Winter has arrived in Maine (December 2010)

theintuitivechef — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 02:17:39 +0000

winter is here. The trees are bare, the house is warm and cozy and it’s harder to climb out of that lovely warm bed every morning.
I’m cooking stews, thick hearty soups and giving readings to those who are struggling with some challenging times in our world.
The hot stone massages are really effective and popular right now, so I am tending to include them more in my healing work.
My teachings at the school have had mixed blessings, all dependant on the class and their receptivity to the work. I am completing a wonderful class that have brought me nothing but sweet pleasure. They don’t even know how special they have been to my heart. Maybe they do. The important thing is that I know.
I am getting ready to really branch out with the personal chef work – providing private, inexpensive dinner parties that include readings or spa treatments. I’m excited.
Great gourmet food in the comfort of your own home, followed by private individual readings or spa treatments, all for a decent price.
It’s a great present or celebration choice.
So, that’s what I’m up to these days. I will complete my teaching by spring of next year 2011 and then climb into my own business almost full time, leaving some time for creativity.
I wish to pick up my brushes and paint again. I love to do that and when there’s just a little more time I can completely get lost in it.
In the meantime, we are still fixing this old house, with its leaks, cold spots and more. An ongoing project that sometimes is exciting and sometimes a little overwhelming.
this Saturday I teach at stonewall kitchens. We are making roast beef and yorkshire puddings, with British shrimp cocktail as an appetizer and apple crumble for dessert.
I’m even making a mint apple sauce to go with it. Yum.

Loving My New Life in Maine

theintuitivechef — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:05:22 +0000

I continue to teach at Seacoast schools, with all its natural ups and downs. However, no matter what, I find myself absolutely loving the student relationship at the school. The people are adult learners mostly and they are a pretty sweet, keen to learn, interested and fully invested bunch. Many have had their own life adventures before coming to the school and so their life experience definitely plays its own part in their complete learning curve. Most days it’s an honor just to walk through the doors and find out what will happen next.
There’s going to be some Reiki classes, beginning Sept 25th at the school for students to take the laying-on-of-hands to a whole other level. I’m limiting the class to 8-10 students, so they can feel personal and still intimate.
I’m also providing private sessions for clients, with a gorgeous room set up. I’m also still doing my phone readings every week. It’s tricky to fit them in but they bring me so much joy, and stretch my intuitive abilities tremendously.
I teach cookery at Stonewall Kitchens once a month. I’m on the teaching roster right through March though- so that’s great fun. We’re even doing a sing-a-long-supper in February.
Somewhere in between, I’m fixing my Victorian home with my husband and some workers when we can find money to pay for that too!
It’s slowly coming along and looking prettier every day. It’s old – 120years, so there’s lots to do!
all in all, Maine has been a great move and continues to unfold it’s beauty and friendship to me. I’m so grateful to have followed my heart to New England. I know I was led here. There was no tangible reason to move from the West to the East, but here I am and now there was no reason not to be here, and every reason to stay for a lifetime.

Spring in Maine

theintuitivechef — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:12:49 +0000

So, my first spring in Maine. It’s pretty and slightly buggy. I’m told I need to eat garlic as it keeps bugs away (maybe keeps everything away!) I’m also told that if you place dragonfly nymphs and stuff called lava or something in trees, they help keep mosquitos at bay too. I’m also told that vodka is good for that – but I don’t drink so I’ll have to spray it around and see if that does any good. Of course we are still in the upstairs of the barn we’re renting and are ready to go, we’re just not sure where we’re going yet! We have an offer in on an 8 acre property that’s zoned so we can create an amazing healing cafe/ British gift shop and more, but we’re playing the waiting game. For an impatient person – it’s nail biting and tough. I want to laugh, cry and lay on the property refusing to move until we can unpack our over 5 years of storage goods and consider myself finally home!!! It’s been a long journey and I’m a little tired.
I’m still teaching at the school, and despite certain insecurities playing out with people, it’s been great. I love teaching and sharing all the knowledge I’ve accumulated over the years in practice and in alternative healing studies, but the hours I”m keeping are a bit arduous, so some days, like today, I sort of crash and have to simply stop and unplug. I like those days, even though I may let people down a bit.
I love teaching cookery once a month. It’s one of my greatest joys. It’s fun. We laugh, we cook, we talk, we share, I teach some, I learn loads, it’s like sitting in a living room having new friends over and being the center of attention. I was shy as a little girl, so this is probably good for her to stand in the center and speak up, instead of in a corner shutting up!
We should know about our home by the next time I blog, so all those reading this – please keep your fingers and toes crossed for us. I feel it’ll work out and I really hope so. We need a home base to serve our world from This would work well!!!
love to you all, blessings and hang in there – the future is far greater than we can possibly imagine, and much better than all the yesterdays we have so far created.

Maine in March

theintuitivechef — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:41:11 +0000

So, here I am in March and last weekend I’d sprained my ankle, so was sitting on the patio sunning myself in glorious sunshine, and this week I’ve been walking in half rain, half sleet, with heavy jackets and boots. The constant changing weather can be challenging, but it’s also extremely interesting!
I do love the people, especially the students and faculty at the massage school, and at Stonewall Kitchens, which is a wonderful, professional and delightful organization to work with. I just love the New Englanders. maybe because they have to battle the elements, it makes them soft toward each other. I also want to say how much I appreciate all your comments and loving acknowledgments. I am having a blast and growing as a person loads because of all of you! To get really settled and finally open all that great stuff that’s in storage, we are working to buy a lovely log cabin with some land. Our offer is in and we’re waiting….. so keep your fingers crossed. It’s commercially zoned, so we can do lots of great things with it once we get the green light to go ahead. One of my intentions is to create a British inspired cafe and gift shop, with a healing space to continue my sweet work. I know I am supposed to be here in Maine, even though there are always going to be aspects of Californian life I miss. This is a great State and I am having an absolute blast. I love Mainers – thank you for being YOU!

Some favorite links

theintuitivechef — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:22:37 +0000

www.yccc.com – York Community College, where I’m a visiting chef
www.stonewallkitchen.com - a wonderful cafe, New England jam maker, cookery school, where I am a visiting British holistic chef
www.seacoastcareerschools.com - a respected massage and medical assisting school, where I am a massage and related Instructor
www.admiralsinn.com – this is a lovely local Inn where I do massage, as a Maine licensed therapist

Life in Maine, the good, the bad!

theintuitivechef — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:17:46 +0000

I need to start with the ugly, which was a direct result of the bad. So, in Maine, we are quite known as having pretty gnarly weather to say the least!!! Coming from California, it can be quite shocking. So, that was the bad – weather and here’s the good………………. the average person here in New England is absolutely fabulous!!! They have a fun, generous sense about themselves, they generally care about their fellow man, tough it out through harsh winters, with a pretty good attitude all round, and are so much more open spiritually than anywhere else I’ve ever lived here in the United States. I have been welcomed with all my gifts of perception, with open arms and genuine enthusiasm. I love that. Not only have I been welcomed here with my massage teachings at the friendliest school imaginable, but I have been welcomed with my cookery at several establishments in the same manner. So, I’m a cookery instructor, a massage and related subjects instructor, and all my intuitive abilities are greeted with absolute joy! So, Maine is a great place for me, even if I’m a little colder than I’d like. I love my life again and this is just the beginning……….

The Three Amigos

theintuitivechef — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:37:10 +0000

hi all my sweet people.
I love the attached photo. It’s of a new Maine friend, Pamela (she took the photo) of mum during her visit here and me. Notice I’m the one dressed the warmest and I’ve still got a cold I can’t yet shake. I’m on antibiotics but still stuffed up and exhausted. Not sure the weather is agreeing with me. Hanging out here though and doing fine. I love teaching massage classes and ethics etc, still love having woof and Russ around, enjoying looking for a great property and weighing up our options. We are fed up with the cold and snow, but we aren’t letting it stop us.
love to all,

Happy New Year from New England!

theintuitivechef — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:29:53 +0000

Here I am in chilly Maine. There’s snow on the ground, wind is blowing, and I’m feeling much better from cold and fatigue symptoms. My mum has been visiting and has only a couple of days here now, we just have her until New year’s Eve early morning, and we are both really going to miss her terribly, especially me!!! We have shopped until we dropped, ate lunches, dinners, cooked, baked, laughed, talked, and everything else in between. We drove to Burlington and south of Stowe (where the Von Trapp family live) and had a wonderful time in Vermont, stopping at a cider mill and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory. It was great and we all had a lovely break. We saw a magic show, and movies Blind side which was great and It’s Complicated, which was loads of fun. We ate 3 Thanksgiving meals and had a Christmas breakfast that was the best, after opening gifts and then traveling to Vermont. The journey was beautiful, full of wintry scenery beyond imagining. Frosty white trees, frozen waterways everywhere, just so beautiful and vast, with mountains in the distance. Russ has an interview in the morning at the school I’m teaching at. The next 5 weeks I’ll be teaching Ethics and seated massage to 12 students. I’ve already planned out much of the term, with a courtroom role play and other fun goodies in Ethics, and a couple of field trips with the seated massage class, for them to work on a bunch of people. One of the trips is to a senior center and I’m working on another to either a chamber of commerce or a business near the school. I also begin teaching my cookery classes at the end of January, then another in February and one more in March. I may have other oppportunities and certainly hope so.
I don’t love the weather some days, I don’t love all the businesses closed some days or all the many unfamiliar aspects to living here, and I really, really miss all of you loads, but I love the opportunities I have been having – I feel as though this is where I’m meant to be. Sometimes in life, other factors that ask more endurance of you, are the very factors that make your time so incredibly sweet and precious. These are those times. The weather asks more from us and we are rising to the occasion. Anyway, we’ll keep you posted. We are entering the hardest time of winter over these next 2 months. So, fingers crossed we’ll manage it all.
love and hugs to all of you, xoxo

Maine at last!

theintuitivechef — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:14:42 +0000

After so many states, laughter, meeting people in many areas and walks of life, here I am in gorgeous Maine, New England.
It’s been an extraordinary journey, taken with a wonderful man. I’ve loved every minute of it. I have seen gorgeous countryside, beaches that stretch miles, little cute shops and homes brimming with charm. within a two day period of arriving here, I have a new work opportunity in Kittery and a gorgeous attic in a barn on 10 acres in the same area to live in. I continue to provide my telephone guidance and will be offering massage/healing hands-on sessions for locals and visitors alike once settled.
I’ve loved taking this journey with all those who have been reading my blog. I promise to update you every so often, but of course, now I’m settled I’m going to be more interested in being of service in guiding you!!!

Georgia to North Carolina

theintuitivechef — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:46:43 +0000

We spent 2 days with lovely Jena and her family. Georgia was fun, having lunch in the historic districts and mooching in the shops.
Then we left and began our drive to Raleigh, North Carolina, to see a great friend, Katherine. The drive was gorgeous and I love where she lives. We ate in an Irish Tavern with live music – so much fun. I had pretty good crabcakes, and of course, grits were served. Not bad either!!! North Carolina- safe, friendly and absolutely beautiful everywhere you drive, with a moderate climate, is my favorite place so far on this journey. I was sorry to drive away from it.
My two friends were so gracious and they opened their homes and hearts to us. Thank you! Today we left and drove 10 hours – through Virginia, Washington DC with a $5 toll and high gas prices, Delaware with a $4 toll and also high gas prices, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia, which didn’t feel so safe, so not a fave of mine. Russ booked me a massage, and then we are going out to have a Philly steak dinner and crash out tonight….
tomorrow our plan is to see the Liberty Bell, go thru Conneticut, and continue our drive to New England! I am sorry this part of the adventure is coming to an end but thrilled it’s been such a positive experience with Russ and so glad that I feel as though I’m coming home…………