Out and About March 9, 2016

Time to catch up on daily happenings.  We've really enjoyed the Ever Changing Brain 5 session seminar at U of AZ plus an extra lecture yesterday from a visiting PhD from Pittsburgh on Exercise and Brain Health( summary of research on treating Parkinson Disease.)  Now to be diligent about diet and exercise.  Those are the most important things we can do to influence staying "junior seniors!!!"
I highly recommend Phantoms of the Brain by V.S. Ramachandran and The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge.  Both tell of case studies where new treatments are causing remarkable improvements in neurological conditions. New research has demonstrated the brain CAN be "re wired"  in many diseases.  The book are very readable and not too technical.

Sites around Esperanza

 Another bashful Roadrunner

Lovely purple Lantana flowers, very happy in desert sand

 Not sure what kind of tree this is, but many branches have white clusters of blossoms.

 Cholla bush getting ready to bloom.  Yellow tips are last year's left over blooms turned into fruit.

 Barrel cactus almost full bloom.  I was glad to catch these new blooms.

These are leftover blossom.fruit from last year.  I was lucky to catch the previous cactus in new flowers.  Animals/birds don't seem interested in these old yellow things.  Most cactus have them.

Then there's the Farmer"s Markets on Monday (LA Posada) and Wednesday (Green Valley)

 Hand dyed yarn

Beautiful shawls

We've caught a few movies, The Big Short, Spotlight, Concussion. and we're aiming for Brooklyn this week.  Book club here - The House We grew Up In (Lisa Jewell)  The Girl Who Came Home (Hazel Gaynor)  Book Club in Kenosha( Bittersweet( Colleen McCullough)The Lightkeepers (Abby Geni).  The library here keeps us supplied with books.  I've finished Somebody Safe, Somebody Good and Come Rain, Come Shine(Jan Karon), Nature of the Beast ( Louise Penny), We Never Asked for Wings(Vanessa Diffenbaugh), The Blue Tattoo( Margo Mifflin).  Working my way through The Known World (Edward Jones), The Muralist (B.A. Shapiro) and the latest silly Miss Julia book ( Etta Mae's Worst Bad Luck Day(Anne Ross).

 Lots of time to soak up the sun while reading while enjoying the music of the bubbling water fountain on the front patio.