Impressions

Here in Rockville and Springdale we are blessed - we have Yoga ant Tai-Ji classes! It is hard for us to choose where to go or to find time for both. Ann Rutz teaches Anusara Yoga and David Rutz teaches Tai-ji. They are both wonderful teachers, what a family!

This time I will talk about Tai-ji which we usually have on David’s terrace, and that is how we usually see him :-):

And this is us, his most devoted students: Susan, Genevieve and Nida:

It all started several years ago - David got engaged in his Master’s Chungliang Al Huang classes in Oregon and even invited him to our canyon one of the beautiful autumns maybe a couple of years ago.

Here Chungliang is in the middle of the circle teaching us to relax in our movements, to dance in his class and through life.

He also showed us how graceful he is while doing Chinese calligraphy:

At the end of the classes as usual we were taking pictures with him:

But then he left and David decided to continue teaching us the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life. So we are enjoying every minute of it:

Especially when the weather is nice enough (which is almost always we have it on the terrace with the magnificent views of Zion:

That is why when we come to class we at first all exclaim what a wonderful weather we have here, how beautiful the mountains look and how grateful we are for that:

Then we do the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life created or choreographed by Chungliang, trying to be as graceful as possible and also trying to feel the energy floating around and through us:

And at some point we always discuss things like whether there is a bad and good energy or just the energy we need and use and the energy we don’t utilize (Susan’s brilliant thought). We discuss Chinese symbols, some philosophy and then David tells us something in pure Chinese language, which to him sounds musical and to me - not so much :-). He is a very good student of everything Chinese! There are quite a few Chinese paintings in their house, so when the weather is not the best -we do Tai-Ji in the house and admire the art:

There is also another Buddha outside who watches us while we dance and gives us a hint to be as Present as possible:

We usually end the class with the healing movements of Spring Forest Chigong and then usually Ann, our Yoga teacher, comes back from walking their dog Lao-Tzu and we have a nice chat with her:

And then David sees us off, till next Saturday:

Thank you, David!

Here is how our Zion National Park looked this winter. It is usually like that every winter, except that this winter we had a lot of snow. While I am writing this it is already 28th of March and I can still see snow powder on the slopes of Mountain. But the pictures were taken not now, but at different times in December and February. Here is the entrance to the park and the main scenic drive:

We were so happy to catch that beam of sun on the edge of the mountain:

Virgin River by the Temple of Sinawawa:

There were some bright colored ducks swimming in the river:

As every temple the Temple of Sinawawa it has an altar and a pulpit:

There was much more snow in February and those are a couple of views on the top part of the park - the Canyon Overlook trail:

Hello again! After this trip to California spring started bursting in our Rockville, so I had to take care of my garden first. Feeling a little late with my impressions from Monterey…

Here what I saw from the airplane flying from Las Vegas to San Jose. It was the Death Valley underneath us and one could clearly see the white salts of Bad Waters! Boy, I liked it seeing from above just weeks after we visited it on the ground level :

Then the Sierras showed their snowy tops:

California on the other side of Sierra Nevada mountains is very green - quite a difference:

And here is the Silicon Valley with San Jose in the middle. Can you feel the tremendous and concentrated brain energy pulsing in the air?

Luckily the Bowen Workshop was held not in San Jose but in Monterey - it was a beautiful drive to there! I just couldn’t take pictures, the car was too fast…But believe me - there were lots of flowers on the green hill slopes by the road! You will see some of them growing in Monterey where I could walk and enjoy them. But fort of all - the House of 4 Winds (sounds impressive) where the workshop was held:

I mean the smaller one on the right. The bigger one is the Museum of Art. We parked the cars to unload the massage tables and were greeted by Karin Twohig - the workshop coordinator and John Wilks, the teacher for this topic: “Bowen for Back Pain” :

Everything was organized very well for such a sizable class - 34 participants. The House of 4 Winds had a big hall for listening to our teacher and performing the assessments he taught as well as some minimal number of moves on each other:

During small breaks we had chats in the kitchen while drinking tea with cookies, nuts and other snacks. Those breaks seemed always too short because there were so many information to exchange among participants or answers to get from the more experienced ones. I bet Sandra Gustafson never had a minute off…

Then again - back to demonstrations and studies. In this particular one John Wilks was showing us how to do the Pelvic procedure on a lying person:

During the lunch break I wondered around and saw some outstanding views:

The bright yellow flowers could be seen all the way from San Jose to Monterey. As I looked closer - they are from the same family as Irish shamrocks:

This time the sea lions didn’t fight for their rocks, they each had one and were peacefully resting:

Sometimes I wish I’d stop admiring flowers so much…

Returning back to Bowen workshop - this artistic house was on the way:

Here is the whole group of us students - Bowen practitioners:

I guess we were so in a hurry after the class that we didn’t take the untidy massage table away from the view…sorry about that…

It took me a long day to fly that 1h and 20 min flight form San Jose to Las Vegas…They found they had to attach some little thing to the airplane and it lasted for 4 h’s. So this is the evening view of Las Vegas Strip before circling it and landing:

Now with our sharpened skills in Bowen Bodywork we continue helping people to live and enjoy their lives without pain.

I guess - every little town has someone. We have Susan Taylor. She simply shines. Not only that she eagerly helps in every Rockville event, but her presence is more than her help. Seeing how people love her I dare say that she lifts the vibrations not only in me. Today - March 10th - was Susan’s Birthday. Here is how her house looked in the morning when we came to congratulate her:

Susan’s daughter Marie organized the most beautiful Birthday party for her I have ever seen. It was in Rockville Community Center and how many people participated?…Sorry, I was so excited that I didn’t count, but my guess is - no less than a hundred… Here is how it looked:

And here is our Susan, alone and with Marie:

And with our outstanding photographer Jim who is reading a poem specially created to Susan (he and his wife Carol are also poets). He was also very excited, he could hardly see what to read:

Though the invitation said “no presents”, Susan got two. Well, she got some more, but the others were not official. Under the experienced direction by Alison a bunch of women created and sewn a fantastic quilt - a very personalized one for it had the pictures of Susan and her friends on top, several of Susan’s best pictures of Zion park, Buddhist monks and Rockville under snow (which rarely happens) and Buddhist prayer flags on the bottom. It emphasized not only Susan’s social talents, but her talents as a photographer as well. I bet she likes the quilt because she is a picture lover and keeps boxes and boxes of them.

So here is the quilt:

And here is the other present:

This fancy man (Agent 007)  simply emerged from the box while Susan was unwrapping.

There were lots of cards, but this one requires to be shown separately. It is made of metal and is huge like a sculpture:

This is the most magic moment - and what do you think - she blew all of the 58 candles at once! What a lung capacity!

And here are some of Susan’s friends, sorry, I didn’t take them all…Some pics were blur, too excited to have steady hands…

Alison and Johnny:

Oh, I have to mention - almost all of us has green dots on our noses - to show we belong to “Susan’s gang”:

Delores is embraced by the man who is not her husband - she is the artist of the metal card! Such a delicate and tiny woman and so strong…

Ann Weiler Brown with Trista and Allan:

I can’t mention our wonderful Yoga teacher Ann with the best yoginia’s:

Susan with Sandra, Kim and the legendary La Berta:

With Margot:

And with Fay:

Logan is the journalist and politician - he helped to introduce democracy in Lithuania and other Baltic and previous Soviet Union countries, not an easy task. He even knows some words from each country he has worked and always greets me with “Labas”. On his teeshirts he always has something peculiar. Good that Lenin here has this punk comb on his head - otherwise it wouldn’t be funny to me, having lived through his established regime:

Robert Perkins with Fay (both artists and neighbors as most of the people here):

The end.

We did the Artist Drive then stopped at Golden Canyon and walked up a little. Very dry, no flowers or anything, except maybe one bush. But the rocks are spectacular:

And only when we reached the Visitor’s center which is by Furnace Creek - we saw the abundance of Desert Sunflowers - the ones we were seeking…Maybe I’ll place too many pictures of them here, but I can’t help. I want to share their beauty, their ethereal nature and my big feeling of ‘Awe’ -when you think: tender lush flowers in a harsh desert environment…(but you shouldn’t think, just be present - as Eckhart Tolle advises us). This is the place where the feeling of stillness and sacredness fills the heart and there is a possibility to connect with the Great Consciousness or God…

The sun was setting, so we drove back through Furnace Creek, which is a little oasis in the valley - they have some good palm trees and look like an island of life:

And then up to Zabriskie Point. When I was young and lived in Lithuania I saw a movie by this name by Italian film director Antonioni - a very existentialist movie that was forbidden in former Soviet Union. But as the constrictions were getting looser some enthusiasts showed the movie for small audiences and I never forgot it (well, and never even for a second did I dream to see the place with my own eyes). It ends with lots of naked bodies making love on the slopes of Zabriskie Point…It is a beautiful scene, but when you see the surface and structure of those slopes in reality - as one person said - making love here would be the last thing on my mind . You can decide for yourselves…

And the sun is setting, heading home…

I highly suggest to see Death Valley NP, but not in summer. If you can’t go during the flower season which is March, warm yourselves up in winter or late fall. But if you are going for extremes - they say it feels like in a oven in summer. And I would also suggest not to take our bad example (in and out in 5 hours) and stay there at least for a night so that you could enjoy more of it and see its morning! There are many more good pictures to be made if the sun shines from different side. Best luck!

We spent 5 hours in death Valley on March 5th this year. A little too short for a drive of 5 h one way…We left Rockville, UT at 8 a.m., in 2.5 h as usual reached Las Vegas, couldn’t resist the temptation to stop at Bellagio and have one more look at the Chinese new year flower exhibit there (were not disappointed - the abundance of orchids in daylight looked fantastic!) and then proceeded to Death Valley NP by Rt. 160 which starts on the Southern part of Las Vegas. Three years ago the southern part of Death valley was especially in bloom, so we expected something close this year. We passed Pahrump on the way and it is quite a town to sleep, eat and have some fun. On the map it looks like the town we chose for sleep that night - Indian Springs and that was a mistake. We almost missed it in the dark, it had only one motel and one restaurant and because of the lack of competition - the quality was so so. Back to Death Valley. So we reached the entrance around 1 pm and at last saw some higher elevation flowers - primroses, dandelions, poppies. Not so dense, but still there were patches and it was sensitive to walk on that desert - not to step on a tiny blooming thing.

It was a perfect place for lunch among blooms. The weather was also - perfect! We left Utah at minus! 2 C and came to Death Valley at 25-30C! With the air being so dry - it the the most comfortable temp. As I mentioned -those first patches of flowers were in the elevations above 3000′ above sea level. As we started going down and down - the road twisting and going straight, still very long way, the blooms disappeared and it was only sandy - stony desert with some enduring bushes.

It is 50 mi from the South entrance to Bad Waters, so it takes a while to get there. We reached the lowest part of Western hemisphere at 2pm. It is a very pleasant atmosphere there, some good energy spread throughout Death Valley. But that is my subjective opinion, don’t take it seriously :-). At some point in Earth’s history Death valley was a long lake. Then it dried out and here we have this long and salty valley. You can walk where you want there, people have made a path where the lowest point is, ant their path is white like snow. The mud mixed with salts is constantly changing its shapes, growing. So there are some sounds of “devils playing golf” in some parts, but we didn’t hear them this time. But to walk on that salty even path to space - what a pleasure!

It is 282′ below sea level. There are no streams which would bring the water and very little rain. So we have this dry bottom of a lake, which is nice now but so terribly hot in summer. And this is how the road goes in that bottom:

Occasionally at some point we started to notice the desert sunflowers growing in a string (why in a perfect string? why only by the road? hard to know) so close to the road that people may harm them while parking…

And only by Furnace Creek and by the visitor’s center we started seeing a lot of them - worth stopping and taking pictures. But about that - next time…

This house was different from the rest. Though there were some similarities with Tierra Colata. It is built on a steep hillside in Stone cliff area. Built in strict clean lines looked more like a museum of modern art than a home till I entered it. But when I entered - the spaces were so light and welcoming, the colors so well matched, the materials so cozy - it was a pleasure to be there. Here it is:

If you enjoyed my story and want to see the Parade next year - you can plan your trip to St. George, Utah in the middle of February - that is when they hold the Parade. During Valentine’s Day and after it - for two weekends and a week in between. During the same trip you can visit Zion NP, Snow Canyon SP and ski in Brian Head. A lot of things to do here in winter. Nights are usually frosty or close or that, but days are usually sunny and sometimes reach 50’s, even 60’s. No snow. But if it happens to snow - then you a very lucky - you can get very beautiful pictures in Zion. Don’t get scared - snow never lies on the roads here, we enjoy some powder on the slopes of the mountains, that is it. While there are quite a few people browsing through the Parade Homes, the parks are very quiet and empty. You can have a lot of peace and solitude in this magnificent nature here!

This time I will describe only one house, which is in Washington area of St. George. It is hard to know who is going to buy and live there, maybe some retired movie star from Southern California… or Mediterranean region… Why from those areas - to be in sync with the old olive trees that are brought and planted all around of the house. Not some young seedlings, but mature 100 years old olives from some vineyard in CA! It is never too much…So here they are:

I am investigating whether they will make it - I guess it is not an easy transfer at this stage of their lives to a rather different climate zone - yes, we have frosts and almost every night of some winters like this year.

The tower on the right is a 3 story library with the reading room on the 3rd floor. There is a balcony from the library-staircase area to check how things are going in the living room.

Here are the views from the balconies facing the yard area:

As I am not a real estate agent, that is about it about Bramasole…

One more picture only because I like flowers so much. A Flower lady was advertising her art and so she had a lot of beautiful arrangements all over the house:

I am wondering - will I reach some point in my life that I will keep saying that St. George Parade of Homes is boring, nothing of interest there, nothing beautiful, not affordable therefore why to see them. I think I would like to think like that, then I would not loose my time in venues like that. But I still like the Parade! I don’t have any friends to go there together, all of them are not interested. So I go alone, or I take my husband, who has nothing against it (except that he is very busy) and has fun taking pictures. He can deal with such an excursion for one day, and that is good! So here are some homes and the details I liked in them:

Windows like this are very popular in those parade houses - they are made of large pieces of glass glued together with special transparent glue. I bet it holds well…

Most of the houses we visited the first day were built in the area called Ivins and around it. It is by Snow Canyon State park and a huge black lava flow comes from there. Some of the houses are built on that lava flow or at least lava pieces are used to decorate their gardens. It would be strange to live on the lava flow - it has big cavities and it is very sharp for touch. I guess - there are no earthquakes foreseen in the future in this area…

The black hands giving you a towel -what a cozy idea!

This house and its pool are built on the edge of Snow Canyon State Park! What a view! I can’t remember a better one…

The slick rock starts just where the pool ends…You don’t need to drive anywhere for hiking.

This is a very fashionable feature now, I figured. A burning tree! Almost like in Bible, except that there was a bush, not a tree…So that the owner could feel almost like Moses!

Walking in this house I wondered - how many people should make this family and be eager to live together?

There was an incentive - if you buy the house - you get this Rolls Royce free! (well, I am not sure - don’t get too excited, please)

A good idea for lighting the dinner table:

One of the rare modern interiors. I think here they caught good proportions and textures:

So much for today. There will be two more peculiar houses.

In mid February St. George, UT, always has the Parade of Homes. Famous for its high end dwellings exposed to the public in “full feathers”. There are usually 26 new houses with exceptional views, built with exceptional materials, fixtures, designs and fully furnished so that all furniture sellers can advertise themselves, too. They are built by different builders’ groups, sometimes - for specific customers, so the styles differ a lot. Most of them are catered for multi children mormon families, therefore they have lots of playrooms, a movie theater, a swimming pool, mostly for jumping, not for swimming, lots of heavy furniture and they are usually rather dark inside. Maybe that protects form summer heat, I have no clue. My point is that I visit the homes out of curiosity, and with each year I am less and less amused. Well, the first time I visited the Parade - I was shocked at how many things I haven’t seen yet! Things I couldn’t even imagine could be incorporated into interiors. But this year I will describe only 4 homes and one feature.

So here is the first house called Tierra Colata - Flowing from the Earth. The Realtor there explained to me that it is designed by some woman designer from Manhattan, so that is why it had lots of modern features and was so different from other houses, except one, that I will show later. As if that woman -Hayley Johnson has designed an apartment for her in Manhattan and included lots of the elements in this house. Whatever it is - this house is waiting for some rich “artsy-fartsy” people to move in. It is on a lava flow in Ivins, on the NW side of St George with the views towards Snow Canyon. Therefore you can see the lava built into its walls. It is also built on a slope with the guest house on the bottom part of property, so that the main house doesn’t even see what is going on in the guest house. They are separated by a swimming pool, which looks beautiful, but is a total energetic disaster…It looks like a perfect rectangular, with high walls and the water flowing down and cooling on them - only for the effect of it…So here is the entrance to the house:

There are showers inside and outside… and while taking a bath one can enjoy the scenery:

And finally - some sinks that looked peculiar. One of them resembles the a canyon, except that it is a white canyon.

There was another feature in this house that we didn’t photograph, were kind of in a rush to see other houses. But I will describe it. One of the shelves in the office can turn around - and you get into a secret place…for whom - an illegal house cleaner hiding from the authorities?.. For one lover so that the other doesn’t see (because a wife would still figure out there is some part of the building not seen)?..it is not just a place but the whole apartment with a bathroom, kitchenette, bedroom, etc. How dare they bring this spoiled New York morality to the pure and pristine Utah!