Taking care of you while taking care of your garden

By JANETTA FOX news@breezenewspapers

com

During the most recent UF/IFAS Extension Florida

M a s t e r G a r d e n e r V o l u n t e e r T r a i n i n g C o n f e r e n c e

Madeline Hooper and fitness trainer Jeff Hughes, the hosts of the PBS series GardenFit, offered a number of useful and safe approaches to staying healthy and aligned Following are a few of the highlights from both that presentation and their television program

Garden Club Of Cape Coral

We know how important having the right gardening tools in the right condition are to ensuring landscape plants receive the proper care they need to survive and thrive All too often, though, it seems w e n e g l e c t t h e m o s t important tool of all ourselves We tend to dig into our outdoor chores giving little attention to preparing ourselves for the day’s activities The result: our bodies remain out of balance, resulting in a mixed bag of aches and pains

What can we do about this situation? Rather than proceeding full speed ahead begin by scanning your posture and stance and paying attention to body positioning when preparing to work in the garden Take note of what may be keeping you out of balance and take steps toward correction Some suggestions include feet grounded a distance apart rather than close together, upper torso lifted and shoulders squared for good posture and positioning Keeping grounded and mindfully aware of your posture is an important first step toward alignment

Have you considered mixing it up when gardening? If you have a few items to tend to in your lands c a p e s u c h a s w e e d i n g p r u n i n g t r i m m i n g a n d mulching rather than focusing all your effort on one task before moving on to the next item on your list, consider trading out activities to lessen wear and tear on your body

For example rather than spending your entire morning weeding by hand or laying mulch which could cause considerable lower back strain change to another activity after a half hour or so You could reach up to prune a tree for a short while, again keeping your feet firmly planted, and then move on to pruning bushes before returning to weeding Rather than standing with your feet together when tending to bushes try placing one foot in front of the other with the front knee slight-

See TAKING CARE OF YOU page 11B

Concert at Rack’em Spirits & Times to feature four up-and-coming bands

By CJ HADDAD cjhaddad@breezenewspapers com

The live music scene and youth movement across Southwest Florida is a growing one, and next weekend, one local venue will feature a several bands looking to make their mark

On Feb 17 starting at 8 p m , Rack'em Spirits & Times serves as the venue for up-and-coming groups Red Letter Day Offset Era Social Infants and Rath & The Wise Guys

Red Letter Day is making its first appearance in Cape Coral and hails from Gainesville; Rath & The Wise Guys is a band formed in Tampa and Offset Era and Social Infants are local to Southwest Florida Rack'em has always tried to support original music coming through the area,” said owner Andrew Gray Red Letter Day serves as the headliner and will feature s o n g s f r o m i t s n e w l y - r e l e a s e d E P “ I t E n d s U p I n

Everything” highlighted by single “King John ” The group was formed at the University of Florida last year where lead guitarist Sam Reasor, rhythm guitarist (and vocals) Kyle Wampler and vocalist Eduardo Giralt studied The group had an additional member that is no longer with the group and has recently added drummer Daniel Klohr and Sam Graf on bass

“Most of our shows are in and around Gainesville but we like to branch out and reach other audiences ” Reasor said We ve been playing in Orlando and have performed at shows in Tampa and Sarasota

The other bands we have on our lineup have played local to Cape Coral before so we're excited to be able to play there ”

R e d L e t t e r D a y d r a w s i n s p i r a t i o n f r o m a punk/emo/post-hardcore style Giralt wrote the six songs on the EP over the course of a year, brought them to the band and crafted their vision together Reasor and other members of the band have also written tracks that have been released by the group

“We all are really obsessed with music and we all tend to have a completed idea of what something is in our head, and we'll bring that to practice, Giralt said We bounce around ideas for transitions and intros and different things like that ”

Giralt said his vocal stylings and inspirations come

See CONCERT, page 6B