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The trailblazing Johanna Rodrigues

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The trailblazing Johanna Rodrigues  B-Girl Jo Dancing is the poetry of the feet ~  John Dryden  Dance with your heart and your feet will follow ~ Mia Michaels ( edited) True human potential is only embraced when we overcome stereotypes and social barriers. Case in point:  Johanna Rodrigues aka   b-girl Jo  has been 'breaking' the mould, blazing new trails in the sport of Breaking. Check out this Red Bull cover story of Johanna Rodrigues   Long before Johanna began improvising breaking routines combining Indian classical B haratnatyam dance, Kalaripayattu martial arts and Yoga training with headstands and backflips in a quest to "redefine femininity", she found inspiration at home in her fearless mother (and my first cousin) Rhoda.   Early days She remembers her early days in these words, “My mother, who is widowed, didn’t have much extra time on her hands to take me to different classes. But what she did was to enrol me into neighbourhood yoga lessons when I was 12. T

Yosemite Valley in Fall

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   Yosemite Valley draped in Fall colours We finally made it to Yosemite Valley for an overnight trip, inspired no doubt by the indelible photos of Ansel Adams featured in the National Geographic magazine. With the recent rains and splendid Fall weather, it was everything one could hope for and more ... Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space  ~ Ansel Adams Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park located in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California.  Yosemite valley is encased in impressive granite monoliths (Half Dome and El Capitan being the two most iconic) - making for some of the most spectacular and challenging rock climbing faces in the world !! The Valley floor features the gentle Merced river (aka River of Mercy) winding its way through dense pine forests.  Yosemite falls (actually 3 separate falls) drops a total of 2,425 feet (739 m) from the top to the base. I

Planting milkweed for endangered California Monarch butterflies

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Planting milkweed for endangered California Monarch butterflies   2021 saw an uptick in the number of Monarch  ( Danaus plexippus )   butterflies at the Monarch Grove at Pismo State Beach in Central California, the largest sanctuary in the state. Counts in recent years revealed a 90% population drop from 25 years ago. In 2020, there were 300 butterflies. This year, the trend is more favourable with than 20,000 counted. This is a far cry from the past. In the 1980s, there were 4 to 10 million butterflies overwintering on the California coast, but those numbers dropped in the 1990s and a 1997 count revealed 1.2 million butterflies. From 1998 on, there were never more than a few hundred thousand monarchs.  Major threats to monarch population are climate change causing extremely wet and cold conditions in the O yamel forests of Mexico,   loss of milkweed habitat (due to uptick in use of pesticides like RoundUp, Permethrin for West Nile control etc), deforestation (including strangely the

Baylands Nature Trail

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 Biking along the Baylands Nature Trail Life is like riding a bike, you gotta stay balanced and keep moving to reach your destination ~  Albert Einstein (edited) I dusted off my dirt bike and hit the open trails along Shoreline Park - a 16.7 mile stretch mostly along the SW edge of San Francisco Bay waterfront. The route incorporates both paved and unpaved paths that skirt a series of undisturbed tidal marshland or sloughs called the Baylands, stretching from Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve to the North all the way to Shoreline Park further south and extending into downtown Mountain View via Steven's Creek Trail. When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle I highly recommend taking along a good pair of binoculars and stopping often to admire the breathtaking scenery.  Ch

Old fashioned Fig Preserve

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 Old fashioned Fig Preserve  Shout out to my friend and gardener nonpareil Rajiv who has a Nagronne Fig ( Ficus carica 'Negronne' ) tree that had a bountiful harvest.  Unsurprisingly fig recipes were the highlight this summer, allowing us to relive many favourite recipes we first encountered in the late 80s when we lived on the Island of Cyprus. This old fashioned fig preserve containing chunks of tree-ripened Nagronne figs.  Figs have a natural, honey-like sweetness, so lemon adds a nice bit of acidity and brightness.  Truly a h eavenly treat, no fig-ure of speech!! Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious. ~ Ruth Reichl This fig preserve is very versatile - limited only by your imagination. I found this blog that lists 15 ways to use fig preserves.  Ingredients: 3 pounds tree ripened figs (approximately 9 cups) 3 pounds sugar (approximately 6 and 1/2 cups) 2 lemons, sliced, remove seeds Method: 1. Wash the tree ripened figs in cold water,

Grape Juice Dessert

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  Palouzes - Dessert made from Red Grape Juice Cypriot Palouzes, called Moustalevria in Greece, is made from the juice of freshly pressed tree-ripened red grapes. Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life. ~ Maya Angelou I have reproduced a recipe I found on this website Ingredients: 10 cups of Grape Juice ( mousto ) 10 tbsp of whole wheat flour or cornstarch 4-5 leaves of kiouli (arbaroriza aka Pelargonium or 'Citronella'  or Scented Geranium) for the aroma 1 branch of basil 1/5 tsp of mastic crushed powder 2 tbsp of rose water Roughly crushed almonds or walnuts as garnish Method: In three cups of mousto, dilute the flour and pour it through a fine strainer to collect whatever is not diluted. In a large pot pour the remaining mousto. Wash the basil and kiouli leaves well under running water. Add the kiouli leaves and the basil. Place it on the stove to heat up. W

Stanford Dish Trail

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Stanford Dish Trail  Today, I want to share with you one of my favourite hiking trails!! The Stanford Dish Loop Trail is a 3.7 mile loop recreational trail located in Stanford, California that offers panoramic views of Stanford Campus (with the distinctive Hoover Tower) and the Southern Peninsula stretching from San Francisco (North) to Oakland (East) to San Jose (South) to Los Altos Hills (West). The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step ~   Lao Tzu The best view comes after the hardest climb! The Stanford Dish trail, accessible year-round, is primarily used for walking and running (biking is verboten).  There are three gated entrances.  Most visitors use the Stanford Ave. gate, located where Stanford Ave. intersects with Junipero Serra Blvd. Limited parking on first-come-first-serve basis is available on Stanford Ave. The Gerona gate is near Campus Dr. and Lake Lagunita, but there is no parking.  The Alpine gate is near Interstate 280 on Alpine Rd. at Piers Lane and a