McDavid ‘Sew N So’ Club Honored With State Association Award
August 3, 2014
The McDavid “Sew N So” Club has won the Florida Health Care Activity Coordinators Association 2014 Community Involvement Award. The club provides residents at the Century Health and Rehabilitation Center with handmade wheelchair caddies, pillows, lap robes and activity pillows. They also assist with special occasions. The award was presented recently in Daytona Beach to club member Hilda Malone. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Weekend Gardening: August To Do List
August 2, 2014
Here are gardening tips for the month of August from the UF/IFAS Extension program:
What to Plant
- Bedding Plants: The hottest days of summer limit planting now to heat tolerant vinca, gaillardia, bulbine, and coleus.
- Bulbs:Aztec lily, butterfly lily, walking iris, and spider lily can be planted any time of the year, even late summer.
- Herbs: Herbs that can be planted from plants (not seeds) include bay laurel, ginger,Mexican tarragon, and rosemary.
- Vegetables: This month starts the fall planting season. Many cool season crops can be planted now, including a final crop of warm-season vegetables such as pepper. Tomato can be planted for the fall garden.
- Lawn problems: Damaged areas can be the result of insects, disease, or irrigation problems. Be sure to determine the cause so the proper remedy is used. Use a sharp mower blade and only remove 1/3 of grass blade to reduce stress on the lawn.
- Palms: If older fronds are yellowing, you may have a magnesium or potassium deficiency. Apply an appropriate palm fertilizer.
- Poinsettias: Pinch back poinsettias and mums before the end of the month to allow time for buds to form for winter bloom.
- Ornamental Plants: Rapid growth and leaching rains may result in nutrient deficiencies in some plants. Fertilize those plants that show signs of deficiencies.
- Bedding Plants: Remove spent blooms, cut back, and fertilize flowering annuals and perennials to extend the bloom season into the fall months.
- Adjust irrigation based on rainfall.
- Deadhead flowers to encourage new blooms.
- Monitor the garden for insects and disease.
- Plant trees, shrubs, and perennials and water until established.
Photos: Summer Reading (And Music) At The Century Library
August 1, 2014
The weekly Summer Reading Program continued Thursday at the Century Branch Library. Children and teens 6-12 have participated this summer in the West Florida Public Library program at branches throughout the county.
Thursday, children at the Century Branch Library had a chance to hear a music-related story and try out various instruments.
Pictured: The Summer Reading Program Thursday afternoon at the Century Branch Library. NorthEscambia.com photos by Bethany Reynolds, click to enlarge.
Tate High Wind Ensemble Selected To Perform At Prestigious Troy Clinic
August 1, 2014
The Tate High School Wind Ensemble has been selected to perform at the Southeastern United States Concert Band Clinic at Troy University.
The event will be held February 5-7, 2015. The musical event will feature a variety of activities including concerts, rehearsals, scholarship auditions, and clinics.
Vacation Bible Schools Are A Summertime Tradition (With Aldersgate UMC Gallery)
August 1, 2014
Vacation Bible School is a summertime tradition for hundreds of area children — arts, crafts, food, songs and theme focused lessons usually all geared toward a worship theme. This week marked the end of VBS at most area churches.
At Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Molino, dozens of children have taken part in their “Workshop of Wonders” VBS this week. It will continue from 5:30 until 8:30 tonight for children three years old through fifth grade.
For more photos from Aldersgate’s VBS, click here.
Pictured: Vacation Bible School Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Northview Mini Cheer Camp Set For Next Week
July 31, 2014
The Northview High School cheerleaders will host their annual mini-cheerleading camp next week.
The camp will be held August 5 from 4-6 p.m. and August 6 from 1-3 p.m. Registration is $25 for the camp or $35 for the camp and a shirt. The camp is open to anyone age three through the eighth grade. Mini-cheerleaders will admitted into the first Northview football home game for free and cheer the entire first quarter with the varsity NHS cheerleaders.
Field Corn Variety Tour Held
July 30, 2014
A Field Corn Variety Tour was held Tuesday at the UF/IFAS West Florida Research and Education Center near Jay.
During the tour, producers and ag officials from across the region had a chance to learn about about 20 different varieties of corn, including heirloom varieties, plus crop and weed management. The event was a joint project of UF/IFAS, the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service, and Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Pictured top and bottom: The Field Corn Variety Tour Tuesday at the UF/IFAS West Florida Research and Education Center near Jay. Pictured inset: A tall heirloom variety of corn. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Photos: Storm Clouds Roll
July 29, 2014
Afternoons storms rolled across the North Escambia area Monday afternoon. Pictured top: Storm clouds move across Highway 97A in Walnut Hill. Pictured: The storm as seen from nearby Corley Road. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Day Of Hope: Free School Supplies, Backpacks, Groceries And More
July 28, 2014
Mark your calendars for August 16 — that’s when a free “Day of Hope” will offer back to school supplies and more.
The Day of Hope will be held from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Victory Assembly of God at 1895 Victory Road, just south of Barrineau Park Road on Highway 29. The event will offer free groceries, haircuts, backpacks, school supplies, a kids zone and a hot lunch. Items are available while supplies last, rain or shine. No identification is required.
University Of Florida Study: Peanut Butter Sniff Test Could Diagnose Alzheimer’s
July 27, 2014
Detecting early stage Alzheimer’s disease may be as easy as sniffing a dollop of peanut butter.
Researchers at the University of Florida’s McKnight Brain Institute Center for Smell and Taste came up with the idea to test smell sensitivity because it can be “one of the first things to be affected in cognitive decline.” Also, the ability to smell is associated with the first cranial nerve.
Jennifer Stamps, a graduate student at the University of Florida came up with the idea for using peanut butter because it is a “pure odorant” that is only detected by the olfactory nerve and is easy to access.
In the study, test subjects sat down with a clinician, 14 grams of peanut butter — which equals about one tablespoon — and a metric ruler. The patient closed his or her eyes and mouth and blocked one nostril. The clinician opened the peanut butter container and held the ruler next to the open nostril while the patient breathed normally. The clinician then moved the peanut butter up the ruler one centimeter at a time during the patient’s exhale until the person could detect an odor. The distance was recorded and the procedure repeated on the other nostril after a 90-second delay.
The clinicians running the test did not know the patients’ diagnoses, which were not usually confirmed until weeks after the initial clinical testing.
The scientists found that patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease had a dramatic difference in detecting odor between the left and right nostril — the left nostril was impaired and did not detect the smell until it was an average of 10 centimeters closer to the nose than the right nostril had made the detection in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. This was not the case in patients with other kinds of dementia; instead, these patients had either no differences in odor detection between nostrils or the right nostril was worse at detecting odor than the left one.
Of the 24 patients tested who had mild cognitive impairment, which sometimes signals Alzheimer’s disease and sometimes turns out to be something else, about 10 patients showed a left nostril impairment and 14 patients did not. The researchers said more studies must be conducted to fully understand the implications.
“At the moment, we can use this test to confirm diagnosis,” Stamps said. “But we plan to study patients with mild cognitive impairment to see if this test might be used to predict which patients are going to get Alzheimer’s disease.”
[VOA]