December Birth Flower:
December Birth Stone:
Local Group News:
The Christmas Elves are working morning, noon and night to get the December Newsletter finished in time and ready for posting. So please keep an eye out for it.
Cannacares CBD products.
In the last Blog I did say that would be it for a couple of months. But there were more posts this month that were worth sharing with everyone.
Eileen Sangye Longworth.
I came to the conclusion that the patches are not worth the expense for me. The effect is negligible on my level of pain. The cream is better, i find that works on specific areas such as knee pain under patella, or thumb joints, and wrists. The drops, despite supposedly being chocolate flavour are absolutely awful tasting. They do smell of chocolate, but no, not for me.
Gill Korszanski.
I have been using for a few weeks now but had a break as they took a very long time to come the last time I ordered. I am using the patches and find they have had little or no effect in reducing pain levels. It seems that I do sleep slightly better and any betterment in sleep is good. Expensive “slightly better” nights sleep on a daily basis. I am still considering if I should use them permanently.
John Bell.
I’ve found the patches useful when things are a bit rough. Don’t use them every day and when I do use them I only apply for 2 days (48hrs max) don’t want to loose the benefit from them. Doubled up the patches to 20mg and that helped me through a really rough patch.
Gill Korszanski.
What benefit do the patches give you, pain , sleep, mood?.
John Bell.
Gill Korszanski when it’s bad it eases the pain but also my mood as I become restless and impatient with pain. It also aids sleeping in those times as well.
Gill Korszanski.
John Bell so do you think the patches are better than the cream?
John Bell.
Gill Korszanski to me yes the patches are a better all round option. But it varies wildly between us all.
Christmas Cards.
Our very own Nancy Wilson raised a question many of us may not even have thought about.
” Hello everyone, I’m wondering what everyone is doing about Christmas Cards, whether to send them or not? Some of the people I send cards to are elderly or have health proplems. My worry is, there is a risk by sending them a card. I never lick envelopes or stamps these days but with all the people handling them and delivery may be a risk to them. It’s a hard time and Christmas cards maybe the only way to let people know that we care about them. I would be grateful for your thoughts and comments on the matter.”
Now this did raise some debate among the group and there were plenty of replies on the subject. Head over to our group page to read more.
Members Posts / Local Discussions:
Samantha Fitzsimons Borrows.
In this painting Samantha’s subject was long sleeves. This picture was painted using acrylics.
Paul Thompson.
Another cracking picture created by Paul using silk paints.
JUNE RANDELL.
REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY – POPPIES ON REFLECTION. A silk painting composition by June from some years ago.
SELINA LAURIE.
Knitting for the Herring Project at The Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther. Click link below for further information.
The Scottish Fisheries – Herring Project
MICHELLE McEWEN.
The trials and tribulations of being a crafter. Super Gluing Christmas Ornaments onto yourself.
MARY MURDOCH.
One of her many online Jigsaws completed this month.
JOHN BELL.
Getting into the Christmas spirit making cards.
Eileen Sangye Longworth.
Sashiko originated about 400 years ago as a means of keeping warm and preserving clothing. In rural, northern Japan, winters were harsh and many people were extremely poor. They relied on producing their own clothing from hemp (cotton was prohibitively expensive for everyday garments) and were restricted from wearing certain colours, so used indigo dye as it was easily grown and was thought to protect against insects.
Putting two or more layers of cloth together and sewing with running stitch creates small pockets of air in the clothing, which trap warmth. Many beautiful, geometric patterns were stitched in undyed thread to create the classic ‘cream on blue’ look we associate with sashiko today. As well as being beautiful, this was also very practical as women would often stitch sashiko on dark evenings and the contrast meant they could see what they were doing!
Since an item of clothing sometimes had to last for three generations, dense stitching helped preserve the fabric, as well as providing a means of repairing with patches.
Sashiko fell out of favour in the 20th century as Japanese people began to wear Western clothes and did not want to be reminded of how poor their families once were. However, recent years have seen a revival of interest as people around the world have seen sashiko on the internet and want to have a go! In Japan, sashiko has also become more popular as a craft hobby. Interestingly, people in the West tend to want their sashiko to look ‘traditional’ and usually choose cream thread and indigo fabric, whereas in Japan this looks a bit ‘old fashioned’, so different coloured fabrics and threads are becoming more popular
I have been a member of The Embroiderers Guild for some years, but I’ve stitched from primary school time, being taught by mum and grandma Unfortunately this year our local branch of the EG has folded because of the restrictions surrounding Covid19.
With 2020 being such a difficult and traumatic year for a lot of people I put a post up earlier in the month asking for some photos of what has made this year bearable from pets, your garden or places you’ve been to in the past. I’ve got to say you all jumped in and posted some cracking photos. ( I’m not going to name the photos to respect peoples privacy)
As you will have seen , a lot of members have pets. From some of the comments it can be seen that we treasure the time we spend with our pets and how they help us during the difficult times.
Dates For Your Diary:
Meetings – All physical meetings are cancelled until further notice due to Covid-19. In the meantime we are holding virtual meetings to members of the Network and our Facebook page every Thursday for about an hour from 2pm using Zoom Meetings. Zoom is available by app for smart phones and tablets, and in your browser or by app on PCs, laptops and Macs. We find it works best on PC, laptop or Mac, followed by tablet, as there’s more screen space to see all participants. The Zoom link and password is available on our Facebook page or you can get it by emailing admin@dgmefm.org.uk
The meetings have proved popular and it’s wonderful to see members from further outside the Dumfries and Castle Douglas areas who we’ve not had the chance to ‘meet’ before. We now have the ability to continue with them after the pandemic is over. Come along and say hello, bring your questions, your concerns, cheer and banter.
See Upcoming Events for details of meetings with discussion themes or guests.
When we return to our monthly meetings in Dumfries, click here for our video on how to access the new venue: the meeting room at Turning Point Scotland, 22 Newall Terrace, Dumfries.
Articles / Blogs:
Dr. Mark Van Ness, “Expanding Physical Capability in ME/CFS” Part 1 (of 2)
Trial By Error: The British Association for CFS/ME Switches Gears
I had long Covid – but not everyone gets time to recover
Trial By Error: No Links Between “Parental Separation” and Kids’ ME Severity
BENIGN PAROXYSMAL POSITIONAL VERTIGO (BPPV)
Find funding Help with making your home more efficient, cheaper to heat and warmer
New Cannabis Studies Suggest Help with Pain and Sleep in Fibromyalgia
NICE Press Statement & Media Coverage of New Clinical Guideline on ME/CFS
Could this actually be happening?
The new NICE guideline – a summary and discussion of the draft
Montreal researchers develop new test to diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome
This Week in Virology – youtube video
NICE reverses advice on exercise therapy for treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome in draft guidance
GET This! NICE Pulls the Plug on Graded Exercise Therapy and CBT as Treatments for ME/CFS
Jonathan Hawkins: COVID-19 and chronic fatigue syndrome
NICE & the necessity of collaboration
Proposed British guidelines reject useless chronic fatigue syndrome treatments
Whoops! Did a GET Study Just Explain Why It DOESN’T Work in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)?
Long covid sufferer reveals her battle with months of fatigue
Join us to help create the world’s biggest study of the causes of ME/CFS
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Well as we come to the end of a very difficult and strange year that will go down in history, we must hope that 2021 brings calm and some normality back into all our lives.
The rush to create a vaccination seems to be on the way to being approved. The next difficult stage will be to roll it out to the vulnerable and at risk population as quickly as possible.
Lets hope 2021 has a more positive start.
I would like to wish all members and their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all on the committee.
If you would like to contribute or comment on anything relating to the blog or group, please get in touch.
admin@dgmefm.org.uk john@dgmefm.org.uk
Hi John as always your blog is colourful and inspiring , with all the lovely craft project and the Christmas babbles etc . It always reminds me to go to ur website page and catch up on any relevant bits I may missed . Thank you very much for all your hard work and thank you for the mention of my post , I was a bit worried about sending cards ,but the consensus was it is ok to send cards . Now if only the stamps would come from Royal Mail . xx???