Books, Documentaries, Reviews: November 10, 2014
Here’s a treat for those of you reading THE GOLDFINCH.
Or, who have read it.
We are currently reading it in my book club and will discuss it next week.
I put up my review of this book elsewhere on this blog. Use the search button on the right sidebar?
Thanks to Joan Phaup for finding this little video.
Interesting Information: November 10, 2014
Dr. Sarah Cimperman, ND, has assembled a food list for those diagnosed with prediabetes or, really, with diabetes.
I have to say that these are foods that I avoid, and my blood sugar is great.
(And I had my dental check-up this morning this morning: very health teeth and gums with no bleeding–all of which is due to diet.)
Note: I totally agree with Dr. Cimperman about COMMERCIAL milk, which is, in my opinion, just imbibing wasted calories. Commercial milk is a dead food and often contains dangerous additions. If I could not get my lovely and healthy RAW milk, I would fall back on the raw-milk cheeses, like those from Organic Valley.
Here’s Dr. Cimperman’s list:
Interesting Information: November 9, 2014
I was fuzzy on how live virus vaccines work and what kind of impact they have on humans.
Dr. Mercola’s post today holds some really important information that we all need to understand to make both wise vaccine choices and to begin to make grassroots political choices. We need to know more about this whole issue because it is very clear that our doctors and our public health officials do not know all the worrisome information about the impact of vaccines on all of us. And, while we are living in a time when the vaccine noose is being tightened across the nation so that we will soon not have free choice, any real discussion of the whole issue is being shut down, erased, denied, and so forth. This, folks, is how we got fluoride in our water–and now we can’t get it out easily because too many people are either profiting, or are way out on legal limbs, or do not want to be embarrassed as they recant and admit fluoride in the water is a really, really stupid and harmful practice as fluoride is extremely toxic in all sorts of ways. Know, too, that some vaccines make the dangers of fluoride pale in comparison.
First, here are the live virus vaccines: “Among live virus vaccines being used in the U.S. and other countries are measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox (varicella zoster), live virus (nasal spray) flu vaccine, shingles vaccine, and the rotavirus vaccine that’s given to infants for diarrhea.” I know I’ve read somewhere that polio can be given, also, a live virus vaccine.
Barbara Loe-Fisher is the co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a non-profit charity dedicated to preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and defending the legal right for everyone to make vaccine choices.
She explains how you can shed live virus in body fluids whether you have a viral infection or have gotten a live attenuated viral vaccine:
“Live attenuated viral vaccines (LAV) that use live viruses try to, in essence, fool your immune system into believing that you’ve come into contact with a real virus, thereby stimulating the antibody response that, theoretically, will protect you,” she says.
“When you get these live viral vaccines, you shed live virus in your body fluids. Just like when you get a viral infection, you shed live virus. That’s how viral infections are transmitted.
Because viruses, unlike bacteria, need a living host… in order to multiply. What these viruses do is they try to disable the immune system and evade immune responses.”
Second, YES, anyone receiving a live virus vaccine can transmit the vaccine strain virus to others. And, following that, these vaccine strain viruses can and do combine with wild viruses to form…???…whole new forms of viruses--and we have absolutely no idea of the impact of these recombining viruses on humans for either the short or the long term. NO IDEA. It’s the perfect illustration of “the law of unintended consequences.”
Do take some time to read this Mercola posting. We all need to know and understand the information it contains:
Can People Receiving Live Virus Vaccines Transmit Vaccine Strain Virus to Others.
Interesting Information: November 9, 2014
The summer 2014 issue of Wise Traditions, the journal of The Weston A. Price Foundation, is all about aging.
Don’t think that because you are not yet old that this issue will not contain information that concerns you. Many conditions encountered as a senior began in that senior’s earliest years.
Anyway, I am now a senior, and I’ve been interested in how I eat promotes my health.
Here’s a nice little sidebar of information from an article by PhD nutritionist Sylvia P. Onusic on how to make nutrition an “anti-aging” factor:
CONSERVING THE DIGESTIVE FIRE
As we age, our digestive forces weaken. It becomes harder for the body to make hydrochloric acid (for digesting protein), bile (for digesting fats) and digestive enzymes (for digesting carbohydrates, proteins and fats). That means that seniors are often not getting the full benefit of their food, even if they are eating well and the food is nutritious.
Attention to the digestibility of foods is key to ensuring optimal nutrition for senior diets. Soups and stews made with nourishing bone broth are ideal, as bone broth greatly aids the digestive process. Vegetables should be well cooked. Salads may not be the best choice for seniors—soups serve them better, being easier to digest. Vegetable purées made with butter and cream are great comfort foods for seniors. Lacto-fermented foods with every meal will help ease the digestive burden.
Government warnings to the contrary, raw milk is a great food for senior citizens. It contains all the enzymes needed for full digestion and nutrient assimilation and represents a complete nutrition package. It is our best source of glutathione, the body’s leading anti-oxidant. Fermented raw milk products, like yogurt and kefir, supply the digestive tract with beneficial bacteria, as well as digestive enzymes.
All grains should be properly prepared by soaking or sour leavening, for optimal digestion. Hard-to-digest grains like extruded breakfast cereals, granola, granola bars and muesli represent a difficult digestive burden for aging digestive tracts.
In addition to proper food preparation, supplements that can aid digestion include hydrochloric acid and ox bile; while the herbal preparation Swedish bitters aids in the digestive of protein and fatty foods.
The goal is not to live forever, but to ensure that all those years at the end are full of vigor and optimism. Making sure the diet is easy to digest will ensure that the “golden years” are truly filled with golden good health.
Sidebar , “Conserving the Digestive Fire,” in “Nutrition: The Anti-Aging Factor,” Sylvia P. Onusic, Phd, CNS, LDN, Wise Traditions, Summer 2014, 20-31.
Here’s the whole article, which is full of good information.
Interesting Information: November 6, 2014
One of the many delights of staying at The Four Seasons Hotel in Houston was the daily offering in the lobby of two kinds of ice-cold fruit-infused water.
I would come in from hours of walking and pour a big glass–often mixing the offerings–and be instantly refreshed and soothed.
This batch is made from two kinds of melons. Another day was pineapple and mango. And another day was grapefruit and orange.
Delicious!!
Refreshing!!
Quilting Information: November 5, 2014
I flew on Thursday–having driven to Portland, Maine, from Camden (two hours) on Wednesday and having stayed in the Comfort Inn, which lets me park my car. In Houston, I was swished from the airport in a car (Bettini)–arranged by friend Gina Caceci–who, as it turned out, was in Houston on business at the same time. She extended by one night, and we had the best visit. We ate at The Grove, a nice restaurant on the green that sits just in front of the Convention Center and which is less than a block from my hotel, The Four Seasons. (Don’t gasp as I got a special festival rate when I made reservations back in January–and it is LOVELY to be here.)
Here’s a picture of the deck at The Grove, where Gina and I ate:
My plane connections Thursday were in Atlanta, and there were quilters on that flight. One was Shelley Kirk, whom I met again at breakfast on Friday, and we tackled the Festival together. Shelley is from coastal North Carolina, the Cape Fear/Wilmington area, and is a new quilter. This show is her FIRST big show.
Shelly and I did about half of the vendors and, maybe, three rows of quilts–all of which were for sale. Gorgeous quilts. I especially liked Russian quilter Olga Milovanova’s “Peasant Yard”
Of course I did–it was of a rooster. (This quilt is copyrighted, so I could not take a picture.) Olga is from the old Russian city of Kovrov, and I could not find an on-line picture of this very special quilt.
Alex Andersen and Ricky Tims of The Quilt Show have a booth, and Shelley and I met Victoria Findlay Wolfe demonstrating her newest quilts. Victoria’s first book is a delight: 15 MINUTES OF PLAY. Since then, she’s been making innovative wedding ring quilts (some of which we saw), and that book will come out in January.
The table they were using had a white covering with names of people that have been on the show. I saw one of our local quilter’s names among the rest: Dianne Hire. That was a fun moment.
We also saw Eleanor Burns at The Quilt Show booth (Quilt in a Day quilts) and later at her own booth.
And it’s always fun to see Deb Tucker of the “rapid fire” templates. She is so amazing. The quilts in her “Studio 180 Design” are so interesting, colorful, and beautifully quilted.
Then we went to The Grove for a late afternoon meal and back to the quilt show for about an hour. After walking about five hours, I was tired and settled into my wonderful room for the evening.
Shelley took classes all day, and I walked all day. It took me about three hours to see the rest of the quilts. And that didn’t include stopping to admire each one separately. There were so many… And so many that were so beautiful.
Here are a few favorites–though I could have taken pictures of every single quilt there. Sometimes I take pictures so that I remember something about the technique in a quilt, and I’m afraid that’s what I mostly brought home in terms of pictures.
When NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg was on board the International Space Station, she made a quilt block. Her block pattern was combined with star-themed blocks made by quilters from all over the world. The blocks were sewn into quilts that look like this one and displayed in this exhibit: ASTRONOMICAL QUILTS! BLOCK CHALLENGE. There were about a dozen of these quilts. And, isn’t this whole idea just so…quilty?
In the exhibit WHAT’S FOR DINNER, 3-D dinners were exhibited, each on its own placemat. They were so much fun!
Of course I fell in love with the exhibit IT’S RAINING CATS AND DOGS.
Here’s “Summer Camp” by Barbara Bates Beasley:
And, also, Beasley’s “Can We Talk About the Steak?” Don’t you love her use of purple and green?
I have been drawn, for some time, to different color variations of one image.
Here’s Deborah Yates’s “A Warhol Zakoosa”–Zakoosa is her dog, a boxer.
Here’s a log cabin by Mary Cammizzaro. I’m in a log-cabin moment,and what I liked about this quilt is that the use of one fabric for the dark side of the block. Interesting…
Here’s a Lucy Boston variation by Suet-Fern Lee of Singapore. This block is pieced as an elongated hexie, called a honeycomb. I am playing around with this block piece as well, but with bright fabrics. I’m using pre-made paper pieces to make it. The blocks are linked together with an assortment of different shapes, including the tiny squares you see here.
Here’s a close-up:
Here’s a very different use of the New York Beauty block by Carol Anne Ludington. I LOVE the New York Beauty block.
Here’s “As American As…” by Laura Fogg, shown in an exhibit highlighting American-made fabrics which are, for the moment, all solids.
Here’s a gorgeous hexie quilt by Miyuki Hamaba Sanda of Japan.
Here’s a close-up:
I took a break after the quilts in the food court–which was HUGE. The camera could not take in the whole thing. This is about a third of it.
I sat with a coffee for a while with a group of four women from the Houston area. They were gracious and funny and it was a delight to visit with them for a bit. Then I tackled the other half of the vendors. I kept running into this group of women with shark hats.
I found two patterns for little girl short skirts, a special ruler with a rotary cutter attached that does not slide away from you when you cut, the two log cabin rulers I wanted (I’m long cabin mad at the moment), a plastic widget that sews curves when attached to your machine, and some chicken fabric for a new bow-tie purse as my current one is wearing out.
Bonnie Hunter posted pictures from her quick visit to the show before going to Galveston for a cruise. She saw Edyta Sitar–one of my favorite quilters–and I did not realize that Edyta and her Laundry Basket Quilts had a booth. I sought her out, had a lovely visit with her, which included her telling me about seeing Bonnie. I bought her newest book, HANDFULS OF SCRAPS. She GAVE ME two of her journals, one for me and one for my local quilt group, Coastal Quilters. The new book has a gorgeous hexie quilt pattern that I will likely make my winter hand sewing project. Best of all, I saw many of her beautiful, beautiful quilts up close and personal. There was one especially that is haunting me and for which I may have to order the pattern.
Edyta, like Bonnie Hunter, likes complicated quilts with small pieces. But they use entirely different color arrangements, and Edyta does a lot with very innovative and gorgeous applique borders. I might have the courage to try one of these borders if I do the hexie quilt. My only problem is going to be choosing which color scheme to use: Edyta’s rich warm colors or brighter contemporary colors.
So, I quit about 2:00 p.m., too tired and too overwhelmed to see or think about another thing. I got a coffee at Phoenicia foods and sat around the Four Seasons pool and read Edyta’s book–and tried not to think about the blizzard raging back in Maine.
Dinner will be a salad from Phoenicia as well. And, the maid changed the room’s clock for me so I will wake up on time now for my 5:30 a.m. pick-up.
It’s been a fun and enriching trip, but I am wild to go home and sew, sew, sew.
Quilting Information: November 5, 2014
This is the International Quilt Festival’s 40th anniversary, so one is greeted with a huge central display called “Ruby Jubilee” made of red and white quilts of all sizes. (Rubies = 40 years.) Some hang in tiers from the center in a large, very well-lit circle that made the quilts glow.
Here’s a video from the front:
Here’s a view from a different angle. See the Dear Jane quilt at the bottom center?
Here’s a close-up–and somehow I did not get the maker’s name and cannot make an association from the show booklet.
Within the Ruby Jubilee exhibit are separate exhibits. Here’s “Rouge et Blanc” by Marie Baraer from the Quilts de Legende exhibit:
And, a close-up. The quilt was hand quilted.
There were some spectacular miniature red and white quilts and, of course, red work.
Here are other angles:
Quilting Information: November 5, 2014
It’s overwhelming.
First, the building itself is at least two city blocks long and three stories high.
Here’s a little video taken as I am walking through the green park located in front of the Convention Center:
And here is a close-up taken just across the street from the Convention Center:
The Festival uses the WHOLE BUILDING.
There are over 1000 vendors.
There are 31 Special Exhibits, which includes the juried quilts.
There are demonstrations, lectures, quilt artists working in studios set up for them, and all sorts of classes.
There are quilts from all over the world here.
Over 60,000 people from all over the world will attend.
Thanks heavens I have THREE whole days to see/experience it all as it is overwhelming.
Turkey Tracks: October 28, 2014
I’m off to Portland, Maine, tomorrow and will fly to Houston on Thursday.
Blog readers will recall that I made these plans last January–and, now, here I am, mostly packed and ready to go.
Seeing this show is a bucket list item for me.
And I am excited!
Dear friend Gina Caceci, my wonderful neighbor back in Falls Church, Virginia, has arranged for me to picked up by a DRIVER!!
Oh my goodness!
And, somehow, it’s a wonderful mystery at the moment, I am also being brought from the hotel back to the airport on Monday by the same company–free of charge and Gina isn’t funding this leg of the trip.
She has promised to tell me when I get home.
Also, Gina has business in Houston and delayed her trip back to Virginia so that we can have dinner Thursday night. How fun is that???
I will try to post from Houston, but the ipad is not crazy about the blog. Likely I will not be able to post until I get home.
Interesting Information: October 27, 2014
If you are a parent trying to figure out the vaccine conundrum…
Or someone thinking about getting a flu shot…
I have a gift for you: Sarah Cimperman, N.D., has an article called “A Smarter Way to Vaccinate,” in the November/December 2014, issue of Well Being Journal.
And guess what? The whole article is on Cimperman’s web page–which is great as Well Being Journal does not allow access to its articles.
A Different Kind Of Doctor: A Smarter Way to Vaccinate.
***Cimperman has the best information about vaccines in one space I’ve seen in a long time–including information about individual vaccines. There is, also, a section on “harm reduction strategies.”
I signed up for her blog.
A naturopath doc does not compete with a md doc, and they are good to know as they come at health problems with an entirely different tool box and with much more time than an md doc can these days. They really try to figure out what’s wrong, for starters, rather than just throwing drugs at a problem. And most of them have a certain reverence for diet and the ability of foods to heal.
***
AND, I want to say that I am not totally against the concept of vaccines. I just want to see adequate science about them–including some long-term studies and some double-blind studies. I want recognition that there are known and unknown risks with vaccines that are greater than most of us realize. I want vaccine makers held legally responsible for vaccine damage–especially when there has NOT been adequate testing, as is true with Gardasil. And I want parents to do their homework before allowing any vaccine to be given to their child. Or, to themselves.
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