!***

***Coordinators: Regarding Seminars, please follow the advice of your colleges for gatherings. If your college has moved online, please do so for Seminars as well.***

***Check our Blog for updates from the California Department of Education***

The California Early Childhood Mentor Program (CECMP) is funded by the California Department of Education’s (CDE) Early Learning and Care Division (ELCD) as one of the State’s Quality Projects under Quality Counts California (QCC). Mentors receive stipends for their leadership and guidance with mentees across the state of California serving 104 Community Colleges and their communities.

The four primary goals of CECMP are:

  • To provide quality community placements for Community College ECE students in their final practicum with certified Mentor teachers.
  • To provide any Director in Early Childhood Education, who is seeking mentorship, a Certified Director Mentor.
  • To build workforce capacity in leadership skills through professional development which includes Community of Practice Monthly Seminars and yearly Institutes on topics reflecting best practices in the ECE field
  • To encourage leadership opportunities in mentoring, training, facilitating, advocacy and community collaboration with compensation through stipends

The Mentor program supports a diverse workforce and diverse programs. These programs include family childcare, private centers, state pre-schools, and Head Starts.  50% of the CECMP certified sites have a quality rating through Quality Counts California, with 81% of those sites rating at a 4 or 5.

CECMP also supports Dual Language Learners with 54% of our Mentors speaking a second language.

Get in Touch

California Early Childhood Mentor Program
C/O Chabot College
25555 Hesperian Boulevard
Hayward, California 94545
p: 510-723-7100
f: 510-723-6631

Send Us a Message

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@article {14151, title = {A model for stripping multicomponent vapor from unsaturated soil with free and trapped residual nonaqueous phase liquid}, journal = {Water Resources Research}, volume = {35}, year = {1999}, month = {02/1999}, pages = {385-406}, chapter = {385}, abstract = {

We present a model for the multicomponent vapor transport due to air venting in an unsaturated zone in the presence of free and trapped phases of residual nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL). On the microscale the soil particles are assumed to form spherical aggregates with micropores filled with immobile water, trapped phases of NAPL and air. The interaggregate space is occupied with mobile air, and a thin film of free NAPL adheres on the aggregate surface. While the free NAPL can readily be in equilibrium with macropore vapor, the mass transfer from immobile phases in aggregates is rate-limited by aqueous diffusion. This model enables us to predict the vapor concentrations of various chemical species and the free NAPL saturation over the macroscale, based on the detailed understanding of the aqueous concentrations of the species and the trapped NAPL saturation within the aggregates. The model is compared favorably with some experimental data of sparging multicomponent vapor out of an intact core taken from a contaminated site. The distinctive features of multicomponent transport, clearly exhibited by the data, are further examined in the simulations of a hypothetical case of three-aromatic vapor transport under a radial flow field. It is found that while the vapor concentration of the most volatile component drops monotonically with time, those of the less volatile may rise as their mole fractions in the NAPL increase. The vapor concentration of a heavy component may have a local maximum at the evaporation front of the free NAPL. In the case of radial flow the free NAPL has two receding evaporation fronts. Condensation of the heavy component downstream of the far front causes a temporary increase of its total concentration there. With trapped NAPL and soil aggregation the macroscale transport is retarded, and the effluent concentrations end up in noticeable tailing.

}, doi = {10.1029/98WR02166}, author = {Ng, Chiu-On and Mei, Chiang C. and Ostendorf, David W.} }


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APEX LEGENDS World Records. Can YOU do better?

Sharing This Story

It is  no surprise that Respawn‘s Apex Legends already have some world records under it’s belt. Here is a short list.

The game has already left its mark on the Battle Royal Genre with the outstanding launch and number of players

sky-rocketing within the first 2 weeks and reaching an all time high in Battle Royal.  With that being said, we can already

expect Apex Legends to have a good launch in esports with well-known teams signing up some teams.

Apex Legends World Records – Last Updated February 17, 2019

Solo vs Trio with 36 Kills Mendokusaii

Trio with 41 Kills ssjfpsTV, ItsScubby, SHAAFFER

Console (PS4/Xbox One)

Solo vs Trio with 29 Kills Casdg_

Trio with 40 Kills CruisingPaladin, rickyjosephbarr, zcjp

Think you can do better than that ?

Send us proof via video/image @CEGmlt and we’ll take a look.

Posted by Darryl Bonnici

Founder of CEG and an Esports enthusiast.
Follow me on my social media below to get updated on my articles and some friendly posts too.


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Warner Music Group

Warner Launches $100M Fund To Help Aid Anti-Racism Efforts Across The US

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(CelebrityAccess) – Warner Music Group and the Blavatnik Family Foundation have announced a new $100 million fund aimed at supporting “charitable causes related to the music industry, social justice and campaigns against violence and racism”.

The announcement arrives just over a week after the tragic killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis last week, and one day after the music industry at large participated in #BlackOutTuesday as a show of solidarity with the Black community in the ongoing fight to end systemic racism.

“This fund will support the extraordinary, dedicated organizations that are on the front lines of the fight against racism and injustice, and that help those in need across the music industry,” explained Steve Cooper, CEO, Warner Music Group. “Our advisory panel, which will draw from a diverse cross-section of people from our team and the wider community, will help us be very thoughtful and accountable in how we make an impact. We’re determined to contribute, on a sustained long-term basis, to the effort to bring about real change.”

According to WMG, the advisory panel, which will be responsible for determining the amount of financial aid and timing of its disbursement, will also establish procedures to identify and support those in the music community alongside organizations that are working to strengthen education and promote equality, opportunity, diversity and inclusion.

The Blavatnik Family Foundation is exclusively self-funded by Len Blavatnik, a majority owner and the founder and chairman of Access Industries, a privately-held industrial group based in the US. Access is the majority owner of Warner Music Group, which is expected to go public on the Nasdaq today (June 3).

Related Post


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At Cenacolo Restaurant, we are committed to family, community, and to delivering an exceptional dining experience for our patrons. It’s all about service and the dedication to provide excellence.

If you want to be appreciated for your work and your contribution to crafting an enjoyable dining experience in a wholesome atmosphere, consider joining the team at Cenacolo.

Call us at 724-515-5983 to learn more about what a career with Cenacolo can offer you.


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Which is better going to gym or yoga?

Gym sessions focus on boosting your cardiovascular health and toning, without any focus on the aspect of mental health. However, the rush of endorphins after exercising will definitely make you feel better. Yoga focuses on spiritual enlightenment and broadens your emotional awareness.

Which is better gym or yoga?

Reasons why yoga is more beneficial for your body than gym:

And this while creating more firm muscles. Whereas gym is centred just around reinforcing muscles and boosting cardio. Not only this yoga reduces aches & pains from our body. Gym exercises build pains in many areas of the body.

Which is better gym or yoga to lose weight?

Gym workouts are much more rigorous than yoga, and involve rapid moves that help your body toned up and reducing weight. It not only increases the tension on your body muscles but also bulks them up. You cannot accept unifying your mind, body and spirit with Gym workout; only weight loss can be considered.

IT IS INTERESTING:  When did CorePower yoga start?

Should I exercise or yoga first?

Yoga for stretching is best done after a workout. This is because you can target all of the areas you just used and really stretch all of the muscles that you just worked. This will help you to recover faster and can also aid in bringing your heart rate back down in order to make you mindful again.

Can Yoga change your body shape?

“Yoga has the potential to increase fat loss, develop muscle tone, and build flexibility, leading to a more lean-looking physique,” he says. If flexibility and balance are what you’re after, even the gentlest forms of yoga will do the trick. Many types also help you build muscle strength and endurance.

Does yoga reduce belly fat?

Practicing yoga may also help you develop muscle tone and improve your metabolism. While restorative yoga isn’t an especially physical type of yoga, it still helps in weight loss. One study found that restorative yoga was effective in helping overweight women to lose weight, including abdominal fat.

Which time is best for yoga?

The very best time to practice yoga is first thing in the morning before breakfast. Upon waking, empty the bowels, shower if you wish, then commence the day with your regime of yoga practices. The second most conductive time is early evening, around sunset.

Which exercise is best for weight loss?

Here are the 8 best exercises for weight loss.

  1. Walking. Walking is one of the best exercises for weight loss — and for good reason. …
  2. Jogging or running. Jogging and running are great exercises to help you lose weight. …
  3. Cycling. …
  4. Weight training. …
  5. Interval training. …
  6. Swimming. …
  7. Yoga. …
  8. Pilates.
IT IS INTERESTING:  Frequent question: What is the belief behind yoga?

19 авг. 2019 г.

What are the disadvantages of yoga?

What are the disadvantages of Yoga?

  • Yoga may induce your blood pressure. …
  • Physical dangers of yoga. …
  • Risk of Stroke. …
  • Hot Yoga is not for everyone. …
  • Lack of experience or knowledge is risky.

Is it OK to do yoga everyday?

Practicing yoga everyday is possible and encouraged. Benefits such as increased energy, mobility, and flexibility are obtained. When practicing yoga everyday it is important to switch up your routine with easy flows and routines that push your body. Having this balance will bring you the most benefit.

How many days a week should I do yoga?

A general rule of thumb is that yoga is best when practiced between three and five times per week. As you ease your way into a consistent practice schedule, that’s a good goal to aim for! Over time, you might find that your body can handle five or six sessions each week.

Can you lose weight with yoga?

Yoga is a practice that can help build a stronger connection between your mind and body. While there are many types of yoga, some focus more on meditation and mindfulness, and others focus on strength and endurance. As part of a regular exercise regimen, yoga can help you lose weight because it burns calories.

What happens to your body when you do yoga everyday?

Yoga improves your balance (in body and mind)

Balancing yoga postures help the brain to fire neurons that help with muscle memory and spatial awareness, and using the feet regularly in a daily yoga practice can strengthen the muscles of the foot, of which there are over 100!

IT IS INTERESTING:  Is Qigong good for back pain?

Can yoga alone tone your body?

Yoga and Muscle Tone

You can do it anywhere and it requires no special equipment. It also enhances flexibility, endurance as well as muscle tone. Yoga asanas (or poses) have a dual function – some of the poses use your body weight to tone your muscles, while others strengthen the muscles.

What happens if you do yoga everyday for a month?

After a month of practicing yoga every day, I noticed a physical change, too. I could get deeper into stretches and poses than I could at the beginning, and my muscles allowed me to hold them longer. My breathing became more fluid, deeper, and more consistent.

Balance philosophy


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Have you looked at your roof lately? Chances are, it looks pretty dirty – which makes sense, because it gets a continuous beating from the weather and the environment. But, does it really matter if your roof isn’t spotless?

Actually, yes, it does. Here’s why you need a roof cleaning service:

1. Those black streaks and stains aren’t just dirt. Your roof is hosting algae, lichens, and moss. These organisms start growing on the north side of your roof. Your roof is food to them. They are feasting on the organic materials in your shingles. You need a roof cleaning service to get rid of these organisms.

2. Roof algae, lichens, and moss destroy your roof. These organisms eat right through your shingles and down to the roof deck, causing wood rot. If you want to avoid permanent roof damage and costly repairs, getting a roof wash is essential.

3. A clean roof reduces health risks. Left untreated, wood rot caused by organisms growing on your roof will pose health risks for your family. When wood rots, it allows moisture to get in through the cracks. This creates a perfect environment for mold growth, which is a well-known cause of serious health problems. Mold can seriously affect people and pets by causing allergies and asthma. Cleaning your roof will eliminate this health risk.

4. Roof cleaning increases curb appeal. Large black stains on the roof do not make your home look attractive. A roof cleaning service will clear your roof of unpleasant algae, moss, and lichens, restoring the beauty of your home. You don’t want an ugly roof to be the main focal point of your home’s exterior.

house windows

The bottom line? Take care of your roof and get it cleaned on a regular basis. Roof cleaning services will restore the appearance of your roof and remove destructive mold and algae. You’ll extend the life of your roof and avoid costly roof repairs or replacement.

Schedule a consultation with the roof washing experts at Central Window Cleaning to find out how we can help maintain your home.