Brook MeadowsBrook Meadows Volume 7, Number 1 www.brookmeadows.org January 2012
The Official Publication of the Brook Meadows Homeowner's Association
It was a Good Thing!Donna Woods, BMHA Landscape Committee Chairperson
It was that time of the year again…time to remove the summer plantings that had been so beautiful even though the weather was so miserably hot and dry. I love plants and spend a considerable amount of time in plant nurseries. After being in this neighborhood for over 20 years, I thought it would be simple to just “pick the plants” for the common areas…It has turned out to be a little more than that with the evolution of Texas weather, but I am having great fun. Here is a little update on landscaping happenings since spring.
You probably wondered why we decided to have a “plant giveaway”. The thought occurred on a sleepless night in the spring. Most of the plants that we planted this year could double as houseplants as well as outside plantings. We thought it would be nice to have a green initiative, that there were homeowners who would love to have some free plants, and last, they had survived the summer challenges beautifully and deserved better than to be thrown into the dump.
I had decided in early spring that we needed to have something different, something spectacular and something that would grab attention. Of course the weather in Texas always presents a challenge. We have to put in the spring plantings early enough so that their roots get established before the hot and dry weather. We are faced with potential
heavy rains and wind in the spring which can beat new and tender plants down followed by the scorching Texas sun from the west in the afternoons that can burn them up. I hit the landscaping books, rode around looking at other neighborhoods, and visited all the nurseries.
Then I happened by the Four Seasons in Las Colinas, and I was struck by the unique beauty of the bronze leafed rubber plants, crotons, sansevieria and begonias which they had planted at their main entrance. Jason (our HOA common area landscaper) and I quickly checked the species out with some experts and found that all but the sansevieria would work. Shortly after, Jason was able to get the plants into the beds, and we were delighted. But not for long! It turns out that wildlife is partial to the east bed on Shady Oaks. In the winter rabbits ate the kale from the east bed, and we had to fight them off with fox urine. Now, with the spring plantings, the east bed had huge tunnels caused by moles which resulted in the crotons being damaged. I know some of you must have thought I was dancing in the east bed several times a week, but I was really stomping down the mole tunnels and replanting plants that the moles had dug up. Then I called Jason and cried for help! Jason quickly went to work to rid the beds of the moles.
After our struggles, the plants survived and looked great so we planned the giveaway.Mic Deakin and Howard Wixon notified the neighborhood of the date and time. We met along with Jason at the entrances on a Saturday morning in November. Brook Meadows residents showed up with pots and dirt and happily took the beautiful plants to their new homes. There was not one rubber plant, croton or rose bush that didn’t find a home that morning. We gave the roses away due to the fact that they were being killed gradually from the chlorine that was leaching from the fountain. Some of the sick roses were taken by one of the master gardeners in our neighborhood for nursing back to help. In place of the roses, we recycled the Japanese sweet flag that we had planted in the east and west Shady Oaks beds in the spring. Another “green contribution”!
The new plant owners were very excited with their acquisitions, and the landscape committee was thrilled to be able to recycle some of our plants to neighbors and reuse others instead of throwing all of them away.
NEWSLETTER INFOPUBLISHER Peel, Inc. ...................... www.PEELinc.com, 512-263-9181 [email protected], 512-263-9181
ADVERTISING INFORMATION Please support the businesses that advertise in the Brook Meadows Community Newsletter. Their advertising dollars make it possible for all Brook Meadows residens to receive the monthly newsletter at no charge. No homeowners association funds are used to produce or mail the newsletters. If you would like to support the newsletter by advertising, please contact our sales office at 1-888-687-66444 or [email protected]. The advertising deadline is the 20th of each month for the following month's newsletter.
2010 - 2011 Board of DirectorsPresident - Mic Deakin ................................ 817-399-9885Vice President - Tom Kader ........................... 817-3544248Treasurer - Roger Poirier ............................... 817-684-0419Secretary - Carol Crosby ............................... 817-267-4018At Large Member - Rich Shcreder ................ 817-545-7753Newsletter Editor
Thanks to Mary Schreder, Rich Schreder and Howard Wixson for gathering all the information and compiling and distributing the new Directory. If for some reason you did not receive yours in late November, please contact [email protected] and let them know.
Meet Your Neighbors WithoutSeeming like a Crazy Person
Just because delivering a Jell-O mold to welcome a newcomer to the block is creepy doesn’t mean you’re destined to live a lonely, anonymous life in your neighborhood. Kit Hodge is the founder of Neighbors Project, a group dedicated to inspiring people to enjoy and improve their neighborhoods. Meeting the neighbors takes a little effort, she says, but there’s no need to resort to wobbly desserts.
SAY “HI”
Hodge calls saying hello “a lost art that needs to be brought back.” Try this: Walk around your neighborhood and actually look at people, not down at the sidewalk or at your iPhone. As you pass someone, make eye contact and smile, nod, or say “Hi.” Afterward, continue walking, and don’t look back. Repeat.
SPRUCE UP YOUR OUTDOOR SPACE, AND SPEND TIME THERE
Hang out on your porch, balcony, or stoop. Put a conversation piece in front of your house: chain your bike there, or plant flowers. If you have a fence, consider taking it down, and if you’re really brave, install a bench in front of your place.
PRACTICE COMMON COURTESIES
Return your neighbors’ mail if it’s delivered to you by mistake (including a nice note wouldn’t hurt). Help strangers who need assistance with large packages, or carrying strollers up and down stairs. Open doors for others.
HANG OUT IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, AND SHOP LOCALLY
Ride your bike in the neighborhood, or take an evening stroll around the block. Patronize local businesses, and if there’s a nearby coffee shop with a bulletin board, use it—not to make friends, but to find resources nearby for things you need (and meet people while you’re at it).
GET INVOLVED WITH YOURNEIGHBORHOOD IN A FORMALIZED WAY
Volunteer locally, join your neighborhood or block association, organize a clean-up day for a litter-strewn area, or even run for local political office. It’s the gold-star option.
The Case of the Stolen Brook Meadows Signs- Signs of the Times -Earlier in the year one of the Brook
Meadows signs at the Green Oaks entrance was stolen and was later found by another association president who had lost their sign, all cut up at a garage sale. A police report was filed at the time and so far nothing has come back to us. Again this week Brook Meadows was hit and the other sign at Green Oaks along with the sign at the roundabout were stolen. No one had noticed that this had happened until I received a call from a recycling company in Arlington yesterday that someone had brought in our sign(s) all cut up for recycle. Their policy on recycling is to take a copy of the person’s drivers license, a picture of their vehicle and license plate. Last night I filed a report with the Colleyville police department and they are now in contact with the company, Scrape Man Recycling in Arlington. I mention the companies name because I wanted to commend them for their actions. When I talked with them, they stated that they do not support criminal actions when it comes to theft of property for the sake of monetary reimbursement. They took the time to piece the sign together and to go on line to find associations named Brook Meadows and from there they went to our web site and found my contact information. It is rare to find such companies these days and I commended them for their integrity.
Display AwardsThe wreaths have been hung, the lights
have been strung and now it’s timefor some praises to be sung!
The lights and decorations are wonderful this year. It made walking around the neighborhood at night a real joy. Thank you to all who decorate to celebrate the season. Be sure to travel the neighborhood and delight in creativity and beauty including this year’s award winning displays listed below.
Diane Kohsmannat 4526 Shadywood Lane
Paul & Sheila Gendronat 4900 Shadycreek Lane
Karen & Mic Deakinat 4828 Lakeside Drive
Brook Meadows has New Residents on
Green OaksDave Dibben and his wife C.J. Boss have
purchased 4704 Green Oaks and after two years of long distance marriage between here and Kansas City, are excited to be together under one Brook Meadows roof. They have adult children and 2 dogs. Dave owns Dibben Contracting which focuses on high-end residential painting. C.J. is VP of Human Resource Operations for GameStop. She is also a member of the Network of Executive Women and due to her passion for golf is on the Board of the Executive Women’s Golf Association. Dave is an avid hunter, especially of big game in Wyoming and Montana. He is on the Board of Directors of the Mule Deer Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving its habitats. The organization has a current goal of opening several new chapters in Texas. Welcome!
Welcome to theMclinden Family
The beginning of September was also the beginning of the McLinden’s residence in Brook Meadows. This dynamic young family comes to us from Minneapolis where Scott was raised. Delia hails from Oklahoma. Scott is the Director of Investment Banking for the Dallas office of Oppenheimer Funds and is an avid sports fan as well as being very interested in politics. Delia is the Sales Director for Farm House Fresh, which is based in Frisco and produces products for upscale hotels, spas, and 5 star resorts. She works out of their home so she can simultaneously care for their 3 year old son Sawyer. Her hobbies are animal rescue, reading, and jogging. Charlie the dog rounds out their family. They both attended TCU and are excited about being back in the area.
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Yoga for Weight Loss?We've all heard the formula for weight loss. Just "burn more
calories than you take in." But if weight loss is so simple, how come so many of us have a hard time with it? If we all know what to do, how come we're not doing it? There are many factors to weight loss, and there's a big gap between knowledge and action. It's a lot more than calories in, calories out. In between the "I know what I should be doing," and "how come I'm not doing that?" is a pause (and sometimes frustration). This 'pause' is where yoga can help.
Being aware of your actions - what you're eating, when you’re eating it and why, are keys to weight loss success. Tuning in to your inner voice and actually hearing your body's signals is difficult. Diets fail a great deal of the time. What if you were able to smooth out your brain waves, so that you could notice the moment of choice?
Yoga for weight loss? Maybe you've thought in the past that only heavy-duty cardio would do the trick, and the pounds would magically melt away. But if you are successful at this heavy-duty huffing and puffing, how come the pounds come back, and the change isn't permanent? It may surprise you to know that a recent study at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that an ongoing yoga practice correlates nicely with a healthy weight - and not only because of the calorie burn. (Excerpts from Natural Health, “The New Weight-Loss Math,” by Hillari Dowdle). Yoga practitioners were found to be "more aware of what they were eating and better able to stop when they were full," characteristics that the study attributes to mindfulness.
In yoga, postures are practiced slowly, which is counter-intuitive to what the mind wants. We want to burn calories, and lose weight this instant, so we think we have to move fast. But, by practicing the postures slowly, we allow our minds to catch up with our bodies. We use the breath to actually feel what our muscles are doing. And this introspection, this reflection, will bring about an awareness. An awareness of choice. "Smoothing out the brain waves and calming down the nervous system give you an opportunity to notice the moment of choice," explains Ashley Turner, M.A. "You get to ask yourself, 'Do I really want to eat more?' Most of us never even encounter that moment," she adds.
Yoga can help you develop that awareness. And, it can also help you remove toxins from your body. New studies indicate that toxins in the body suppress thyroid function, slowing metabolism. "Scientists now believe that the obesity epidemic is going hand in hand with an increase in environmental toxins," says Gaetano Morello, N.D. from British Columbia. And fasting only slows your metabolism and causes more toxins to be released from your fat stores. Yoga can help remove these toxins.
You will get more benefits from yoga than you could ever imagine. And over time, it gets easier and more fun. No, it will not be a quick "fix" overnight. But what if you could develop the awareness to be more mindful of what you were eating, and better able to stop when you were full? These are all characteristics of mindfulness, which is practiced in every yoga class.
Hope to see you in class soon! Submitted by Melinda Jennings
Although exercise should be a part of your daily routine, it’s important to know when your body needs a break, according to an expert at Baylor College of Medicine. It’s not ideal to work out when you’re sick because you're stressing your system out,said Dr. David Green, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at BCM.
The same thing is true after a recent surgery; your body is trying to recover from the surgery. If you still want to stay active, consider using simple things such as arm bands for gentle exercises, but stay away from heavy aerobic exercises, he said. If you're experiencing some joint or muscle pain, it’s your body's way of telling you that you're overdoing it, so you should back off. Try using a heating pad or taking anti-inflammatory medication to help with the pain, said Green.
In general, be sure to have some type of snack about an hour before a workout; do not try to exercise on an empty stomach. If you're over the age of 40 and just starting heavy exercise for the first time, be sure to consult with your physician first. Also consult with a physician if you've had any respiratory, cardiac or joint issues in the past. Look out for hidden calories in holiday drinks.
While many people think twice before taking a second serving of a delicious holiday dessert, they may not do the same when it comes to that holiday beverage. But liquid calories can quickly add up, said a nutrition expert at Baylor College of Medicine.
SOME TIPS TOREMEMBER INCLUDE:
• Combine alcohol with a diet mixer or low-calorie tonic
• Remember to pace yourself and alternate alcoholic beverages with a glass of water or club soda with lime
• When it comes to popular cocoa and coffee drinks, choose non-fat milk, skip the whipped cream
• Pay attention to portions; different beverages are served in different size glasses and cups so be aware of what you are drinking and how many servings you consume at one time. Remember that after drinking alcohol, the desire for salty foods is also enhanced, said Reeves.
HECTIC HOLIDAYS CANRAISE SPIRITS OF A
CHRONICALLY ILL CHILDThe typical craziness of the holiday season
can offer an emotional boost for a chronically ill child. The holidays usually are very hectic, but the benefit of seeing family and friends outweighs the hassles of travel and preparation,said Dr. Ernest Frugé, associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and director of psychosocial programs at Texas Children’s Cancer Center.
It's no different for a child in a chronic illness.Planning ahead is the key to travel success, whether it is allowing for extra breaks on a long road trip or reminding older relatives about childproofing needs. Parents should always consult with their child's physician before the trip, pack all medications in their original prescription containers and bring along a copy of appropriate medical information.
Involving the child in the planning and preparations for trips and gatherings reinforces the importance of reconnecting with family and friends, said Frugé. Keeping children away from the usual holiday traditions because they have been ill would separate them from what is a normal experience for the family, he said.
GET THROUGH MENOPAUSEBY REEVALUATING YOUR
HEALTH CARE NEEDSMenopause is called "the change" for a
reason. As hormone levels begin to change, so do health concerns, such as osteoporosis, said experts at Baylor College of Medicine. Decreasing estrogen levels can affect bone mass, making a woman more susceptible to osteoporosis, said Dr. Elizabeth Nelson, associate professor of medicine and director of the Women's Center for Comprehensive Care at BCM. Osteoporosis is a condition that can develop if bone is not replaced as quickly as it is worn away, leaving behind porous or weak bones.
Many factors can affect this condition such as heredity, age and nutritional intake. Modify your risk factors by limiting alcohol intake and not smoking, which can increase bone loss by 10 percent. Exercising three times a week and increasing calcium and vitamin D intake can also improve bone health. However, since each woman’s health care needs differ as they enter menopause, it is important to talk to a doctor to be sure what course of action will be the most beneficial. Screening for osteoporosis should begin at age 65, but many times women will have a screening done at age 50 to use a baseline for future tests.
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