I did a Yin practice (lot of hip openers) Friday morning to give my shoulders a break. It was what I needed, but it's not my favorite style of practice. I'm determined to have a safe, injury-free Ashtanga practice. It's such a great series of poses, and now that I've been doing the full sequence regularly, I'm enjoying it even more. It feels flowy and meditative and I'm feeling nicely energized at the end of practice.

It occurred to me that binding poses might be aggravating my shoulder just as much as Chaturanga. So I'm easing off on that a bit. (The Marichyasanas are less fun.) And in a flash of brilliance this morning, I decided to hold Plank for 5 breaths during the Sun Salutations (instead of Downward-facing Dog). I felt pretty good after practice and I'm going to try this for a week and see how it goes. My shoulders remain stable in Plank, and I have to activate my core, legs and back to stay lifted. This is exactly what I need to do more of in Chaturanga -- distribute the effort throughout my body rather than relying too much on upper body muscles. If I can build this strength in Plank, that will hopefully carry over into Chaturanga. I also might start including a Handstand or two after Navasana.

In other news, Saro graduated from Basic Obedience class today! He's been very good in class and is definitely a teacher's pet. He responds so well to training and he's become much easier to handle. We got very lucky with him. (He just trotted past me with a bone in his mouth. So cute.)

The Brussels sprouts and broccoli seeds are sprouting! I put two little sunflower seeds in the cruddy rocky soil outside as an experiment. John thinks it's too rocky for anything to grow, but I'm not ready to give up. I mean, if weeds can grow there, so can sunflowers. Right? Well, we'll see.