In school, we learned about the seasons. Whatever. We live in California! We can have flowers Spring into fall; no problem. We can BBQ in November! So, I’m spiffing things up and getting fresh in the garden this weekend. We’ve still got plenty of time for outdoor fun. If you’re a sissy, like me, you’ll realize that you’ve got tolerable weather to get things done in the morning and evening. Just follow the shade.

Here’s some ideas to get things looking pretty and get a fresh start on summer again. Get a small trash bucket to carry with you, and park the big green trash can nearby. Grab the hand pruners and gloves, a rake and a broom. Note: Don’t buy cheap pruners. Get the best, learn to sharpen them and you will enjoy your work. It makes a difference.

Ideas:

1. Trim anything that is big and floppy and just plain unsightly to your taste.

2. Give the Roses a moderate pruning (you’ll get another bloom in a few weeks!)

3. Pull out the annuals that didn’t do too well (disease, or just plain dead)

4. Pull out any humungous weeds (surprise! Found some dintcha?)

5. Dead-head perennials to give them a chance at some new life and new bloom.

6. Trim any out-of-control vines being careful to watch where you are cutting.

7. Ditch the Dead. Have a Viking funeral if you wish. It’s not coming back.

8. Fertilize with an organic fertilizer and replenish nutrients

9. Finish it all by cleaning the webs and sweeping.  Clean the front door too.

Stand back and take a look at your work every so often. You can accomplish a lot in just a few hours. Admiring your work is important. That sense of accomplishment will keep you going.

Tough Love here… Do you have pots with sad pathetic plants? Been like that for years? Now is the time to plant them up pretty or say goodbye. How long are you planning on displaying those sad little creatures? Was that pot free? Did you find it on Operation Cleanup? Just because a pot holds dirt, doesn’t mean it’s worthy of display.  We’ve all done it and we all must stop!

What about the front porch? Me too. Let’s get out there and clean that up. Maybe; plant a pot with something pretty. Don’t make the mistake of putting a teensie-weensie little pot out there. It looks silly. Get the biggest pot the space and the budget will accommodate. It will look nicer and the plants will fare better. Ever try a fountain? I dig mine. My super hubby even hooked it up so I can turn it on with a switch at the front door. He’s so awesome!

Try these great perennials:

JUST A FEW SUMMER/FALL BLOOMERS

Petite Lantana – Gorgeous and Small (sun)

Japanese Anemone – Super pretty Late Summer and Fall (shade) naturalizes

Salvia Greggii – Attracts Hummingbirds like crazy and blooms late summer fall (sun)

Happy Planting!

Annie

annie@belmontnursery.com

In a few hours, there’s a chance Carolina Panthers linebacker Nic Harris will be looking for a new home.

Sadly for Harris, that search for stability has dogged him his whole life.

Harris, a 23-year-old linebacker, is like hundreds of other NFL players, waking up this morning on the bubble as teams submit final cuts by the NFL’s 4 p.m. EDT deadline on Saturday. But he has already faced more hardship than being cut would bring.

Given up by his parents at birth, Harris bounced between 12 homes and nine schools by the time he was 15, when he legally emancipated himself from his biological mother and father.

That meant supporting himself through high school by working four jobs while playing four sports and keeping up a 3.49 grade-point average.

Now, he has a 16-month-old daughter, a baby girl he’s determined to be there for even as he works half a continent away.

As much as Harris wants to make the Panthers’ roster, getting cut Saturday wouldn’t devastate him. He’s been through too much already for that.

“Getting to this point has been extremely rough,” Harris said. “But the things you go through and your journeys, the people that we interact with make us who we are today, and defines our character.

“So ultimately, I’m just happy to be here, living the dream.”

To look at him, you’d never know he had struggled.

He has a chiseled build, clear and focused eyes, a rock-solid handshake. He talks in a preacher’s cadence, full of Bible verses and inspirational messages.

“People see this man who’s a great athlete, great player, but you don’t necessarily know the steps I’ve had to take, or the stairs I’ve had to climb,” Harris said. “I appreciate it being that way. It’s that much more gratification when people see you working hard, then they read your story and they understand. It’s an eye-opener, man.”

That he can laugh about his “rough” upbringing is testament to his determination. With his background, there was every opportunity to take the wrong path.

But Nic Harris didn’t let that happen, and neither did the small group of women who supported him.

A rough beginning

He was born in Alexandria, La., to teenage parents unwilling if not unable to care for him. That started a parade of caretakers that included both sets of grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles and neighborhood friends.

His biological parents drifted in and out of his life, at times insisting he go with them. But Harris wanted no part of it.

To this day, the subject of his parents is met with polite but curt answers. In hours of interviews with him and those closest to him, their names are never mentioned. He refers to them coldly, saying he hasn’t spoken to his father since Christmas, his mother in four years.

“He may never have the answer to why they did that to him,” his former high school counselor Kelli Welch said. “And even if he got it, it may not help him.”

Asked if he ever wants to re-establish contact, the question is cut off before it’s all the way out.

“Never,” he replied quickly, and with a smile. “Done. … Look at where I’ve come, look at where I am. I did this 100 percent, … OK, 98 percent, without you. I don’t need you anymore.

“It was one of those deals, you have to make a decision. What have you done for me up to this point?”

Harris was not without support. His late grandmother Hattie Harris, the woman he calls “the architect of my success,” was the first to take him in.

By DARIN GANTT

Join the 2nd Annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk at Woodward Park. The 5K (3.1 miles) route follows the scenic Eaton Trail.

Join the Fresno County team:

This was exactly the performance the Hurricanes wanted to give in their audition for Ohio State.

Jacory Harris threw three touchdown passes and watched the entire second half from the sideline. Leonard Hankerson grabbed two of those and then took it easy, too.

All three of the top running backs scored, with Graig Cooper behind them making a stirring return from his serious knee injury in the Champs Sports Bowl. The defensive line pressured. Ray Ray Armstrong returned an interception for a touchdown.

Just about everything went as well as the 13th-ranked Hurricanes could have hoped in Thursday night’s 45-0 season-opening win against Florida A&M at Sun Life Stadium. It was the first shutout for the ‘Canes since beating Florida International 35-0 on Oct. 14, 2006.

“A lot of things we learned from last year really helped us out,” coach Randy Shannon said. “Now we’re an older group and they don’t look ahead anymore. They stay focused on what we’re trying to get done. They could have come out here and started off flat or got in a frenzy early and then in the second quarter went to sleep. But they didn’t.”

Granted, UM did this against a team it beat by 32 points last season and by a combined score of 342-33 in the past seven matchups before Thursday.

But what was important was how efficiently this rout was executed. Now, finally, the players can admittedly look ahead to the colossal matchup against No. 2 Ohio State in Columbus on Sept. 11. It’s been hard not to do so.

“I’m not even going to lie to you, it kind of is because you have everybody else outside of your teammates that want to see the OSU game,” Harris said. “They looked past FAMU. But as a team, we kept focus on FAMU and it showed out there because we were prepared.”

The Hurricanes scored on all four of their possessions in the first half. And they wasted no time on any of them. Three of the drives took less than two minutes, the other 3:29.

Harris threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to wide-open Hankerson 1:40 into the game. Harris and Hankerson hooked up again, this time for a 40-yard touchdown, on a perfectly thrown spiral over the top of the FAMU defense.

Harris, who underwent surgery after last season to repair damaged ligaments in the thumb of his throwing arm, then dumped off a short pass over the middle for Damien Berry, who zipped to the left corner and dove just inside the orange pylon for a 32-yard score and 21-0 lead with 11:47 left in the half.

Harris finished 12-for-15 for 210 yards. Hankerson had six catches for 115 yards – his second career 100-yard reception game.

Barely two minutes later, with the Rattlers backed up at their own 1-yard line, Armstrong stepped in front of a poor pass and then darted between defenders before diving into the end zone with both arms fully outstretched.

“I saw the end zone and it turned back into high school again,” said Armstrong, who played some quarterback in high school. “It felt like I was on offense.”

Mike James ran in from 1 yard out for a 35-0 lead with 5:22 left before intermission.

The 35 points scored in a half by the Hurricanes was their most since 35 in a 56-45 win against Virginia Tech on Dec. 7, 2002. That was the end of Harris’ night.

“I guess it’s a good thing because it means I went out there and took care of my business,” Harris said. “I guess it was well-deserved. But I would have liked to have stayed out there.”

Backup quarterbacks A.J. Highsmith and Spencer Whipple split time in the second half. Cooper also saw his first action, carrying twice for 11 yards and catching two passes for 13 yards in the third quarter.

The Rattlers, meanwhile, struggled against the Hurricanes’ defense, which allowed just 110 yards despite several missed tackles, mostly in the first half. FAMU’s best chances to score were two missed 50-yard field goals by Trevor Scott – one in the first quarter, the other in the third.

Defensive end Vernon Olivier, who beat out Adewale Ojomo and Andrew Smith for a starting spot in camp, finished with a team-high seven tackles – six unassisted – and 3.5 sacks. All came in the first three quarters. The Hurricanes had eight sacks as a team.

“It went well, but I wouldn’t say it went exactly how we wanted it to go on defense,” cornerback Brandon Harris said. “We were hoping for a few more three-and-outs and turnovers. But on the positive, the D-linemen, they didn’t let the quarterback throw the ball much.”

By STEVE GORTEN

The e-mail started like a hundred others – wedding anniversary, reunion, story that needs telling.

I was about to file it under ho-hum – we get reunion and anniversary e-mails daily – until I got to the part that made this one different.

It was from Dean Beguhl of Richland, Mich. He was writing to say that he, his brothers and his sister had just celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary.

No big deal, right? Actually, it is. Staying married that long is an achievement. Still, 50th wedding anniversaries aren’t uncommon.

What is uncommon is that Beguhl is the last of his siblings to celebrate a 50th anniversary. His sister and all three of his brothers also have been married 50 years.

To the same people.

They have a combined total of 277 years together.

“Here is a story I believe your readers need to hear,” Beguhl wrote.

His e-mail arrived not long after I learned that some friends I’d always thought of as the perfect couple were getting divorced. We all know people who have divorced repeatedly. It’s estimated that 40 percent of American marriages will end in divorce.

So maybe the story is worth telling.

It began in the Deer Flat area, south of Nampa, Idaho. That’s where Beguhl and his siblings grew up.

“Our parents had a hard work ethic, and they transferred it to us,” he said. “We worked onions, potatoes, sugar beets, all kinds of farm work. After work, Dad would take us fishing to reward us.” All five mentioned the value of hard work – and what marriage doesn’t have its share of that? They also made a point of saying how devoted their parents were to each other.

“They were together for life,” Dean said. “They were hard workers and loving parents. They set a good example for us.” The next step: Choose your mate wisely.

“Make sure you really know the person,” Marvin Beguhl, now of Salinas, Calif., said. “I was engaged when I met Rita, but it didn’t work out. Once I got to know Rita, I was sure she was the one.” Boiseans Emil and Shirley Beguhl met when she was working as a soda jerk in Adrian, Ore., and he delivered ice cream. Though they’d only known each other six weeks when they were married, she had no doubts.

“He was kind and patient and took pride in his appearance and his work. And my parents were fond of him. That’s usually a good sign.” Sometimes it’s just magic. The first time Jerome, Idaho, resident Fred Beguhl saw his future wife, he told his friends that she was the girl he was going to marry. He was in sixth grade; she was in fifth.

“He’d pump me home on his bicycle,” Alberta Beguhl said. “There was never anyone for either of us but each other.” Some of the couples’ tips for staying together:

-Be honest with each other. Don’t have secrets.

-Don’t break promises.

-Be ready to apologize when you’re wrong.

-Be patient with each other and kind to each other.

-Give more than you take.

-Be happy with what you have. (Emil and Shirley still have the dishes they got as a wedding present 60 years ago.)

-Keep your spouse satisfied.

Usually, they say, that comes down to the little things. Boisean Mildred Beguhl Pinaire still cooks for her husband, Frank, even though a stroke she suffered makes it difficult. Frank does the dishes and the vacuuming.

All of the couples admitted they’ve had hard times in their marriages. But they never gave up.

“Keeping a marriage together can be a struggle,” Dean said. “And it’s harder today with all the Hollywood influences and temptations.

“But it can be done, and it’s worth doing. Maybe there are people out there who are struggling and will read this and say, ‘If they can do it, we can do it, too.’”

By TIM WOODWARD

2010 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of the Central Valley CA
Fresno County Department of Public Health

A girl’s march toward early puberty may begin in the arms of her first caregiver, a new study suggests.

Against the backdrop of growing evidence that American girls are beginning pubertal changes at an ever-earlier age, a controversial researcher has found evidence that babies who fail to make a powerful early connection to their first caregiver are more likely to enter puberty early.

In a study published this week in Psychological Science, an international team of psychologists set out to explore how circumstances of early childhood, in combination with evolutionary pressures, may help explain findings that many girls in the United States are beginning the process of sexual maturation as young as 7 years old. They surmised that when parent-and-child bonds are not firmly forged in infancy – a phenomenon called “insecure attachment” – evolutionary pressures could push a girl to mature early, readying her for an earlier departure from the nest.

Both early puberty and poor infant attachment raise concerns. Girls who reach puberty earlier are at higher risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer, and are likely to engage in sexual activity earlier, bringing a higher risk of sexually transmitted disease and early pregnancy. Poorer attachment to a caregiver in infancy is thought to predict a higher risk of anxiety, depression and other psychological problems later in life.

The researchers note that other factors are implicated in the trend of earlier onset of puberty in girls, including better nutrition, higher rates of obesity and possible environmental exposures. They suggest that infant bonding may be one – heretofore unrecognized – influence among many.

The study also breaks down barriers between two very different realms of psychology – attachment theory and evolutionary psychology.

Psychologist Jay Belsky of Birbeck University London, along with researchers from Duke University and the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, tapped into a national trove of health and behavioral data collected on a large group of American-born babies from birth on. At 15 months, the researchers assessed the relationship between 373 baby girls participating in the federally funded “Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development” and their mothers. Separating the babies from their mothers, and then reuniting them, allowed the researchers to gauge whether the babies were “securely attached” or emotionally distant from their mothers. (A securely attached baby typically greeted her mother’s return by smiling, vocalizing and reaching toward her parent; babies who looked away, fail to acknowledge or both advanced to and retreated from their mother upon her return were rated “insecurely attached.”)

Regardless of when their mothers entered puberty – a powerful inherited influence on a female’s sexual maturation – the researchers found that the more insecurely attached to her mother a baby girl was at 15 months, the earlier she would begin pubertal changes and the earlier she would mature sexually. Compared with baby girls who were deemed “securely attached” to their moms, those who demonstrated indifference or avoidance upon their mother’s return were almost 2 1/2 times more likely to begin pubertal changes by 10 1/2 years old and to have pubic hair and breast development and to have begun menstruating by 13 1/2.

Belsky has spurred controversy with studies suggesting that long hours of childcare for infants and young children outside the home may weaken a child’s attachment to his or her primary caregiver – usually Mom – and negatively affect the child’s later behavior at school. The importance of an infant’s attachment to Mom is not widely debated. But debates have long raged over what factors – a child’s temperament, the mother’s employment outside the home, a depressed parent – may contribute to the security of that bond.

“This apparent accelerating of attachment insecurity that we discerned … necessitates a rethinking of the functional significance of the secure and insecure attachments that figure so prominently in the study of human development,” the authors wrote.

In other words, according to the researchers, forging a powerful emotional bond with your baby girl may help to assure more than her emotional health. It might influence her physical health as well.

By MELISSA HEALY

He’s silly. He’s mischievous. He’s imaginative. And he’s on a mission to teach your kids about science. The Cat in the Hat is coming to KVPT, and he will kick off the KVPT Kids fall season on Monday, September 6 at 8 am in THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT THAT!

The original Cat in the Hat book has introduced generations of children to the joys of reading. The television series will encourage children to explore the wonders of science and nature. And could there be a better guide than the Cat in the Hat? (Along with Thing 1, Thing 2, the Fish and the Thingamajigger, of course.)

The show was created in response to recent findings that children graduating from kindergarten are less prepared to learn about science than about other subjects. The series supports young children’s science learning by introducing scientific inquiry skills, teaching core science concepts and vocabulary, and preparing preschoolers for kindergarten and first grade science curriculum — all in whimsical style.

To sum it up: your kids will be having so much fun they won’t even know they are learning. As with many other PBS children’s shows, I have a feeling the journey will be as much fun for parents as it is for kids. If you would like to get started early, visit the companion parents’ site. There you’ll find access to the companion kids’ site as well.

SCHEDULE CHANGES
Elsewhere in KVPT Kids land, it’s that time of year when we make a few tweaks to the kids programming lineup. We’re losing an old favorite in DRAGON TALES. The program is no longer producing new episodes. Another Valley favorite, MAYA AND MIGUEL, is moving to Sunday mornings only. Unfortunately, that series is out of production as well.

You can see the complete KVPT Kids schedule online in the brand new KVPT Kids newsletter. If you would like to stay up to date with special programs and events in our kids’ lineup, subscribe to the newsletter and we’ll deliver it right to your inbox!

In the meantime, please let us know what you think of THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT THAT! And bonus points if you can identify the voice of the Cat (hint: think Saturday Night Live).

Watch a preview: Cat in the Hat

That would be awesome being that the price of sending four to the movies with popcorn, skittles and a drink is a Ben Franklin!