I was talking with a neighbor the other day, and I asked him how life was going. He replied, ‘Oh, you know, it’s like an EKG graph; up and down.”  This got me thinking about the heartbeat of life. It does consist of up and down phases. With Covid-19, social justice issues, and politics, this has been a challenging year. These stressors are on top of the other difficulties we are already experiencing in our own personal lives. Then came the fires, which pushed most all of us over the edge into emotional exhaustion. In the heartbeat of life, we are definitely experiencing a down phase on that EKG graph!

As a plant-derived substance, resveratrol can be found in various dietary sources including grapes, berries, peanuts, and red wine. Another important source of resveratrol is the Japanese knotweed, which has long been used in Japan and China as a traditional herbal remedy. Interestingly, the grape and more precisely the grape skin contains the highest concentration of resveratrol. Consequentially, red wine seems to be the most concentrated food source of resveratrol found in human diet. However, it is not possible to absorb the recommended therapeutic doses of resveratrol by drinking wine or through dietary sources.

   In the 1960s, the BBC was playing over and over for its listeners…Elvis Presley’s latest hit about writing a letter to a lost love –

 There is so much clean up to do around the garden in the fall but I think we should all do something fun. A couple years ago I got an email about when to plant sweet peas. This reader had collected seeds from the wild pea, lathyrus latifolia, and wanted to know when to plant them. Although the flowers of this perennial sweet pea are not fragrant, the culture is the same as all sweet peas. Now’s the time to plant.

A vitamin is an organic substance essential in small quantities for normal metabolism. It is found naturally in various foods, but it can also be produced artificially. A lack of vitamins can produce certain diseases.

Every September the mental health and addiction recovery community comes together to celebrate the gains made by those in recovery—just like we do for people recovering from other health conditions and diseases. Recovery Month is about educating our communities that substance use treatment and mental health services can enable those with a mental and/or substance use disorder to live a healthy and rewarding life. 

Fall is a favorite season for many people. The heat of summer is just about over and our gardens can breathe a sigh of relief.

Now that the devastating CZU Lightning Complex fire is 100 percent contained and evacuation orders have been lifted, our County is shifting its focus swiftly toward recovery and resiliency. We do so with those who lost their homes at the top of our minds and in our hearts.