Garden Tour

Garden Tour

Garden Tour

Garden Tour

A Farm Visit

Farm photos are, perhaps, my favourites. I love the colours and the sky and the fields, and, in the case of some farms like ours, old wood and rust alongside shiny steel and modern equipment.

This ramshackle garage is where Dad had his woodshop and where he created magic. I have very dear memories of time spent in there ... the smell of freshly cut wood, sawdust ... holding tools and wood bits for Dad, watching his skilled hands carefully run wood through the table saw, running his finger over a thin line of wood glue, a pencil hooked over his ear, a cigarette dangling from his lips (bad Dad) or whistling. *sigh* I remember watching him turn bowls or legs on the lathe, creating even, graceful shapes. There wasn't anything he couldn't make in there. It was a magical place ... with lots of whistling.

During this visit we arrived while Darrel was doing something ... I don't know what he was doing but whatever it was, it was important to the farm operation. That I do know.  Lynn was cleaning a bin. Also important. I remember when we didn't ever wear masks to clean bins ... not that I actually did a lot of bin cleaning I should add. I was probably making cookies, reading, or walking to the cooley.

I do, do, DO love that farm.

A Farm Visit

Small Towns - Where the Fun's at!

I had the great pleasure of attending the annual lawnmower races in White Bear this year.

The bar/restaurant across the street was just hopping, there was a big yard sale, a vintage car show/competition, tire burning (I still don't get the thrill of seeing how long it takes to burn all the rubber off a set of tires), a beer garden, and ... lawnmower races, naturally.

Any excuse for a good time. You can count on rural people to be creative and find ways for everyone to have fun. I can't remember when I last saw so many people and cars in White Bear.

And where else can you look down a back alley (or should I say THE back alley) and see a couple of horses lazing about.

The pretty, little girl is Cindy's neice's daughter who I don't recall ever having met. A very sweet little girl.

And yes, that's my Mom (in red) in the beer garden, in the middle of the action where she most likes to be.

White Bear. YEAH!

Small Towns - Where the Fun's at!

Vitamin D Linked to Breast Cancer Survival Rates

This is not actually news - the association has already been made - but it contributes to mounting evidence that helps warrant more research on the topic. The study does not imply that low Vitamin D can cause breast cancer but there does seem to be an association between breast cancer and low Vitamin D and, as they say in this article, it's something oncologists should be paying attention to. It has been my experience at our Saskatoon Cancer Centre that oncologists are not interested in our Vitamin D levels. The only reason mine was tested was because my Naturopath requested it and because I, after all my research into breast cancer, felt it was important to optimize my Vitamin D levels as well. It surprises me that the Cancer Centre doesn't pay more attention to Vitamin D levels in patients.  My previous doctor never tested my Vitamin D levels during annual physicals and only, after my diagnosis, had it tested at the request of my Naturopath.  That said, I think my new GP is more likely to test my Vitamin D as a standard practice.

A couple of other points are that many studies I've read about say it matters more what your Vitamin D levels are at the time of diagnosis, suggesting that it might not make much difference to one's prognosis to bring your Vitamin D levels up after you've been diagnosed.  On the other hand, I don't think it's known for sure, so I have aimed at maintaining an optimal level of Vitamin D just in case it does help prevent a recurrence. It's a bonus that there are many other health reasons to aim for optimal in terms of Vitamin D and not to settle for what our department of health proclaims to be the "normal range".  "Optimal" is considerably higher than what has been determined as "normal".  

11 June 2012

A new study published in Carcinogenesis found vitamin D levels are linked to breast cancer survival rates.  The researchers found that out of 1,800 women, participants with vitamin D levels above 30ng/mL were about half as likely to die within 5 years of diagnosis compared to women with levels below 30ng/mL. 

With every 10ng/mL increase, survival past 5 years increased by 20%. The results were still significant when the researchers adjusted for weight and age. 

Also, women with higher vitamin D levels during the study were more likely to have smaller tumors. 

The authors recognize that the study implies association, not a cause-effect relationship. Regardless, vitamin D is definitely something oncologists should pay attention to. 

Via: Vitamin D Council > News:

Vitamin D Linked to Breast Cancer Survival Rates

Quilting Instead of Weeding

And this is another reason why I wasn't helping Kevin with the garden this weekend. I spent Sunday doing the quilting I should have done last Sunday but didn't.

I'm really happy with how it's turning out. It came together so much better than I thought it would. It's not too wonky at all. Not everything matches up 100% and, after having to trim my squares, I knew they wouldn't but things match so much better than I had even dared hope! Yeah! Here's some close-ups of squares where you can see that my points matched up quite nicely for the most part.

And there are some, such as these, that didn't match quite so nicely in placed but still, not too bad. Not too bad at all! By the time it's all quilted and snuggly, those little mismatches will hardly show at all!

After I finished this part I had to decide if I would simply quilt and bind it as it is or whether I would add borders to make the quilt bigger. After laying it out on the bed, I decided to add some borders, which I did this evening. I added a 3" tan border all the way around and next I'm going to put together another narrower border using bits of all the patterned fabrics in the quilt. That will make it a bed-sized quilt.  This has turned out to be a very good learning experience.

And here's the "stained glass" shot of the quilt top. Pretty!

Quilting Instead of Weeding