Blazing color
The crunch of dried leaves
A walk through the apple orchard
Warm cider donuts
Apples & Mums
A lazy Sunday snuggled up with a book
Warm soup & Bruschetta
I hope you too enjoy the moments of Autumn! Stay well my friend.
October 26, 2011 2:08 pm
October 19, 2011 9:03 pm
October 12, 2011 3:56 pm
http://www.facebook.com/debra.himes
May 2008 I went for my annual mammogram. No big deal right? Taking a solid stance feet placed firmly on the floor as your sweaty hands grasp the vinyl-covered metal bar tightly with a white knuckle grip. You plop a boob on the pad bracing yourself for the cold hard vice-grip to take hold with its crushing squeeze. Instantly you become a flat breasted women. Then just for kicks why not balance them off and repeat the same procedure on the other breast. Wouldn’t it be great if only the technician were so kind as to offer to flatten your buttocks and belly as and added bonus, kinda like a thank you for playing?
Despite all the built up anxiety and physical discomfort one may endure I can’t express enough the importance of having a yearly mammography screening and clinical breast exam completed by your general practitioner. But, more importantly is to play it smart and pay attention to your own body. You and only you alone know the appearance, shape, feel and texture of your breast. A monthly self-exam of your breast is so vital, with increased awareness and early detection you can beat the odds against breast cancer. Early detection is your best defense when the cancer is at a stage most treatable.
My mammogram results had come back normal when only thirteen days later while showering I noticed my left breast nipple appeared to be inverted. Underneath my areola close to the surface I felt a hard lump. A detectable lump the size of a nickel. Stunned breathless leaning back against the shower wall both arms crossed I covered my chest tightly taking control of my trembling body as a rush of blood began to boil. A shower of questions raced through my head. I felt it over and over again, blotting it out as if it were a coffee stain through out the weekend telling know one of the discovery––it was hard and it wasn’t moving.
How were it possible the mammogram I had just days ago didn’t detect the lump? Seething with each breath thinking of this poison swimming from-cell-to-cell attaching to one another growing by the minute. What was the lump? When you find a lump in your breast isn’t your first thought that it’s cancer?
This lump was a 1.50–centimeter tumor diagnosed as, “invasive ductal carcinoma,” and had already spread to one lymph node. Although, every women and each case is different we all share the same distress when our life, home, family and friends are put at risk by a potentially life threatening illness. Play it smart and weave your own safety net by paying close attention to your body. Have a yearly mammogram, and clinical breast exam performed by your practitioner followed-up with a monthly self-exam.
Cancer is a beast and no one is unassailable.
October 11, 2011 4:13 pm
Sauntering in the wilderness along the bank of a rolling river in Vermont an autumnal photo safari, I happen on a birch tree shedding it’s stilted bark or possibly scraped by wildlife. Coiled down it’s trunk the outer layer scorched weathered texture and stained lime colored moss, while the inside skin peeled away alike delicate tissue paper. Enchanted and inspired I gathered an armful of the bark to bring home for an art project. I foresee a mixed medium collage of bark, feathers, photography and words, maybe to frame or cover of a journal.
I’ve never utilized bark in any art project before. Have you? If so I’d like to take a peek at your artwork or if you have any tips on working with bark I’d love to here them. Just leave a note with a link to your project in the comments.
Wishing you a fun creative week too. Stay well!
October 5, 2011 11:11 pm
Back in September I took a long weekend road trip to Vermont with my niece for a fall foliage photo safari and spent a few days with a cousin, this was our third get together since reconnecting on Facebook after 20+ years. On this visit we carried a huge surprise in the trunk of the car for her.
Evenings were spent in the dim light of citronella lanterns on the deck sipping wine as we reminisced of childhood days when she lived with our grandmother Nana. Nana was a serious stern husky women with thick legs from waitressing table to table at Whites Lunch a local downtown diner. Her pet german shepherd dog Bullet laid outside the restaurant door greeting daily customer’s until her shift was over, then together, side-by-side walked the main street back to their apartment .
We giggled the nights away as we had back then with reference to, “Remember when…?” “Do you remember the time?”
We spoke of how angry our Nana had become at the dinner table, when her elderly boyfriend George would kick us under the table and made goofy faces at the two of us and the giggling would ensue non-stop. Nana would become so angry with our disrespectful table manners her glasses would steam up. Especially, when her friend George half of her size set across the table commonly dressed in short sleeve white dress shirt, red bow tie, and a mischievous wide smile plastered across his gentle face. He would perform his own broadway show when he played his imaginary violin in the air and vocally belted out, “Some enchanted evening you could hear her hollering…” drowning out her angry voice in the background. George was a brave little man who clearly knew how to melt Nana’s heart and our young hearts as well. We all loved him as the Granddad we never knew.
Rediscovered on the porch at a relatives house recently was our Nana’s, ‘1895 Sphinx Head Model Singer Treadle Sewing Machine,’ which long ago set in her bedroom and now has been handed down to the older and wiser little girl that Nana taught to sew back then.
A blessed reconnection filled with immaterial treasures as well.
Listen to this old gal purr!
***Photography and video by Pam Applebee: the recipient of this treasure!
