My dear uncle Jean-Paul has passed-away, his life taken suddenly in the north of France, he died while walking a Picardie lane, alone, and found but an hour later, too late, for his heart and liver, which both failed.

One last drink he managed, no lunch was eaten, or reached, and before 65 he has been taken away from these lands.

The news, received by a phone call, reached us this evening, with my mother bringing it solemnly to me.

He was an artist, a traveller, very much a reveller, and lived life his way, with kindness and more gentility than I've seen in many men. Yet he was bad tempered too, which never came across in his artworks.

He was too giving, with free spirit generosity flowed, and conversation too. Humour and song, dance and parties were his forte.

He taught me Normandie, and how to eat mussels, the art of bread and cheese at the best time, before mid afternoon takes the beauty off a baguette's taste.

He was a part of France to me, and now, tonight, my French link has been greatly weakened.

Alas, now, he is no more.
God bless you Uncle Jean-Paul, you are forever remembered...

We will always love you,
Ed & family
xx

Death--the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening.
Walter Scott

A beautiful song, lyrics...as Nelly says, "all I can do is try"...

All I know
Is everything is not as it's sold
but the more I grow the less I know
And I have lived so many lives
Though I'm not old
And the more I see, the less I grow
The fewer the seeds the more I sow

Then I see you standing there
Wanting more from me
And all I can do is try
Then I see you standing there
Wanting more from me
And all I can do is try

I wish I hadn't seen all of the realness
And all the real people are really not real at all
The more I learn the more I cry
As I say goodbye to the way of life
I thought I had designed for me

Then I see you standing there
Wanting more from me
And all I can do is try
Then I see you standing there
I'm all I'll ever be
But all I can do is try
Try

All of the moments that already passed
We'll try to go back and make them last
All of the things we want each other to be
We never will be
And that's wonderful, and that's life
And that's you, baby
This is me, baby
And we are, we are, we are, we are
Free
In our love
We are free in our love

25 Reasons Why You Should Start Drinking Green Tea Now

Green tea has increasingly become a very popular drink worldwide because of its immensely powerful health benefits. It is extraordinarily amazing what green tea can do for your health. And if you're NOT drinking 3 to 4 cups of green tea today, you're definitely NOT doing your health a big favor.

Here Are The 25 Reasons Why You Should Start Drinking Green Tea Right Now:

1. Green Tea and Cancer

Green tea helps reduce the risk of cancer. The antioxidant in green tea is 100 times more effective than vitamin C and 25 times better than vitamin E. This helps your body at protecting cells from damage believed to be linked to cancer.

2. Green Tea and Heart Disease

Green tea helps prevent heart disease and stroke by lowering the level of cholesterol. Even after the heart attack, it prevents cell deaths and speeds up the recovery of heart cells.

3. Green Tea and Anti-Aging

Green tea contains antioxidant known as polyphenols which fight against free radicals. What this means it helps you fight against aging and promotes longevity.

4. Green Tea and Weight Loss

Green tea helps with your body weight loss. Green tea burns fat and boosts your metabolism rate naturally. It can help you burn up to 70 calories in just one day. That translates to 7 pounds in one year.

5. Green Tea and Skin

Antioxidant in green tea protects the skin from the harmful effects of free radicals, which cause wrinkling and skin aging. Green tea also helps fight against skin cancer.

6. Green Tea and Arthritis

Green tea can help prevent and reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Green tea has benefit for your health as it protects the cartilage by blocking the enzyme that destroys cartilage.

7. Green Tea and Bones

The very key to this is high fluoride content found in green tea. It helps keep your bones strong. If you drink green tea every day, this will help you preserve your bone density.

8. Green Tea and Cholesterol

Green tea can help lower cholesterol level. It also improves the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol, by reducing bad cholesterol level.

9. Green Tea and Obesity

Green tea prevents obesity by stopping the movement of glucose in fat cells. If you are on a healthy diet, exercise regularly and drink green tea, it is unlikely you'll be obese.

10. Green Tea and Diabetes

Green tea improves lipid and glucose metabolisms, prevents sharp increases in blood sugar level, and balances your metabolism rate.

11. Green Tea and Alzheimer's

Green tea helps boost your memory. And although there's no cure for Alzheimer's, it helps slow the process of reduced acetylcholine in the brain, which leads to Alzheimer's.

12. Green Tea and Parkinson's

Antioxidants in green tea helps prevent against cell damage in the brain, which could cause Parkinson's. People drinking green tea also are less likely to progress with Parkinson's.

13. Green Tea and Liver Disease

Green tea helps prevent transplant failure in people with liver failure. Researches showed that green tea destroys harmful free radicals in fatty livers.

14. Green Tea and High Blood Pressure

Green tea helps prevent high blood pressure. Drinking green tea helps keep your blood pressure down by repressing angiotensin, which leads to high blood pressure.

15. Green Tea and Food Poisoning

Catechin found in green tea can kill bacteria which causes food poisoning and kills the toxins produced by those bacteria.

16. Green Tea and Blood Sugar

Blood sugar tends to increase with age, but polyphenols and polysaccharides in green tea help lower your blood sugar level.

17. Green Tea and Immunity

Polyphenols and flavenoids found in green tea help boost your immune system, making your health stronger in fighting against infections.

18. Green Tea and Cold and Flu

Green tea prevents you from getting a cold or flu. Vitamin C in green tea helps you treat the flu and the common cold.

19. Green Tea and Asthma

Theophylline in green tea relaxes the muscles which support the bronchial tubes, reducing the severity of asthma.

20. Green Tea and Ear Infection

Green tea helps with ear infection problem. For natural ear cleaning, soak a cutton ball in green tea and clean the infected ear.

21. Green Tea and Herpes

Green tea increases the effectiveness of topical interferon treatment of herpes. First green tea compress is applied, and then let the skin dry before the interferon treatment.

22. Green Tea and Tooth Decay

Green tea destroys bacteria and viruses that cause many dental diseases. It also slows the growth of bacteria which leads to bad breath.

23. Green Tea and Stress

L-theanine, which is a kind of amino acids in green tea, can help relieve stress and anxiety

24. Green Tea and Allergies

EGCG found in green tea relieves allergies. So, if you have allergies, you should really consider drinking green tea.

25. Green Tea and HIV

Scientists in Japan have found that EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) in green tea can stop HIV from binding to healthy immune cells. What this means is that green tea can help stop the HIV virus from spreading.

Popular 70's food brands are making a comeback on the grocery shelves.

Spam, Cinzano and Smash have all been rebranded to appeal to 30 to 45-year-olds, according to trade magazine The Grocer.

The kitsch revival draws on the nostalgia value of the products, many of which are old favourites for thousands of consumers.

Other seventies favourites which are staging a comeback include the aftershave Brut and white wine Blue Nun.

Fox's Confectionery has also joined the kitsch revival with new-style packaging for its Poppets sweets range.

The Grocer's senior drinks reporter Sonya Hook said: "Many of the brands enjoying a revival are doing so because manufacturers have recognised that trends are cyclical and there's a gap in the market for old favourites.

"Moreover, there's an opportunity to improve on those old favourites - whether by enhancing the product itself or its image."

What were your favourites from the 70's?
I was knee-high to a grasshopper back then~~!!

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind;
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet;
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them;
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true;
To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best;
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own;
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future;

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile;
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others;
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear; and too happy to permit the presence of trouble;
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds;

To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

C.D. Larson
Your Forces and How to Use Them
LM Fowler & Co., Ltd., England

I'm waiting, wondering, by window's scene
of a traffic stream, searching where the day's already been
awaiting the image flow, beneath yellowing lime
conceding to autumn, yet we feel conatus summertime
the causewayed seasons in equal celebration
a juncture of land and sea meeting beauty's constellation
where elements rage, calm follows like a seagull
after a trawler weathered a storm against it's hull
or a lighthouse zooming help to this stranded soul
when menacing tides heaved beyond control
your beaming guidance felt with a splash of love
-my wish upon the shooting star I dream of...

written by lauren6