On Sunday afternoon, after 11 hours of yoga over the previous 48, I was feeling very stretched, bendy and relaxed.  Today (with an additional fitball class last night), I can barely move.  And I have another 1.5 hours of yoga this evening; I may not be able to move from my bed tomorrow morning.  It was worth it though – the yoga retreat of the weekend was fantabulous.  A few highlights (some of which you may need to have been there to appreciate) are as follows:

• Having really good vegetarian food cooked for you for a whole weekend is great. It’s not so great for anyone unfortunate enough to be practicing yoga close to me – particularly the evening session held an hour or so after vegetable curry.
• It’s great being in such a quiet environment. It’s worth remembering though, that other people may be standing quietly behind a wall when you decide to sing along loudly to ‘Luka’ which was playing on the kitchen radio as you passed.
• Ditto the above when those vegetables get the better of you. It was the same person who heard both….
• Best line of the weekend from my lovely, very gentle yoga teacher while trying to demonstrate a breathing thing: ‘I’m sorry, that was a terribly girly ‘Huh’. I’m looking for more of an angry bear HUUUUH.’
• Second best line from my lovely yoga teacher: ‘Would you like me to take you now?’
• Circling the biggest walled gardens in the county more than once before locating the (huge) door.
• Discovering that I can revert to being a three year old in seconds when I managed to do my very first honey pot head balance and shouted for the teacher to watch me. (I was really proud of myself, ok?).
• Spending two days trying to learn how to say the name of one lady, before informing her that ‘I think I’ll have to call you something else’. (Luckily the lady is lovely and said as long as she knew what the something else was, she was ok with that).
• Finding out I am capable of not talking for a short while. We were asked to be silent for the early morning session and into breakfast.  My friends looked at me and laughed when this was suggested, but I did it!  And I quite enjoyed it.  It was only a couple of hours though, and I’m not sure I’d manage it again.

If anyone wants to join me for stretching, singing, farting, getting lost, reverting to a child, talking lots, being silent a little, laughing frequently and doing a spot of yoga, mindfulness and meditation next January, I’ll be going back (if the teachers let me…) :o)

Anyway, here are some photos of the amazing place and some of the lovely people to give you a bit more of an idea.

Cedar Cottage – the entrance to my room

My room – it was almost as big as Pog Towers!

My view

The rose garden

The library fireplace