Remembering...

Thought for the Day

"Tough times never last, but tough people do"

~Robert H. Schuller

Dog Love

Moment to moment we strive for happiness
Only to find the taste of sweet love lying patiently at our feet
In times of distress and want of peace we lose sight of our own ambitions
And our love for life dries slowly and blows away
We look for an answer in the darkest of places
Then we find hope again and sun and light and love
And we find our dogs tongue to be the most Gracious of kisses
And the morning dew on our new shoes a welcoming hello

Rush into the arms of peace and find there is sweetness in the art of love

Missing You Sedona...

It seemed so simple..being here in this place ~ Almost off the map, in a world unknown to most...Was it because we were on vacation? I think the reason is much deeper and meaningful. This sacred place called Sedona is a place of magic and high energies. Here Mother Earth has not been damaged by man. You can feel the Earth's Chakras are balanced ~ She is still at Peace. I pray we can keep her this way. I cannot get back to Sedona fast enough...I long to see the Red Rocks.

Farmageddon

Recently I watched a Documentary called "Farmageddon" and although I thought I knew an awful lot about eating organic, what it means to be certified organic, and how many trials and tribulations organic farmers went through; nothing prepared me for what I saw in this film. Please watch this film if you can! I believe more then ever it is VITAL that we support our local organic farmers, and the farmers that do not use pesticides and are GMO free.

 The beautiful organic veggies I bought from the farmer's market outside of Whole Foods yesterday!

(The avocados are organic too...but from Whole Foods!)

At this point we can't afford NOT to buy Organic!!!

Find a Farmer's Market Near You (in CT)    

Find a Farmer's Market Near You (in RI)

Garlic vs. High Blood Pressure

Garlic has been used for thousands of years to promote wound healing and improve heart health. Most of its positive effects are due to its high content of antioxidants, particularly allicin. I KNOW garlic works! This particular supplement, Kyolic Formula 109 works miracles! I have seen it in action! It's Awesome!

~Scientists at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island investigated the impact of aged garlic extract on blood lipids in men with high cholesterol. Researchers reported in the December 1996 issue of the “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,” that those taking 7.2 g of aged garlic extract for six months experienced decreases in blood pressure compared with those who had a placebo.~

Aged garlic extract may lower blood pressure in those with high blood pressure, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. Scientists examined the effects of aged garlic extract on patients with treated, but uncontrolled, hypertension. Subjects were assigned to receive 960 mg of aged garlic extract or a placebo daily for 12 weeks. At the end of the treatment, participants getting the aged garlic extract lowered their blood pressure compared with those who consumed a placebo, according to research published in the October 2010 issue of “Maturitas.”

 Garlic has achieved a legendary reputation as an antihypertensive medication. It's been used in China for centuries for that purpose, and the Japanese government officially recognizes garlic as a blood-pressure depressor. American scientists first tried garlic against high blood pressure in 1921. Garlic consistently lowers blood pressure in laboratory animals.

Eat more garlic!

(Kyolic garlic supplements may interfere with certain medications, including anti platelet and blood pressure medications, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Consult your health- care provider before taking any aged garlic extract supplements.)

Where we buy our Garlic!

Haley Farm State Park

 A lovely hike today at Haley Farm. When I first moved to New England this was one of the 1st beautiful hikes I was introduced to! My painting "Mind of the Forest" came directly from my frequent hikes here. If you have not been to Haley, I suggest you pay her a visit! She is very peaceful and calming. This trail also connects to Bluff Point State Park if you are looking for a day hike. I'll be visiting all my favorite hiking spots before I leave in October, and will post the info and directions :~)  Enjoy!

 My dear friend Gwen

DIRECTIONS:

Coming from I-95 North: Take Exit 88.  Turn left onto SR117 South.  Turn left at the end onto Route 1 North. Turn right onto SR 215 (4th light). Take the first right onto Brook Street. Take the first right onto Haley Farm Lane. Coming from I-95 South: Take Exit 88.  Turn right onto SR117 South.  Turn left at the end onto Route 1 North. Turn right onto SR 215 (4th light). Take the first right onto Brook Street. Take the first right onto Haley Farm Lane. The park has been preserved as open space and is used for passive recreational purposes.  A 0.8 mile bike trail winds its way through the scenic old shoreline farm.  The Haley Farm Bike Trail, which is wheelchair accessible, is part of a 7 1/2 mile town-owned bikeway routed from Mystic to Groton on local roadways.

Art Show

Simplifying

As we get closer to our day to exit Pawcatuck Connecticut, we have realized how much STUFF we have! Amazing, we have cleaned out every corner of our home, the basement, the bedrooms, the kitchen. We have had yard sales, given away many, many, items to churches, the dump, the Johnny Cake Center. And still we have so much. How did we collect so much STUFF over the years??!! So today, I have been separating my books and deciding which ones will go to storage and which ones will come in our house with wheels. I believe my books are impossible to part with! I look at the worn covers and think how much knowledge remains in the pages that I may not have absorbed yet! If I read "Walden," for the 4th time will I learn even more? I have to take "Walden" along...! And then there are the brand new books I have not read yet. Clothes I could care less about! But my books, oh how I love them! They are constant companions of imagination and adventures, wisdom and strength and I cannot see how one could live without them! So I;m taking as many as possible!!!

 Inside out RV (a very small amount of books I plan to take...yikes!)

I do love sorting through my "stuff" and throwing away the old. It's a process of cleansing and refreshment. A ceremony of letting go of the past and washing me clean of old patterns and toxic thoughts. I am looking at the RV and thinking how can I take LESS, less, less....and the less I have the more my heart fills! How wonderful! At the same time I look at my home and think how beautiful it looks while it becomes "simplified."  And part of me thinks how comforting it would be to snuggle up with a book and admire our simple house as it grows in spirit. BUT! no, we are going west! It's a calling, an instinctual knowing that we must answer to. We only get one or two, maybe tree chances to answer these longings and requests from God! We must follow through. At times our rational minds try to take over and convince us that being rational, practical, and realistic is the only way, yet this way is not what are human spirits thrive on! We truly thrive on adventure, experience, and wonderment.

"When you find your path, you must not be afraid.
You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes.
Disappointment, defeat, and despair are
the tools God uses to show us the way."
- Paulo Coelho



Devil's Hopyard

What an amazing dog! Brigid always finds the biggest and heaviest stick! She insists on the challenge and work of lifting and jumping with it! We watch in amazement while she leaps, jumps, swims, and returns for another round. She NEVER gets tired!! We hiked about 3 miles yesterday. First time I had ever been to Devil's Hop Yard. Very beautiful. Here is some info on the history of this gorgeous park:

Devil's Hopyard is located in East Haddam. The principle feature of the park, Chapman Falls drops more than sixty feet over a series of steps in a Scotland Schist stone formation. The falls also once powered "Beebe's Mills" which were named after the original owner. The mills operated until the mid 1890's.

A search for the origin of the name "Devil's Hopyard" reveals a wide variety of different stories; none of them are verifiable and all are likely to be more fiction than fact. One of the most popular of these stories is about a man named Dibble, who had a garden for growing hops used in the brewing of beer. It seems that through usage, Dibble's Hopyard became Devil's Hopyard. There are records of several farmers having hopyards in the area, but there is no mention of a landowner named Dibble. However, Dibble might have been a tenant.

Another tale focuses on the potholes near the falls, which are some of the finest examples of pothole stone formations in this section of the country. Perfectly cylindrical, they range from inches to several feet in diameter and depth. These potholes were formed by stones moved downstream by the current and trapped in an eddy where the stone was spun around and around, wearing a depression in the rock. When the rock wore itself down, another would catch in the same hole and enlarge it. We know this now, but to the early settlers the potholes were a great mystery that they tried to explain with references to the supernatural. They thought that the Devil has passed by the falls, accidentally getting his tail wet. This made him so mad he burned holes in the stones with his hooves as he bounded away.

The park today offers some of the finest birding in the state and fishermen find the clear, cool stream water an excellent source of brook trout. :) Could the round holes in the falls really be the work of the devil?  Or, just nature and water making their mark for future generations?  Visit Devil's Hopyard and find your own answer to this age-old mystery. ;) DIRECTIONS: From CT Route 9: take Exit 7, then a left at the end of the exit ramp onto CT Route 82 east/154 north. Take a right at the first traffic light following CT Route 82 east and follow the signs. From Interstate 395: take Exit 80 west. Take a right onto CT Route 82 west. Take a right onto Hopyard Road and follow signs. From I-91S: take Exit 22 for Route 9 South, Exit 7. Take a left at the end of the exit ramp onto CT Route 82 east/154 north. Take a right at the first traffic light following CT Route 82 east and follow the signs.  We didn't know that heart was there till later! :)