By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

QUINTER — The Gove County Medical Center has introduced a new service to the area in order to promote breastfeeding to new mothers.

The BESTT Lactation Clinic will be open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Tuesday excluding holidays.

“The visit includes free gifts and information with instruction and education on the breastfeeding process,” said Annie Staats, director of nursing. “The goal is to help mothers breastfeed longer increasing the emotional and physical health of mothers and infants.”

With longer nursing, infants hopefully have “a stronger emotional bond, stronger immune system, and fewer clinic visits for respiratory or ear infections,” Staats said.

Mothers may also may enjoy improved health with the extend breastfeeding according to Staats.

We here at Gove County Medical Center are so excited to introduce to the area our BESTT Lactation Clinic. The clinic will be open on Tuesday’s8a-4p except for holidays. The clinic is open to all new mothers an inclusive to mothers who gave birth at Gove County Medical Center. Form mothers who delivered elsewhere the fee is minimal at $35.00.

The Kansas Health Foundation gave $15,198 to fund the clinic and will staff three consultants — Wendy Schmidt, Stephanie Mesh and Jamie Mense.

“The clinic is open to all new mothers an inclusive to mothers who gave birth at Gove County Medical Center. For mothers who delivered elsewhere, the fee is minimal at $35,” Staats said.

K-State Ag Research Center

Bring along your friends and neighbors to attend the Horticulture Night at K-State Ag Research Center  in Hays. It is set for Tuesday, August 25, 2015. The emphasis will focus on the Prairie Star Flower Performance Trials and the Low Water Use Turf Demo Plots. The event will occur near the north main entrance roadway through the Center.

This year, 216 flower cultivars are being evaluated on appearance and adaptability to Kansas’ conditions. The public is invited to stroll down the grassed borders and take note of the varieties. Holly Dickman, Ellis Country Research and Extension Horticulturist, will conduct the outdoor presentation. She will highlight flower varieties that performed well. She will also discuss those which did not do well and offer an explanation as to why.

Jason Riegel, Hays Water Conservation Specialist and Vaughn Sothman of Sharp’s Brothers Seed Company, will lead the discussion for turfgrass portion of the evening.

The demo is in conjunction with the Turf Conversion Program promoted by the City of Hays. This program encourages homeowners in Hays to convert their full-sun exposure lawns currently planted to a cool-season turf to a low-water use turfgrass. The advantages of established warm-season grass are water conservation and less maintenance. Riegel will share his experience with planting warm-season turf as well as managing the Hays Turf Conversion Program. There is one bermudagrass and seven buffalograss varieties for visual comparison.

Property owners and homeowners are encouraged to attend. Questions about flower/vegetable gardening and turfgrass will be addressed but not limited to these topics. Registration begins at 5:30 p.m. with the program starting at 6 p.m. The Research Center is located south of Hays at 1232 240th Avenue. For more information call (785) 625-3425 or check Facebook or Twitter.

By ANDREW ATTERBURY
San Angelo (Texas) Standard-Times

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Warren Taylor considers himself a frustrated art historian.

Visiting London a few months ago, the retired Midland College art professor viewed Rembrandt’s self-portrait from 1669 and became transfixed.

A chill rose up his spine as he gazed upon a work more than 300 years old. It still spoke to him, Taylor said.

“Political and military history comes and goes,” Taylor said. “Great art always stays. That to me speaks volumes.”

Angelo State University is presenting an exhibit of abstract, complex watercolor paintings by Taylor in the Carr Education-Fine Arts Building, 2602 Dena Drive.

The exhibit, titled “Now and Then,” is housed in the EFA Building’s Gallery 193 and is open for free public viewing from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays through Sept. 25.

Taylor first used watercolors as a high school junior in his native Kansas.

His school had a minuscule art budget of $36, Taylor said. He received an amateur paint set and laid down his earliest works on the reverse side of an old sheet of wallpaper.

After high school he graduated from Bethany College in Kansas, then served in the Army Medical Corps in Germany. Taylor taught in Kansas public schools for seven years, earning a Master of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from Fort Hays State University before joining the Midland College studio faculty in 1979.

There, he instructed painting, art history and the occasional drawing course. Taylor retired from Midland College in 2011 and relocated to San Angelo.

“I’ve always loved San Angelo,” Taylor said. “It just spoke to me.”

Many of Taylor’s works contain direct references to historical passages and great paintings of the past in an abstract setting, he said. His intention is for the viewer to examine the work from the surface level all the way to down to what is so deep it’s barely visible, Taylor said.

“To me, that reflects our response to time, to the past and to present realities,” Taylor said.

In 1999, Taylor was named a Piper Distinguished Professor, an award granted yearly to 10 outstanding Texas professors by the Piper Foundation of San Antonio. He was the top award winner of the Arches Paper competition in 1992, an event marking the 500th anniversary of the famed paper company.

Taylor was the only American watercolor painter selected to represent the U.S. in the millennium competition sponsored by Winsor-Newton Company in 2000.

He is a member of the National Watercolor Society, American Watercolor Society and Watercolor USA Honor Society, and has had works displayed in more than 250 exhibitions of American watercolor painting, including in such places as Nanjing, China, the Tokyo National Art Center and St. James Palace in London. Taylor also has juried the Rocky Mountain Aqueous National and exhibitions in Phoenix, Denver, Richmond, Virginia, and Dallas. His works have been purchased for many university, museum and corporate collections.

Story republished with permission