FOR YOUR HEALTH: Gym Or No Gym? Finding Your Ideal Exercise Routine

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The immersive JRNY digital fitness platform features hundreds of workouts.

(NAPSI)—They say old habits die hard, but for a lot of people the last two years have proven otherwise. The COVID-19 pandemic fueled a seismic shift in the way people view physical and mental health—and lately, many have had a chance to reflect on old habits and routines.

If you’re looking to improve your physical or mental health, there may be no better tool than exercise. It offers numerous benefits including lower blood pressure, improved bone health and reduced risk of diseases. Moving your body stimulates different parts of your brain to release feel-good chemicals including serotonin, endorphins and dopamine, leading to a cascade effect of better sleep, sharper thinking, reduced stress and enhanced mood.

With the mass adoption of hybrid work models that let you swap your morning commutes with a sweat session or moment of mindfulness, the reopening of gyms and fitness centers and spring right around the corner, now’s a good time to replace your old, tired routines.

Tom Holland, exercise physiologist and Bowflex fitness advisor, says it’s an exciting moment in fitness and a great time for people to begin thinking about what their exercise routine might look like, with so many options available including working out at home, outside or at the gym.

Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

• Take up a new at-home routine: At-home workouts are the new normal for many and can be just as effective as a workout done at a gym—not to mention easier to fit into a busy routine. Fitness apps such as the JRNY digital fitness platform (https://www.bowflex.com/jrny.html)—which offers a range of classes including strength, stretching, yoga and Pilates—can be great tools to take the guesswork out of trying a new exercise.

“At-home fitness equipment is better than ever before and you no longer need a gym membership to get in a great workout,” says Holland. “With new digital technologies such as wearables and connected machines, you can get the kind of customized, comprehensive fitness plans that were once reserved for professional athletes.”

Versatile home equipment such as the Bowflex VeloCore Bike 22” (https://www.bowflex.com/bikes/velocore/100914.html) are great for getting in a cardio session without the need to go to a gym. With the JRNY app on the VeloCore bike, you can tour new cities, participate in trainer-led rides or catch up on your favorite shows on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney+.

• Sweat the small stuff: Even small amounts of exercise can be beneficial. If you’re at a desk or sitting still most of the day, try standing up at frequent intervals throughout the day, going for walks or doing short workouts such as jumping jacks or squats. This can help counter the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle, which is especially important in the work-from-home era.

• Get outside: There’s a strong link between time spent outdoors and physiological benefits, including reduced stress and mental fatigue and improved mood.

“Consider taking a daily walk or picking up an outdoor hobby to ensure you’re getting enough time outside,” suggests Holland. “Pets can be a great reason to get outside more frequently, so if you’ve ever thought about getting a dog, maybe now is the time!”

• Take up a family or group activity: Exercise doesn’t have to be a solo activity. In fact, it can be a great opportunity to spend some quality time with friends and family. Recreational sports such as pickleball are easy to learn and can be accessible fun for the whole family, no matter the age or ability level.

“Pickleball is a new activity I’ve discovered and one my whole family has been enjoying,” Holland adds. “If you’re thinking about giving it a try but are concerned about your fitness level, I recommend exercises like bodyweight squats, skaters and jumping jacks as a warm-up to get your body in pickleball-playing shape.”

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS: The book business owners should read

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Growing your businessby Dan Beaulieu
Business consultant

Here is a book all business owners should read:

Leaders Eat Last: Why some teams pull together, and others don’t.
By Simon Sinek
Copyright 2014 Portfolio/Penguin Random House L.L.C.
Price: $18.00 Paperback
Pages: 350 pages with index
A time for leaders

Leaders create culture and culture; the right culture, is what makes great companies and organizations. Leaders lead by example. Leaders allow the key word there being allow their teams to be great.

No matter the size of your organization from three people to 3,000 people, culture is always important. Culture is what makes a great company in the end. And that must come from the top.

The simple example of a company president walking down the hall of his company and bending down to pick up a piece of paper off the floor is powerful. Much more powerful than all the talks about keeping the place clean.

Leaders look out for their people. In fact, author Simon Sinek says that we need to treat employees like our children and look out for them the same way we would our children.

A few years back, in the ‘80s, when Milton Friedman’s economics declared that companies only goal was to make money for the shareholders. Yikes! Look where that got us.

The big heroes at that time were Jack Welch and Al Chainsaw Dunlap whose answer to every problem was to cut heads. And whenever they did that, Wall Street cheered!

As an aside the children and now grandchildren of these headless victims watched this happen. It affected them first hand. No wonder they come to us today with a deep built-in distrust of corporations.

Consider where we are today, now when these ensuing generations are wary of joining companies, They don’t trust companies. They witnessed first hand that lauded leaders like Mr. Welch bragged about laying off ten percent of his management staff every year. What are they supposed to think?

No longer is this style treatment working, nor will it work in the future. The new trend of leader eats last. This means she takes care of here people first…and then they will take care of her.

As an example of the new kind of leader, the kind who is succeeding today, the author relates the story of Bob Chapman and his company Barry-Wehmiller. Bob Chapman is known for buying distressed companies and making them better. When one of these companies ran into trouble, Bob did not want to lay off people, which went against everything that he had been taught. He felt that if his family ran into financial difficulties, he would not send a couple of his kids away. And the same thing applied to his company.

Instead of laying off people he talked to his people, and they found ways to cooperate with one another to make sure everyone took care of everyone else.

This is just one example of how leaders eat last. How they are finding ways to take care of their people which in turn will take care of the company.

Okay, I can hear some of you humming Kumbaya in disgust. Sorry you feel that way, for your own sake. You had better read this book and get religion, or you are going to be one of those companies that goes out of business for lack of a work force. It will certainly help you be a great leader of a growing company.

I’M JUST CURIOUS: Old time remedies continued

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by Debbie Walker

This week I want to thank Tom for sending me another remedy for getting rid of warts. It went something like this: “Take two pennies (one for each hand) and go to a place out of doors such as a field. Take a penny and rub it on the warts of the opposite hand and then throw it over that shoulder (left hand rubbed, throw over that shoulder.” Tom says after a couple of weeks, the warts turned black and fell off, never to return. Me, I just like the results without the fancy reason.

I have a friend whose mother taught him something a little different. If you get cut and it doesn’t want to quit bleeding, you pour black pepper in it. I did see that work. Don’t forget if you have question you might want to talk to your nurse, or maybe your pharmacist.

Banish Headaches:

Strong coffee may lesson the severity of a sick headache (sometimes called a migraine).

Soaking the hands in very in very hot water will ease pain in the head.

The distinctive fragrance of fresh green apples is very useful for relieving the pain of a migraine headache.

Coughs, Congestion and Sore Throats:

Chew honeycomb every day to relieve breathing tract problems. It will make you immune to allergy producing germs; honeycomb is most effective when it when it comes from bees in local hives.

Ease a sore throat and stop sinus drainage with one teaspoon vinegar in a glass of water. Gargle once an hour until cured.

Toast thinly sliced bread and then spread butter on both sides. Cover with scalded milk and spoon feed it to those suffering with a fever or the aches of flu.

I have a few things completely off topic that I would like to share with you while you are still in your winter months:

Outsmart Common Winter Stains:

Erase hot chocolate spills with salt: Simply blot the stain with water, cover with salt, then buff with a damp sponge dipped in laundry detergent.

Lift candle wax with this hot and cold trick: To easily get rid of wax stains, first rub the spots with an ice cube (this hardens the wax) scrape off with a butter knife. Then place folded paper towels on the area and press with a warm (not hot) dry iron to remelt and absorb any excess wax and voila!

Eliminate lotion marks with dishwashing liquid: greasy lotion is great for dry skin, but it leaves stains on your clothes! To remove them stir 1 teaspoon of dishwashing detergent ( it breaks down and lifts grease) into three teaspoons of water and pour onto stain, Pat liquid into the stain with a clean toothbrush then let sit for two minutes before rinsing with cool water,

I’m just curious what you will be doing with your time this week. Take time to relax whenever you can. It’s important. Contact me at DebbieWalker@yahoo.com.

REVIEW POTPOURRI – Conductor/violinist: Lorin Maazel

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Lorin Maazel

Peter Catesby Peter Cates

Lorin Maazel

Conductor/violinist Lorin Maazel (1930-2015) was a child prodigy and at 9 years of age guest-conducted the New York Philharmonic at the 1939 World’s Fair at the invitation of Leopold Stokowski.

Maazel had a reputation for being a little supercilious prig; when he inquired at a rehearsal, “What are we playing today, gentlemen?”, someone yelled out, “How about cowboys and Indians?”

When he was in third grade, he was enrolled in advanced French and calculus. As a teenager, he was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony during its years under the holy terror leadership of Fritz Reiner and was one of the founding members of that city’s renowned Fine Arts Quartet (its cellist George Sopkin retired to the Maine woods in the late 70s).

Maazel headed to Europe for further study and made an impression in guest-conducting engagements. In 1960, he was the first American to conduct at the summer Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany.

By 1965, he was music director of the West Berlin Deutsche Opera and Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which he recorded Verdi’s Traviata, Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Puccini’s Tosca at the opera and Bach’s B minor Mass and Mozart’s Symphonies 38 and 39, to name a few that stand out.

Also exemplary were sets of the Tchaikovsky 6 Symphonies and Sibelius’s 7 with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Maazel’s conducting style was a strange mixture of very exciting and willfully hum drum, as though he was either ignited by a particular piece or didn’t give a hoot. Interestingly, I noticed in having attended two of his concerts that, when he was willfully hum drum in the performance, he seemed to be enjoying himself and quite transfixed.

His technique was crystal clear, he had a photogenic memory and he learned new works at the speed of light.

His appearances in the United States were slow to come but he did guest-conduct several times with the New York Philharmonic during the early to mid ‘60s when Leonard Bernstein was out of town.

Then in 1972, he succeeded the late George Szell as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra and won Grammies for the orchestra’s recordings of the complete Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet ballet and George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess.

His appointment there did spark controversy. He was one of four candidates with the others being Istvan Kertesz, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and Claudio Abbado and was the last choice in a poll taken among the players in the orchestra, but the trustees and other moneymen pulled a fast one and chose Maazel.

I cherish his Cleveland sets of the Beethoven 9 and Brahms 4 Symphonies for, again, their feisty and perverse eccentricities and the very colorful Moussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition.

From 1982 to 1985, Maazel spent very turbulent years as music director of the Vienna State Opera, succeeded André Previn in Pittsburgh in 1988, took a position in 1996 with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, in Munich, and then led the New York Philharmonic from 2002 to 2008.

Maazel owned a 600-acre farm in Castleton, Virginia, where he and his third wife set up a summer music school and festival during the 2000s.

By early 2014, the conductor’s health was failing and he died in July of that year.

His widow is still running the Castleton Summer Music Festival.

Much of Lorin Maazel’s music making can be accessed on YouTube.

SMALL SPACE GARDENING: Always room for strawberries

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Delizz® is a day-neutral strawberry that was the first ever strawberry to be selected as an All-America Selections winner. (photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com)

by Melinda Myers

As you plan this year’s garden, be sure to include some strawberries. They are low in calories, high in vitamin C and antioxidants, and provide seasonal interest in gardens and containers.

Best of all, you don’t need much space to grow this delicious fruit. There are three types of strawberries: June or spring bearing, everbearing, and day neutral. Select the best type of strawberry for your space and harvest needs.

June-bearing strawberries produce one crop of berries in late spring to early summer, depending on where you garden. They produce the largest harvest but in the shortest span of time. Plant now and enjoy an abundant harvest next year.

Everbearing strawberries usually produce two crops of berries each year. You’ll enjoy fresh strawberries early and late in the season, while day-neutral plants produce berries throughout the growing season.

Delizz®, a day-neutral strawberry, was the first ever strawberry to be selected as an All-America Selections Winner. Just like the flower and vegetable winners, it was tested nationally and selected for its performance for the home garden. This 2016 winner is a compact plant perfect for hanging baskets, containers or garden beds. It can be started from seed or transplants and will produce sweet fruit the first year and all season long, even during hot weather.

Up the ornamental appeal of traditional in-ground plantings with a star shaped or tiered bed. The elevated beds make for easier planting, weeding, and harvesting. You’ll find a variety of tiered shaped beds to purchase or plans to make your own.

Use strawberries as a groundcover in sunny well-drained locations for an abundant harvest. Their attractive leaves, white flowers, red fruit and brilliant red fall color add sparkle to the landscape and provide fresh fruit for your meals.

Or grow them in a container, window box or hanging basket on your porch, balcony, or deck. They’ll be close at hand and easy to harvest.

Mix a few everbearing or day-neutral strawberries in with flowers to create an edible and ornamental planter. The harvest will be smaller when grown in a mixed container, but the flowers, fruit and fall color add ornamental appeal and the fruit will be a welcome treat.

Boost the harvest by growing strawberries in their own container. Fill a hanging basket and watch as the runners cascade over the edge for added ornamental appeal.

Try filling a traditional strawberry pot – container with planting hole openings on the top and sides – with plants that produce several harvests and remove the runners as needed. Keep all the plants from top to bottom looking their best with this DIY watering device. Place soil on the bottom of the container. Set a couple of perforated PVC down through the planter. Slide the plants through the hole from the inside of the pot. Fill the remaining space with soil. Gently tamp and water thoroughly to eliminate air pockets. As you water, the water travels through the pipe and out the holes, providing moisture to all plants from top to bottom.

Check containers daily and water thoroughly and often enough to keep the soil slightly moist. Reduce maintenance and increase success by incorporating a low nitrogen slow-release fertilizer into the soil at planting or sprinkle over the soil surface as needed. This type of fertilizer promotes growth without interfering with flowering and fruit production.

Start now identifying spaces to add strawberries to your landscape, deck and balcony. Then order seeds or plants early for the greatest selection. Before you know it, you’ll be enjoying garden fresh strawberries in your morning cereal, salads or as a snack at the end of the day.

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including The Midwest Gardener’s Handbook and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her website is www.melindamyers.com.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: Giant spiders expected to drop from sky across the East Coast this spring

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Large Joro spider.

Roland D. Halleeby Roland D. Hallee

OK, ladies and gentlemen, get ready for this. The ticks are out early, the brown tail moth caterpillar is ready to wreak havoc on us for another year, and, of course, there is the black fly season. And now… A creepy, large yellow and black spider with a bulbous, bright yellow body is crawling along a tree branch, and, are you ready for this?, will be literally falling from the sky.

An invasive species of spider the size of a child’s hand is expected to “colonize” the entire East Coast by parachuting down from the sky, researchers at the University of Georgia announced last week. and no, this is not an early April Fools’ joke!

Large Joro spiders — millions of them — are expected to begin “ballooning” up and down the East Coast as early as May. Researchers have determined the spiders can tolerate cold weather, but are harmless to humans as their fangs are too small to break human skin. Although the spider is not aggressive, they will bite to protect themselves. The bite is considered quite painful, but not life-threatening.

All spiders are venomous, but some are dangerously venomous, like the black widow and brown recluse here in the United States, but the Joros are not.

The Joro spider is native to Japan but began infiltrating the U.S. in 2013, concentrating in the southeast and specifically Georgia, according to National Public Radio. (What is it with new nuisances coming from the Far East?) They fanned out across the state using their webs as tiny, terrifying parachutes to travel with the wind. They were first spotted in Hoschton, Georgia, in 2013. Since then, they have been spotted in numerous locations in northeast Georgia and also in Greenville, South Carolina. It is believed the species will become naturalized.

Andy Davis, author of the study and a researcher at Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology, says it isn’t certain how far north the spiders will travel, but they may make it as far north as Washington D.C. or even Delaware. (Whew! For a minute there I thought we were going to be Ground Zero.)

“It looks like the Joro could probably survive throughout most of the Eastern Seaboard here, which is pretty sobering,” says Davis.

They are bright yellow, black, blue, and red and can grow up to three inches.

They likely traveled across the globe on shipping containers, similar to when the Bubonic plague entered the United States. They are expected to colonize much of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States due to their relative imperviousness to the cold.

Their life cycle begins in early spring, but they get big in June and are often seen in July and August.

They’re named for Jorōgumo, a creature of Japanese folklore that can change her appearance into that of a beautiful woman. She seeks men to seduce, whom she then binds in her silk and devours.

As of 2021, their impact on their new ecosystem is unknown. They have been observed catching the brown marmorated stink bug, another invasive species that native spiders have not been known to eat, and it has also been hoped they may consume mosquitoes and flies (Wouldn’t that be great? But, be careful what you wish for).

Some hope the impact of the species will be positive due to their harmless nature and consumption of primarily invasive or nuisance insects, however, because of the relative lack of information about their ecology and the usual negative effects of most non-native species, it remains unknown whether Joro spiders may ultimately have a positive or negative effect on the ecosystem

Researchers say there’s nothing we can do. There isn’t much to stop them from getting established up and down the east coast through the ballooning dispersal method. Experts said it will likely take much longer than just this spring or summer for the spiders to get established throughout the eastern United States. Instead, it’s thought they will slowly colonize the east coast over the course of the next decade or so.

They’re coming and they’re harmless. Still, I say let’s build a wall to stop them from moving north, and keep them south of Delaware.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

Who was the winning pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in the clinching game in the 2018 World Series?

Answer can be found here.

I’M JUST CURIOUS: Strange home remedies

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by Debbie Walker

My newsletter from Farmer’s Almanac dated 2/22/22 is titled , 20 Strange Remedies That Work looked like something to share and maybe a few extra comments. As with any other column dealing with health issues, please don’t take my word for it. Questions? Discuss with your doctor or nurse.

Let’s start:

1. Cuticle infection: White vinegar treat torn up and infected cuticles – glass of equal parts distilled white vinegar and warm water. Soak for 15 minutes once a day until infection heals.

2. Hiccups: Wasn’t there a song about ‘a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down’? In this case the sugar stops the spasm that cause hiccups.

3. Removing warts: Yet another use for duct tape. Apply a strip of duct tape over the wart. Keep it on for three days; remove, rub, rub the wart area with a pumice stone and then reapply with new tape. It suffocates the virus. Another cure I have tried is to cover wart with nail polish. After a day pull off the polish then cover again. Been there, done it and it did work.

4. Beets for constipation: This one was new to me. Eat fresh steamed beets, then drink the water.

5. Potatoes for bug bites: Create a poultice by grating a peeled potato and put into a piece of cloth. Secure with a rubber band. Apply to cleaned bite until the potato is dry.

6. “Drunkin” raisin for joint pain relief: I know my Mom tried this but I don’t know what her opinion was. Soak golden raisins in gin over night and eat ten daily. Don’t drive until you know the effect on you!

7. Banana peels for poison ivy relief: Rub the inside of a banana peel against the poison ivy rash. It’s supposed to relieve itching. You can also shine your shoes.

These next ones are from an article called The Very Best Old-Time Remedies.

I don’t know where they came from originally.

  • If you carry three potatoes with you at all times and pain will not settle in your bones when you are old.
  • Never leave the clippings from your hair on the floor because doing so will cause the achy kind of arthritis to settle in your bones when you are old.
  • Eat an onion a day to keep your blood flowing smoothly. You will be less likely to have a heart attack or stroke. (Won’t have many people hanging around you either.)
  • Include at least one clove of garlic in your diet each day and you may never need to worry about having too much cholesterol in your blood.
  • Each morning and evening, pat orange juice onto the skin around the eyes. You will be rewarded with wrinkle-free skin for all of your life.
  • Sip warm onion soup at bedtime and you will be able to sleep in a short time.
  • Never allow hate to live in your body. It will stir up the mind, corrode the spirit and lead to an early death and sleepless nights.

Enough for now.

I’m just curious what old cures you have heard over the years. Contact me please with questions and comments at DebbieWalker@townline.org. Have a great week and thanks for reading!

REVIEW POTPOURRI – Movie: Something’s Gotta Give; Journalist: Christine Sadler

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Peter Catesby Peter Cates

Something’s Gotta Give

Frances McDormand

Something’s Gotta Give was a mildly pleasant 2003 comedy via which Diane Keaton, Frances McDormand, and Amanda Peet stole the show from the obnoxiously overrated Jack Nicholson and the pallid Keanu Reeves.

Amanda Peet

Credit is also due for the fine acting of Paul Michael Glaser as Keaton’s ex-husband and Rachel Ticotin, who made a most vivid presence as Doctor Martinez.

Accessible on You­Tube, the soundtrack has a charm­ingly eclectic array of performances that include Django Reinhardt’s Brazil, Satchmo’s La Vie en Rose and Eartha Kitt’s vibrant C’Est Si Bon.

Finally, the best cinematic moments were those of Paris in the evening at the hotel and bistro and on the bridge overlooking the Seine.

Christine Sadler

A Washington Post journalist, Christine Sadler (1902-1983), was the first woman ever allowed to cover a Presidential convention; in 1963, she published an original paperback, America’s First Ladies, which ends at Jackie Kennedy.

Christine Sadler

Our very first First Lady, Martha Custis Washington (1731-1802), was a 28-year-old, very wealthy widow when she married George in 1759 at what was called the White House Plantation, in tidewater Virginia.

Sadler described Mrs. Washington as follows: “Martha loved to dance, was passable at cards, embroidered expertly, handled servants with finesse, played the harpsichord, knew about weaving, preserving, feeding guests,… was vain about her excellent teeth, pretty hands and tiny feet.”

Courtesy of a philandering father, Martha had two illegitimate half siblings including an African-American sister, in addition to her seven younger brothers and sisters, all of whom she outlived.

Her husband’s own splendid career as General and “Father of our Country” has been amply documented elsewhere.

MY POINT OF VIEW: St. Patrick was an active missionary in the fifth century

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St. Patrick

by Gary Kennedy

The patron saint of my ancestors is St. Patrick. This, of course, is the Emerald Isle, Ireland. This is a magnificently beautiful island. St. Patrick was born in present day Great Britain in the year 385 and died in present day Gaelic Ireland, Northern Island. He was venerated a saint by the Catholic Church. The major shrine attributed to him is Armaugh, in Northern Ireland, Glastonbury Abbey, England. We celebrate St. Patrick on the March 17. St. Patrick is mostly noted for his relationship with the shamrock (father, son, holy, spirit) and driving all the snakes off this Irish island. The exact dates of which St. Patrick performed his deeds and miracles are not known for certain but he was an active missionary during the 5th century. It is also believed he raised the dead. For accuracy sake it is believed his life was late 4th to early 5th century.

Medieval history credits him with being the first Bishop of Alomagh and Primate of Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on the supposed date of his death. His young life is quite colorful as he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and for approximately six years served as a care taker of the animals, eventually he escaped captivity.

Slavery, as you can see, goes way back in time. During St. Patrick’s time it was all white enslavement. For the most part it was the enslavement of criminals. Fealty was for a period of time with the injured party benefitting. Eventually Christianity grew and the practice of holding co-religionists in bondage was frowned upon. St. Patrick himself was enslaved for a time. The church becoming more and more powerful and transformed the Roman slave system and serfdom began, not much different.

Also, when Bathilde became Queen of the Franks who herself had been enslaved before she married Clovis II, banned the slavery of Christians. Although the name changed, the act of slavery was still being used. So you see in all actuality black slavery came much later. It has only been recently that the African continents became used for the slave trade. The white slaves melted into serfdom and poverty and then came the exploitation of the black race, centuries later. However, for those of you who believed that Black Irish was a racial thing, you were wrong.

The Irish were a fair skinned people with mostly brown hair and blue, green and grey colored eyes. The further north you went the more changes were observed. The Viking races were relatively ruddy compacted with mostly blue-eyed people and we see more and more blonde hair. I have no idea how that happened or how skin colors began. I believe the environment had much to do with it; perhaps the sun impacted skin pigmentation.

The only thing that history tells us regarding the Irish was there was some infiltration of Spanish blood. However, for the most part our blood is basically the same with all the same varying types. I really don’t know St. Patrick’s blood type but I am sure it would be interchangeable with some of us today. The Spanish being world explorers co-mingled their blood in most of the earth.

St. Patrick was Roman born (5th century Romano-British). He is the Patron Saint of Ireland. He brought Christianity to the Picts and Anglo-Saxon’s. Most of the St. Patrick Day feasting, secular culture began here in the United States. I believe we invented corn beef.

Thus came the corned beef that I promised you’d hear more about from last week’s article, Corned Beef, which in the British commonwealth of nations, is a beef brisket cured in large grains as salt called corns of salt; Thus corn beef. The corn beef we use here on St. Patty’s Day will have some sugar and other spices to give it that wonderful flavor we have become so fond of. The basic brisket goes back at least 1,000 years and was used in the celebration. Cabbage and potato were very common in Ireland so we know they were used and perhaps onion and carrots with flat bread. The preferred drink was Guinness beer. The next Day you would have potato cakes with the left overs.

As you can see, the evolution of St. Patrick’s Day is not a great one over these past 1,000 years. Not much has changed, go to church, over eat, and drink Guinness beer. Of course, you have the enjoyment of family and friends. There is much more to know and I will share it with you next time. I might even share my recipes.

God bless all and have a happy and safe St. Patty’s Day.

As always pray for freedom for those currently in the struggle for their freedom and help where you can.

SMALL SPACE GARDENING – From seed to bouquet: grow your own flowers for cutting

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Zowie! Yellow Flame is a semi-tall zinnia with a unique bicolor pattern of blooms with scarlet-rose center and yellow petal edges. (photo courtesy of All-America Selections)

by Melinda Myers

You don’t need a lot of space or a big budget to grow and enjoy garden-fresh bouquets. Just fill a few vacant spaces, add an extra row in garden beds or fill a container with easy care flowers started from seeds.

You’ll jump-start the season and enjoy earlier blooms by starting some of the seeds indoors to transfer into the garden after the danger of frost has passed. If you’re not in a hurry, want to stretch your budget and extend your garden’s bloom time, sow some seeds directly in the garden. Just follow the directions on the seed packet.

Annual flowers like these are known for season long bloom and a long vase life. You’ll need to plant annuals each year, but you may decide the continuous bloom is well worth the effort. Supplementing them with perennial flowers and bulbs means you need to plant fewer annuals each year for a season filled with colorful garden-fresh bouquets.

Here are a few easy-care annual flowers that you can start from seed indoors or directly in the garden. These beauties will brighten those sunny spots in the landscape and bouquets in your home.

Start zinnia seeds indoors four weeks before the last spring frost or sow them directly in the garden. Either way, you’ll have flowers about eight weeks after planting the seeds. Grow taller varieties like Benary’s Giant for long stems, Queeny Lime Orange or Zowie! Yellow Flame for eye-catching color or Profusion and Zahara for small daisy-like flowers on compact mildew resistant plants in your low maintenance cut flower garden.

Like zinnias, cosmos make a great cut flower and both are heat and drought tolerant in the garden. Start cosmos seeds indoors four to six weeks before the last spring frost or directly in the garden. The fine foliage adds texture to the garden and the white, pink, lavender blooms light up the mid-summer through fall garden. Plant tall varieties en mass to eliminate the need for staking. Or grow shorter varieties like Sonata and Cosmic. Once you plant cosmos in the garden, you may be rewarded with volunteer seedlings in subsequent years.

Marigolds have long been favorites in the garden, but they also make great cut flowers. Like zinnias, you can start them indoors or directly in the garden and have flowers in about eight weeks. Include a variety of single, double, large and small flowers to create a marigold only arrangement or mix with other flowers. The Gem series of marigolds have lacy leaves with a citrusy scent and small single flowers all summer long. Not only are these 12-inch tall plants great in arrangements, but the flowers are also edible and attract beneficial insects to your garden.

Include calendula, another edible flower, in your garden and arrangements. Plant seeds directly in the garden in fall through spring when growing in the Deep South, Gulf and Pacific Coast areas. Those in other regions can plant seeds directly in the garden after the danger of heavy frost has passed. Also known as pot marigolds, these plants thrive in cooler temperatures. If plants fade as temperatures rise, cut them back, continue to water as needed and watch for new flowers when the weather cools. These will reseed readily so watch for welcome seedlings the following year.

Sunflowers make dramatic statements in the garden and in the flower vase. The 2022 All-America Selections winner, Concert Bell grows 10 to 12 flowers on each stem. You’ll have a ready-made bouquet with each stem removed. Suncredible® Yellow sunflower produces four-inch flowers on two to three feet tall plants. The plants continue to bloom throughout the season even if you don’t remove the faded flowers.

Keep the flowers coming to enjoy in the garden and arrangements with regular picking. The more you pick, the more flowers you’ll have. Share extras with friends, neighbors, or senior centers. Studies at Rutgers University found cut flowers immediately increased happiness and had a long-term positive impact on the recipient’s mood.

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including The Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her website is www.melindamyers.com.