Things to do in the winter garden
Gardeners can get a jump on the spring season by doing some things during the winter. in fact, some practices are best done at this time of year.
Apply a spray of horticultural oil emulsion to dormant fruit trees. this is a relatively non-toxic method of controlling overwintering pests such as scale insects. Gardeners who grow peaches, plums and nectarines should not leave out this spray application. It’s necessary on these pest-sensitive fruits to control white peach and other scale insects.
Container-grown plants can be transplanted almost any time of year. But bare-root trees and shrubs should be in the ground promptly. Dormant season planting allows time for establishment before hot weather arrives.
Prepare and stick hardwood cuttings to root hibiscus, crape myrtle, fig, althea, forsythia and other deciduous plants. Anyone who has not tried this simple method of propagation can get specific information from your UF/IFAS County Extension Office.
Start seeds of warm-season flowers and vegetables indoors for transplanting outdoors in spring. Approximately five to six weeks is required to grow vegetable seedlings such as tomato, pepper and eggplant to a transplantable size. Flowers generally take longer from seeding to a transplanting size, about eight to 12 weeks.
There is still time to plant some of the winter vegetables. Look for transplants of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, leek and bunching onions. others can be started from seed, including beets, carrots, celery, kohlrabi, mustard, English peas, radish and turnips. Irish potatoes are also started in January and February from the cut tubers. Some garden supply outlets sell “seed potatoes” locally. use these instead of grocery store potatoes.
Set out cold-hardy flowers such as foxglove, pansy, petunia, and snapdragon. these hold up well during our brief winter frosts and freezes, and flower much longer than if planting is delayed until spring.
Have a soil test done. Don’t wait until spring, because laboratories are swamped with samples at that time of year, causing delays. your UF/IFAS County Extension Office can provide a kit containing instructions, a form, bags and a box for mailing the sample.
Beds that are bare now, but will be planted in spring, can be enriched by adding and incorporating organic amendments now. Apply peat, mushroom compost, manure or homemade compost. Incorporate with the existing soil by tilling or spading to a depth of 6 inches. this allows time for increased biological activity to occur and settle down before planting next spring.
Contact Larry Williams at 689-5850 or 689-5050; or e-mail . he is the Extension horticulture agent with the Okaloosa County Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida.
Irene Flooding Left Vt. Home on Unexpected Island
Video: National Forecast 
In this photo taken Jan. 16, 2012, June Tierney, left, and Kellie Burke of Bethel, Vt., hold photos of their barn, which was nearly swept downstream during Tropical Storm Irene, while standing next to its disassembled pieces in Bethel, Vt.
(AP Photo/Andy Duback)
more stories on weather.com
BETHEL, Vt. (AP) — June Tierney and Kellie Burke never envisioned island living in the Vermont woods, but Tropical Storm Irene had other ideas.
Their home, a two-story, natural-sided saltbox, was a rural idyll on a wooded 10-acre lot off a dirt road, with a stairway leading from their backyard down a steep bank to Gilead Brook, a small stream.
When Irene blew through Vermont on Aug. 28, the brook became a raging torrent. after the storm, the main part of it had moved around to the other side of the house, leaving a smaller stream still flowing along its old bed.
Now Tierney, a 47-year-old lawyer who works for the state board that regulates utilities, and Burke, 48-year-old high school librarian, have to cross a ford – a new, narrow road that dips into the old stream and has no guardrails – to get home, and face an uncertain future. They wonder if they should cut their losses and move.
Their biggest worry is whether the next time the river runs wild, it will take the house with it.
“If we stay we’re facing a huge expense to try to secure the property,” Tierney said. and there’s no long-term guarantee it will succeed. she quoted one stream-flow expert the couple consulted: “That river really wants your land.”
The months since the storm have been a whirl of talks with their homeowners’ and flood insurance companies, getting the ford built across the old stream bed, pricing what a real bridge would cost ($164,000), applying for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and accepting with gratitude an outpouring of help from neighbors and friends.
“People have been so helpful. It’s been an inspiration,” Burke said.
For a time, Tierney and Burke worried that their status as a lesbian couple married under Vermont law might cause a snag in getting assistance from a federal government that doesn’t recognize such marriages. So far, they’ve had no problems.
When the brook swirled around the house, it undermined a barn, which had to be demolished. It turned what had been their wooded property into a wasteland of felled trees, root balls, boulders and silt. and it left a line of debris that came to within a few feet of the front porch.
The homeowners’ insurance paid $20,000 on the barn. Flood insurance wasn’t available because there was no damage to the house, Tierney said. They got the maximum emergency grant from FEMA – $30,200, half of which paid the cost of the ford – essentially a low-lying causeway across the old stream with culverts carrying water underneath – and to study the feasibility of building a new bridge.
Now the question is whether the couple will be eligible for grant money under a federally backed program that pays property owners living in the most flood-prone areas to abandon their homes and move.
They’ve been relying on their professional skills to work their way through the crisis.
Burke, the librarian, researched the program, while Tierney put her legal skills to researching the arcane federal regulations governing eligibility for the grants. Officials initially told her and Burke that they would get no help because their home was not harmed.
Tierney wrote in a long email to state and federal officials – she calls it her brief – that the category of eligible properties extends to one like hers that are at risk of future flooding because of how the storm changed the topography of the surrounding land.
Even if she and Burke lose in these arguments, she wants that to have been a just result, Tierney said. “When economic disaster follows natural disaster, we at least have to know it’s because of the shortcomings of the program, and not because it’s been misconstrued.”
Tierney and Burke say it’s very likely they’ll have to leave the home they’ve shared for 13 of their 25 years together, but don’t want to sell it, because that would just leave someone else facing the same risks.
“This is a potentially lethal setting,” Tierney said. “It’s not fit for human habitation.”
Burke called the need to move “very sad.” Since the flood, “it’s not been easy to live here, but it’s our home.”
Tierney noted that like the town of Bethel, Gilead Brook takes its name from the Bible, where it’s not a stream, but a mountain of testimony, of witness. Living in a home that now appears to have been built in the wrong place, she said, “We’ve literally been bearing witness to what it means to try to reconcile nature’s intentions with those of human beings.”
Baggage Check: Link Between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Exposure to a Virus Grows
After years of research, the link between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and exposure to a virus may finally be solidifying. A certain retrovirus appears to be present in extremely large numbers of people diagnosed with CFS, compared with control groups. while this does not mean that the virus actually causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, finding a correlation is a significant step forward.
The media coverage and commentary about these findings, however, reveals a prevalent misconception about the nature of illness in general. “It’s just psychological,” many people have complained, dismissing the condition altogether. “maybe these findings will finally show doctors that it’s not psychological at all!” others have excitedly commented, eager to finally get validation of their symptoms.
But both of these viewpoints miss the big picture. every illness that involves changes in mental functioning, emotion or behavior by definition does have a psychological component — and that’s pretty much everything.
That doesn’t mean a disease is fake or made-up; it’s merely an acknowledgement that our brains are pretty much where the action is. Most obviously, they are part of our bodies: if you break your arm, you feel that pain via your brain.
I understand that advocates for those with CFS are simply trying to emphasize that the syndrome’s sufferers aren’t faking it. But by equating anything “psychological” with being “made-up,” they’re doing a disservice to all of those who suffer from any sort of psychological disorder — like depression or anxiety.
Talk back to Dr. Andrea by leaving a comment below. To ask a question for Baggage Check in the Express print edition, e-mail baggage@readexpress.com or submit an anonymous question here.
To ask a question for Baggage Check in the Express print edition, e-mail baggage@readexpress.com. Dr. Bonior is the author of ‘The Friendship Fix.’ Follow her on Twitter!
Inside Pulse
Guitar Hero will be adding 6 more Linkin Park songs this week, as you can get the Linkin Park Track Pack on October 19.
Linkin Park Track Pack-”Blackout”-”Burning In the Skies”-”the Catalyst”-”the Messenger”-”Waiting for the End”-”Wretches And Kings”
The whole track pack will be available for $12 (960 XBL points, 1200 Nintendo Points, $11.99 on PSN), with each track being made available individually for $2 (160 XBL points, 200 Nintendo Points, $1.99 on PSN).
Also, Linkin Park will have 3 songs remixed by Z-Trip for DJ Hero, and that DLC will be made available after the new year.
Tags: Activision, DJ Hero 2, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock, Linkin Park, Neversoft, PS3, Wii, xbox 360
D. Boyce Woolbright, Jr.
Published: Friday, January 6, 2012 at 8:16 a.m. last Modified: Friday, January 6, 2012 at 8:16 a.m.
SPARTANBURG, SC– D. Boyce Woolbright, Jr., 89, husband of Elizabeth Lanford Woolbright, died Wednesday, January 4, 2012, at Mary Black Memorial Hospital.
Boyce was born August 12, 1922, in Seneca, SC, to his parents, the late Deward B. Woolbright, Sr., and Blonde Anderson Woolbright. the family later settled in Spartanburg and he graduated from Spartanburg High School and attended Wofford College where he was a member of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. while attending Wofford he worked with his father’s company, Todd-Woolbright Wholesale grocery business.
In 1942 he married “Lib”. During this time the United States was preparing for World War II. Boyce enlisted in the U.S. Army, joining the 8th 12th Ordinance Depot Company. the company was sent to the European theater where he served for three years. after the war, the members of the 8th 12th formed the 8th 12th Buddy Club and have met together once each year since that time. upon returning from the war, Boyce went into accounting. He worked at several large companies in Spartanburg, including Piedmont Iron Works and Beverage Air. Later, he worked at BASF Wyandotte Company as controller until his retirement.
Boyce is survived by his loving wife “Lib”; his son, Boyce “Bo” Woolbright, III, and his wife Duveen Lysaght Woolbright; his daughter, Mary Elizabeth “Bib” Gosnell; two granddaughters, Michelle F. Woolbright and Ebby Elizabeth Woolbright; and one grandson, Boyce L. Woolbright. He is predeceased by another grandson, David “Davie” N. Gosnell, Jr.
Visitation will be 1:00-1:45 PM Saturday, January 7, 2012, at Floyd’s Greenlawn Chapel. Funeral services will follow at 2:00 PM, in the Chapel, conducted by the Rev. Robert C. Morgan and the Rev. bill Adams. Private interment will follow the service.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, PO Box 515, Northampton MA 01061-0515; or Foster Parent Association (FPA), c/o Foster Care Spartanburg, 630 Chesnee Hwy, Spartanburg, SC 29303.
The family is at the home at 121 Galaxie Place, Spartanburg, SC 29307.
An online guest register is available at floydmortuary.com
Floyd’s Greenlawn Chapel
Charlies Angels – Episode 1.03: "Bon Voyage, Angels"
4 years ago: a policeman tells crooked cops how not to spend their ill-gotten gains. Kate’s (Annie Ilonzeh) fiancee still doesn’t know about her . They’re family he says. Kate hears a noise and chases after the reporter, Amanda (Tahyna Tozzi). She’s working to expose them all and Kate takes her photos, like that will prevent her from writing the story. Amanda asks why Kate is doing this as she’s not like the others. Kate lets her go.
Today: Abby (Rachael Taylor) comments that when they run after the bad guy, Eve (Minka Kelly) always takes the car. Their client, Scott (Eric Aragon)is engaged and has hired The Angels to find his missing fiance who disappeared on a cruise ship. The case isn’t in their jurisdiction. Charlie (Victor Garber) also says there’s no evidence of foul play. Charlie names the reporter as Amanda. Eve: "a blast from your past." Kate says she destroyed her career. Bosley (Ramon Rodriguez) gives her the option of staying off the case. She refuses.
Eve plays a tourist. Abby is an IT tech and is here to check the computer system. Kate is cruise director. Eve and Kate search Amanda’s cabin. Eve wants to know what happened to Kate after her story hit the news. It destroyed her life, she lost her fiancee and it was hard for her to face her mother – who claims to have forgiven her. It’s not cos of the story that she lost everything. It was all her fault, so she can’t really blame anyone now. As Eve still harps on about Amanda destroying Kate’s life (why’s she so interested in Kate anyway?), more so than Abby, me thinks Eve has the hots for Kate. Even after Kate told her Amanda didn’t wreck her life. they find an empty tube in her room.
Abby finds Amanda on the ship’s surveillance camera in the casino. She met a man on the ship. Abby has seconds to download the footage before the man returns. why didn’t she just download before? The prints on the lucite tube belong to Amanda who from the surveillance image appears to be afraid of Roman Stone, (Nicholas Gonzalez) the croupier. Bosley meets with Roman and makes comments about Eve. Roman confronts her about cheating at the table. She practices being the best. they go back to his suite. Eve makes an excuse about needing to freshen up and searches his bedroom; she took a long time putting on lipstick. She finds the same tube but with a flower inside. he gets called away.
Bosley doesn’t find any matches for the flower – it’s one of a kind but it was important enough for Roman to break a date with Eve. Kate asks for a micro-cam to film the guests at the casino. A man arrives wearing the same flower and Roman gives him a card. A woman also wears the flower. Legitimate names are fronting for organized criminals and are called "faces" as they explain to Abby. Richard Stancati (Frank Mondaruli) doesn’t have an image or a profile so Bosley can go undercover as him but first Abby has to put him out of action, posing as a masseuse. She takes his flower.
The Angels are unable to read Bosley on the Comms. he enters the suite with the key card Roman gave him where he greets the guests and offers them drinks. they pass out and why did Bosley have to drink too? Roman drugged their drinks. Bosley wakes up naked and meets the boss who had a good look at him naked! Their weapons etc will be returned later and the woman, Erica (Aerica Leone) asks for her watch, which the man tells her has a GPS device on it. his place is secret and shows them the flowers.
Charlie finds one island belongs to Carlton Finch (DB Woodside) who thought he was untraceable, so much for wanting his location kept secret. It’s Abby’s turn now to mention Amanda broke the big story and "broke you along with it." So much for turning over new leaves, they all seem to not have gotten over their bad pasts. She also adds, "Angels know how to fly under the radar." They’re on the boat (similar to the scene from the Charlie's Angels movie).
The guests must bid for the distribution, Bosley must bid first. Charlie finds eight armed men around the grounds. Bosley won’t bid until he has proof of the effects of the drug. Abby locates Amanda on the surveillance camera. She’d get discovered obviously, as does Kate and Eve. Bosley tells him he needs better security. Eve has to rig poison to the water supply to destroy the flowers. Roman sends Finch Ricki’s real photo. Kate is taken to Amanda and during the fight injects the security man. Bosley: "I believe in angels." Let’s not be phrasing the Abba song now.
Charlie is proud of Kate. Amanda is in rehab. Kate explains to Amanda she thought she could take the dirty money the first time and thought she could walk away. Her story helped Kate realize she was wrong and she used the money on those she loved. Kate wants to become someone she and her mother can be proud of. Kate and Eve have some sort of attraction going on and Kate says she was saving a part of herself by helping Amanda. Eve will always be there for Kate.
An episode where Kate’s background and her life of crime is explained in some detail, making her and us confront it. She has to re-live it to get past it for good and Eve is there every step of the way ensuring she knows everything that happened in her life. That’s a little close for comfort and she’s very curious too. The number of times Kate told Eve she didn’t blame Amanda for wrecking her career and her life and yet Eve still went on about it.
Kate’s background isn’t explored enough, okay they had to have snippets of info but here it’s just left with more holes than explanations. She took bribes cos she wanted to put bad money to good use and became a dirty cop but why? Doing good isn’t an explanation. why didn’t the rest of the dirty cops chase after whoever was around and go after Amanda too? they didn’t know who was watching them and there could have been others out there too, or even The Good cops themselves. they just stand around and let the woman do their work, typical men!
On the cruiseship Amanda could have been fed to The Sharks and have done with, but she’s taken as a guinea pig and given drugs as if someone knew beforehand (well the writers did, ha) that Bosley would ask for proof of the effects of the drug. Abby running from the security man on the ship, why, he knew she was there, unless he found out there wasn’t any faults in The System. he didn’t look that clever.
Original Charlie’s Angel’s episodes this alluded to include: Angels at Sea where The Angels went on a cruiseship. Kate’s background as a crooked cop and working in vice could have been obtained from the episode The Blue Angels, but none of the original angels were bad or corrupt to begin with. Angels in Paradise, where Sabrina (Kate Jackson) and Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) weren’t pleased at Charlie (John Forsythe) hiring a new angel, Kris (Cheryl Ladd) but take to her, partly cos she’s Jill’s (Farah Fawcett) sister. Also same as Gloria and Eve in the Pilot. Abby is particularly unaccepting of Eve and hostile towards her.
Angels Ahoy! another cruise ship episode (there were a lot of those) where Kelly was the activities director, Kate here was the cruise director and Kris was a passenger, where Eve played the passenger here. In Angel Blues, an episode featuring drugs, where the client’s daughter was given an overdose against her will; proving fatal. Amanda is saved here by Kate returning the favour for her life being saved and being given the wake-up call by Amanda’s story. Angel in love saw Bosley (David Doyle) shirtless. Here we got another scene with Bosley naked and he was also shirtless in the Pilot.
Colorado Classics: Air Force Academy basketball soared with boost from A.J. Kuhle
Followers of the men’s basketball program at the Air Force Academy had to wonder if A.J. Kuhle and his teammates on the 2003-04 team were magicians. before that incredible season eight years ago, it seemed Air Force was out of its league in NCAA Division I basketball. After all, the Falcons hadn’t had a winning season in 26 years.
Then, out of the blue, Joe Scott-coached Air Force won its first Mountain West Conference title and played in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 42 years. Kuhle, now an assistant coach for Scott at the University of Denver, was the floor leader on a 22-7 team that started the Falcons on a five-year run of 106 victories and turned Clune Arena into a college basketball hotbed.
before the remarkable run was over, Air Force played in another NCAA Tournament as well as in the National Invitation Tournament.
“We had great unity from the cadet wing,” Kuhle said, looking back to his senior season. “Everybody seemed to be united behind our team’s goals. we were like every other cadet, just trying to do above and beyond the norm.”
After years of meager attendance, Clune Arena became the place to be. Sellout crowds were frequent and the bandbox rocked on game day.
“We won a conference championship,” Scott said. “That’s about all you have to say. we were building and the players we had were really good.”
Kuhle was a team co-captain his senior season. he ranked fourth among the Falcons in scoring (averaging 8.1 points) and led them in assists as a 6-foot-5 guard and forward. he was known for contributing a clutch basket when Air Force needed it most.
In their previous three seasons under Scott, the Falcons finished 3-11 in each conference season. on the breakthrough team, Kuhle and Joel Gerlach were seniors. Tim Keller, Nick Welch and Antoine Hood rounded out the starting five. Jacob Burtschi and Matt McCraw also played a lot.
After DU completed a practice session last week, Scott reminisced about that Air Force team eight years ago. he said Kuhle and Gerlach, a 6-6 forward from Bear Creek High School, provided great senior leadership.
“They helped our younger players a lot,” Scott said. “They had fought through some hard times and they were steeled players.”
After splitting the first four games of nonconference play, the 2003-04 Falcons ripped off 13 victories in a row. The string included road victories over Colorado State and new Mexico to open conference play. new Mexico was pounded 68-42.
“When we won the two road games to start the conference, I thought we’d be pretty good,” Kuhle said. “We played some games in Sweden during the summer and I thought we were coming together as a team. There were some disappointments. we lost at BYU late in the season, things like that. but they didn’t outweigh the success of the total journey.”
Kuhle brought a winning attitude to Air Force from his high school days at De La Salle in Concord, Calif. his teams at De La Salle were 112-7 overall, including a 31-1 senior season. he picked Air Force over Saint Mary’s and California, both with much better basketball tradition.
“Coach Scott had a plan and a vision, and I saw myself fitting in,” Kuhle said. “I thought we had a chance to be good.”
The 2003-04 Falcons made basketball relevant at Air Force. The season ended in Denver at the Pepsi Center, where 19,405 watched the Falcons’ 63-52 loss to North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament. The 22 victories and conference championship — the Falcons were 12-2 in the Mountain West — shifted AFA basketball into gear.
Kuhle is looking to make the move up the coaching ladder. he was an assistant coach at Air Force before joining the DU staff in 2007. he wants to run his own Division I program someday or land a coaching job in the NBA.
“The Air Force Academy was a great experience and getting through it was the culmination of a four-year journey,” Kuhle said. “There were times when I had to laugh a little bit to get through it. I was among a special group of players. we remain close and communicate regularly with each other still today.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or
Kuhle bio
Born: Aug. 17, 1981, in Mission Viejo, Calif.
High school: De La Salle in Concord, Calif.
College: Air Force Academy
Family: Father Bruce, mother Linda, brother Eric
Hobby: Cooking
Goal: Become a college head basketball coach
Why reinventing yourself is the best career move ever
Still pondering a new Year job change? Susannah Wright talks to three women who grasped the nettle to pursue their professional dreams in three very different fields.
Being a solicitor is surely one of the best jobs around – respected, well paid, and with decent hours.
so what would possess anyone to give all of that up for a life of weekends spent sticking their hands down toilet U-bends?
Janet Wood laughs when she recalls the day that she and her colleague Deborah Yates both handed in their notice on the same day.
“Our workmates were stunned,” she chuckles. “I think there was shocked silence for a minute.
“It certainly caused a bit of a stir, but when they realised it was what we both wanted to do, they said they thought it was inspiring that we werer going for it.”
Janet, 45, from Worsley, and Deborah, 44, from Liverpool, had both been doing regulatory legal work for the General Medical Council (GMC) for several years.
Janet had previously been a solicitor for law firm, Pannone, covering crime and fraud, while Deborah had worked at a number of solicitors including Hill Dickinson and Halliwell’s, in the areas of crime and personal injury.
But they both found themselves unfulfilled by being stuck behind a desk at the GMC, and perhaps fate would have it that both harboured a dream of completely changing tack by retraining to enter the traditionally male-dominated area of plumbing.
“I wanted to get out and about meeting people again,” says Janet.
“I was intrigued by taking on a new challenge, doing something practical and being my own boss.”
Being intelligent, feisty women, the pair decided to act on their alternative career dreams and went on a three-month course in basic plumbing through national training body, OLCI. They began putting their new skills into practice last autumn, doing jobs for friends and family, and started to build up word of mouth for their company, all Sisterns go – a clever play on words.
They have spent several thousand pounds buying a van and kitting themselves out with the necessary tools, but as they are mobile, they don’t need an office.
Janet is married to a barrister and Deborah’s boyfriend is a solicitor, and both say their other halves are supportive of their dramatic change of career.
Neither woman has children, allowing them the flexibility of working in the evenings and at weekends.
They carry out jobs across the Manchester, Cheshire and Liverpool areas.
“It’s very satisfying going to someone’s house, diagnosing what the problem is and finding a solution to it,” says Janet.
“You get an immediate and visual sense of having achieved something that you don’t get in law.
“And it’s been enjoyable starting out all over again and learning new skills.”
The pair plan to do further training this year to become Gas Safety registered – formerly Corgi registered – which will enable them to install boilers and central heating.
and next year they aim to learn how to install renewable energy sources such as solar panels and underground heating.
For more information, log on to allsisternsgo.com or search Facebook for allsisternsgo.
Emma Mills has always been a bookworm, immersing herself in the imaginary worlds of others and satisfying her own creative impulses by writing short stories.
But after graduating with an English degree, she worked as a temp, a recruitment consultant and as an air hostess. after having two children with husband Tom, Emma wanted to work again but says she couldn’t face the idea of going back into an office environment.
Writing seemed the obvious choice for her, working at her home in Hadfield, Glossop, while her children Lottie, age seven, and Oliver, four, were at school.
“I love vampire fiction such as Twilight,” she says, “but I realised that they were all set in the USA, so it seemed I should offer a northern British girl’s voice.
“And we have the perfect gloomy rainy weather here!” she laughs.
two years ago, Emma, 35, wrote her first novel, Witchblood, about a teenage vampire-witch called Jess, set amid a backdrop of the nightclub scene.
after sending her manuscript out to authors’ agents, several gave her a positive response and one took her on as a client, submitting it to publishing houses.
But there were no buyers as the publishers said the market for teenage vampire stories was already saturated.
“I’d been so excited that I’d actually written a book but then I plummeted back down to earth with a crash,” Emma admits. “I’d missed the boat by about six months.”
a friend suggested she try publishing the book herself online, and with the backing of her agent, she researched the options then began.
“It’s free to e-publish, but you have to do everything yourself. I edited it, my mum proof-read it and I re-wrote it five times.”
Managing to secure permission to use a picture she found as the front ‘cover’, Emma learned how to convert her manuscript in the correct format to upload.
She has now published her novel on Amazon for Kindle users, and on the Smashwords website, for users of iPads and laptops. She will get around 30 per cent of the 77p download price, but claims that one author in America has sold more than 17,000 copies of her work in two months.
Emma has already received good reviews of Witchblood and is writing a sequel called Witchcraft.
“I find writing quite therapeutic to contrast with being a mum,” she admits. “It’s been a labour of love, though.
“But you can make a living out of it if people like your work.
“It’s certainly a good way to start off, and I can fit it round my children’s school-days, so it works for me.”
Search amazon.co.uk for Witchblood ebook.
Kathy Howard has had a lot to deal with in the past 12 years.
a battle with cancer which resulted in her being given just a 20 per cent chance of survival, the onset of early menopause due to the illness, combined with the loss of a job she loved and the breakdown of her marriage. It’s not surprising she descended into depression and had to have counselling.
But it’s testament to the gutsy determination of this 36-year-old that she bounced back to fitness and has now started her own business promoting the benefits of a holistic approach to health.
She offers personal training sessions, bespoke diets on an ‘eat clean’ principle – cutting out process foods and using only nutritionally beneficial ingredients in cooking – and make-overs.
and an appearance on Channel 4 series, Come Dine with me, due to be aired next Friday, February 3, displays her go-getting ethos.
“I feel like I have found myself again,” says Kathy, from Royton. “I would like to inspire people, to show them ways of being physically healthy which in turn will give them a positive mental outlook.”
Twelve years ago, while working as a police officer, and after repeatedly going to the doctor’s complaining of irregular periods and pains, Kathy was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
She had chemo and radiotherapy, and due to her slow recovery and the tiring process of fighting a law suit with the NHS – which was settled out of court – she was pensioned out of the police.
“I was devastated,” she says. “I’d never smoked and I used to go to the gym. Because of the shifts, though, I often ended up eating processed rubbish.
“But to be told I had cancer was a real shock. I loved my job too, and I didn’t want to leave, but I couldn’t go on.”
The steroids given for her treatment made her put on weight.
“I had a puffy face, I was so tired I could hardly walk. I felt awful, I just wasn’t myself.”
after nearly two years she was recovering, had begun to exercise again and decided to train as a personal trainer and sport nutritionist. She also did sports massage for televised events such as masters football and rowing.
But depression set in and her marriage was failing, and Kathy admits one of the major factors in making her feel so low was that she wouldn’t be able to have children. as a result, she went off sick for a year.
after recovering, a period of voluntary work led to a job with the Chamber of Commerce in sales and business diagnostic advice. But at the end of last year Kathy realised she was feeling unfulfilled.
“My passion is health and fitness and I love helping people, so it hit me that I should start my own business,” she says.
“Having done personal training before, I know how to tailor exercise to different needs. and I’d researched the eat clean principle and been making my own recipes and sharing them with my friends for a while anyway.”
as well as cutting out processed and refined foods, the ‘eat clean’ principle involves having a lot of protein to benefit the muscles, only ‘good’ carbohydrates such as oats (rather than white bread), limited fat, and cutting out alcohol as it supplies little nutritional value.
Kathy is running free boot camps at Tandle Hill Country Park, between Oldham and Rochdale, on Saturday mornings, and offers indoor training sessions.
“I think healthy eating and regular exercise can help reduce a susceptibility to cancers, and it will certainly help people recover from illnesses.”
For more information visit sexyfit.yolasite.com
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Thierry Mugler Parfums unveils Aqua Chic versions of Angel and Alien
Thierry Mugler Parfums unveils Aqua Chic versions of Angel and Alien
Published: 04/01/12
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ParknPool Adds New DogiPot Pet Waste Solution Products
Lexington, VA (PRWEB) December 30, 2011
DogiPot, the leading supplier of dog waste removal systems, and ParknPool, the leading online provider of commercial outdoor furniture and site amenities, have been partnered together in the fight against pollution caused by pet waste for more than ten years. For 2012 ParknPool is adding to its existing line of DogiPot products. ParknPool exclusively offers DogiPot systems, as they provide dog owners with a quality, environmentally friendly way to take responsibility for their pet waste. the online retailer currently offers a wide variety of DogiPot products, including valet stations, OXO-biodegradable litter pick up bags, and trash receptacle liners. the newest additions to ParknPool’s product line are the DogiPot Header Pak Junior Bag dispenser, OXO-biodegradable Header Pak bags and OXO-biodegradable extra large trash receptacle liners.
DogiPot has the most environmentally-conscious product line on the market. the litter bags and liners are made with a special additive that oxidizes and biodegrades into carbon dioxide (CO2), water and biomass (a biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms). While other litter bags on the market may have sacrificed strength in order to ensure their bags are biodegradable, DogiPot ensures their bags are “the perfect balance of dependability and biodegradability,” (dogipot.com). the new Header Pak bags are made of the same OXO-biodegradable material as the DogiPot bags on a roll, but are attached to a top hanging card to eliminate waste from unrolling bags.
The Header Pak dispenser was added to cater to those clients that prefer a hanging bag dispenser over the original rolled bag dispensers. Both the Header Pak and the original system can hold up to four hundred bags, ensuring lots of dog owners will be able to pick up after their pets before maintenance or park staff have to refill the dispensers.
ParknPool welcomes the new DogiPot products to their existing pet waste product line. Along with providing solutions for dog pollution, ParknPool also offers an extensive collection of picnic tables, bleachers, park benches, playgrounds, restaurant furniture, grills and fire rings, drinking fountains, umbrellas and shade solutions. They are truly a one stop shop for furnishing outdoor spaces with high quality products.
About ParknPool: ParknPool is Veteran Owned SBE/WBE Company and is the leading online supplier of commercial grade furniture and site amenities such as picnic tables, trash receptacles, park benches, bleachers and restaurant furniture. ParknPool was begun in 1998 in Orlando, FL and moved their headquarters to Lexington, VA in 2005.
Read the full story at prweb.com/releases/2011/12/prweb9070171.htm