What Do You Do with the Soundtrack?

To hear the latest Dharma talk by Michael - click the link below.
What Do You Do with the Soundtrack - San Francisco Zen Center

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Bee-coming

The sign you will find upon entering the farm where the bees are.

Walking down to the bee meadow.
All suited up in white to get close to the bees.  Just yesterday I opened the top to check on activity.  Lots of bees in the upper hive body and while I didn't look for her, I strongly felt that Arabella was in the top hive laying eggs and being attended to by her workers.

Spring Retreat Group

We had a wonderful meditation and yoga retreat at Sheperds Spring Retreat Center last weekend.  Here are the many smiling yogi's who attended.

Another level added to Arabella's Bee Condo

On a beautiful misting morning last week we prepared to go down to the hive.

We are adding another large hive body with frames and a medium super to cover the hive top feeders beneath the roof.
The bees look to have spread across all the available space in the first hive body that they were given.
Everything back in place and lots of room for the hive to grow.Though early morning, the bees had already been out collecting pollen.  We could see big orange pollen pillows on their legs has they returned from foraging.

And the Winner is.....Arabella

We have selected the queens name from a wonderful list of offerings.  She will be the "Arabella" meaning answered prayer to our bee hive in Southern Maryland.  The name was offered by Suzie V.P.  with whom I will coordinate the award meal.   Thank you to all who provided such thoughtful submissions for the name.  Perhaps there will be other queens to name in our future. We certainly hope so (notice the royal "we"?).  More pictures tomorrow.  This beekeeper needs to talk to her pillow now.

More on Bees

Yesterday,Frank and I opened the hive in the a.m. to check on the queen and the workers.   The workers were building honey comb on the frames and the queen was busy doing something (we hope laying eggs). 

 It was a beautiful morning to be at the farm.  In the earlier post are more photos of the endeavor and a request for your help in naming the queen. 

Beekeeping

Friday I picked up my pre-ordered package of Georgia grown Italian Honeybees from Dave Polk at Free States Bees. Crucial to the endeavor was Dave's demonstration on how to place the queen and then the worker's into the hive.

Here is my bee-ing partner Frank suited up to move the bees.

Here I am in the process of adjusting the entrance reducer as the bees sort out how they like their new home.  All those little dots in the photo are the honey bees. 
Here is the beautiful setting in Southern Maryland where the bees will hopefully thrive!  There is a large fresh water pond just to the left of this picture.
In a few days I will check to see if the worker bees have accepted the queen.  I'm thinking we should name the queen bee.  So I'd like to have a contest to see who can come up with a great queen bee name.  Frank and I will pick the name that we deem the best for the queen at the end of April.  And the person who proposed the winning name will receive yummy meal prepared by me!  

Recent vegan food out

Last Saturday Barking Dog and I were in Boston.  We did a little research and found Grasshopper Restaurant in the Allston neighborhood.   All the food at Grasshopper is vegan.  We shared the assorted appetizer plate and two entrees and had lots of food left over to take home for another meal.  The food was delicious!  

Tonight, back in the hood' we ate at Asylum Bar.  We joke that it is our favorite biker bar.  They've recently changed their menu, so there is less a' la carte vegan fare then before.  Tonight we both enjoyed the vegan taco platter.  After you've been at Asylum for 30 minutes or so you too will be tapping your foot, hand or head to the sounds of Nine Inch Nails, INXS, and/or alot of unintelligable head banger music.  And they make great Margaritas too!   Tuesdays are half price vegan nights.  Go before 6:30pm to get a table.  Save the table near the street-side for us O.K?

Vegan non-meatloaf

My grandma had a really decent meatloaf recipe.  It held together and was great cold in sandwiches the following day. The recent cold weeks in Washington DC have been leaving us craving comfort food.  But I've not eaten beef for 25 years or so. I've been playing with a recipe that the kitchen at Yogaville uses for tofu loaf.   This variation is the best effort so far.  It holds together well, has a nice flavor and texture and the dal adds artery cleaning fiber.  We served the non-meatloaf with Shitake mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes and steamed greens. Grandma would have enjoyed this non-meatloaf more then her own.   

Preheat oven 350f

Mix together

1 1/2 lbs of tofu mashed

1/3 C ketchup

1/3 C soy sauce

2 Tbls Dijon Mustard

1/2 C fresh parsley chopped

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

1 Medium Onion finely chopped

1 1/2 C bread crumbs

1/4 C raw Walnuts or Cashews chopped

2 Tbs Olive oil

1 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar

1 C cooking mixed dal  (I used 

1/4 C Textured Vegetable Protein

1 Tbs Vegan Worchester sauce

Mix all ingredients together.  Put 1/4 C of vegetable oil into the loaf pan and press the mixture into the pan.  Bake for 1 hour.  

90 Day BIG SIT

Tricycle Magazine has designed a clever and supportive way for us to practice the traditional 90 day meditation period practiced at many a zen monastery. The guidelines are listed below. Easy to follow and of course the time to begin is "now". So perfect to re-energize a practice in early spring 2009.

• Sit in formal meditation for 20 minutes each day.
• Listen to one dharma talk each week on tricycle.com.
• Study Dogen’s Genjokoan, the text selected for the period.
• Commit to the sixteen bodhisattva precepts.
• Practice with others at tricycle.com or at a local meditation center.
• Begin when you like. Tricycle’s staff will begin February 23.

Join by going to Tricycle. Please won't you be my bodhi-compatriot?