Little Joyce

Last night I found out my old friend and next door neighbor lost her battle with cancer.  We had rather lost touch with each other.  Either one of us could have probably figured out how to contact the other if so desired.  We just moved on.

We had been friends from the age of four or five, until we finished high school.  As I started looking through old pictures, the memories flooded back.  Here we are playing with her Uncle Freddie's puppies in her backyard.

We used to ride bikes and play on the swing set.  We played in the field and creek at the end of our street.  We went sledding there when there was a good snow.  We hung out at the elementary school where her father was the janitor.  Our families camped and fished together.  We swam in the summer and rode the same school bus in the fall.

Everyone called her Little Joyce because my older sister was also named Joyce.  As teenagers, we changed her name to Jo.  We'd sit in her living room, listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zepplin.  I served as one of her bridesmaids.  It was at that point that we didn't see each other much anymore.  Such is life.  People get married and move away and lose touch. I suppose that's the way it needs to be.  But I spent more time with these girls than I did with my own sisters.  And they'll always hold a special place in my heart.

Homemade Thank You Cards

I needed to give some thank you cards to some friends last week. I did an internet search for some easy ideas. Everything in my search looked like something I was not capable of making. So I came up with this.

Use card stock and cut it with a exacto-knife to get clean lines. Cut the short edge at 1 1/2 inches. Then cut the long edge at the same measurement. Cut the remainder at 4 3/4 inches, which makes two pieces the same size. This allows you to get 4 cards from 2 pieces of card stock.

Use paper punches and scissors for decoration.

Glue on 1 1/2 inch strip from contrasting color. Use a glue stick that dries clear, and you won't have to worry about the spaces from punched out areas.

Fold card so that card color shows at the bottom of contrasting strip. If necessary, you can tidy up the sides with the exacto-knife. I experimented a little with different sizes, but this is the one I like the most. Easy as pie, even for people like me who are not very crafty.

Protecting Blueberries

I suspected birds were the problem last year when I only got a few blueberries. This year, I put large tomato cages around a few of the plants. I covered them with an old sheer curtain. I put on clothes pins when the wind kept blowing the curtains to the ground. This also made for easy harvesting.

This was at the top under the curtain. I think the birds still get in the sides, but these at the top were safe. I saw a chain link cage on someone's blog. Might be a good idea.

Later, I was at the other end of the driveway, when I saw a mockingbird go into the tomato cage to look for a snack. Just what I suspected. A larger sheer curtain might be in order.

Dr. Seuss Quote?

I was a little sad when I saw a quote on Pinterest that was attributed to Dr. Seuss. It said "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." An internet search told me it was actually said by some old presidential adviser named Barnard Baruch.

I'm very glad it wasn't Dr. Seuss. It just didn't sound like him. To say that some people don't matter? That's not the feel I get from him. And it's not what I believe. Everyone matters. No matter how poor or meek or young. I guess I just don't want to believe that I don't matter.

Rock mulch

Growing up in the seventies, all the neighborhood was mulched with rocks. Evergreens and rocks in every front yard. Maybe I just had too much of it, because I grew to dislike the evergreens and rocks. But, this week, I succumbed.

All around the air conditioner grew tall weeds and thick grasses and maple trees. I'd pull them out every now and then. The little trees have mighty strong roots for something that size. And the grasses are hard to pull out too. So I mulched with rocks. I wanted to find some pretty ground cover, but I know that would take awhile. I'm not loving the rocks, but I will love not weeding that spot. I suppose I should keep some Roundup handy.

Healthy Breakfast

Not long ago, I had a container of yogurt for breakfast. I felt good about myself for eating so healthy. I started wondering if this yogurt had any sugar or it was sweetened with aspartame. So, reading the ingredients, I was very surprised to see it had high fructose corn syrup in it.

I know the corn people say it's the same as eating sugar. But other people say you will gain more weight with the high fructose corn syrup. If I were a thin person, maybe I wouldn't think it mattered. But I'm not.

Later that morning, I had a bowl of bran flakes. And guess what was in the ingredients? High fructose corn syrup. So, is this in everything I buy that's processed? Those were two of the healthiest things in my diet, I thought.

So now, it's back to shredded wheat and bananas. I like shredded wheat and bananas. No additives. The shredded wheat has even more fiber than the bran flakes. And it goes very well with fruit.

Painted Daisies

Today I started seeds for some painted daisies. I've been internet searching for ground covers that would repel bugs. Painted daisies aren't really a ground cover, but on the plus side, they are perennials. The best thing about them is they are a natural insecticide. I want a world with no pesky bugs, is that too much to ask?

Later: while I was internet searching for painted daisies, I stumbled upon Teri's Painted Daisies. A blog mostly about her art. I feel a little inspired to try some watercolors or something.

It's spring already?

Spring gets here and I'm already behind in my plans. I just looked out the window one day and there were flowers on the trees. I had planned to get lots done when it was still cool outside and nothing was growing yet. Too late!

So, as usual, I must choose which of my plans are most important to me. Blueberries. Something was eating them last year. So this year, I will use large tomato cages and cover them with netting to keep out birds. I'm just guessing it was birds.

I also want to try a new method of dealing with weeds. This is probably an old method to some people, but it's new to me. I saw it on Pinterest. Cover the weeds with wet newspaper and then mulch. Sounds easy. We shall give it a go.

Basic Smoothie Recipe

This is my favorite way to get my resveratrol. A basic smoothie that I can add any fruit I want or that is in season. But if I want my resveratrol, I use a mixture of blueberries, blackberries or strawberries, because that's what I get from my garden and freeze when I have lots. And the blackberry seeds don't get stuck in your teeth when you drink it down.

Fruit Smoothie

1/2 cup milk

6 oz. container yogurt (I like vanilla)

1 cup crushed ice

1 banana

1 cup berries

Blend all in the blender. If fruit is frozen, use another liquid instead of the ice. I like it really frozen, but it needs it to be able to move in the blender. I used to have a fridge that had an ice crusher, now I just put ice in a zipper baggie and hit it with a meat tenderizer hammer. Use the flat side so you don't get little pits of plastic baggie in your smoothie!

Resveratrol

Everybody keeps talking about the benefits of red wine. The antioxidant in the wine, resveratrol, does amazing things for us. Benefits-of-resveratrol.com lists increased endurance, longer life, more focus, prevention of Alzheimer's, cessation of flu cell reproduction, reduced chance for disease, death of cancer cells.

What really caught my attention was when I heard Dr. Richard Becker, host of Your Health, say that resveratrol was able to reverse hardening of the arteries. I thought he said it would actually clean out your arteries. I keep looking to watch that episode again to make sure that I heard him right.

I thought grape juice would have the same benefits as red wine, until I found out where the grape holds it's goodness. Mayoclinic.com says these antioxidants are found mainly in the skin, stem, leaf and seeds of the grapes, rather than their pulp. Wine is fermented with the whole grape for an extended period of time.

Your grape juice needs to be made with the whole grape, and allowed to 'steep' long enough to absorb the antioxidants.

Welch's uses the whole grape, but I found no information about how long the juice or wine needs to absorb. Some, like Old Orchard, add resveratrol to their bottled juice, but not their frozen concentrate.

Berries and grapes are good sources, but blueberries, raspberries and mulberries are some of the best. Also boiled peanuts with the skins. The skin is the key.

One other important thing I learned was that the resveratrol is significantly decreased when cooked or heated. Go ahead and eat your jelly, just don't expect it to improve your health.

There's also the option of getting it in a pill. Resveratrolbenefits.com has a chart that shows performance reviews of different supplements, if you want to go that route.

I figure I need to eat anyway. Why not incorporate into my diet foods which have great health benefits. I like to buy the frozen juice because it's easy to have plenty on hand. I like that Welch's is made with whole concord grapes - skins, seeds and all - and contains no added sugar, color, or flavor. That's what I would buy, but my grocery store doesn't even carry it. They only have grape juice cocktail. I'm really not wanting the added sugar and corn syrup. So I'll probably eat more fresh fruit and keep looking for other good sources.