Reunion in Montreal

This weekend I am in Montreal celebrating my 50th high school reunion.  Many years ago, after a particularly unhealthy year for me, my parents shipped me off to boarding school in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.  I was excited about the prospect of going away to school but also apprehensive as well.  The school was called King’s Hall and it was in the town of Compton.  Compton is in the middle of nowhere.  We would take the train from Montreal and disembark at the train station in the town and then drive to the school.  Not quite in horse-drawn buggies during my time but it might as well have been.  We were in farm country.  On the rare occasions that we were allowed to leave the campus we would walk down the dirt road to watch the pigs do what pigs do when there are both boy and girl pigs in the field and to pick apples.  No question in my mind that the apples from Compton are still the best.  A good friend brought me some a couple of weeks ago that she and her children had picked that day and the moment I bit into the first apple I was taken back to that first autumn at boarding school.

The school was run by a woman named Adelaide Gillard who in my mind looked like a cross between Queen Victoria and my grandmother.  Miss Gillard, or Gilly as she was affectionately called, was from England and she ruled the school with a strong will and a good dose of determination to turn each and every one of us into a “lady”.  We were taught to speak properly, to clean out the bath after using it, to make our beds, polish our shoes and to behave at dances.  Along to the way we learned English and French, lots of different French classes and Math and Biology and History.  We learned to eat fast because if you didn’t you might not get any food.  We ate family style with a mistress at the head of the table and always said grace.  I hated liver and always managed to avoid it.  We were served big, English style meals with very well cooked vegetables.  The only thing I learned to like there besides cake and ice cream was turnip.  To this day I love turnip but noone else in my household does.  Our school song is “Forty Years On”.  Well we have surpassed that milestone and now gather to celebrate making it to 50.

We learned to get along with our room mates and we made friends that last for 50+ years.  In fact, my roommate is coming this weekend and we will stay together at my mother’s.  It is so good to see her and to catch up on where we have been for the last five years.  I was quite lucky that I had a number of cousins who were at school when I went there.  In fact, there were five of us there at one time.  Not all in the same class but we were there and it was comforting to me to know they were there.  I still managed to get sick with wonderful illnesses like pneumonia and pleurisy and then whooping cough which both kept me at home and out of school for extended periods of time so it was a miracle that I actually graduated.  I swore I would never go back to school again as it made me sick – literally.  However, I married a teacher and have lived the rest of my life in and around boarding and day schools.  So much for that vow.  To this day I can recount the poem we learned for elocution “I had to laugh (lawff) to see a calf (cawff) walk down a path (pawth) a mile and a half (hawff) to take a bath (bawth) in an inch and a half (hawff) of water (whawter)” and don’t get me started on “orange” or “squirrel”.

PS:  Here we are and what fun it was to get together.  Everyone looked wonderful and none of us thought we looked any older than we did 50 years ago.  The beauty in the eye of the beholder.

Finding Yoga on the Go

Of course I am back in school this year and we are on the home stretch with just about five weeks to go.  My investigation this week has brought me to a website called Yoga International.  I was looking for a way to practice Yoga without actually going to class since I will be moving back and forth a lot this winter between New Hampshire and Canada.  Right now am trying to find some on-line classes that I can actually do.  My skill is not up to doing some of the things that I see on their website.  I want restorative Yoga, simple Yoga, and the breathing exercises.  Here is a link  to some breathing exercises found on their site.

End of Salad Season Hello Soup Season

Once the days start getting shorter we move from fresh, lovely salad greens and tomatoes into what I prefer to call Soup Season.  I want the vegetables, my body craves vegetables but sometimes I just don’t want something cold for lunch I want something hot.  Here comes soup.  I pack as many vegetables as I can into the soup, add some healthy broth and some spices and voila, a nourishing soup to keep me going.  So I am experimenting with different soups and chili’s.  This week I made my first butternut squash and apple soup.  I added cream but that doesn’t work for me so I will make it without the cream next time.  However, John likes it so he is quite happy to finish it up.  I think I will try adding yogurt to the soup instead.  Cream and I just aren’t friends.  Here is the recipe – enjoy!

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As always, your first consultation is Complimentary

Are you happy with where you are and how you feel? What can I help you with? Are you ready to get started?  To find out more I am offering a Complimentary half-hour Health Consultation.  Tell me a little bit about yourself by filling out the on-line form and we can schedule your initial complimentary consultation.  Since I am still at the beginning of my practice I am offering special pricing as well as individualized options.  Submit the form and tell me how you want to be contacted and I will get in touch.  I did have a few people give it a try this week and got good reviews.  Let me know what you think.   Have a great week everyone.