One
day last week I treated myself to a stop here. I was in Dartmouth
picking up some permits and on the way home, just after crossing the
bridge, on North Street, I could smell coffee roasting. Heaven.
Java Blend Coffee
has been in business since 1938. A small family operation that has
managed to hang in there through hard work, great coffee and lovely
personalities. They even have a blog
(check the bottom of their page). A neighborhood favourite, Java Blend
has been licensed by TransFair Canada since 1999 to roast and
distribute Fair Trade Certified Coffees. Many of the restaurants around
town get their coffee here.
It
was a gorgeous late sunny afternoon. People were even sitting outside
at a few tables sipping and reading, in late November! I popped in for
an Americano, my current fave.
Ha,
this pic makes my coffee look like a giant cup of Joe but it was really
just a regular:) It is not a place I get to very often because it is
out of my normal path but everytime I visit I think, must do this more
often:)
Thanks to everyone who has purchased calendars:) I've been wanting to do one for ages.
I only have a few left in this order so if you are interested....act soon.
Getting the flu shot today.
[T]his enlightenment of the Buddha's was profound and brilliant, accurate and powerful, and also warm and compassionate. It was like the sun behind the clouds. Anyone who has taken off in an airplane on a grim and gloomy day knows that beyond the cloud cover the sun is always shining. Even at night the sun is shining, but then we can't see it because the earth is in the way, and probably our pillow also. The Buddha explained that behind the cloud cover of thoughts - including very heavy clouds of emotionally charged thoughts backed up by entrenched habitual patterns - there is continual warm, bright, loving intelligence constantly shining. And even though in the midst of thoughts, emotions, and habitual patterns, intelligence may become dulled and confused, it is still this intelligence in the midst of thoughts and emotions and habits that makes them so very captivating, so resourceful and various, so inexhaustible.
~ Samuel Bercholz, Entering the Stream
New Moon broke The Dark Knight's single day box office record. Are you planning on seeing this teenage vampire love story? If so: Team Edward or Team Jacob?
A calendar!!!! Click on the picture or the link to see a slide show preview of all the months.
It is 8.5 x 11 / x215 mm on regular calendar paper. Not sure what that means but we shall see.
I have put American, Canadian and British holidays on it as well as religious holidays and the full/new moon cycles.
I will be receiving them around December 4th so your orders will be sent off the minute I get them. If you want it sent directly as a gift to somebody, I can do that too. Let me know if you would like it personalized :) I've only ordered a few to start but if they go quickly I will order some more this week in order to get them in time for the holidays.
They are $20US each plus shipping. I have made up a paypal button with various shipping options included.. I couldn't get it to work on Vox so if you click here, you will get to my blogspot blog where the button works>
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If we were children I would bake you a mud pie
Warm and brown beneath the sun
Never learned to climb a tree but I would try
Just to show you what I'd done
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, I had you
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe
If I were old, my dearest, you would be older
But I would crawl upon your lap
Wrap a blanket 'round our frail little shoulders
And I'd die happily like that
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, I had you
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, if I had you
So lace your hands 'round the small of my back and I will kiss you like a king
I will be your bride, I'll keep you warm at night
I will sing, I will sing
It was now and we were both in the same place
Didn't know how to say the words
With my heart ticking like a bomb in a birdcage
I left before someone got hurt
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, I had you
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, if I had you
Mark asked me what the Holidazzle Parade was and so I thought I'd show him. It's a Minneapolis tradition and even though I've been back in my hometown for the past several Christmas seasons, we've not made it downtown to see it since I lived there. Maybe I will go this year, assuming it's not several frigid degrees below zero or I can find a nice warm spot in the skyways.
Holidazzle Parade - Meet Minneapolis photo
Originally uploaded by meetminneapolis
Okay,
okay, you KNOW I had to start with this...my fave part of a trip to
Peggy's Cove! I have no willpower when it comes to warm gingerbread
with whipped cream and... soft ice cream melting on the other side!!!
Then a visit to the gift shop.....
Loads of trinkets and souvenirs. Some are ticky tacky and some quite nice.
Then the grand lady herself! The star of the show. 
We
were lucky because it was a lovely day. The wind was brisk but really
for November, it was terrific. Not many souls about at all.
Here are a couple of people on the rocks just to give you an idea of the scale of the place. It is a wonderful granite playground!
Sigh......
Reminder: last day to enter bloggy birthday giveaway:)
In traditional Buddhist texts the five energies of Lust, Aversion, Torpor, Restlessness, and Doubt are called "Mind Hindrances" ...because they obscure clear seeing, just as sandstorms in the desert or fog on a highway can cause travelers to get lost. They hinder the possibility of us reconnecting with the peaceful self that is our essential nature. They confuse us. We think they are real. We forget that our actual nature is not the passing storm. The passing storm is the passing storm. Our essence remains our essence all the time.
Five different energies seem like a limited menu, but they present themselves in an infinite variety of disguises. Ice cream sundaes are different from pizzas are different from sex, but fundamentally they are all objects of the lustful desire....Grumbly mind is grumbly mind; sleepy mind is sleepy mind; restless mind is restless mind; doubtful mind is doubtful mind.
The fact that it's in the nature of minds for storms to arise and pass away is not a problem. . . .[It] helps in keeping the spirits up to remember that the weather is going to change. Our difficult mind states become a problem only if we believe they are going to go on forever.
~ Sylvia Boorstein, It's Easier Than You Think
'Pikey Dan', who is out at Amida Delhi with Rev Sahishnu, sends more news and is obviously having a great time:
::continue reading hereWe've just finished another week here...and what a week it's been!
The classes this week have been fantastic, and I could hardly sleep on Sunday; I wa on such a high after our class at Ambedkar Colony. We started the day early (up at 6am), so we could be sure to make it to Madan Mohan's for 8, to attend the first service at the new temple. It was really good to see a service at the temple, with Dharma talks from lay people from the community, and from Sahishnu. After that we had to rush back to the flat so we could prepare to go back there to teach in the afternoon....the classes are growing so fast that we ran out of sheets, even though we'd increased the number of photocopies by 50%
Chionin Temple of Kyoto was built on a grand scale. The main gate is the largest Buddhist temple gate in Japan. It was built in 1619 and is now officially a Japanese National Treasure. Chionin's temple bell weighs 74 tons; it takes 17 monks to ring it. The main hall can hold 3,000 people.
Chionin was built on the place of the last home of Honen (1133-1212), the monk who brought Pure Land Buddhism to Japan and founded the Jodo Shu sect.
