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Sourdough Bread

‏Warning: Making Sourdough Bread is a labour of love, but like anything we do for love it is always worthwhile.

‏This loaf took about 4 days from start to finish. It was my first attempt and I was pleased with the result.

‏I admit that I cheated a little and bought at sourdough starter from ‘Baz and Ed’s Street Food’ at a food fair in Enniskillen. However, if you are very dedicated you can make your own starter…. I have dug out a recipe from the Doyenne of Irish cooking: Darina Allen; I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure it’s the business.

‏Once you have the starter there isn’t a whole lot of work, but there is a whole lot of waiting. However, the starter can be reused over and over again so once you’ve started on your journey of sourdough bread making you may be in for the long haul.

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Autumnal Apples with Sausage and Red Cabbage

An Autumnal recipe with braised red cabbage, apples and vegetarian sausages:

‏ There was an almighty storm the other day, as a result most of the apples were blown off the trees in my back garden. My daughter and I went out to pick up the windfalls that lay about beneath the branches, dusky red jewels nestled in the green grass.

‏In previous years I had a larger harvest and set to and making copious amounts of chutney or applesauce. This year I didn’t want to go into the whole production line of chutney-making, but I did want to spend some time on a recipe to celebrate our modest apple harvest.

‏I decided to make braised red cabbage with apples and veggie sausages. In the past I have tried several recipes for braised red cabbage, to varying degrees of success; I find the stove-top versions make the sugar in it more likely to burn, this recipe is done in the oven and cooks to perfection.

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Instagram Account Hacked? How to get it back.

‏ ‏So, my Instagram account was hacked,

just in case the same happens to you this is how to get it back.

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Keep Calm and Carry On

‏I discovered something wrong with my Instagram account when I tried logging in after a mobile phone update. I couldn’t recall my password and so logged in with Facebook. When I started to log in I was welcomed to Instagram, and prompted to create an account. “Strange…” I thought, as I had my account with Instagram for about four years. Anyway, at this point there was no option to turn back so I just carried on creating the new account as prompted.

‏Once I had a new account I was able to see if there was any evidence of my original @yoga_ocean account. It had completely vanished. I searched people and tags @yoga_ocean and nothing appeared. I admit I was beginning to panic at this stage: had I accidentally deleted it or disabled it? Had I lost it forever? I sent loads of messages through my new account to the help centre but to no avail.

‏I suspected that somehow my Instagram account had been hacked (I am not 100% sure how. It may have been linked to a a dodgy app that hacked my mobile phone, though there was also suspicious activity on my linked yahoo mail account. If any of your accounts are hacked I would recommend you log in from a safe computer or device and change the passwords to any social media accounts and any linked email accounts that may be compromised).

‏Check Hashtags

‏I found out that my account still existed because I had used unusual hashtags on some posts, #yogaocean being one. I searched #yogaocean hashtags and there was one of my pictures. I clicked on it and saw that it had a new username attached. I clicked on the user name and found my original account. It still existed! My advice is if you do not use hashtags, or if your hashtags are more general, then incorporate some unusual hashtags on your posts should you need to find them. (#yoga has over 55 million posts, #yogaocean only 245, for example).

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Do You Rebel Against Yoga? Join the Club!

‏I have a confession: Sometimes I rebel against  yoga ….

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We have all been there: we want to practice yoga but there is something stopping us. “I’ll practice tonight” we tell ourselves, or: “Maybe not tonight, maybe I’ll get up early tomorrow morning and practice before breakfast” –  and then we lie in. Why do we rebel against yoga, time and time again? This is a question that is close to my heart as recently I had found myself rebelling against yoga.

Misunderstanding yoga

I believe one of the reasons that people rebel against practicing yoga is the desire for perfection and the fear of falling short before they even start. There is a perception (often perpetrated by yogis themselves), that yoga practitioners glide through life on a rainbow cloud of bliss: somehow immune to everyday human experiences and emotions; never to get sick or injured, sad or upset, angry, proud, jealous, lazy, or any of the other Seven Deadly Sins.

‏It is a fallacy. Yogis, like everyone else on the planet, have all of these experiences. Let’s face it, if you are in excellent health and are naturally enlightened, then you have no need for yoga. Does that apply to anyone you know? Not me, that’s for sure. Everyone finds yoga for a reason.

‏Recently, I saw a yoga meme that read:

‏“I don’t know why people think yogis are together, we are all here because we’re mad”.

‏That made me laugh.

‏Yoga is not just my passion but it is also my business, which in itself causes conflict. I have been making changes to my business to incorporate major changes in my life, (including a new found love of the ocean and the therapeutic benefits of being with the sea through surfing).

‏And then I stopped.

‏I rebelled against yoga.

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Watercress Soup

This silky, Watercress Soup is Spring in a bowl. It is simple to make and packed full of nutrients such as vitamin K, magnesium, potassium and calcium. I have given a vegetarian version here but it can be made vegan by omitting the cream or by using a non-dairy substitute. Read more

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First Time Surfing… A Love Story.

What can you expect the first time you go surfing?

Everyone will have their own experience; their own reason for first dipping their toes in the ocean, surfboard clutched nervously under one arm. I will share with you my experience, perhaps it may sound familiar to those of you who recently took up surfing, or hopefully dispel any concerns someone might have should they want to give it a try; it may even remind seasoned surf instructors what it is like for your average Joe / Jo taking their first lesson so they may perhaps be a bit more forgiving of our ineptitude….

For a start, I admit to being very nervous the first time I went surfing.

I recently confessed this to a surf instructor friend of mine who laughed and thought I was joking. “How could anyone be nervous of trying to surf?” Read more

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Taking the First Steps: Starting your own yoga practice

Do you want to start your own yoga practice?

It is challenging to take up something new, especially taking the first steps towards starting your own yoga practice at home.

We have all felt that same sense of trepidation starting a new activity; there is a sense of excitement but also an underlying feeling of foolishness… What if I am rubbish at this? This is my story of how I started practicing yoga.

In these days of instagram and selfies, I see photos of yogis performing wonderful postures in beautiful locations all around the world. Scrolling through some of these images, I had a sudden flashback to how difficult it was for me to step onto my first yoga mat. Specifically, the first yoga mat that I had purchased. I had been to a few classes and decided to buy my own mat. I remember unwrapping it and rolling it out on the living room floor and just scratching my head…

What do I do?

Where do I start? Read more

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Yoga Ocean – Welcome

Welcome to Yoga Ocean.

 

My name is Genevieve Brown. I have been teaching yoga for over ten years now and practicing for over twenty.

My husband, Colin, was a fellow yogi and we studied yoga together in India. When we returned from our travels we set up a yoga business in the west of Northern Ireland. We named out business Yogacare, as we taught yoga to people with physical and learning disabilities, to victims and survivors of The Troubles, to people with chronic illness, to mental health groups as well as sports people and movie stars with injuries. We taught yoga to anyone and everyone…

Eight years after starting up our business together, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. He died four months later, leaving me with the business to look after… and our daughter, who had just turned three.

Six months later I took up surfing.

This is my story…

 

This blog is about sharing with you what I have learned (and am still learning) from yoga, surfing and life experiences.

 

I hope that it may be of benefit to you and others.

 

… Genny

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