My local park and I too have a dog who thought chasing deer might be fun ;-)

When my daughter, who had just turned 20, started this beautiful button knit, she was a happy and healthy textile student at Central St Martins College in London. She had just started to specialize in knit, when she was struck down with glandular fever. At the same time a close friend died suddenly, in tragic circumstances, and the combination of the two had a drastic effect on her health. She had to put her university life on hold, give up her East End student home and return to live with us to recover. She spent most of the past winter in bed and was diagnosed as having ME symptoms and a gluten/wheat intolerance. This was the turning point on her slow road to recovery. This knit piece was created using two mop handles. The buttons were from a collection my own mum had gathered over the years. So many childhood memories in the button tin, my mum left behind when she died 17 years ago. At times my daughter was so unwell she couldn’t lift the knitting needles; there were m...

After an exhausting few months and the official opening of our new clinic The Putney Clinic of Physical Therapy, my husband and I headed off to Wiltshire for some rest and relaxation. I have stayed at Bishopstrow House before and find it so relaxing. In its previous life, it was a country manor house, set in amazing grounds behind an old stone wall. It has the feel of another era, without the pretentiousness that some hotels of this ilk have. The staff at Bishopstrow House are fantastic. When the room we had booked wasn't quite right for us, we were promptly relocated without any fuss to the most beautiful Shaftesbury Suite, room service and 10 hours of the most refreshing sleep I have ever had. I headed over to the Halcyon Spa, while my husband swam for an hour in the outdoor swimming pool. Running a very busy clinic, and teaching yoga in London doesn't allow for much “pampering” time, so I booked myself an Elemis facial with the lovely Rachael in the Halcyon Spa. T...

It's getting crowded on the road to enlightment...  This is the title of third item in three weeks that the Times has written about yoga and "enlightenment". This is obviously a good selling tactic at the moment, but it might be useful if they got their story straight. In the first item they wrote "how wonderful yoga is for you". Item two said the opposite "yoga is not good for you". Item three mixes up yoga, Buddhism and Kabbalah and how many people are rushing off to India in search of enlightenment, and how much it's all costing us gullible Westerners. The item then goes on to say Julia Roberts converted to Hinduism after appearing in Eat, Pray, Love;  Demi Moore, Britney Spears and Madonna are all followers of Kabbalah; Tiger Woods said his Buddhist Faith would help him recover from sex scandals;  Steven Segal announced in 1997 that he was the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama... Is the Times therefore using the above statements to reassur...

"Encouraging Words" by Zen Master Guishan  Some day you will die. Lying on your sick bed about to breathe your last, you will be assailed by every kind of pain, Your mind will be filled with fears and anxieties and you will not know where to go or what to do, Only then you will realize you have not practiced well.  The skandhas/aggregates (matter, sensations, conceptions, impulses and consciousness) and the four elements in you will quickly disintegrate, and your consciousness will be pulled wherever your ancient, twisted karma leads it.  Impermanence does not hesitate. Death will not wait.  You will not be able to extend you life by even a second.  How many thousands times more will you have to pass through the gates of birth and death. If these words are challenging, even insulting, let them be an encouragement for you to change Practice heroically.  Do not accumulate unnecessary possessions.  Don't give up. Still your mind, end wrong pe...