Nine days and nery a word…  I still had a few Vancouver events to tell you about, but I got sucked into some amazing books, and playing catch-up at work.  I wish I could say that I had spent my time finishing my Olympics sweater… but nope… it’s still in the bag I put it in before we left for the trip.  

Spending two full weeks in Vancouver was fabulous – but one of the biggest highlights of the trip for us was getting out of the city itself, heading north to take a hike in the rainforest.

It rains in the rainforest.  But we didn’t let that stop us!

Our wonderful hosts, Chris and Christa, took us up to North Vancouver to hike at Lynn Canyon.  In the photo above, you see that Kris and I are standing on a suspension bridge – high above the river below!  I am okay with heights (for the most part) but there was a decent amount of traffic on the bridge, so I was holding on as I crossed and looked over to the river below.  

The temperate rain forest is a beautiful thing.  We saw glimpses of it during our trip to the Olympic Peninsula last year, and were able to compare it with the tropical rainforest and cloud forests we saw in Peru in 2007.  The temperate rain forest is not hot, but there is a mist and an insulating humidity.  Much like the mist machines at the market that spray the fruits and veggies with water… you get a little “dewy”. 

Like a dreamscape – the large and commanding trees covered with the lush, verdant moss.

Seeing the forest and the river renewed and inspired us. 

Many more photos – including some lovely macros of the mosses and more of the river and trees are over on Kris’s blog.  He also did a great post about one of our other events – our trip to the Vancouver Aquarium.  He took all the photos that day, and he got some great shots.  Check them out! 

It’s those pauses in between when “life” happens… the pause between this activity and that one. The pause between the inhale and the exhale. The pause between placing one foot down and picking up the other.

Taking the pauses as they come – realizing them for the true gifts that they are. Not rushing to end the pause. It is in these pauses when calmness and clarity come. In a world where “multitasking” is revered, and countless hours are spent doing too many things at once, it is all the more meaningful to take the time to really explore the stillness.

Even the most menial tasks can be enjoyed when you simply think about what you are doing at the present moment. One of my favorite tasks for “living in the moment” is washing the dishes. The simple act of turning on the faucet, wetting my hands and a cloth, preparing the soap. I think about the science of it and I think about the art of it. I think about how I am grateful for indoor plumbing and for even having a pot to wash. With these thoughts in mind, you can wash a dozen dishes and also invite the stillness into your mind. It’s a lovely exercise – try it!

Mindfulness is so simple, yet so few people in our society do it. I am doing some research right now on mindfulness in yoga practice for my final project for Teacher Training. I hope to have more to share soon – my mindfulness project goes beyond the physical practice of yoga, and into every day life yoga – on and off the mat. My research paper is due next month, so you will probably hear more about it

Walking and hiking is definitely one of the most enjoyable activities, and a very good way to introduce a mindfulness practice into your life.  I especially like to take the hikes during the little pauses in between seasons – those sort of subtle days when there is a fuzzy line between the two… This weekend provided such an opportunity to explore a new trail in one of our favorite areas.  We took the dogs, and we took our time.

Project Spectrum has been a practice of mindfulness from the very beginning – just noticing the things around you.  Even if you feel that you don’t have the time to actually “craft” something in the specific colors this time around, you can still participate in the way of thinking about it.  Thinking about the ripples on the water, thinking about the blue of the sky, thinking about the shifting seasons…  and finally, taking the pause and just relishing in it.

My dad is a geologist, and I like to think that he passed on that love of rocks and minerals to me.   I was (and continue to be) very interested in the world around me, and the natural systems that shape the environment and the earth.  Simply put, I love rocks.  I am endlessly fascinated by the formations and the processes – and that is probably why I am also so interested in the elements – it is these things that shape and form the world as we know it.

1. Rock Face , 2. Rock Strata, 3. Cape Breton , 4. Hawaii beachcombing

This new round of Project Spectrum is different than any other – for years, I wanted to find a way to bring a textural element into PS, and this is the first year that it seems like a really good fit. Each of the cardinal directions are associated with certain natural materials (according to many different cultures and traditions around the world.) This first direction – NORTH – is associated with the earth element, and stone and rock are the natural materials.

(Surprise snow storm last weekend – more photos here)

For a creative mind, this is a wonderful chance to play with the idea of stone: incorporating it into your projects – stone buttons on a cardigan, working with gemstones for beaded artwork, designing a rock garden or a stone pathway, photography of rocks and stones in your area… there is so much you could do with this alone!

However, if you want to take it even deeper (you always can!) you can choose to explore the relationships of green (the associated color of this cardinal direction) and the materials of stone. This idea gave me the chance to go through some of my nature photography looking for inspiration on how these two things work together.

1. Patuxent River, 2. Peggys Cove, NS, 3. Moss-Covered Stones

This new dimension of Project Spectrum is providing a deep well of inspiration for me. Rocks are amazing works of art in themselves – smoothed by water and wind, or jagged and sharp from force and movement.

The Project Spectrum Ravelry group continues to whirr with excitement and inspiration – many participants are including photos for the PS Photo Challenge that I mentioned in my last post.  The group has over 1000 members now, and there is a great spirit among the community.  Please join if you haven’t already!

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Knitting post to come soon… I can’t believe it has been three posts without knitting content.  I hope you are still interested in reading!

All signs point to SILVER for me.  However, I see little flecks of saffron, green, and red in there too… is it possible to be a rainbow? 

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I read about the 8 Colors of Fitness in one of my favorite magazines, Experience Life, over the weekend.  (You can read it here - opens to a PDF) and because I am obsessed with fitness right now, and I love the color concept, I did the test and found out more about my “fitness color”. 

The author of the book bases her research on the well-known Myers Briggs Type Indicator test that asks you a series of questions.  From these questions, it estimates your personality type, and assigns you a four letter analysis that tells you more about yourself.  Like most tests, it is never “spot-on”, but it can be educational and enlightening to analyze yourself in this way.  From this test, the author uses these personality traits and matches them with different exercises and fitness philosophies that you may hold.  She encourages the reader to try new activities that they may have not discovered before, thinking that they may be a good match with personality.

While the Myers-Briggs official test is often administered for a cost (usually in the workplace, or in a school) there are similar personality tests that can give you an indication of your personality type.  I found a free useful online tool at this website.    With the results of that test, you can take the results and apply them to the 8 Colors philosophy.  The 8 Colors of Fitness website also gives a beta test that you can use to determine your fitness color too.

I have taken the test twice, and I keep on getting SILVER, so maybe there is no denying the fact.  Reading over the description on the website, it gets pretty close to me, but there are still some things that aren’t quite right… but I find that I have some of the other color traits… and maybe that is all the more true – silver reflects other colors!   According to Myers-Briggs, I am an ENFP personality.  This also puts me in the group for the RED fitness color.   While I see some bits of myself in that description, I don’t think it really fits me.

As I stated above, fitness and wellness have become a major part of my life in the last few months.  When I first started my weight loss journey in 2006, I had great success in a relatively short span of months.  However, as time went by and complacency grew, I gained some of the weight that I had lost back.  My weight fluctuated thorughout 2007 and early 2008.  When I got Lyme disease and some associated illnesses this past June, I knew that this was the time to truly focus on my health.  While I could not exercise when I was most sick, I focused on my diet.  In late July, I made the switch to a full vegan diet.  Having been a strict vegetarian since I was 14, it was not extremely hard for me to stop eating dairy and egg products.  When I found a great doctor to help treat my Lyme, she urged me to also cut out sugars and gluten products to eliminate any associated risks of re-infection.  And because my health (and my life, in no uncertain terms) depended upon it, I gave those two things up over night.  Fruits are okay, but no added sugars.  I have had a few little slips with sugar and gluten – mainly in sauces – but things are really going well on that diet front. 

Once my energy levels started to come back after my first course of treatment and supplements in September, I was able to slowly start exercising again.  This truly made my heart happy.  I genuinely love exercise and it was hard for me to remain sedentary.  (That is how I read so many books at that time!)  Since I am finding such marked improvement due to these medications and my diet, I am challenging myself further with new fitness opportunities.  So this little test comes at the right time!

Before I got sick, I had started to research the idea of entering a yoga teacher training program (YTT) in order to deepen my own practice, as well as share my love of yoga with others.  According to my fitness color – this is a very SILVER thing to do!  So, if all goes as planned, I will be starting YTT in January 2009.  I recently reconnected with a friend from college (through Ravelry of all places!) who just finished up the YTT at the same studio!  it seems like fate to me!    I am practicing yoga daily – four studio classes a week and several home practices.  So, with exposure to many activities, I guess one can naturally gravitate towards the activities that best suit their personality traits.  I know this is the case with me:  I love yoga, as well as spinning (group cycling), hiking, and weight training.  Finding what you love and finding the ability to stick with it:  that is the key! 

If you are interested in reading more about my own regimen, I have started to update my Weight Loss page again – I will be doing another entry this week to record more weight loss! (yea!) I am also planning to write up an informational page here on my blog about Lyme disease and the associated co-infections:  I receive questions about it each day, and I want to provide links to some of the great resources available.  SO, if you are interested in either of these topics, please stay tuned!

…in the meantime, take the little fitness test and share with me what color you are!  even better, update me and let me know if this inspires you to get up and go! 

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**Autumn photos above taken on our weekend hike with the dogs.  Beautiful fall!

We left Cape Breton Highlands National Park having seen three moose (including an an unphotographed cow and calf right in the middle of the road – I am so glad we saw them!) and a bear. We were sincerely hoping for a whale sighting as well, but the storm clouds set in, and the day we planned to get out on the water was the day that it rained buckets. So, we traveled a little to the north to one of the most remote and purportedly beautiful places on the island: the oddly named Meat Cove.

One of the most northern points in the province. You follow a dirt road for many kilometers, all the while your mind thinking “is this right? we are in the middle of nowhere…” and then you happen upon this very small community. There is a campground there, and it would have been great to camp, but we wanted to get a little further on (and out of the rain). Maybe next time…

So, we headed south, spent the night in Ingonish at a nice inn, and headed out the next morning for lands south – and east. First we went inland to the Bras d’Or Lake region, surrounding Baddeck, home of one of Nova Scotia’s best yarn shops, Baadeck Yarns, and a great bakery, High Wheeler. (Yarn photos later!) We ran into our friends from the campground again (it really is a small world) and walked around the wharves and the docks.

That afternoon, we headed to Louisbourg, a fortress-turned-National Monument that was built by the French in the 18th-century. From Louisbourg, the French suffered several attacks from the British, and the fortress was sieged several more times, eventually falling in the 1760s. Reconstructed and employed by re-enactors, visitors can now see the fortress as it was before the large attacks – in its prime in the late 1750s.

We planned to camp near Louisbourg, but were disappointed to see that none of the campgrounds in the area accomodated tents (favoring RVs instead), and there were no restaurants open in the town. (The plusses and minuses of going in the “off-season”.) So, we regrouped, and headed south around the southeastern shore, and back to the mainland.

Spending the night near Sherbrooke, on the Eastern Shore, we got up early and planned to get out on the trails at some of the provincial parks.

We went around the small town of Sheet Harbour, and then headed to Taylor Head. We had the park to ourselves, well, except for this guy… The hikes worked up the appetite. A note to vegetarians: while it is not impossible to find vegetable dishes in rural Nova Scotia, it is challenging. However, many of the servers fielded my questions well, and there was often a salad choice – albeit kind of pale and out-of-season-looking. That being said, if you plan ahead, and maybe bring some of your own food, you will be fine. Kris, on the other hand, was in seafood heaven. This is the night he got a lobster.

After his feast, we headed to the nearby beaches of Clam Harbour and Martinique. Some of the widest and flattest beaches I have ever seen – and so pristine!

I thought it was a little chilly, but these brave girls jumped right in to the rising tide. We chatted with them for a little while, as well as a woman walking her adorable puppy. Just so relaxed and peaceful, and it shows on the peoples’ faces. We spent the night at Porters Lake Provincial Park – very nice campground, although there did seem to be a disproportionate amount of slugs (yep, found one in my shoe the next morning!)

We headed back into Halifax, and made it in time to catch the very enviable downtown farmers’ market. Ah, how nice. Too bad we were leaving the next day, or else this would have been the place to get some goodies!

We decided on a brewery tour, as well as a harbour nature tour. (They didn’t bill it as “Whale Watching” because of the chance that we may not see whales this far south…) The brewery tour was quite fun (more re-enactors! this time with mutton chops!) and we later boarded the Sea Tiger, the boat of New Dawn Charters. Once again, there is not a lot of photographic evidence to prove it, but we did see a minke whale. He was playing coy though, so every time he popped up, we would catch a glimpse, but not enough to shoot a photograph!

We ended our (free) time in Halifax with a nice dinner with Megan. It was great to start the trip with her, and then end it on that high note. I fell in love with Halifax all over again. Wow, what a province.

… we had a hard time getting home … (maybe I should think of it as Canada not wanting us to leave?) two canceled flights and sitting on the tarmac for six hours are not exactly fun, but I DID finish two books in that time. Funny thing is, I didn’t pack my knitting in carry-on because I was planning to get a nap on the plane. With that delay, I could have made a whole sweater!

And because I like maps – and some of you told me that you do too! – I thought it would be helpful to see our travels around the province:

The travels started in Halifax, in the middle of the province on the Atlantic coast, from there, we traveled clockwise (for the most part) around the province.  The only area that we did not adequately explore is the western region that connects to New Brunswick.  It was a little out of the way, and we were anxious to get north to Cape Breton.  The blue dots on the map correspond with the photos that we took – here is the complete Flickr set of photos from Nova Scotia. 

Once again, thank you so much for all of your amazing feedback!  I think I enjoy sharing my travels through writing and photography almost as much as I do traveling!