Skin Food and Late Summer Fun on the Farm

52 @ 50 - no. 9 - Climbing a Tree

Although '52@50' was supposed to be for things I haven't done before, I think this counts -  I haven't climbed a tree for years!! I was challenged by the friend I was with to climb this wonderful tree on a visit to Petworth House. She shinned up the tree swiftly and easily but I was a bit reticent - as you can see from the photo of my ascent. However, seeing as there were 2 small boys and my friend already up there I couldn't wimp out...Simple pleasures of being outside, being spontaneous, challenging myself and enjoying the view from a different perspective.

Going up.... slowly!

Holding on tightly!

52 @ 50 - no.10 - Making Natural Beauty Products

It's easy to find healthy recipes so we can cook ourselves nutritious food but, although organic skincare products are becoming more and more available to buy in the shops, making them yourself is not so common.  On a recommendation I booked myself in for a 1 day course at Trill Farm near Axminster in Devon to learn how to make skincare products from natural ingredients.  

Trill Farm is a 300 acre organic farm in Devon that hosts a number of small independent enterprises who together produce a range of their own products such as salad leaves, skincare products, wool blankets, wooden products and herbal teas. The farm was bought in 2008 by Romy Fraser, the founder of Neal's Yard Remedies, and today it is a thriving mix of education centre, small businesses, b&b and charitable trust. 

The one-day course started in the farm's herb garden so we could pick the flowers and leaves that we would need to make our products, and then it was back to the classroom to learn how to make a simple body lotion, a toothpaste and a lip balm.  This involved lots of weighing, measuring, stirring and sniffing and it really was more like cooking than chemistry.

A beautiful basket of herbs

It was a wonderfully inspiring day in a beautiful, peaceful environment. The fact that I stayed the in the farm's b&b the night before and after the course added to the fun. There was good company with lots of lovely food too, and I'm coming back home wanting to learn more about how I can use the plants in my own garden to make more of my own lotions and potions.

Trill Farm

Salad leaves growing in one of the polytunnels

How Yoga Helps Your Skin

As well as using natural products to help keep our skin healthy on the outside, our yoga practice can also help the skin - from the inside out. During yoga we move the body and therefore the blood, breathe deeply, bringing fresh oxygen into the body and helping to clear out waste products. The mind quietens down and the parasympathetic nervous system (often called 'rest and digest') takes over, leaving us feeling rested yet energised.

Good circulation is crucial to our health because the blood needs to be flowing freely around the body to feed cells with oxygen and glucose. In the standing and sitting postures, the contraction and stretching of the muscles helps pump the blood to the heart. The inverted poses (such as shoulderstand and headstand) use gravity to improve the flow of blood to the heart (although these poses are not recommended for those with high blood pressure) and in the supine, relaxing poses, especially savasana, the muscles are relaxed and blood flows freely through the capillaries.  

Yoga helps improve the function of the lymphatic system too - the contraction and relaxation of the muscles improves the flow of lymph, a fluid that, on it's journey through the body, collects bacteria and delivers them to the lymph nodes to be filtered and destroyed. It's our drainage system and we need to help it flow freely so it doesn't get stagnant 

Your skin is also affected by the quality of your sleep. During sleep the body uses oxygen more efficiently. It produces less of the stress hormone cortisol, and less adrenaline and nor-adrenaline which allows constricted blood vessels to release and the blood to flow freely to rebuild the cells in your body, including skin cells.  The deep breathing and relaxing postures we practice in yoga help to normalise blood pressure and quieten the busy thoughts which often prevent us from falling asleep too. A few postures just before bed will help set you up for a good night's sleep.  This week's class for members of Thrive Yoga is a 25 minute Restorative Class which shows you how to make yourself a bolster to support the body, and takes you through 3 poses that will completely relax you.

This week's recipe... Asparagus and Avocado Potato Salad

Avocado is great for your skin as it contains healthy fats, vitamins and antioxidants. This recipe from Deliciously Ella uses avocado instead of mayonnaise so it's much better for you. It's really easy to make and looks very pretty in the bowl too.

  

You will need...

1kg of new potatoes
150g of asparagus (chopped into small pieces)
2 avocados
5 spring onions (chopped)
10g of chives (chopped)
5g of mint (chopped)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
Lots of salt and pepper

• Boil the potatoes until just soft. 
• Add the chopped asparagus and cook for a further one minute, then remove from the heat. Drain and leave to cool.
• In a food processor, blend the flesh of the avocados with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. When smooth, mix in the chopped chives, mint and spring onions.
• Stir the avocado mixture into the potatoes, sprinkle with the remaining spring onion and chives and serve. 

Note: this recipe produces a large amount - I did half-measures as I was only cooking for 3.

I didn't see a kingfisher while I was at Trill Farm, although I can imagine they do live around the peaceful ponds there, but I thought I'd share these photographs with you because they are so beautiful and are a reminder that patience and perseverance can help us reach our dreams....

After 6 Years and 720,000 Attempts, Photographer Finally Takes Perfect Shot Of Kingfisher

Alan McFadyen, who has been an avid wildlife photographer since 2009, just captured a photo that he has spent 6 years trying to get. By his count, it took him 4,200 hours and 720,000 photos to get a perfect shot of a kingfisher diving straight into the water without a single splash.

“The photo I was going for of the perfect dive, flawlessly straight, with no splash required not only me to be in the right place and get a very lucky shot but also for the bird itself to get it perfect,” McFadyen told The Herald Scotland. “I would often go and take 600 pictures in a session and not a single one of them be any good. But now I look back on the thousands and thousands of photos I have taken to get this one image, it makes me realise just how much work I have done to get it.”

McFadyen, who also runs a wildlife photography hide business, was inspired to love nature and wildlife by his grandfather. “I remember my grandfather taking me to see the kingfisher nest and I just remember being completely blown away by how magnificent the birds are. So when I took up photography I returned to this same spot to photograph the kingfishers.”

“I remember my grandfather taking me to see the kingfisher nest and I just remember being completely blown away by how magnificent the birds are. I’m sure my grandfather would have loved it, I just wish he could have seen it. All of my family contacted me when they saw it and said he would have been so proud of it."

And finally... this week's musical offering...

Fitting in with the theme of my visit to Trill Farm and offering you some accompaniement to your Savasana and restorative poses, here's a relaxing track from Rudy Adrian called Summer Fields....