Do No Harm

    I just finished reading "Do No Harm" by Henry Marsh. Do no harm is an idea that medicine bases its  practice on so the title is most appropriate. Much of what Henry Marsh writes about is not doing harm and how he agonized over that situation.

   I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book as it gave a look into the brain, brain surgery and medical practice.

    For most of us the brain is a mystery. For neurosurgeons like Henry Marsh, they know it's parts, how it works and what they can do. He tells about all the different tumors which may be found in the brain. Each type of tumor has a special method of surgery. For some tumors surgery is not an option. In many cases the tumor grows back and is worse than the first time.

   Henry Marsh finds it difficult when a patient or family wants more surgery and Henry Marsh knows that very little if any good will be accomplished. There are times when surgery should not be done and Marsh did the surgery. This bothered him.

    Another common brain surgery is clamping off aneurysms and repairing other blood vessel problems. Then in surgery he has to work around blood vessels as a major proportion of our blood is in the head and if a vessel is cut it gets very bloody in a hurry.

   Henry Marsh was very honest about mistakes he made and it bothered him terribly. He made sure that patients were aware of the risks.

    Henry Marsh was very honest about his opinions of the health system and how you have to jump through the hoops. Many times it's useless to jump through hoops.

    I enjoyed this book and highly recommend that you read it.

Heritage Ranch

       Heritage Ranch is  400 acre property in my city that was bought by the province and given to the city for park space. There are several Km of river bank. There's valley bottom and escarpment and some land on top. Much of the valley bottom is old quarries that have been rehabilitated as ponds. There are huge piles of overburden. There are quite a few aces of very good native habitat.

      The powers that be at the time decided to call the area Heritage Ranch and center the area around an equestrian theme. The equestrian set up is still there and has gone through some good times and bad times. There are many other activities in this area such as trails used for walking, cycling and skiing. The ponds have been stocked with fish. 

     Heritage Ranch is one of my favorite places so I decided to spend a few hours there this afternoon. I was hoping to get flower shots and some images that caught my eye. There were also cloud banks around. Who knows what you might see on the river?

     I'm not a horse person but that's what caught my eye and before you know it I had a lot of horse photos. 

      One thing I couldn't find was a sign for the place.

      

A couple of horses not used for trail riding today

Fancy one horse"vehicle"

Fancy team coach

Rig used for summer rides

Tack room

Ready for a trail ride

       Now there just happened to be a wedding to take place. The wedding party was to be driven to the altar with the fancy vehicles. The wedding and reception were to occur down in the valley. There are many excellent sites for a wedding and a barbecue was set up for the reception.

You always need a couple of good wranglers

My Animal Was Back!

      There are many Jackrabbits in my city area. Sometimes I see them on a daily basis and then sometimes they are visiting someone else. They sometimes have their resting place in my yard and use it for a week. They are free to come and go in my yard as long as they don't touch my garden. Well, one of these fine creatures has touched my garden and he is banned. 

     When the plants are new and small, the jackrabbit can do a lot of damage in a few minutes.

     So since I don't have gates, I have had to set up some barricades. I've also had to board up some areas under the fence where the piker knows he can enter. 

    Today I left one of the barricades down and I found this guy ensconced in the middle of my back yard. He wasn't to pleased about leaving. I was within three meters ( 10 ft)  of him before he caught on that I meant business. I told him that, "I would kick his butt if he didn't leave immediately."
  
    It did make it easy to get some photos.

August Long Weekend

    We have just finished our August long weekend. Few people call it by the proper name of Heritage Day week end. The Monday is referred to as Heritage Day.

    In 1974 Alberta declared the first weekend in August to be Heritage Weekend. It's not a mandatory weekend. Businesses can stay open or closed. I think most people get time off for the weekend. Nova Scotia and the Yukon have the first weekend in August as a holiday but they celebrate something else.

    The purpose of the week end is to celebrate our heritage.  Again what happens is all over the map. Some communities have all kinds of heritage activities. The city supports the celebrations. Food, dance , music, language and culture are displayed. Face  paintings seems to be a popular activity. It certainly gets the attention of the kids.

     Edmonton has a city wide celebration with a huge music festival. It's  wildly popular week end.

     Our community had nothing scheduled. We just took the time and ran.

     Stopping to reflect on our heritage is a very beneficial thing to do. We understand more things from our past. This makes other things in our world make more sense. 

     Now I know many other places get the first weekend in August as a long weekend. Did you have a long weekend where you live? That was the theme for your August long weekend?

    Now being sentimental, I like August because my Dad's middle name was August!!!

   

Colors

     Where I live there are very few rainbows. When there is a rainbow you'd better look fast because it doesn't last long.

     Last week there was a super rainbow. I was in such a hurry to get photos I took them through the window. This rainbow was a complete arc, large and very bright colors. I would say it's one of the best rainbows I have seen. 

    Now I couldn't get to an open area to get the whole arc.

    Maybe next time.

     Now how many songs can you think of with rainbow in them. You can't have Over the  Rainbow because that's mine.

Spray Park Fitness

      Two years ago I bumbled into a spray park in town that was days away from being finished. I didn't know it was a spray park. I had to ask what it was. I had my camera so got photos of the soon to be opened spray park. These photos are all from 2013. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera today.
  

      Today I dropped the Micro Manager off for an appointment and found a parking spot right beside the spray park. Since I had time on my hands I thought , "Why not have a look at the spray park?"

   

     So I found an unoccupied picnic table in the shade and sat down to watch the  sights. I couldn't believe what I saw when I watched the kids. There were all kinds of creative and colorful  devices to spray water around. Some of them could be torqued a bit by the kids. A blue path lead through all the sprayers. Kids were so excited they ran most of the time. A special surface must have been applied as kids didn't slip. I was also amazed to see huge rocks that kids could use to jump from one rock to another. I thought that was a no no for safety reasons. The kids were on their own in the actions. Parents were sitting at tables or chairs looking after the stuff. There were no Mom's screaming to be careful! Don't go there!

   I guess what caught my eye more than anything was that all these kids were slim. I would think that these kids were probably active in all parts of their life. I think the spray park contributed to the fun of them being active and fit.

    So I'm glad I stopped at the spray park for a few minutes. I didn't expect to see any of the things I saw. It was a very positive surprise.

    Now if they'd only let me in the spray park!

Never Too Old to Learn

      There are some common everyday things that I have never learned. Some of these things have been around long before I was born. Somehow or other I missed them. When I learn something like that I have to wonder how I did without that knowledge for 75 years.

     The other day the Micro Manager happened to comment that the cutlery was organized in a set pattern. I had never noticed that there was a special pattern in the cutlery divider. It was further explained to me by, said manager, that when you set a table you are able to get cutlery out of the drawer in the proper order when you set the table. Now how did I live without this information for 75 years? 

There they are. Neatly in order.

     How have I been setting the table? Well, I must admit that many times I set it the wrong way. Sometimes forks and knives are on the wrong side of the plate. Don't even bother thinking about glasses,cups and saucers, soup  bowls or salad plates! But my method is when I take cutlery out of the drawer, to make sure the fork is in my left hand and the knife in my right hand. In that way they get placed on the correct side of the plate. Works for me!

    Now I had never thought that there was a special order in the cutlery drawer. My Mom did not have a divider so all of her cutlery was in one big pile. We had a lot of searching to do before we had the proper ratio of cutlery to go on the table. The first place I lived in on my own was organized the same way. I just had one terribly cluttered cutlery drawer. 

    Am I going to change since I've learned this great truth? I doubt it! In fact, I'm sure I'll never use this information. I will continue using my own method. 

    Does anybody else have their cutlery drawer organized in this fashion?