Guitar, Spanish and T'ai Chi Chuan lessons

I started the second session of guitar lessons with the adult education program in our area. The five (down from the original seven) students in my last class all returned. I guess our little group is doing really well. When we ended our last class, we played through the piece we worked on - "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison at full tempo. The next level class was waiting to start their lesson and were there for our run through. When we left they all asked how come they weren't playing like we were! Pretty funny. We started a new piece last night - "Don't Think Twice" by Bob Dylan. We learned 2 new chords - Fmajor and Aminor. Our practice is to work on smooth transitions.

For studying Spanish, K told me about this really neat book called "Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish" by Margarita Madrigal. The technique she uses smiliarities in language and allows the student to participate in creating the language you are learning. It builds vocabulary very quickly and you start speaking much faster than using the more traditional methods I have tried.

I started the second sesson of T'ai Chi lessons about 3 weeks ago with all the graduates returning to fine tune their skills. I've tried to make the classes more drop in friendly. I've developed a short introductory form that students can learn and practice that introduces a few of the more recognizable movements - earth rooted hands, push hands, shifting weight and breathing practices. Each week any student can join us to learn the forms I am teaching that day. The more advanced students can practice the complete form and the students dropping in can practice the forms they have learned. In time hopefully they will learn all 24 forms and be able to string them together.

AG High School

This morning's newspaper announced that four local high schools recently received over $12 million in state grants for their career training programs. AG got the largest share of $5.7 million. It was interesting to read that the they plan to spend it on the school’s new engineering academy and its robotics program and to build a new facility for agricultural science and mechanics and to double the size of the school’s automotive tech program.
In another town north of us, Atascadero recieved $3.1 million and they plan to allocate it to a hospitality and food service program, as well as a diesel mechanics and welding program. In Paso Robles in the wine country, they plan on spending their $3 million for its existing agriculture program. Cities have to raise matching funds. It certainly is a different community than WH

Free Range Chickens in AG

Arroyo Grande has a different take on free range chickens. The police officer in town tells us it started many years ago when people who received baby chicks at Easter didn't know what to do with the chickens when they were full grown, and they started to drop them off in town. Depending on the time of year there can be just a few to a huge flock of these chickens roaming around all over downtown. They seem to like to congregate in the parking lot behind the town hall buildings.

Yesterday and today there was a mini-carnival fair in a field near the ocean in Grover Beach. There were a number of rides for young and old, a climbing wall which was very popular and of course the ever popular Ferris wheel. There was plenty of food with representatives from a few of the local restaurants and the ubiquitous kettle corn and cotton candy. Interestingly they sold beer and wine. There was even a small "flea" market which was very busy.

Nipomo nurseries

Today was the "spring flower sales" on the mesa. Nipomo, the town south of Arroyo Grande, is known for its nurseries. This morning I heard that there was a spring flower sale at the nurseries but we didn't know the hours. We went out around 2:30 and found the first one at Ball Nurseries and they had huge flats of starter plugs of flowers (some we knew like begonias and pansies) and some we didn't plus a variety of herbs. The second place called Greenheart Nurseries had huge green houses full of rose plants and cyclamen and I'm sure many other varieties we didn't see. They had actually closed by the time we arrived as we found out that the sale ran from 9 to 3. We took a brief tour of one of the green houses that was full of miniature rose plants and cyclamen. They sent us on our way with a free cyclamen plant.

New bike shoes

S from the fitness center gave me a gift certificate for bike shoes to use for spinning class. I have been "cost per wear" kind of buyer for many years now and at over $100 a pair for bike shoes I didn't think I could get the cost per wear down fast enough. However, I have been spinning 5 days a week so now I think perhaps the cost per wear will come down pretty quickly. I went to Ira's bike shop in AG - a hole in the wall type bike store that is crammed with everything and got a pair of red and black ones. Ira installed the pedal clip and gave me a lesson in getting the shoe seated on the pedal - basically just line it up and start pedaling- and getting disengaged - twist the heel. I tried them this morning and they do help make pedaling easier. I highly recommend them if one is cycling or spinning on a regular basis. Ira said that if he depended on the cycling community alone he might sell a 10 pairs a year but with all the spinning classes he sells over 50 pairs a year.

Lemon Squares

I was perusing the St. James's Cookbook the other day looking for a yummy recipe. Tom had asked for lemon squares and as it turns out there was one in the cookbook. P&S have some wonderful Meyer lemon trees in their yard and I am stocked with beautiful lemons on a regular basis (bear limes and satsuma oranges as well). This recipe is really easy (it's all mixed up in a food processor) although it doesn't have time guides in the recipe. It was sumitted by LP and EP and is really delicious. Here's the recipe with my notations on time and tips that I found worked for me.

Lemon Squares
Crust
2 c. flour
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. butter (softened a little - a little firmer than room temperature)

Filling
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
6 T. fresh lemon juice (1 very large lemon)
2 tsp. lemon rind (1 large lemon)
4 T. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To make crust: Blend flour, powdered sugar and (slightly softened) butter in the food processor. (This takes about 2 minutes of processing and the mixture is very fine and consistent in texture). (Spray the 9x13 pan with cooking spray). Pat the mixture into the bottom of a 9x13- inch baking pan. (Press the mixture down very firmly.) Bake for 20 minutes. To make filling: (You don't have to wash out the food processor.) Combine eggs, sugar, lemon juice and rind in food processor until fluffy. (This takes a about 4 few minutes as the blade is not as aerating as a regular mixer attachment. It doesn't actually get "fluffy" but turns a pale yellow.) Add flour and baking powder and mix until blended. Pour filling on baked crust and return immediately to oven. Bake another 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle immediately with powdered sugar. Cool and cut into squares. Thank you LP and EP - delicious!

We took them to P and S's place for dinner Monday evening. Aunt L and her current companion came and we had a wonderful meal of steak, meat loaf, salad, garlic mashed potatoes and cucumber and carrots. We are taking dinner to Aunt L's on Saturday to fill in for a companion who is working at a restaurant from 5 to 9.

Started working out with the weight machines today after spinning. Got a lesson in how all the machines work and did a circuit and some work with the exercise ball. I hope to do a couple of days of weights a week after spinning. They also have a great set-up with bands that they use for golf conditioning and are the same ones I used for rotator cuff rehab so I'm doing those too - why not! Hopefully I can keep them healthy.

Flora

Spring has been here on the central coast for a few weeks now. I'm not sure we really had much of a "winter" but the flowers are certainly in bloom. My cousin's wife, S, grows something called a Buddha's Hand, and she gave us one of the fruits - this is a picture of it. According to Wikepedia (so take it for what it's worth) Buddha's Hand citron, or Fingered citron (Citrus medica var. sarcodactylus) is a fragrant citrus fruit. It grows on a shrub or small tree with long, irregular branches covered in thorns. Its large, oblong leaves are pale green and grow about four to six inches. Its flowers are white or purplish and grow in fragrant clusters.
The fruit itself is a type of citron and is often described as lemon-like. The fruit is segmented into finger-like sections. It has a thick peel and a small amount of acidic flesh and is seedless and juiceless. It is very fragrant and is used predominantly by the Chinese and Japanese for perfuming rooms and personal items, such as clothing.
The peel of the fruit can be candied. In Western cooking, it is often used for its zest. The inner white pith is not bitter as is usually the case with citrus, so the fingers may be cut off (eeyew!) and then longitudinally sliced, peel pith and all, and used in salads or scattered over cooked foods such as fish.
The fruit may be given as a religious offering in Buddist temples. According to tradition, Buddha prefers the "fingers" of the fruit to be in a position where they resemble a closed rather than open hand, as closed hands symbolize to Buddha the act of prayer.
The origin of Buddha's Hand is traced back to Northeastern India and is believed to be the first citrus fruit known in Europe. It is speculated that the Greeks and Romans brought them back from Asia
The tree itself is sensitive to frost, as well as intense heat and drought. It grows best in temperate conditions. Areas such as the coast of Southern California as well as inland valleys are considered ideal for its planting. Trees can be grown from cuttings taken from branches two to four years old. One must bury the cuttings (replete with foliage) deep in the soil.
It is thought that in some areas it is given the name goblin fingers due to the frightening aspect of the "open" position.
Today I noticed this plant I first saw at the Leaning Pines Arbortum at CalPoly. It's called a bottle brush bush as the red flowers are shaped like a bottle brush. They too appear to grow nicely on the central coast Mediterranean climate.

I thought I would also capture a beautiful centerpiece one of the T'ai Chi students sent us for our dinner over the weekend. It was made by a florist called the Art of Flowers. It really is a work of Art and made a beautiful centerpiece.