Worcestershire: Archers Country?

Feature on The Archers written for the February 2011 issue of
Worcestershire NOW magazine.

Classics in Modern Design Part 1

Top 20 Modern Design Classics in Miniature feature, written for the February 2011 issue of Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine.

Life-sized driftwood art

Think recycling and crushed cans, paper pulp and bottle banks come to mind, but artist Heather Jansch is turning that idea on its head with the most beautiful recycling projects you’ll ever see....

Read the full story at http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/art/news-driftwood-reincarnated-life-size-art

Image used with kind permission of artist Heather Jansch. http://www.heatherjansch.com/

Interview: Audrey Niffenegger on Highgate Cemetery

Best-selling writer Audrey Niffenegger has joined the ranks of the famous and infamous faces at London’s Highgate Cemetery.

The author of The Time Traveller’s Wife isn’t interred there, but was put to service as a guide there as part of research for her latest novel Her Fearful Symmetry. The book is a ghost story based around the Victorian cemetery, as Audrey explains…

See the full story at

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/celebrities/news-audrey-niffenegger-best-selling-author-joins-famous-faces-highgate-cemetery

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alohaorangeneko/3334016711/

Dance your IQ up

Recent studies have shown that dancing can actually make you smarter by keeping certain parts of the brain active. And the more dancing you do, the better it is for your IQ.

A major study into conditions that affect mental activity shows that dancing is the best physical activity to keep your brain in tip top condition and reduce the risks of dementia.

The Bronx Aging Study tested activities that stimulate the mind, like reading and doing crosswords, and ones that stimulate the body, like dancing and swimming, on people aged 75 and over.

Dancing came out as the only physical activity that had a positive impact and as the most beneficial of all activities studied, with a staggering 76% reduction in the risk of dementia for regular dancers.

Because dance requires use of both the short term memory to learn new steps and the long term memory to recall existing steps, it helps to keep the brain working. Added to this is the ability to improvise on those steps and to problem solve whilst dancing and the result is an activity which can improve mental acuity and offer physical fitness.

Dr Joe Verghese, of New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, conducted the Bronx Aging Study which looked at the benefits of mentally and physically stimulating activities. He said: “This was a community based aging study that enrolled nearly 500 adults ages 75 to 85 years residing in the Bronx.

“In this sample, dancing was the only physical activity among the 11 that we examined that was associated with reduced risk of dementia.”

Dr Verghese added: “The precise mechanisms for this effect are not known, but dancing involves mental and physical effort as well as socialisation, all these mechanisms have been reported to reduce dementia risk.”

[For Slimdance]

New born or Reborn?

This little cutie would scoop first prize in any Beautiful Baby Contest. With her blonde hair and delicate features she and her brothers and sisters are the apples of their mother’s eye.

Unlike other babies, AmyLouise isn’t made of sugar and spice and all things nice. She’s crafted with vinyl, coloured mohair and paint by British reborn artist Deborah King...

...for the full story see http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/art/news-new-born-or-reborn

With thanks to Deborah King of www.reborn-baby.com

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