“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
~ Lauren DeStefano
Gladly shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& fall fanatic!)
Author Archive: Betty Hanselman
IN HONOR OF VETERAN’S DAY. . . .
James and I recently attended the annual fundraising banquet for the nonprofit For the Love of a Veteran. We had the distinct privilege of meeting Christine Waltz, the warm-hearted founder of this organization which provides help and hope in the form of Stellate Ganglion Blocks (SGB) for veterans and active-duty military personnel suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI).
Dr. Sean Mulvaney, a leading researcher and provider of SGB procedures for military personnel, was the keynote speaker at the banquet. He is also a friend of our daughter, Carol Bender, and Joy Wellness Partners, her regenerative clinic in San Diego, where clients sponsored by For the Love of a Veteran can receive SGBs. As the remote client care coordinator for Carol’s clinic, I was happy to be seated next to Dr. Mulvaney and his wife, Laura. I was grateful for the opportunity to talk with him about his research and ask questions on behalf of JWP’s many SGB clients.
James and I were impressed with the testimonies we heard of the benefits of the SGB and the efforts of For the Love of a Veteran to bring healing and relief to active and retired military personnel suffering from PTSI.
Gladly shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& grateful partner of For the Love of a Veteran)
Please check out these links to find out more about the SGB procedure and the work of this worthy organization.
The photo shows (left to right) Dr. Sean Mulvaney, Christine Waltz (For the Love of a Veteran), Betty Hanselman and James Hanselman.
FALLING WATER
The splash and play of water cascading over rock is exhilarating and refreshing, no matter where you find it–along a woodland trail, or in your own private garden!
This year, before the snow flies, why not go looking for some falling water of your own?
(Photos: Falling water in Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire, and in private gardens throughout Central Pennsylvania)
Joyfully shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& falling water fan!)
JAPANESE MAPLE
Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.
Breath growing short
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain:
Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see
So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls
On that small tree
And saturates your brick back garden walls,
So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls?
Ever more lavish as the dusk descends
This glistening illuminates the air.
It never ends.
Whenever the rain comes it will be there,
Beyond my time, but now I take my share.
My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new.
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.
What I must do
Is live to see that. That will end the game
For me, though life continues all the same:
Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes,
A final flood of colors will live on
As my mind dies,
Burned by my vision of a world that shone
So brightly at the last, and then was gone.
~ Clive James (Australian essayist and journalist, written in 2016 during the final stages of his fight with terminal cancer)
Shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& mindful of the fleeting beauty of this life)
AUTUMN…
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
~ Albert Camus (French-Algerian philosopher and author; 1913-1960)
I sent this photo to my Southern California co-workers last week. My manager’s response was fun: “Is that in your garden? Real moss and real leaves?” I can’t blame her for asking; the colors in Pennsylvania this autumn are stunning beyond belief!
Joyfully shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& fall fanatic)
OCTOBER GLORY!
“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings as now in October.”
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne (American author; 1804-1864)
Joyfully shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& autumn enthusiast!)
Autumn glory splashes across Japanese and Native Red Maples in a Central Pennsylvania woodland garden.
