Please indulge me in a brief diversion from the challenge. Last year, my 65-year old brother-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Apparently he’s had the disease for quite some time – at testing, his brain was functioning at the level of someone much older. My sister has started a blog to help deal with the effects this disease has had on their family – it’s been very cathartic for her. Since November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, I thought you might take a few minutes to take a look; I think you’ll find she has a very unique approach. You’ll want to start at the beginning (the posts are very short, I promise) - so when you get to the blog, read the text under her Title (it explains how she’s written the blog), then use the Monthly navigation on the right to go to the first post in September and then read up.
Her blog is here – but before you go, did you know that
- as many as 5.3 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer’s?
- alzheimer’s is the seventh-leading cause of death and the direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias to Medicare, Medicaid and businesses amount to more than $148 billion each year? Alzheimer’s and dementia triple health care costs for Americans age 65 and older.
- every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s?
- Alzheimer’s is incurable, but with early detection, some treatments have been found effective in forestalling it’s effects.
You have my most heartfelt thanks for taking the time to look at my sister’s blog. Feel free to pass the url along to anyone. We both truly appreciate it. For more information, you can read about the 10 signs of Alzheimer’s.
217 - Out-of-Date
Although Gerard’s Herball contains much misguided information and medical suggestions, it’s a unique work that is still of great interest to botanists – for it’s historical value. And for the average person – well, it’s a charming read. This page recommends “The Daisie” for curing migraines (“megrim”), bruises and of all things, from keeping little dogs from getting too big!
72 - Famous Authors
In my younger days I was quite interested in herb gardening and started a small collection of books on the subject. By far the most famous of all is Gerard’s Herball, first published in 1597. It represented a landmark in botanical publishing and Thomas Johnson’s re-editing in 1636, after Gerard’s death, preserved Gerard’s wealth of folk medicine and anecdotes. The panel on the left reads “The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. Gathered by John Gerarde of London, Master in Chirvrgerie. Very much Enlarged at Amended by Thomas Johnson, Citizen and Apothecarye of London.”
250 - Rainbow
Real rainbows are very rarely seen in these parts, so you’ll have to settle for this very colorful and well-organized chalk box belonging to one of the chalk artists I posted last month.
145 - Heart's-Desire
Yesterday was our 25th wedding anniversary and as I mentioned earlier in the year, my DH is an attorney. He is currently in a very big, very important trial about 125 miles from home – so I only see him on weekends. I probably should have expected him to send flowers, but it was still a wonderful surprise to get this delivery of “Autumn Glow” miniature roses!
Update: I took a photo of the flowers with my iPhone to send to the DH. I remembered that I had installed the new Photoshop App on my iPhone and used the built-in Sketch feature – pretty cool, huh?
Flower Sketch
42 - Celebration
Today is our 25th wedding anniversary … seems like only yesterday!
207 - On My Table
About this time of year, I dig out my “seasonal” stuff and try to create a sense of Fall. Its tough here in CA though because although the leaves start to change color, it’s still about 78 degrees here. I know, I know … cry me a river ….
15 - Autumn
I laid down on the sidewalk to get this shot! Funny how at the beginning of the challenge I felt dumb doing something like this, but now … not so much!!!
103 - Flowers
These sunflowers in my garden are the last vestiges of summer – you can see that the petal are already starting to curl.
56 - Clouds
I got this shot just before a very cold, windy rainstorm blew through our area – it was very odd with the red clouds and the fog at the same time. Oh - the storm resulted in an 11-hour power outage, a screeching battery backup alarm and one very grumpy female!
