Deborah Adams's Blog, page 55

You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Mat

 Here’s a sentence I never imagined I’d see: There’s a yoga festival at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch!
 
So how on earth did THAT come about? Well, it started several decades ago when Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter from Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, bought a house and land in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. Over time, this evolved into Loretta Lynn’s Ranch, an open-to-the-public venue that hosts several events throughout the year – motocross, horseback trail rides, country music concerts… and now...

It takes a garden to feed a village

This post originally appeared on my blog in the summer of 2011, just after I'd finished my Month of Local Eating (more on that later), and it also appeared on Homegrown.org.

A while back, The Outlaw Farmer asked: Is it possible to feed the world on locally, sustainably grown vegetables without the use of insecticides and chemical fertilizers? Could the earth produce enough “organic” plants to feed 6.92 billion people?

For almost all of human existence, family farms fed the world as a matter of...

Writing by the signs

Every old-timer gardener knows that you must plant by the signs if you want a bumper crop. While jotting reminders to ‘plant beans when the sign is in the arms’ and such as that, it occurred to me that the tips apply to all sorts of endeavors. For example, my calendar not only tells me when to plant but also the best time for setting eggs and castrating animals.
If it worked for generations of farmers, surely it will work for writers. Yes? Here’s my interpretation, then, of How to Write...

Hello, the Harley Hall ... twice!

Waving at the crew as they passed back in November 2016....
and when they went by in the other direction in April 2017.

Stalking the wild

One of the defining characteristics of naturalists:
They haven't got enough sense to come in out of the rain.

That's Margie Hunter, author of Gardening With the Native Plants of Tennessee, educating our group about lichens, fungi, and the various worts.

The steady downpour turned out to be an enhancement to the hike at Owl's Hill Nature Sanctuary, as we well-past-21 participants gleefully scouted out plants and puddles to play with.

I'm not sure whether this suggests that the naturalist m...

Banding birds with Polly Rooker and Cynthia Routledge

Cynthia and Polly led a birding class at Owl's Hill Nature Sanctuary, and did a fine and entertaining job, at that.

For the record - that's Cynthia Routledge holding the Downy Woodpecker. She's making observations and just about to put a band on the little fellow's leg before releasing him back into the wild. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! She apprenticed for five years before going out on her own as a bird bander.

Really. Don't try it. Just enjoy the birds with your eyes and ears. Keep your ha...

Fledglings in spring

While I was keeping a close watch on the hawk nest ...
...wrens hatched out somewhere near my front porch.

I spotted One and Two (Three--obviously the problem child-- was on the other end of the porch) after they'd settled themselves in the rafters. Mom and Dad were hard-pressed to keep up with the demand for food, flying out and back, out and back. Eventually Three made his way to the group gathering with a series of four short flights to cover the approximately eight-foot distance.

Whil...

The baby has arrived!

I've been watching for weeks, like a creepy stalker. The adult hawk always seemed to be glaring right at me, too. Finally my diligence paid off!
Now that the little one (shall we call it Ethan?) has hatched out, I'll be following the progress of its growth and eventual departure.

April 11th, 2017

Okra Flow Yoga ™ Brings Enlightened Movement to the Deep South and Beyond

In a light and airy community room below the Mason-Dixon, a diverse group of individuals practices a style of yoga that few outside the Southern United States have ever witnessed. Okra Flow Yoga ™ —or OFY (pronounced OH-fee)—is an innovative adaptation that blends traditional Indian yoga with the soulful life rhythms of the American South. It incorporates the universal principles of Patanjali’s Eight Limbs with kriya and hatha, resulting in a transformative experience of awareness.
 
OFY takes...