text:
Drawn with a pen. It's actual pelt is black.
Chapter 20
My head was dizzy as my ears started to ring. I knew this was bad, especially now that they were two. Wait, did I just hear another roar? Nobody informed us there was going to be three!
At least the third one sounded far off in the distance, which gave us a bit more time that we desperately needed. I looked towards Jones and motioned him that we needed to go.
He furiously shook his head, firmly rejecting any notion that he needed to move.. I couldn't help but frown at him. He's just acting like a scaredy cat, even if it is understandable.. All of our senses were screaming for us to run so we could fight the abomination in the other room. Thankfully, the pressure wasn't as overbearing as the Gluttony, which gave me a better control of myself.
Throughout human history, fighting a demon was considered crazy. The power that they possess, their intelligence, and even their unknown abilities that often let them squash humans like a bug always brings fear in our kind. This fear was instinctual, and all the Ouroboros knew this fear very well. We had used this fear when we first awoke to survive to run as fast and far away as we can.
But now, it was different. I had to face my fears; the fear of the unknown that are called demons. Their power, their intelligence, and what they could do to us with just a snap of a finger was terrifying. Even if I was baptized by the Myth class demon, this Spirit type was no joke. The overwhelming pressure that they gave off… it was beyond dangerous. It screamed out that they weren't to be trifled with. If any normal human could see them, they would've cowered, hidden, or even ran away, possibly even pissing their pants in the process.
Gripping my blade tightly against my chest, I took another breath, trying my absolute best to calm down my chaotic mind.
"I could do this. I can." I muttered. I gave myself a small pep which actually helped quite a bit in calming myself down.
I peeked out from the side, and saw the demon cat prowling around angrily as it spit and hissed like crazy. Its red eyes glowed dangerously with the intent to kill. My body started to shiver. Just looking at those sharp teeths made me realize how crazy I was to go in there to wrestle with a lion sized cat. This wasn't the cute kitty that was in my pocket, but the one that could eat me alive.
Unconsciously, my left hand let go of the blade for a brief moment, and went down to pet Daisy's head, I felt a little bit better, feeling her soft fur. Awww~ the wonders of a pet. I definitely must protect her, keep her alive, and take her home.
"Mew?" Daisy spoke in a soft whisper, causing the demon cat to snap his head towards me in a flash. Our eyes met, giving me shivers up and down my spine. Great. Thanks, Daisy. Thanks. You just brought unwanted attention. I sarcastically chastised her in my mind.
A deep rumbled from the demon cat's throat could be heard vibrating through the room. I knew then that I was found out, there was no way out of this fight even if I wanted to run away. The demon cat crouched down and sprung forwards towards me. I yelped, pulling back as my sword flashed before me.
The cat jumped through the door in one fluid motions, startling both me and Jones. It slammed into the wall, pushed off with its powerful leg, and sprung towards me with its ugly teeth and claw. Without thinking, my blade strike forward like a snake as its claws made contact with the blade from impaling me in the guts. Still, I wasn't fast enough to block the other claw, and the arm swipe towards me, throwing me across the hallway.
I flew into the air and skid across the floor on my back. A jarring pain could be felt from the side of my body. Luckily, I curled up to protect Daisy from getting smooshed, I was afraid that I might kill her if I landed incorrectly. With heavy breath, I groaned and got up, shaking my head to get rid of the throbbing headache.
The demon cat swerved and bolted forward towards me. Jones raised up his gun and shot continuous bullets into the thick pelts of the demon cat rump. Majority of the bullets hit, causing the demon cat to howl angrily as it skid across the ground. It changed directions, unexpectedly, in a full 180.
Jones eyes bulged out in surprise, and he kept shooting, cursing out every three seconds. The demon cat swiveled out of harm's way, missing the bullets by a hair breath. "Damn, cat!" He continually shot and jumped sideways, hitting his shoulder against the wall and fell forward.
Scampering on the ground, he pushed himself off the ground desperately out of harm's way. The cat demon impaled its sharp claws into the wall, repeatedly, trying to take Jones' head off his shoulder. Its claw created a giant hole in the wall, causing it to be stuck for a moment. Ripping its heavy body forward, the cat swiped at Jones that was near him.
Jones stumbled backwards, his hands flailing around him as he fell onto his butt.
"Hissssss!" The demon cat spat angrily, as it was trapped and unable to get out. Even still, it waved around its free hand and struck downwards in between Jones' leg. With a partial gasp, he let out a small squeal. Part of his pants were torn apart as he saw how close the claws were.
"You're kiddin' me right?!" Jones scampered into a backwards crabwalk. The cat yanked itself out of the wall, pulling with it metal, wires, and wood.
I bolted forward. My blade swoop forward into an arch, clashing against the demon cat's claw. The contact was jarring, shaking me to my very core. The demon cat pushed me back with all it's strength, and my feet skid across the ground, as I gritted my teeth trying my best to push back.
It was a power match between us two, and I wasn't winning. Even against Gluttony, I was swatted around like a fly, blown around like a leaf with the wind.
With an angrily hiss, its large snout, filled with white sharp teeth, snapped forward. My head jerked to the side of my cheeks, missing the hot, sticky, foul smelling mouth. My stomach twirled in nausea as I felt sick from its rotten breath. A moment of weakness caused me to lose strength, giving the demon cat the edge it needed to swat me across the side.
Once again, I flew through the door, and crashed through the window of the second floor. I came hurling down like a comet and smacked on top of a moving car. A loud crunching sound of metal, shattering of broken windows, and a loud ear piercing squeal of the wheels erratically turned was heard. Followed by a howl of fear, from the driver, could be heard as the car swerved into an abrupt stop.
My head was throbbing, my arms were in pain, and I felt a couple of bruises here and there from that toss out the window. Luckily, I was still alive and breathing. Nothing was broken, and again, I couldn't be happier that I was wearing this Dragon Scale Armor. On the bright side, I was glad that Crystal put on a temporary shock absorbing system near the neck and spine. Without that thick film she had put there, there would have been nothing covering my head from breaking upon impact.
All of a sudden, I heard another shout, followed by the sound of a crash with a crunch of metal. When I turned my head, I saw Jones stuck into the car not to far away from me. He fell flat, lying face down onto the ground. I really hope he's not dead, but that tumble was something serious.
"Mew?" Daisy stuck out her head, and looking at me, no telling me, to get my butt up in gear. This cat seriously has the luck of a goddess. She didn't even get hurt from the rough tumble. Should I just change her name to Lucky instead?
With a groan, I pushed myself out from the wreckage that I had caused. The man, who was actually in the car, pushed opened the door and stumbled out in hysteria. I don't blame him, falling out of the sky and crashing into his car isn't something that happen on an everyday basis.
I rolled towards my left, so I wouldn't smoosh Daisy. With a thump, I fell onto the ground with my knees cushioning my descent. A trickle of blood dripped down from my head and towards my chin. If I get out of this mess alive, I'm definitely going to tell Crystal to put a bit more padding around the whole suit itself, so I would've had more cushion if I fell from a higher place. I had no doubt that I would've been dead if it was a couple stories higher, probably from my neck being snapped, but even still, the Dragon Scale did a wonderful job in lessening the impact to a slight throbbing pain.
A high pitched cackling could be heard from the building followed by another loud crash. The demon cat jumped through the window and landed in the middle of the street with a loud bang. A giant crater formed underneath it as a gust of stormed was sent outwards. Cars were overturned, dust and rubble were being picked up, and people were yelling out in confusion at the mayhem.
"What the hell is going on?!" A man dove towards the side, and hid behind a mailbox.
A high pitch scream could be heard all around us, breaking the tense air. The dust that covered the demon cat blew away, leaving behind the demonic creature standing proudly in the middle of the streets, annoyed as it tail flicked back and forth.
"What the hell is that?!"
"Oh my god! Is that a cat?!"
"What in the world-?"
"Are they shooting a movie?"
Static flickered around the demon cat as its immense body became clearer to the public. Some people ran away in panic, others stay behind rooted in fear, while a good majority of them stay behind, bringing up their phone to record everything.
"This shit is awesome!" A group of male teenagers were filming the Demon cat and walked up closer.
The demon cat puffed out hot air, swiveled its head, and took a nasty chomp out of one of the teenager's body. A sickening crunch could be heard as half of its body was gone into the mouth of the demon. Blood splurted outwards, decorating the black pavement in red. Its paw, swiped from the side, causing the other to fly straight into the building as it body contorted into weird angles.
Two people were instantly dead, and the horrible bone crunching could be heard as the cat demon gulped down what it just ate. Ear piercing screams echoed as people scattered like roaches. The cat demon sprung forward, attacking any pedestrians it could get its hands on.
People were squashed, cut in half, mauled, and even eaten alive without a second thought. Blood was everywhere as massacre continued as pieces of torn limbs, head, and even guts were splattered onto cars and walls.
Chaos was apparent and they were no stopping the rampage. I peeked out from the side of the car, leaning backwards to still my breath. Summoning the golden energy inside of me, I wrapped it around my blade. It wasn't as vivid and strong as the first time I ever conjured it correctly out of my own free will.
"Mew?" Daisy squeaked, head poking back out of my pocket.
"Stay back inside." I grunted, pushing her head back in.
"Mew!" She struggled, the cuteness overload made me flinch. Those eyes! I had to tear my gaze away, and pushed her roughly back in.
With my gold energy coated around my blade, I watched for any openings that the cat demon had. The rampage this demon cat caused was no joke: poles were bent, cars were being flipped over like pancakes, and people were being eaten alive as if they were some kind of dessert.
I scanned for Jones, and saw him up, hidden behind a car. He had his hand rested on the hood of the car with his gun as he aimed. Gun shots were fired, drawing the cat's attention to him. The demon cat turned around, anger that its rump was being filled with bullets.
I knew then this was my chance to go in and attack, the demon cat went straight towards Jones with the intent to kill him. Just when the demon cat jumped into the air, I rushed forward. The blade whistled in the air as its outstretched paw was hacked off.
The cat demon tumbled forward, losing its balance because of its lost arm. Jones dodged to the side, out of harm's way. He quickly got on his feet and did a perfect spinning roundhouse kick to the demon cat's jaw. A bone crunching sound could be heard on impact, he twirled around and did a follow up kick, causing the demon cat to lurch backwards.
I ran forward, my blade itching for another swing. Turning my hips and bringing power up my torso and into my arm, the blade cut through a deep incision into the demon cat's side. Black blood splurted outwards, I jumped backwards, trying to not get swamped by the blood.
The cat demon hissed angrily, and snapped towards me. I dove to the side into a diving roll. When I got up, I twirled and slashed towards its neck, leaving behind another deep incision. Black blood flowed out like rain, and the cat demon growled one last time, its body shuddering as it large head dropped onto the floor with a loud thump.
"Is it dead?" Jones walked over carefully, he nudged the demon cat with his feet.
The demon cat twitched, causing Jones to jump back. Even I flinched, my sword was brought up before me to use if it moved. Going into round two wasn't something I hope to go through.
"I think so?" I replied, lowering my sword.
"Good. Glad that's over with-"
On second thought, Jones spoke way too soon.
The sound of windows breaking could be heard from across from us from where we were thrown out. Another demon cat was flung out the window with Marcus wrestling in midair. My eyes became wide in complete disbelief as I saw Marcus boxing the crap out of the demon's face with his own bare hands.
They fell from the third story building and into the broken streets. Marcus was riding the cat demon on top, mercilessly beating the demon cat. Red energy swirled around his fist as black blood splurted outwards around him. With a loud thump, the cat demon fell backwards onto its back, hitting its head onto the ground. Marcus pulled back his hand and slammed his glowing fist into the demon cat's head as it exploded.
A large ugly hole opened up in the demon cat's head as blood and brain tissue sprayed outwards. Marcus was covered everywhere with its guts, looking like a mad demon himself with those swirling red energy in his hand. He got up, brushed off the blood as if nothing just happened, and stepped off to the side.
Another thundering crash of window breaking could be heard. A demon cat, three times larger than the other two that we just fought, jumped out from the window with Timothy holding on, with his dear life, on its tail. He reminded me of a flag, fluttering behind.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllp!" Timothy screamed, both hands were tightened around the tail.
When the demon cat landed on the ground, it whipped it tail, throwing Timothy into the air. Rearing up on its hind leg, it's large mouth opened up, ready to gobble Timothy in one gulp.
I bolted forward, pushing off the ground and jumped onto the car in front of me, before launching off the car with the sword over my head. Timothy was swallowed in one gulp before I got to him.
The only word that came into my head was "that sucks", and my brows scrunched up tightly together.
Timothy was swallowed, and my sword followed behind, entering down its throat. I used the momentum of my fall to split open from its neck to its stomach. A burst of black blood sprayed outwards, hitting me in my face and chest.
A nasty, foul smelling air smacked me in the face, causing me to stumble backwards. I pulled my blade backwards, trying to hold in a hurl. Timothy flopped out from the belly of the monster, and onto the ground covered in blood, slime, and demon gunk that I didn't even know what it was. The demon cat shuddered and fell onto its side, dead.
"I'm never ever doing that again." Timothy groaned in pain. He was shook up badly from being eaten alive. His hands desperately rummaged through his pocket. Pulling out the epipen, he stabbed himself in the leg and sighed in relief.
I sheathed my sword, and gave him my hand. Timothy gratefully took it without a second thought as I pulled him onto his feet.
"Nasty piece of shit." Timothy spun around, scowled angrily, and spat at the corpse. Well, looks like Timothy was back to his old self.
"I bet." I took a step back, my nose scrunched up. He had that same foul smelling air around him.
"Meow?" Daisy jumped out of my pocket without me noticing. I stared as Daisy just waltzed up towards the dead demon cat without a single hint of fear. It brought its cute furry paws up and placed its on the demon's hide as if it was staking it as its own.
"Daisy?!" I called out in alarm, I walked over to scoop her up.
"You named the cat?!" Timothy cried out in disbelief. "That shit could be a damn demon!"
I didn't listen to him, and went to scoop Daisy up. But before I could grab her, she tilted her head to the side, and all of a sudden, the side of her mouth started to rip open. Without realizing it, I froze, staring at her in disbelief.
"I told you! I told you, it's a demon!" Timothy stumbled backwards in hysteria.
Daisy bite into the demon cat's body. It was as if they were some kind of vacuum in her mouth as she sucked up the Demon cat in one go. I stared flabbergasted in what I was seeing. What was even more surprising was that there was even a slight white aura around Daisy as she continued to eat up the demon before her. Not even less than a minute the body was gone.
With a loud burp, Daisy let out a satisfied cry. Both of us stared at her dumbfoundedly at what we just saw. Was she a demon eater or is she a demon herself? I didn't know.
Daisy flicked her tail, and made her way towards where Marcus' kill was and did the same thing. I trailed after her, completely stunned at what I was seeing. There were a couple of times, when I rubbed my eyes or even pinched my cheeks just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. This cute little white furball was eating the demon cat as if it was supper!
Marcus stepped forward, he bent over towards Daisy.
"Marcus watch out! It's a demon cat!" Timothy cried out to warn Marcus.
Marcus chuckled and shook his head. "No, it's not. I thought it was as first. Then I had a feeling that this cat was something more."
"What do you mean?" I came over, Marcus was petting Daisy's head as if nothing was wrong. Jones came up and stared as if he was just seeing this for the first time as well.
"This here is unique animal spirit. Usually, these little guys come over and make contracts with certain people. Mostly, they don't come in kitten size shapes, but in other larger animals. You remember what I told you about the Contractors?"
"Yea?" I slowly stated.
"These animals are what we usually contract with. You don't see many of these little type of creatures just roaming around the streets. I'm glad we found one. Did you get contracted with her?" He look over his shoulder towards me, waiting for an answer.
"Uh, I don't know?"
"I think you did," said Marcus. "She stayed with you the whole time, didn't she? As well as drew blood from you to make a contract."
"Drew blood?" I realized what he meant. "Oh!"
Marcus got up, Daisy ran over towards the third demon carcass and swallowed it up without any difficulties. When it was done, she ran back over, climbed up my pants, and made herself comfortable in my pocket. I frowned, seeing how she just easily made it her home.
"Well, now we know what you are. A contractor." Marcus spoke with amused expression. "We should go before we bring unwanted attention."
I look at him funny, we already brought unwanted attention, but then I didn't wanted to stay here and get swarmed by police. We could hear the sounds of siren coming towards us. All of us quickly walked out in hurried steps, leaving behind the empty streets as if nothing happened as we made our way back to Seventh Sanctum. I was glad that our ordeal was finally over.


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Black 47 (2018)
6.3Set in Ireland during the Great Famine, the drama follows an Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, as he abandons his post to reunite with his family. Despite ...
Director: Lance Daly
Writer: Lance Daly, P.J. Dillon (story by), P.J. Dillon, Eugene O'Brien (additional material), Pierce Ryan (story by), Pierce Ryan
Stars: Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, Freddie Fox

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Discussion in 'Hunting Europe' started by Shotgunspud, Jan 16, 2012.
Just some of the Roe Bucks taken by Clients.
very nice roebucks, they are my absolute favorite animal to hunt here in europe, so graceful, just like the fine antilopes of africa.
Thanks for sharing.
Roebuck is on my bucket list. They and Red Deer scream europe for me.
Some very nice bucks there
I keep all the "trophies" from all the roebucks I shoot. Small or big. I just love them all
My wife is not happy about them at all and thinks 1 is more than enough to put on the wall...
Well we have both my friend.
From this morning ...
Novel trophy. Congratulations.
Very nice. Congratulations.
I love the photos. I am always intrigued by the antlers.
Couple of really nice ones there!!!! I really love those dark horns and rough bases
some fantastic bucks here.... well done
Excellent trophies. Congrats.
You have some craker trophies right there, good heavy ones.......I really like Roes......and let me tell you I would like to know the hunting story behind that awesome Pere David in your avatar.....!!!!
See you....!!!!
Wmh for good buck's.
Excellent trophy Mannlicher. Congrats.
Beautiful trophies. Excellent roebucks Alex. Congrats.
I keep seeing all these roe buck threads and now i really want to hunt one. SUCH IS THE ADDICTION!!!!!
From June: old and seriously injured roebuck - wasn´t able to move ....
Very nice sir!
I agree with CAustin, really nice.
Separate names with a comma.


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Only one life, will soon be past,
only what's done for Christ will last.
(author unknown)
I read this as a little girl and NEVER forgot it.
Dear Friends and Family,
THIRTY YEARS AGO: It has been thirty years since we moved our family to Florida. Doug, Steve and I made staff commitments and Sarah volunteered the first year. What a blessing it was to all be together. We were in a little single wide mobile home. We felt so happy and blessed. I remember our joy, contentment, and peace. We had no way of knowing that 30 years later we would still be serving the Lord and still have mobile homes on Heavenly St. As you know, Doug and I live in Zambia and do not spend much time in FL, but we do own a double wide mobile home across the street from where we first lived.
Steve and his family travel around the world, leading teams. Steve did Boot Camps around the world when he was single. He was in several countries in the Middle East that are now too dangerous. Steve and Gay work at the home office a major part of the year. Gay, our daughter-in-love, also home-schools Timothy and Faith, our grandchildren. Sarah (our daughter) and Rob Codding and their children also live on the same street. They are wanting to buy their own home on Merritt Island. It has been a gift from God to have family so close and be able to enjoy one another when we are home.
We cannot begin to tell you about all the experiences we have had or the many teams we have lead. If you have read our newsletters, then you have kept up. How we praise God for the journey and the privilege of being able to labor in His vineyard. I will always remember when He spoke to me out of Matthew 20 and 21. One of the verses that jumped out at me said, "Why do you stand there idle doing nothing, go work in my vineyard." The Lord gave us many verses from His Word confirming our direction. These verses have held us steady through all of the good times and the harder times. We realize how quickly time goes by and how short life really is. Our hearts are filled with joy as we look back and as we look forward.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We must emphasis in this letter our thanks to all of you for your support over the many years. YOU HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL. To God be the Glory. Many of you have supported us for all 30 years. Maybe you didn't even know it has been that long. Maybe you did. God KNOWS! Only heaven will reveal the lives that have been touched and saved and changed through this ministry. We take NO credit. It is God who changes lives and He gets ALL of the Glory. I always remember the picture (and it comes from several places in God's Word) that it is not the tool in the hand that gets the glory, but the One wielding that tool. Personally, I picture myself as a hosepipe in God's hand with the Living Water flowing through. God is the Gardener and I am in His hand, close by His side, and He takes me where He wishes and uses me. That is true for all of you, not just me. That is why He gets the glory. It is His plan and His purpose that we want to see accomplished. It is His Water of Life for all who are thirsty.
Current News: The next big thing on the agenda is the Zambia Boot Camps. Three venues will be buzzing with teens who are signing up right now. Running concurrently with the big picture of the ministry, there are always desperate needs we come across. We want to share one personal need in a family. Mukuka Matolokoshi, staff wife from the Solwezi base, shared this story. I won't give the last name to give them some privacy. The mother had died and left four children. Their names are Esther, 7; Richard, 5; Mirriam, 4; and Bernard, 2. Esther doesn't go to school because she is the primary caregiver. She tries to cook what she is able, she carries the smallest one on her back, she brings them to bathe in the dam near the unit, but has no soap to use. The two year-old showed signs of starvation when I first saw the picture of them. We immediately gave money for the nutrition formula to get him out of danger. The problem is the others are hungry also and so he doesn't always get all of the portion. We have purchased other foods to help and are trying to get them at least one good meal at the unit each day. We bought bathing and laundry soap for them to stay clean. They need clothing and shoes which we are organizing. They had one small blanket with holes. We have sent two warm blankets. One for the father and one for the children to share. The father has no job. He gets their food from scavenging through the local dump. Much of it has already started to spoil. We will update you further on this family as the staff from the Rescue Unit report the progress. Pray that this father receives Jesus as his Savior. This type of work goes on at many of the Rescue Units. Praise God, He loves everyone!
Again, thank you for joining your hands with ours as we labor together in His harvest,
Doug and Barb
Matt. 6:33 & Gal. 2:20


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Located on the banks of the Thames, this 598 unit mixed use scheme including medium rise apartments with under croft basement has recently received planning permission.
Morgan Structural were appointed by KEEPMOAT to carry out the structural feasibility design for the entire site.
The main challenges where;
- contaminated made ground under the medium rise apartments which included under croft,
- limited on story height resulting in very challenging structural zones,
- limited floor areas for structure within the apartments resulting in blade columns,
- a listed bearpit, which was considered during the design
- the location of the Thames river bank.
Estimated construction value – £120m


text:
The property is situated in a lovely village at about 50 km from Russe city and is part of Dve Mogili Municipality.
The village has all the necessary amenities - a post office, regular bus transport, a grocery store, mobile and Internet connection. The area is excellent for tourism and many leisure activities, is is part of Rusenski Lom Nature Park, with the amazing views towards Beli Lom Canyon. There is a cave, a Rock monastery.
Bucharest International airport is at 130 km.
The two-storey house offers 75 square metres of living area. The lower level has a basement, a corridor, two rooms. The upper storey consists of three rooms, a corridor and a closet. There is also an extension with unfinished kitchen, one room, a shower room with a toilet, for which the plumbing was done.
The land is 600 square metres, with rich soil, excellent for growing vegetables. There is space for parking off street. One outbuilding and an outside toilet. The garden is well maintained, there are fruit trees and also an outside tap.
Price: 5.900 Euros
Available on pay monthly - 250 Euros per month.
|Ref. N:


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Bride of the Wolf
Harlequin (March 2010)
Harlequin |
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Riding off into the sunset… can be deadly.
Rachel Lyndon yearns to escape her scandalous past, but her dreams for a better life seem ruined after she buries her fiancé on the Texas plains.
Heath Renier has been evading the law by the skin of his teeth for years. Now he's found a new identiy as Holden Renshaw, foreman of Dog Creek Ranch. But the arrival of his boss's mail-order bride, now a widow, upsets his fragile peace and threatens to expose his deadly secrets.
Rachel knows that the mysterious and savagely handsome Holden is the last man she should trust – especially once she's seen glimpses of his true nature. Whe he's suspected of killing his employer, she has a terrible choice to make. But the heat of his gaze ignites something seductive and irresistible within her. No matter how dangerous the road ahead, she's determined to give him the one thing he's never truly believed he deserves: her undying love.
Read an Excerpt
Jed's wife.
At first Heath didn't think he'd heard right. He'd read Jed's unsigned will, and the letter from the woman. It had been clear that Jed hadn't married yet, that he planned to do it soon after his "bride" arrived.
Someone was lying.
Heath didn't have the chance to call Sean out. The female was taking Sweet's arm and climbing down from the buckboard, almost stumbling as she stared at the house.
Sean dismounted, tossed Ulysses's reins over the hitching post and went to meet her. Heath gave her a closer look. Her eyes were brown, a few shades lighter than her dark hair. She wasn't pretty, but she wasn't ugly either. She was somewhere around thirty years, not old, but there was a tightness around her mouth, a kind of tension that told him she wasn't easy in her mind.
This was the woman who'd written the letter that Jed had carried like something precious. The woman he'd cared enough about to woo and win and bring all the way to Texas.
She looked in his direction. Her shoulders lifted, and she started toward him, her plain brown skirts swishing with each firm step. He could feel her hostility through his skin and in his bones. She didn't even glance at the bundle in his arms.
"Mrs. Rachel McCarrick," Sean said, gliding up beside her. "Holden Renshaw, foreman of Dog Creek."
At first Heath thought the woman was going to back away. The hostility covered something else: fear. He could smell it sure as he could smell the skunk at ten paces.
"Ma'am," he said coldly, briefly touching the brim of his hat. "Welcome to Dog Creek,"
She studied his face. "Am I welcome, Mr. Renshaw?" she asked.
He didn't understand the question, and he didn't much care. She wasn't denying that she was Jed's wife, and that meant she was lying. He hated that she was here, hated that she'd invaded this place and claimed it for herself, that a stranger held Jed's loyalty just because she was human.
But she couldn't know Jed was dead, and neither did Sean.
"You're Jed's wife, ain't you?" he said, making her feel a little of what he was.
She flinched, so slightly that he knew no human would have caught it. "I understand that Mr. McCarrick is away," she said.
"He's been in Kansas, selling cattle," he said. "Surprised you didn't know that, Mrs. McCarrick."
Her upper teeth, white and straight, grazed her lower lip. "Of course I knew he had been elsewhere on business, but he was to have returned by the time I arrived."
Maybe she was telling the truth about that part, maybe not. Heath smiled, not trying too hard to make it friendly. "I don't know what you're used to back East, ma'am, but out here things don't run by clockwork."
"You expected me, did you not?"
He knew a challenge when he heard it. Jed had surely planned to meet her when she arrived. Maybe she wondered why his foreman hadn't known to fetch her in Javelina.
"Jed didn't say when you was comin'" he said.
"He told me," Sean said.
More lies. "You know when he'll be back, too?" Heath asked with a curl of his lip. Sean hesitated, and little worry lines appeared between the woman's straight, dark brows. Heath came within a mile of feeling sorry for her.
A mile could be a long way if you wanted it to be.
Sean cleared his throat. "Mrs. McCarrick is weary from her long journey," he said. "I'll escort her into the house."
One long stare shut Sean up again. Heath looked down at the baby, so covered up that it looked like a pile of rags. It chose that moment to stir in its blanket and whimper. Sean jumped. So did the woman. They both stared in disbelief at the lump curled against Heath's chest.
"You know anything about kids, Mrs. McCarrick?" Heath asked roughly.
She blinked at him. "I… I beg your–"
He showed her the baby's pale face. "It's ailin'. Can you make it well?"
Her gaze moved from the baby's face to his, astonishment wiping every other emotion from her features. "Where… whose baby is this?"
"Someone left it, and I found it. Can you fix it?"
Surprised as she was, she landed on her feet just like a cat. "How long has it been since it has eaten?"
"It won't eat at all."
Accusing eyes met his, and she took the baby from his arms, taking care not to touch Heath more than she had to. "What have you been giving it?" she demanded.
His hackles rose again. "Some cow's milk and stuff in a can. That's all I had."
"It must have milk." She looked around. "Have you any cows?"
Relief burned through his body like strong whiskey. She knew what to do. She could keep the baby alive.
"I'll get it," he said. "Take it inside."
But she stayed right where she was, holding the kid and humming softly. Just like a real mother.
Heath cut the thought before it could get any further. He might have to get her help, but he'd be gone with the baby as soon as it could travel. "Go on in," he said.
She met his gaze with a flash of defiance and walked toward the house.


text:
Blog Archives
The latest crop of Kosher QPR wines and some losers
It has not been long since I last posted a new list of QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Kosher wines. But I am always looking for more winners, and I am sure some of these will be on the QPR wine list of 2019.
To me, Terra di Seta continues to prove that Italian wines can go mano-a-mano with the rest of the kosher wine world. They continue to excel in delivering QPR wines and they continue to prove that you can create impressive to great wines for less than 40 dollars. I have yet to taste the 2015 Terra di Seta Riserva and sadly I was not a fan of the ALWAYS QPR worthy 2017 Terra di Seta Chianti Classico. The 2017 Elvi Rioja Semi, another perennial QPR winner was not my cup of tea but the 2018 vintage is ripe wine, Mevushal, but still nice and QPR winner.
Another of those QPR superstars, in the sparkling wine world, is, of course, the Yarden Winery. Gamla is their second label behind the Yarden label, but when it comes to bubbly, the Gamla label is always well accepted. Of course, the stupid spat between Yarden Winery and Royal Wine means that we have a single wine called Gamla in Israel and Gilgal here. Why? Because these two wine businesses cannot make nice long enough to come to their senses and figure out a way to be civil with each other. I am so surprised that this is still going on today. The Gamla label, a wine made by originally by Carmel in Israel for this label in the USA, and now who knows who makes it, either way, it is not a wine worthy of this bickering, but sadly, here we are.
Now, back to the wine, I wrote about the new Gilgal Brut back in January, and the wine has moved beyond its insane acid lemon trip and it is now rounding out a bit, with some added complexity and richness.
Domaine Netofa was always on my QPR list, but sadly that was just for Israel, but thankfully Royal and Kosherwine.com have combined to bring the entire line back to the USA! I hear it is going well so get on these before they disappear!
Now, I also wanted to add a list of losers as people have been asking me what I thought of some of the newer wines and here is my response, so I have a QPR list and a NOT so QPR list.
I wanted to keep this simple, so the wine notes follow below – the explanation of my "scores" can be found here:
2017 Domaine Netofa, Red – Score: 91 (QPR Superstar)
This wine is now exclusively imported by Kosherwine.com and I hope they are selling well. This has really stabilized now. It is a bit fruity still, but it also has some nice old-school style and swagger. The nose on this wine is nice and smoky, with great control and roasted animal. The fruit is blue and black and lovely. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is layered and with nice blueberry, blackcurrant, great acid, and great control showing earth, raspberry, root beer, that give way to spice, vanilla, and loads of dirt. The finish is ribbons of mineral, charcoal, graphite and bitter coffee, Solid!! Drink by 2021.
2017 Domaine Netofa Latour, White – Score: 91 to 92 (QPR)
Crazy Oak nose with yellow pear and apple, quince and rich saline with hay and dry herb. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is crazy good, layered, extracted and richly round, but tart, and saline bomb, with lovely tension and rich herb, and lovely sweet spices and sweet Oak. The finish off long, green, with vanilla, herb, and mint, and lemongrass, with tart lemon curd and spices. Drink by 2023.
2017 Domaine Netofa Latour, Red – Score: 91 (QPR)
The 2017 vintage is less austere than 2016, it is more accessible now and will still hold. The nose on this wine is really nice with rich black currant, blackberry, and blue notes that give way to smoke, Oak, toasty notes, and lovely tar. The mouth on this medium-bodied wine is super tart and really bright, with great acid, blackberry, blueberry, black currant, with garrigue, sweet but well-balanced note, with mouth-coating elegance and layers of concentrated fruit and earthy notes, with chocolate and sweet spices. The finish is long, bright, tobacco, mineral, pencil shavings, with tar, and root beer. Lovely! Drink now until 2022. (To be released soon I think)
2016 Domaine Netofa Latour, Red – Score: 92 (Crazy QPR)
This wine is a blend of 65% Syrah and 35% Mourvedre. The nose on this wine is lovely, ripe and balanced, with sweet oak, blueberry, boysenberry, with bright fruit, and loads of dirt. This wine is really still very young, showing great potential, with incredible tannin, great acid, rich layers of blue and black fruit with great aging potential, loads of chocolate and rich spice, dark fruit, and herb, all wrapped in a plush yet elegant mouthfeel. The finish is less green than past vintages, showing a more ripe fruit profile, but still clearly balanced, with foliage, tobacco, mint, and sweet spices and herbs. Bravo!! Drink from 2020 till 2024.
2018 Ramon Cardova Albarino, Rias Baixas – Score: 92 (QPR Superstar)
The 2018 vintage of this Albarino, in its second vintage, shows less tropical and ripe than the first vintage, 2017. This bottle also had the thermal active label, and it shows up when the bottle is at the proper drinking temperature. My only REAL and serious complaint is the cork, why would Royal waste the money and my money of a real cork? Use a Diam or any other amalgamated cork, like almost everyone else is. I really hope I do not hit a bad cork for the wines I have.
The nose on this wine is better than the 2017 vintage, Lovely nose of rich mineral, with loads of straw, with which salinity, and lovely peach and dry pear, with honeysuckle, gooseberry, along with green notes galore. Lovely! The mouth on this lovely green and acid-driven wine, has a more oily mouthfeel than the 2017 vintage, showing rich salinity, green olives, with lovely dry quince, green apples, more peach, green apple, but also with lovely lime and grapefruit, no sense of guava or melon-like on the 2017 vintage, with a tinge of orange notes. The overall mouth is lovely and it comes at you in layers. The finish is long, green, with gooseberry, tart fruit, with an incredible freshness, and orange pith, slate, rock, and incredible acidity lingering long. Incredible!! Bravo!! Drink until 2022. Read the rest of this entry
Taieb Wine Tasting in France, after four trains, two planes, and two automobiles
The night of the KFWE London tasting, right after I left the tasting, I took the tube to the airport. I slept there overnight and at 7 AM I took a plane to Lyon France to start my journey to meet up with the Taieb wines and to taste through their current offerings.
If you remember the story, I had gone from California to Paris, on to London, for the Blue smoke dinner and then the KFWE London tasting. It was after the tasting that I took the train to the airport. I had heard many things about the Taieb wines and it was time to actually taste through the wines myself.
I had to take a plane to Lyon, two trains, and then a car ride to get there, but I think it was worth it, as I had the chance to taste through wines that are rarely seen or tasted here in the USA. It was the same for the way back, so yeah I could have starred in two movies!
Let me get one thing aside right now. Not all the wines are easy to find here in the USA, other than the Burgundy wines, because of the horrible wine distribution of Victor Wines and Touton wines, here in the USA. As you will see Taieb makes some very solid QPR (for France pricing) wines. You can find some of the wines here but most of them are just in France. With that said, Saratoga Wine Exchange, out of NY, seems to stock almost all of the wines, I have no idea why as they are not a kosher wine or near a large Jewish community.
Taieb Wines
Taieb started making kosher spirits 50 years ago and since then he has added kosher wine to the company. many of the Bordeaux wines that he now makes have been in production for decades. Taieb is famous for the Phenix Anisette, a liquor made from Anis.
Recently, I have been loving the wines coming from Taieb, because they are making some really great Burgundy wines, including maybe the best Burgs to be made kosher in quite some time, the epic Domaine Lescure and the 2012 Domaine d'Ardhuy Gevrey-Chambertin, which may well be the best Burgundy in some time, though I find the 2014 Domaine Lescure to be as good.
Taieb has been spoiling us with great Burgundy wines and the only reason why we know about them is because of Nathan Grandjean and Andrew Breskin. Sadly, distribution of these and many of the lovely Bordeaux wines from Taieb have no distribution here in the USA, without Breskin. Victor Wines officially imports Taieb Wines, but the wines rarely show on shelves, I really hope this will be fixed soon, as the Taieb wines I had in France were wonderful.
Sadly, Domaine d'Ardhuy stopped doing kosher wines with Taieb, after the 2015 vintage, and while Domaine Lescure was epic in 2014 and 2015, the 2016 vintage had some issues. The bottle I had at home showed aspects of Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), while the bottle I had at the winery had no issues. Others have said they had off bottles as well, though when the wine is good it is great, so I am torn.
The line of kosher wines includes entry level wines for restaurants and weddings. It then has a myriad of wines at the next level, from lovely a Sancerre wine to Brouilly wines. The next level includes some very solid Bordeaux wines and Burgundy wines as well.
Overall, I was very impressed with the lineup of wines and I really dream of being able to have these wines more accessible here in the USA. For now, Liquid Kosher has the wonderful 2015 Domaine Lescure and the very nice 2015 Domaine d'Ardhuy Aloxe Corton.
Jean-Philippe Marchand
In 2017 there was a new wine line from Burgundy, the Jean-Pierre Marchand wines. With the loss of Domaine d'Ardhuy from the kosher ranks, following the 2015 vintage, the Taieb's went out and made the Jean-Philippe Marchand wines. The baseline Bourgogne is really solid for the price, while the upper line wines are nice as well, but as with all things Burgundy they come at a price. Truly Burgundy's Achilles heel, especially in kosher, is the price. Also, the upper-level wines from Volnay, Gevrey-Chambertin, and Nuits-Saint-Georges are not available here in the USA. Read the rest of this entry
QPR Kosher wine options that I have been enjoying recently
In my state of kosher wine industry post – I lamented at the lack of QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) options in the kosher wine world. Now that is not to say that the options do not exist, as you can see by the number of QPR options on my top wines for Passover last year. Still, given the sheer number of wines in a kosher wine store (many hundreds) and the number of kosher wines on the open market (many thousands), we are left with a very small minority – sadly.
So, I thought I would list the most recent QPR wines I have enjoyed over the past 6 months. I wanted to catch up with wines I had not had till later last year and place them in a single easy to find place.
My hope is that people will enjoy the wines and demand more of them. For instance, the lack of many of the QPR wines from Elvi Wines on the open market. I can find them on Royal's website and on Elvi's website, but sadly I cannot find them at many wine stores. Thankfully, Kosherwine has gotten the Elvi Cava back along with the Gilgal Brut, but they have older vintages or no vintages of the Elvi options. Onlinekosherwine.com, also has many of the older Elvi wines. I have spoken with Moises and he says they exist here somewhere in the USA – only God knows where though!!! Sadly, the exact same can be said for Netofa wines – another QPR superstar! Where are the wines? I taste them at KFWE – but they are not at stores, online or at shops!
I hope to one day write a post about wine cellaring, but till I do, understand that certain wines are made to enjoy early, like Cava, most 2014 white wines, and lighter reds. The richer and tannic reds can use time in the cellar and that is normal. This list is not a list of wines that are meant for cellaring, though many can withstand a few years. The idea here is to enjoy these wines now while you let the long-term wines cellar and age. We all have that interest to drink interesting wines and while I agree with that, that is NO excuse to raid the cellar when u have a hunkering for a complex note or flavor. Many of these wines will scratch the itch while the beasts' lie and settle.
Finally, some of these wines are hard to find and they may have different siblings – I will point out when an older one will be an issue or a newer vintage would not be on the list (like the 2011 Ella Valley Cabernet Franc versus the 2012). The 2012 Ella Valley Cabernet Franc would never be on this list. The 2011 is a fine wine for another year, after that I fear it will turn to date juice.
Also, many of the white/rose/bubbly wines will be repeats from the various posts I made, as most of the 2015 whites and rose are not coming to the USA as they are shmita in Israel. I tried to keep these wines under 30 dollars or so, some are more most are less and that is the point of this list. Of course, that means that for some wineries there will be one or no options, like Matar or Four Gates Winery. Though I could have thrown in the Four Gates Chard – which is a lovely wine, it is still far from my goal to add into this bucket. The same can be said for many more wineries. Also, 2015 Israeli wines are not on this list, actually no 2015 wines are on this list, though Hagafen Winery, has released their 2015, but I have yet to taste them and the 2014 Hagafen wines are the ones on the market anyway. Finally, wines that can only be found in Israel like the epic Tabor Rose of 2014 and the 2014 Reca Gris du Marselan and the yatir rose and the new 2014 Yatir Viognier – and so on. All of these wines are not on this list because they are hard to find, but they are on previous lists I have posted.
So, without further ado – here is my list of kosher QPR winners so far and if you have any more please tell me!! They are listed below without any real order.
2014 Domaine Netofa White – Score: A- (Crazy QPR)
I must say this is clearly the best Netofa white so far, and I hope they continue to impress! The wine is 100% Chenin Blanc sourced from the slopes of Mount Tabor. The nose is redolent with rich and bright quince, straw, mineral, lemongrass, and wet grass. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is lovely and rich mineral bomb, with more hay, spiced quince, now dry fresh cut grass, green apple, Asian pear, along with a crazy dry and insanely tart crab apple. The finish is long – spicy, dirty, and mineral based, with dry fruit, rich ripping acid, cloves, and nutmeg – BRAVO!!!
2013 Domaine Netofa Red – Score: A- (and more) (QPR!)
This wine is a clear step up from the 2012 Netofa Red, that is not putting the 2012 down in any way, it is just that this wine is even better! This wine is a blend of 65% Syrah and 35% Mourvedre. The nose on this wine is redolent and packed with mineral, lovely smoke, flint, ripe plum, lovely blueberry, with currants in the background. The mouth on this full bodied wine is attacks you first with lovely currants, followed by layers of blueberry, floral notes, richer and more extracted than the 2012, with great mineral, dried strawberry, all wrapped in ripping acid, and lovely tannin. The finish is long, extracted, and richly mineral in style, with blackcurrant, draping tannin, while being spiced with cloves, black pepper, sweet her, and hints of pith and lovely acid. BRAVO!!!
2012 Weinstock Cabernet Franc, Cellar Select – Score: A- (Mevushal) (QPR!)
This is not the same wine as the 2011 vintage, which was crazy and great this vintage started off closed and disjointed, but is now showing far better. The nose on this wine is mad green with red fruit notes, and herb. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is nice and round, with green notes, well balanced with good acid, raspberry, plum, earth, more bell pepper, crazy sweet dill, mouth coating tannin, and green foliage. The finish is long with nice enough acid, forest floor, nice butterscotch, good sweet tobacco, cedar, with tannin adding weight. Read the rest of this entry
Back to the Future – the kosher French wines available today
Well, I hope all of you enjoyed the Passover respite (some see it as a stressful time, I see it purely as a joyous time, and yes I do a lot of cleaning as well). This post I wanted to talk about the kosher French wines that I have tasted recently.
Now I must stress that these are the wines that I have tasted, not ALL the wines that are available. There are hundreds of kosher French wines, and the vast majority of them never make it to the USA. With that said, I really LOVE the new crop of 2011 and 2012 wines that have made their way to the US and around the world. But before we jump into the nitty gritty and the tastings we need to take a step back and talk about French wines for a second.
Let us start with some very basic concepts around France and its wines. To start it is one of the oldest wine making locations in the world. Sure, Israel, may well be the oldest, but it stopped making wine for a very long time – till around the 1870s or so. Even then, they did not start making real world class wines till the 1980s (ignoring the 1901 and 1970 successes of Carmel).
France is once again the largest wine producer in the world, as of 2014, and most of it is quality wine. It is hard to find another country that makes so many good wines, so many vastly different wines – each from their own terroir – with such a long and storied history. The wines I will be talking about today are mostly from Bordeaux, the home of the "noble grapes of the world" – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc (not on the official noble list), and Sauvignon Blanc. To be fair there are other noble grapes not in Bordeaux, like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Burgundy. Riesling – mostly from Alsace and Sauvignon Blanc again from Upper Loire. Toss in Syrah and Grenache from the Rhone and that comprises the wines that I am noting today.
I did not write Pinot Noir notes – I did that recently here and you can read my French wine notes there.
I have written often about the wines of the Rhone – because many of my favorite wines from California (Shirah and Hajdu) make most of their wines that comprise the region called Rhone. Those would be Syrah (as noted previously), Grenache, and Petite Sirah (not really Rhone at all, but the Rhone Rangers love it). With some Grenache Blanc and Viognier thrown in.
In case you have not yet realized it, but I have pretty much listed many of my own favorite varietals, and they all come from France. Truly France is the cradle of the wine world. Sadly, there was little to no kosher options in the 1980s, even though France itself was producing 10s of millions of cases of wine at that time.
Of course of all the varietals – Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot tend to grab all the headlines. Rightfully so to some, but to many the wines of the Rhone and Burgundy are of more interest. So, how does all of this work? France long ago decided to control what varietals would be planted and within the regions of its country that would produce the best wines possible. It is a foreign thought to many still, even here in the USA. Terroir defines France. Essentially the 300 or so appellations d'origine contrôlee (AOC) within the country are so designed and controlled to allow for creating the best wines possible. Planting Syrah in Bordeaux can be done – but why? Syrah requires far more heat and sun that Bordeaux can dish out – so Syrah was defined as a southern grape location – AKA Rhone, where it can flourish in all of its glory. Read the rest of this entry
A wine lover in a land of sobriety – what is a oenophile to do?
This past Jewish Holiday press left me away from home for much of the time – whether at friends or family and that enabled me to enjoy many a wine, some that I bought, some that I enjoyed at other people's homes, and some that I enjoyed or did not enjoy at synagogue.
The Jewish holidays following the high holidays – are meant to be ones filled with joy, food, and wine, yet I happen to always be separated from the very people who really understand my madness. Do not get me wrong I love my family – but they really are not oenophiles – and that leaves me at a major disadvantage – when my main objective is to drink and enjoy as much wine as possible in a very short period of time! Sure, they sip at the glass and are happy to drink it – but the joyous side of the High Holidays to Sukkot religious gauntlet is meant to be a relief valve, a way to thank the lord for all the good and for another year to do his bidding. So, how do Jews celebrate? Why with prayer, food, and wine of course. I know I am a bit over the top when it comes to wine and food – but I crave the interactions with others around the table, a table filled with joy and food, and also some wine chatter.
So I was faced with the classic dilemma of a lone wine fanatic attempting to enjoy wine amongst those who find wine to be a tool rather than a purpose. Do I buy and enjoy by myself an expensive bottle of wine and drink half at night and the other half the next day – and continue this through the meals – or should I dial it back a touch because, it is just myself and the expensive wine does not always taste as good the next day?
Like all things – I decided the best rule of thumb in these situations is to do both! I bought some good wine and some nicer wine, but no crazy wines, which in hindsight was a great idea, as I really got sick and could not enjoy them anyway. The first night we drank a bottle of 2010 Galil Mountain Winery Barbera, which I wrote up about on a previous post about QPR, and it was OK, but not a QPR winner. We also tried a bottle of 2010 Joseph Mellot Sancerre. Sancerre white is the archetype Sauvignon Blanc for many. Many believe that Sancerre best defines the truest form of Sauvignon Blanc. However, some are now pointing to New Zealand and California for what they have done with the grape. Unfortunately, while the classic Sancerre is meant to be bone dry, with intense fruit expressions and mineral to boot, this bottle was so-so at best. It lacked the bone gnawing dry palate that I crave in a Sancerre, balanced perfectly with nice bright fruit and good acidity. Instead, this Sancerre was green, tart, and without fresh fruit, making it for a very passable wine to quaff, but not much more.
On an aside, there is a growing demand out there for truly bone gnawing dry wine with fresh fruit and bright acidity. The closest I have found to that is another kosher Sancerre from Bokobsa, but the 2007 vintage is slowly dying. The need exists, but the answer unfortunately is lacking for now. Please do not get me wrong there are MANY lovely kosher Sauvignon Blanc wines on the market – but they all have varying degrees of residual sugar, making them feel flabby, which to many is as annoying as nails against a chalkboard. Read the rest of this entry
International Food & Wine Festival (IFWF) in Oxnard brings back great memories!
These past two weeks have been what the Jews call the 9 days that are rather famous for the infamous events that have occurred in this specific span of time. Thankfully, once they were passed Herzog Cellars and Royal Wines put on an encore event of the IFWF (International Food and Wine Festival), this time in the Herzog Winery itself, to celebrate the winery's 25th year in the industry! What an event and celebration it was! It brought back memories of the old IFWF events that were held in Oxnard, since the inaugural IFWF event in 2008.
Sure there were some 200 or so in attendance, but with the fully expanded setup, including an enclosure in the back that housed the French wine table, dessert table, and room to hunker down, it felt spacious and very comfortable.
In many ways, this event felt like an almost exact replay of the first International Food and Wine Festival. The crowd size was perfect, there was room for you to hunker down and taste wines and there was room for you to huddle up and talk with friends or people of like or dislike opinions.
Besides the layout and crowds, the food was absolutely fantastic, just like in previous events here. Once again, Todd Aarons and Gabe Garcia created wondrous delights that were so wrong in all the right ways! Of course, I came to the food area too late to partake of all of the goodies, but I still got to taste many fantastic culinary treats, including the absolutely stunning puffed chicken nuggets topped with incredibly tasty barbecue sauce.
Unfortunately, I came a bit late to this event because of what I came to call parking lot A and B (405 and 101 respectively). Whenever, I watch the Dodgers or the Angels, I can now understand why the crowds are so empty for the first three innings, because everyone is parked on one or more highways! My guess to why they all leave by the 7th inning is that after the folks get so aggravated waiting in the traffic, they get tired and want to go home. Quite clearly getting to and from any event in LA adds a few hours to the overall time and that is aggravating and tiring. However, like I, once the guests arrived they had to almost physically throw us out. The place did start to peter out in the last hour, but the place was still humming and drinking until the last second. Read the rest of this entry
2012 Herzog International Wine Festival – part two of wine notes
As stated in the previous posting on this lovely event, there were many wines to taste and there was no way I could post all the wine notes in a single posting. Here is my follow-up posting on the wines tasted at the event, including the wines that I loved and did not love.
The wine notes are listed in the order that I tasted them:
2010 Domaine Netofa – White – Score: B++
The nose on this light gold colored wine shows clean and lovely nose of green apple, peach, grapefruit, kiwi, light quince, and rich/nice loamy dirt and mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and balanced with nice minerality, along with nice bright fruit that mingles well in the mouth. The finish is long and spicy with nice quince, tart green apple, grapefruit, and green tea.
2010 Binyamina Chardonnay, Reserve, Unoaked – Score: B
This wine did not show nearly as well as its 2009 sibling, the wine was flat without much to grab your attention. The nose on this straw colored wine has apple, lemon, nice mineral, bright acid, and melon. The mouth is somewhat plush and the finish has citrus to round out the wine.
2010 Binyamina Chardonnay, Reserve – Score: B+
This wine did not show nearly as well as its 2009 sibling, though not as bad as its unoaked twin. The nose on this dark straw colored wine has light oak, brioche, lemon, nice spice, light creme, and honey. The mouth is round with spice, summer fruit, and oak influence.
2011 Tulip White Tulip – Score: B++
This wine is a blend of 70% Gewurztraminer and 30% Sauvignon Blanc with the sweet and floral notes of the Gewurztraminer showing nicely with honey and guava, while the green apple and bright lemon notes from the Sauvignon Blanc blend together in a unique manner. The nose on this straw colored wine hits you with mineral, light honey, bright lemon, green apple, and guava. The mouth is nice and honeyed with light petrol, and citrus. The finish is long with both sweet lemon creme and bright lemon at the same time, along with fig, and tart notes. This is a great wine that would go well with fish or sushi.
Ella Valley Merlot, Four Gates Chardonnay and Merlot
We spent the weekend at the Four Gates Winery and we had a grand time. I brought a bunch of wine and Benyamin had a few wines in the ready as well. The food was awesome but I must say that once again, I brought the duds – AAHH!! The worst part of it was that I personally brought these wines back from France and had great expectations for them. Unfortunately, they were total losers. I brought a Sancerre and a Bordeaux. The only saving grace I had was the 2002 Ella Valley Vineyard Choice Merlot.
Dinner started with a lovely poached fish that was rich enough in flavor to match the Sancerre – but it was a real downer. The Sancerre tasted like it was allowed to rot and such was a quarter or more along the way to a Sauterne. After that we had lovely roasted chicken and a meat stew. The Roasted Chicken was solely coated with a spice mixture that I guessed was a combination of Curry, Cumin, Coriander, and cloves. Very nice mix. The chicken and the stew called for a wine that is highly acidic and/or powerful wine. The Bordeaux I brought was truly sad as well. Really, just a sad attempt. The other wine I brought was a hit and really nice – one of my favorites; the 2002 Ella Valley Vineyard's Choice (VC) Merlot. Finally, the Four Gates wines were enjoyed the following day with Cholent and leftovers. A very nice affair for all.
The wine notes follow:
2002 Bokobsa Sancerre Special Reserve – Score: B-
The nose on this gold colored wine had notes of honeysuckle, grapefruit, earth, and Botrytis. The smell throws off the wine, and unfortunately carries on into the palate. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is fruity. The mid palate was mineral, while the Botrytis commanded the finish. The wine lacked crispness and focus. It was all over the place, a real shame. I had a great experience with a previous Sancerre, and was hoping for it again, but it was not to be.
2003 Château du Desert Grand Vin de Graves – Score: B-
The nose on this garnet colored wine was mineral and raspberry. The mouth on this medium bodied wine has notes of raspberry, and plum. The mid palate had nice earth tones. The finish was muddled with fruit and oak. Again, a non-focused or complex wine. I had high hopes for this one, but it was not to be.
2002 Ella Valley Vineyard's Choice Merlot – Score: A
The nose on this opaque black colored wine is a big Merlot nose. Cassis, blackberry, and oak scream to the front. Mint, chocolate, and earthy tones follow. The mouth on this full bodied wine starts off with black plum, cassis and mint. The middle is a complex mixture of oak, black fruit, and well integrated tannins. The balanced wine's long finish is filled with meaty texture and flavor along with chocolate, tobacco, and oak. This is a really fun wine and one that is ready to enjoy now. There was not a ton of sediment, but still keep a watch out for it. The fruit is slowing down, so drink up.
Four Gates La Rochelle Merlot 2005 – score: A-
The nose on this deep garnet colored wine is flush with blackberry, mint, asparagus, and oak. The mouth on this medium bodied wine starts with blackberry fruit and black plums. The mi palate has lovely notes of acid balanced with oak. The finish is long with light tannins that have not yet integrated, and red fruit. The wine is not yet at its peak, but is still quite enjoyable now as well.
Four Gates Chardonnay 2004 – Score: A
One of the best Chardonnay out there right now. This complex yet approachable wine is a real joy. This is NOT a lightweight Chardonnay yet not a butterball like other California Chardonnays. This is what a California Chardonnay should taste like – really nice. We have tasted this in the past and it has clearly improved. The nose has gone more citrus and oaky. The mouth has really filled out and the finish goes on for miles. But the real excitement is the complexity that has appeared. The wine is far more complex in nature, with layers of oak, vegetal notes, and wonderful citrus, peach, and apricot flavors. So on to the actual tasting note now:
The nose on this electric light gold colored wine is filled with peach, apricot, and light hints of herbs, sweet oak and caramel. The mouth on this full bodied and very rich Chardonnay is packed with a complex and layered mixture of peach, apricot and citrus flavors. The mid palate is a strong crisp acid core mixed with cloves, vegetal flavors, and a slight sweetness. The finish is a long crisp and refreshing stroll with sweet wood notes as a partner. A real success. This is one of my favorite Chardonnays. The wine is crisp yet has weight at the same time, a real joy.


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Have you ever encountered installments of clogged drains and frozen pipes in your house? These are two of the most typical Madison plumbing emergencies you must handle in particular when your plumbing system is just not well-maintained. It can happen once you least expect it instead of knowing purchasing it can only cause further damage.
When emergencies in your water system occur, you will want the expertise of an experienced Madison plumber. Actually, and before the emergency comes about, you can also avail their helps. Many people could possibly have overlooked the need for getting plumbers but your home is a great investment as well as your plumbing is an integral part of it. Hence, you need to look after it and make certain that it's well-maintained.
Having to deal with plumbing problems will not be free and inconvenient. It is then necessary that you should inspect, maintain and repair your plumbing often. Professional plumbers may help you make this happen. They could also inspect your faucets and the other fixtures in your bathroom or kitchen to help you have it returned or replaced whenever needed.
Plumbing might be complicated. Just thinking about the need to inspect or repair pipe lines can be overwhelming. And if you do not do it correctly, the damage may be more than it already is. Not to mention, the expense of repairs may additionally increase. To experience a completely functional plumbing in your own home (or perhaps work or place of work), you should consider having it inspected at least one time every 2-several years. You can even undertake it annually if you want.
Clogged drains, frozen pipes along with other plumbing problems could be a nuisance. It wouldn't be advisable to only consult or hire plumbers just when an unexpected emergency has recently happened. It might be easier for those who have a plumber Oregon WI whom you can contact once in a while for that maintenance and repair of your water system. Choosing one while facing an urgent situation situation might only make you finding unprofessional plumbers who cannot do the job well.
To identify a professional plumber, check out the Benjamin Plumbing blog and check out a few of the qualifications you have to be looking for.


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Stealthy Rascals 2Rascally Weapons and ArmorBy Skip Williams
Several installments ago, this column identified four basic character roles: sturdy brawler, stealthy rascal, arcane spellslinger, and divine guardian. We've already examined the sturdy brawler in detail. Now we turn our attention to the stealthy rascal.
These characters depend on their wits and their skills to meet the challenges of adventuring. They can take the fight to the enemy fairly well, but they usually do better if they take a more subtle approach. Stealthy rascals can do well serving as a party's eyes and ears, probing the way ahead for hidden dangers or worthy opportunities. Depending on their skills and class features, they might also serve as a party's face and voice, negotiating or bluffing their way through encounters, tracking elusive foes, or breaking into closed areas.
When last we met, we considered races for stealthy characters. Once you've chosen a race to go along with your stealthy class, it's time to think about your gear, starting with your weapons and armor.
While it's best to choose martial or exotic weapons to make the most of your combat potential, your stealthy class probably doesn't make too many weapons available. You're likely to be limited to simple weapons and a handful of others. For example, the rogue class gives you access to all simple weapons plus the hand crossbow, rapier, shortbow, and short sword. Some stealthy classes have even smaller weapon selections.
When choosing your weapons, you needn't try to buy every weapon your class makes available to you. All you need is a primary melee weapon, which you'll use in most battles, a ranged weapon for reaching foes you can't otherwise attack, and one or two backup weapons. Carrying more than that just weighs you down. As a stealthy rascal, you want to keep your load light.
Fighting Styles
If you fight well enough, consider the same combat styles more martial characters use -- one-handed weapon and shield (or without a shield), two-handed weapon, and two weapons. Character Class considered the merits of various fighting styles in our series on fighting characters.
Most rascals fight with a single weapon in one hand. If your class offers any special combat abilities, however, such as the ranger's fighting style, you might decide to fight with a weapon in each hand. Effective fighting with two weapons requires a big investment in feats (and in weapons, once you start considering magical weapons), so it usually doesn't pay unless your class gives you some bonus feats.
Many stealthy classes don't give you shield proficiency, so you might want to consider a two-handed weapon, especially if you have a Strength bonus of +2 or more. (When you use a fairly big weapon in two hands, you gain 1.5 x your Strength bonus to damage -- see page 113 in the Player's Handbook.) Wielding a big, heavy weapon can clash with most people's idea of what a stealthy rascal should be, but sometimes it can be fun to play a character who defies common expectations.
Your Primary Melee Weapon
Unless you have feat slots to burn, stick to the list of weapons that your class makes available to you. Consider any martial weapons on the list first. Martial weapons tend to deal more damage or have better critical characteristics (or both) than simple weapons of the same size. Depending on your class, the simple weapons available to you might have slightly better damage potential. Even in such cases, a martial weapon might prove a better choice in the long run because it's more compact or opens up new options for you. For example, a rogue can deal more damage with a heavy mace or morningstar (simple weapons) than with a short sword or rapier (martial weapons). Both of the latter two weapons, however, deal more critical hits than a mace or morningstar and both work with the Weapon Finesse feat, which can be a good choice for rascals with high Dexterity scores (as most do).
If you're fighting with a single weapon that you wield in one hand, consider the following martial melee weapons if they're available to you -- longsword, rapier, sap, scimitar, or short sword.
The longsword is arguably the best of the bunch because of its damage potential, but not all stealthy rascals are proficient with it. The rapier and the scimitar deal reasonable damage and have great critical threat ranges. As noted earlier, the rapier also works with the Weapon Finesse feat. The sap is a somewhat undistinguished weapon, but it deals nonlethal damage, which can prove handy when you want to capture foes rather than kill them. The short sword is the only light weapon on the list, but it still deals decent damage.
If you decide to use a two-handed weapon, your options aren't stellar, but consider a spear, longspear, or quarterstaff.
You can throw a spear, which gives you extra flexibility in combat. A longspear has reach, which is useful for keeping foes at a distance (albeit a short distance). A quarterstaff actually is a double weapon, but you can use just one end as a two-handed weapon. You usually can pass off a quarterstaff as a simple (if big) walking stick when guards cast a suspicious eye your way. All these weapons are long enough to serve as useful implements outside of combat. You can use them to probe the way ahead for hazards, poke at suspicious objects from a distance, and many other beneficial chores.
If you opt for fighting with two weapons, you have several options. You might choose one of the one-handed weapons we discussed previously plus a light weapon -- for example, a rapier and a shortsword. This option tends to give you the best damage potential. You can do very well with a light weapon in each hand, such as two shortswords. This helps you get the most out of the Weapon Focus feat. Using a quarterstaff (a double weapon) also allows you to take advantage of the Weapon Focus feat (the feat applies to both ends), and you have the option to use just one end of the staff as a two-handed weapon.
Backup Weaponry
Once you've chosen the melee weapon (or weapons) you'll use most often, consider a backup melee weapon or two (you should travel light, but don't skimp on the equipment you need). An extra weapon is vital if you lose your primary melee weapon -- such as when a foe disarms you. True, you can just stoop down and pick up a weapon you've dropped, but doing so when an enemy threatens you provokes an attack of opportunity. It's better to draw another weapon in that circumstance.
As this series has noted before, it's a good idea to choose a backup weapon that deals a different sort of damage from your primary weapon. For example, if you normally use a shortsword (a slashing weapon), then choose a light or heavy mace (bludgeoning) or a morningstar (bludgeoning and piercing) as a backup. This approach is helpful when you must deal with a foe that has damage reduction that your primary weapon can't overcome.
If you plan on keeping your backup weapons concealed, or if a heavy mace or morningstar doesn't fit your character concept, then stick to light weapons such as daggers, light maces, or sickles.
A weapon you can throw, such as a hand ax or dagger, is particularly useful when an opponent is just out of reach or when you don't want to get too close to an enemy. A light slashing weapon also is handy when some big monster swallows you whole or when you're grappling.
Ranged Weapon
For long-range combat, choose a martial ranged weapon if you can. A bow offers great range and damage. If you have a high base attack bonus, a bow allows you to make multiple attacks. Unless you have a Strength bonus, however, don't bother spending extra cash on a composite bow.
If martial ranged weapons aren't available to you, it's hard to beat a crossbow. A heavy crossbow packs a good punch, but it's so slow to reload that it's nearly impossible to use when you're on the move. Most rascals will do better with light crossbows.
A sling can be a good alternative to a bow or crossbow, especially for halflings. A sling is cheap, lightweight, and pretty easy to conceal. You might even be able to convince your DM to allow you to improvise a sling from a strip of cloth or leather if the need arises.
Your Weapons Budget
Even if you plan to use unarmed strikes, be ready to spend a significant amount of your cash on weaponry. You'll need a decent ranged weapon to keep foes at a distance, and when in melee, a masterwork melee weapon will help you get hits. As a rule of thumb, plan to spend at least 15% of your cash on weapons. Even if you spend 30-40% of your wealth on a decent selection of weapons, you should still have enough cash left over to buy everything else you need.
Early in your career, it's not unreasonable to spend as much as two-thirds of your cash on weaponry.
To track how much you've spent on weapons, add up the costs of all your current equipment and add in your current cash. Do not count any non-portable assets you might have, such as buildings or land. Whenever you find that your total weaponry cost represents less than 15% of what you're carrying around (or could carry around), it's time to purchase a new weapon or upgrade a current one. For example, you could trade in a masterwork weapon for a magical version or pay someone to give the weapon an enhancement bonus. Likewise, if you're thinking about buying a new weapon or an upgrade for an old one, you should rethink the purchase if doing so will leave you with more than 30-40% of your assets invested in weapons.
You can't always keep out of harm's way, so plan to buy a few things to boost your Armor Class. Most stealthy classes limit you to light, or sometimes to medium, armor and possibly a shield. (The monk class doesn't give you any armor or proficiency at all). It's hard to go wrong buying the best armor you can afford in the heaviest type of armor you're allowed. If you plan to use any stealth or movement skills, however, such as Hide, Move Silently, Jump, or Tumble (and what rascal doesn't have a few of those), then consider masterwork armor. The reduction in your Armor Check penalty is worth the money. For most rascals, masterwork studded leather is a good compromise between protection and agility.
Unless you're a monk or you plan to fight with both hands, add a shield. Even if your class doesn't provide shield proficiency, you can use a masterwork buckler without incurring any penalties.
As you advance in level and accumulate more wealth, add additional protective items, such as sings of protection and amulets of natural armor. Also consider an item that imposes a miss chance on your foes. You can manage that cheaply (if temporarily) with a potion (or scroll) of blur or displacement.
Your Armor Budget
If you're using a suit of armor as your chief piece of protective gear, plan to spend 20 to 30% of your wealth on protective devices. When playing a monk, you can still buy plenty of protective gear, such as bracers of armor and rings of protection, but you'll have to wait until you gain a few levels until you can afford a permanent item. In the meantime, invest in a few potions of mage armor to use during key battles.
To learn more about stealthy rascals, be sure to read our installment on character roles and stealthy races.
About the Author
Skip Williams keeps busy with freelance projects for several different game companies and was the Sage of Dragon Magazine for many years. Skip is a co-designer of the D&D 3rd Edition game and the chief architect of the Monster Manual. When not devising swift and cruel deaths for player characters, Skip putters in his kitchen or garden (rabbits and deer are not Skip's friends) or works on repairing and improving the century-old farmhouse that he shares with his wife, Penny, and a growing menagerie of pets.


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HighlightsGeorgetown | Stay in historic Cara Lodge | Kaieteur Falls | Iwokrama Rainforest | Hike to Turtle Mountain | Great wildlife & birding opportunities | Kurupukari Falls | Canopy walkway | Surama community | River safaris | Look for giant anteaters | Amerindian village of Yupukari | Opportunity to contribute to research of black caiman
Description of Guyana vacation, small group tourGuyana is one of South Americas most stunning wildernesses, with almost 800 species of birds, untouched rainforests, traditional Amerindian culture and impressive tropical wildlife. It remains well off the beaten track for most travelers, thanks to its undeveloped infrastructure and the fact that so few people know about it but visiting on a small group tour gives the opportunity to really get beneath the surface of this country.
Fly out to the Kaieteur Falls the highest free falling waterfall in the world. Disappear into the Iwokrama Rainforest a million acres of virgin jungle. Cruise along winding rivers, as you search for giant river otters, caiman, tapirs, monkeys and hundreds of bird species. And meet the indigenous Macushi people, who can tell tales of the forest during day and night walks, and teach you how to weave baskets and roast cashews.
Travel Team
If you'd like to chat about this vacation or need help finding one we're very happy to help. The Travel Team.Toll free 1-866-821-6866 Calling from outside the US? firstname.lastname@example.com
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Responsible tourism
Guyana vacation, small group tour
Carbon reduction
Your vacation will help support local people and conservation. We must also reduce CO2. Learn about the CO2 emissions of this vacation and how to reduce them.
We really work hard to keep all our operations green! All our worldwide offices currently run on 90% green energy (we are working towards 100%) from hydro electric, wind to solar power. Being web based, we are close to becoming a paperless environment, brochure prints are at a minimum (and printed on a requirement basis) and all pre-departure information is emailed. We use energy saving bulbs in our work centers, and recycle all our waste. Staff are encouraged to ride a bike or take public transport to work.
On this trip you will be traveling through many fragile environments and ecosystems. Guides will help you to encounter wildlife and birdwatch responsibly whilst also ensuring that no fragile landscapes are damaged. Travel is by boat and on foot where possible to help with preservation efforts.
Our trips source as much as possible from the local community. Whether it be our knowledgeable local guides, local produce for meals to transport on tour. We do not use imported goods when local produce is available. We aim to minimise our impact on the environment and give as much back as possible to the communities we work in. All operations for this tour are done by locally owned companies, a fact we pride ourselves on. We aim to use where possible, hotels which have minimum impact on the surrounding forests. Hotels we hand pick due to their commitment to the future of the planet.
In our pre departure information pack, and through the orientation on the ground we help you to minimise your carbon footprint on your tour, and help protect the fragile ecosystem of the Guyana jungle. All entry fees paid for the entrance into the Kaieteur national park contribute to its upkeep and help preserve it for the future.
Our trips source as much as possible from the local community. Whether it be our knowledgeable local guides, locally produced meals or the transport on tour, we do not use imported goods when local produce is available. We aim to minimise our impact on the environment and give as much back as possible to the communities we work in. All operations for this tour are done by locally owned companies, a fact we pride ourselves on. Hotels used are all locally owned and we try to choose where possible hotels which hold the same values and understand their responsibilities to the local environment as we do.
In Guyana we only use local guides and our clients sleep in locally owned accommodation. In our pre-tour information we provide a range of tips and advice on how to minimize the impact on both local environments and communities in Guyana so our clients are fully prepared before they go. We encourage our guests to visit local markets where possible, for example in Georgetown City Tour, where travelers can visit the Stabroek Market, offering every item you imagine, from meat and vegetables to jewellery and household goods.
Our guides are all highly qualified (most with university degrees) or many years of experience and are paid above the standard wage. We source them due to their unique contact with the local communities we visit, as well as their knowledge of the lakes, fauna and flora you will pass on route. This will give you an insight into the history of this fascinating region.
By booking your tour with us, you will be making a real impact on the community you are visiting. We can also assist you if you wish to visit community projects in order to get a lot more out of your trip. Most importantly a percentage of the funds generated from your tour (10%) will go back to our charities and assist us support the next generation and the environment they live in.
We currently work with 3 different charities, giving us a broad spectrum and diversifying where our funds go. We work with Project Peru in the UK who run an orphanage in Zapallal in the shanty town outskirts of Lima, ANIA in Peru which is a high profile Peruvian NGO which works with children and helps to teach them about their local environment and how to manage it affectively, and GVI Foundation in Australia which works on several development projects in Latin America and around the world. We help these charities by fundraising treks, through donations as a company and through our clients and also through many of our customers who volunteer their time and expertise. These charities are close to our core of supporting the environment and children in needs.
1 Reviews of Guyana vacation, small group tour
Reviewed on 27 Oct 2017 by Joan Glick
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
We enjoyed all the eco lodges but Surama was our favourite.
2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
Trip ended on a day with no good flights out of Suriname. as we were the only people on trip dates could have been modified.
3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes. all the eco lodges supported locals and it was excellent to spend time in them.
4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
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We love the ethos of Rickshaw Travel.
It was founded by former backpacker, Haydn Wrath, who wanted to create the kind of company that he would want to book a trip with. 'My challenge was to provide meaningful experiences that would bring travellers "closer" to their destination.' How? By offering trips about as far removed from bland resort holidays that you could hope to find! Rickshaw brings you up close and personal with the 'real deal' – from homestays and houseboats in India, to tiny tropical island escapes in Borneo… Places where you get to know remote rural communities. Rickshaw also supports many local projects, so it's truly sustainable, responsible tourism in action.


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Blog 16 (Eoin Lynch): Pro Cycling Sourdough
Having only heard of sourdough bread on the menu of cafés caught in a vein attempt of seeming trendy, I never gave it much attention or interest.
I am lucky that my cycling coach not only teaches me how to train properly but also knows his stuff about quality bread too!
After getting a sourdough starter culture from Svein Tuft, I fed it, read a bit about it and made the first loaf.
For the first loaf, beginners luck struck! Throw in some starter, water, flour, salt and out comes perfect bread everytime! Or so I thought until the second attempt..
When the knife cut into the perfect looking crust of the second loaf, it was cutting through a ball of solid dough. I usually don't waste food but this was for the birds!
Sourdough bread is cheap to make but requires time to learn and make it properly but the bread you get to make is worth the time investment!
Like the way you would really appreciate the time you spent chopping and preparing firewood when you're sitting at a warm fire on a winter's day, learning about and making sourdough bread is worth it when you're eating it..
On making the starter:
On making the bread:
thanks for reading


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Several mind and body approaches, including relaxation techniques, yoga, tai chi, and meditation may be useful for managing symptoms of stress in your patients. For some stress-related conditions, mind and body approaches are used as an adjunct to other forms of treatment. This issue of the digest provides a summary of current evidence on some of these practices for stress and stress-related conditions.
Modality and Summary of Current Evidence
Relaxation Techniques
Relaxation techniques may be helpful in managing a variety of stress-related health conditions, including anxiety associated with ongoing health problems and in those who are having medical procedures. Evidence suggests that relaxation techniques may also provide some benefit on symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and may help reduce occupational stress in health care workers. For some of these conditions, relaxation techniques are used as an adjunct to other forms of treatment.
Read more about the evidence base of relaxation techniques for stress
Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong
A range of research has examined the relationship between exercise and depression. Results from a much smaller body of research suggest that exercise may also affect stress and anxiety symptoms. Even less certain is the role of yoga, tai chi, and qi gong—for these and other psychological factors.
Read more about the evidence base of yoga, tai chi, and qi gong for stress
Meditation and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
The scientific evidence to date suggests that mindfulness meditation—a mind-body practice which cultivates abilities to maintain focused and clear attention, and develop increased awareness of the present—may help reduce symptoms of stress, including anxiety and depression.
Clinical Guidelines
Scientific Literature
- Systematic Reviews/Reviews/Meta-analyses (PubMed®)
- Randomized Controlled Trials (PubMed®)


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The previous lease of 126.96.36.199 will attempt to renew at 1/2 of lease time. Since that address is no longer part of the scope, the device will get assigned a new address. If this is a Windows device, open a command window and type <b>ipconfig /renew</b> to get an address in the new range. Unless the subnet mask has changed, the 220.127.116.11 address should still be able to communicate on the network.
I agree with everything except the last statement, because if the new IP is not in the DHCP anymore then it should not be able to get out, or to anything on the network, you would have to renew the IP address on that machine before it could do anything.
Labnuke99 is right. The computer will still be able to communicate on the network if there were no other changes. About half way through the lease, the machine would request a new IP address and renew in the correct range.
Register Hereor login if you are already a member


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As you're probably aware from previous posts, I've been building a raised bed from pallet wood, and last weekend Kate and I planted our first seeds in it. So to round off this short series of posts, I thought you might like to see how we went from a bare wooden frame to an actual vegetable garden.
The first thing we did was to treat the pallet wood, to prevent it from weathering and falling apart. As we were growing food to eat, we did have some qualms about what we might use to treat it; but as we'll see in the next step, we mitigated most of the effect of leaching somewhat anyway. We used a wax-based wood preservative, to keep the water out rather than provide a waterproof finish.
Next, we lined the frame with plastic. This prevents leaching of wood preservative into the soil (and of organic matter out of the soil!) and also insulates the bed from the cold a bit.
Fellow SW stalwarts Kevin and Brigitte had a lot of plastic bags left over from a woodfuel delivery, so we were able to take ten of these and staple them to the frame. A staple-gun might have helped, but wasn't really necessary: we could dislocate the jaw on an ordinary office stapler, and use that to fix the plastic in place:
We then put the frame where we wanted it to stay, and filled it with soil. A 1m2 bed, 40cm high, can take 400l of soil with ease (pedantic mathematicians should be aware that a given volume of soil will compact down under its own weight!) As we didn't have easy access to decent topsoil, we mixed around 200l from our compost bin with 180l of organic compost, and added two bags of silver sand to make it less claggy. This mix is probably still a bit rich and still rotting, so we hope to add nitrogen with broad beans as one of our first crops.
Finally, we assembled a bamboo frame over the bed, using old tennis balls (given away, having lost their bounce) at the corners. This permits us to add netting if we want, and in the first instance to put some wire mesh around the bed to prevent our cat from using it as a toilet, or simply as something to sharpen her claws on. We also put some fleece down earlier this week, to help warm the soil prior to today's planting.
Here's the finished bed:
And I promise that this is the last post on raised bed DIY, although I hope to report back later in the year on how our square-metre gardening is going; assuming it's going well!