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What does dry brushing do for skin?
I see a lot of claims for dry brushing, some are pretty far out there: eliminates cellulite, detoxifies the body, speeds up lymphatic drainage. But what is hype and what, if anything, does dry brushing actually do for skin? The premise of dry brushing is to use a firm-bristle brush in light, sweeping strokes all over your body. I don’t know about you but I can’t get past the visual of a stiff, boar bristle brush that leaves sweeping red marks all over the body. A bit too strong for me. Why then does the brush have to be firm bristle? Why can’t it be a medium-bristle or a medium-soft…
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Laundry – Whites, Lights and Darks
How I learned to sort laundry: whites, lights and darks, one pile for each. I think laundry is among the important things learned through family, specifically mother, grandmother and aunts. Why? Because they were taught the methods that we still use to clean our clothes. From my mother I learned by taking good care of clothing, it will last much longer. Since I am overly attached to everything I wear, this has proven to be very true. Before each of our kids prepared to go off to college, I taught them the same way of sorting and washing. I’m thinking that it was a success since neither of them ruined…
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Cornwall, U.K. Part 1
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Physical activity
Ever wonder why folks seem to be more sedentary than say, 50 or 60 years ago? I think much more of the population today is employed in sedentary work and gets little physical activity. We’ve moved from an agrarian and trades-based society to a service-oriented one. The reverse was true back then; physical activity happened all day long. The workforce was less desk-bound and was certainly not tied to a screen. Women who worked in the home engaged in cleaning, washing, preparing meals, caring for and educating children. It was an all day job. Women who were employed outside the still had work waiting at home; often, literally working a…
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Winter Garden Planning
It’s time to begin winter garden planning for the coming spring. While the cold days of winter drag on, seed catalogs begin arriving. I like to sit with a steaming cup of tea, catalogs spread out on the table, pouring over each description of the vegetables I want to grow this spring. I go back and forth between the pics I snapped during the summer (because even though I tell myself I’ll remember, I don’t) and the seed catalogs. Then I make notes of which tomato variety or bean plant performed well last year. I cull those which did not perform well and that I won’t consider giving precious space…
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Victory Gardens
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What is good skin care?
Skin care needs change as we age; what is good skin care at 20 is no longer a good idea at 30 and so on. When I was in my 20s I had oily skin and hair. I could not go one day without -or so I thought- without washing my hair. I’d do a face mask twice a week and in between I would use rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball and liberally swab all over the T-zone. Did my oily skin improve? Of course not, it was just dry with more acne. Decades later, I know that regime was probably among the worst I could have chosen. I…
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Moisturizers
If I don’t keep moisturizers on my hands them and keep them hydrated they look rough. It’s the time of year that my hands are always cold. Even when the rest of me is warm, my hands are cold. They look like lizard skin; dry, crepe-like hands ready to shed their uppermost layer. We currently have a lizard in the household so it’s easy to make this analogy. And I do every time I pass by its ‘abode’ but at least this reminds me to put on more moisturizer! Hands that work hard need more moisturizer In cooler weather it’s a lot more challenging to keep my hands moisturized. Cooler…
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Coffee
The delicious flavor of a perfect cup of coffee is incomparable. Required by many of us to start each day, it provides a boost when we need to focus – like through the 4 o’clock slump and accompanies friends gathered for a catch-up at the ubiquitous local coffee shop. The beverage so important that it was given its own moniker, ‘kaffe-klatsch‘, German for ‘informal gathering, talking or gossip where coffee is served.’ And I’m sure we can add to that ‘and imbibed with relish in the afternoon’ to underscore the status of this beverage. Bean or preparation? For me it is both- it’s a good quality bean, which before grinding,…
