If the sights and smells of your own neighborhood aren’t enough for you, there are some events worth checking out in Duxbury this week. On Friday, May 17, and Saturday, May 18, the Garden Club of Duxbury is holding a gardening contest open to all Plymouth County residents at the Duxbury Senior Center. Just bring a single stem of flowers from your perennial or bulb plantings, or from a shrub or tree in your yard. The contest is also open to houseplants, as long as they’re no more than 14 inches in diameter.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will also feature floral designs with a circus theme—“Under the Big Top,” and it should be worth checking out even if you aren’t a big gardener yourself. There will be exhibits from the Island Creek Oyster Foundation, Bee Keepers, Sustainable Duxbury, Junior Gardeners and the Duxbury Beach Preservation Society.

The Garden Club is also offering to help identify unknown plantings, so if there’s a flower that’s been popping up in your yard every spring that you just can’t place, bring it on in and satisfy your curiosity.

On Saturday, the Garden Club is also holding a plant sale at the Senior Center from 9 a.m. to noon. So, if your garden isn’t quite as exciting as you’d like so far, pick a few things up. Proceeds benefit public plantings on traffic islands and scholarships for local students. Gardeners are also invited to bring plants to donate or swap.

Check out the Garden Club’s website for more information on the flower show, and for information about other club activities.

Many people lose some faculties that allow for safe driving as they age, whether it’s being able to see and hear well, to react quickly or to maintain focus on the road. If that’s happening to someone you know, it’s important to take action. In some cases, the problems that affect driving may be signs of an illness or condition that can be treated. Other times, it’s just necessary to stop them from driving before someone gets hurt.

Of course, this doesn’t apply to all older drivers, and in some cases it may be relevant to people who are way under 65. Statistically, though, the elderly are quite likely to suffer from problems that make driving unwise.

So, what can you do if it’s your friend, or parent or spouse, that needs to stop driving? First, of course, talk with them about your concerns. You may be able to help them figure out how they could accomplish their weekly routines car free. For example, a home care aide may be able to handle grocery shopping or give them a lift to the doctor’s office or senior center.

If they are resistant to the idea of going car-free, you might want to talk with their doctor. In Massachusetts, family members or doctors can also request a reexamination from the Registry of Motor Vehicles to evaluate a driver’s skills.  In some cases, the RMV may revoke a license or add restrictions like limiting driving to daytime hours.

In any case, if the driving abilities of someone you know are making you worried, it’s a good idea to say something. It’s not an easy topic to bring up, but if it can prevent accidents like the one in Plymouth, it’s certainly worth it.

Fortunately, those volunteers have spent decades building some institutions that can be an amazing help to people who are newly dealing with cancer. One of the most significant examples is the Relay for Life events that happen all over the country in the summer.

Cancer survivors, family members and friends form teams to raise money and awareness for the cause, helping to pay for treatment, research and education. They hold fundraisers in the months leading up to the event and then, over a June weekend, they take turns walking around a track overnight. The events include special ceremonies honoring cancer survivors and caregivers.

In Massachusetts alone, there are more than 100 Relays for Life, including events in Plymouth, Pembroke, Quincy and New Bedford. Check this list for one close to you.

People who want to take part in their local event can find a team to join, or form one of their own. Many people create teams to honor a particular family member or friend, and in other cases groups of coworkers or friends come together as a team simply to help the cause.

Some teams hold yard sales or other fundraisers, and others seek donations through social media sites. Organizers of local relays also hold meetings to help everyone get organized for the big event. The day of the relay itself is a festive occasion, with team campsites, participants in costumes and families and friends enjoying the chance to catch up, and to remember lost loved ones.

And if there’s any way to make facing cancer feel less lonely, that kind of event is it.

But when it comes to improving your health, where should you start: diet or exercise? A new study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine suggests the answer is both.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that, for people with poor diets and little physical activity, introducing changes on both fronts at once helped more than starting with one side of the equation and adding the other in later.

In the study, 200 people ages 45 and over with busy lifestyles were challenged to exercise for 150 minutes per week, eat five to nine servings of fruit and vegetables daily and keep saturated fats to 10 percent or less of their total calories. The study asked one group of participants to start on fixing their eating habits first, and it found they did a good job at that goal. But, when that group was asked to add in exercise a few months later, they didn’t do as well.

Another group started with exercise, adding in the dietary guidelines later, and did quite well with both goals. The most successful group, though, was the one that began with both pieces at once.

“It may be particularly useful to start both at the same time,” said the study’s lead author, Abby King. “If you need to start with one, consider starting with physical activity first.”

Of course the question that might occur to you here is, how did any of these busy people manage to make these changes in their lives at all? The answer is that health educators called them on a regular basis to give them advice and encouragement.

Most of us don’t get the chance to be part of this kind of study, but we can take a page from this approach. Asking a friend, a family member or your home health care aide to remind you and encourage you about your health goals on a regular basis may be a good way to shift your lifestyle into healthier territory.

After the bombs went off yesterday, Facebook pages filled up with confusion about what had happened, prayers for the victims of the attack and messages celebrating the news that loved ones were safe. As information continues to seep in from old and new media, it can be hard to look away, but the endless barrage of horrible images can also be hard to take.

At the Boston Globe, pediatrician and parenting blogger Dr. Claire McCarthy suggests some ways for parents to help their children process the news. Really, much of the advice is helpful for adults without kids as well. She suggests turning off the television and getting news from less visual sources, focusing on the people who immediately reached out to help the victims, and finding ways that we can help, perhaps by donating to the Red Cross. She also suggests talking to children about what happened, and it’s not a bad idea for grown-ups who feel overwhelmed by the news coverage to talk with each other as well, whether that means calling a friend or sharing your feelings with your home health care aide.

While there is much that is horrible to talk about, many positive stories are coming out of the tragedy. People jumped fences to offer first aid to the injured moments after the explosions. Strangers shared jackets to help others keep warm. Local residents opened their homes to runners stranded in Boston after flights were cancelled. So many people lined up to give blood that the Red Cross had to turn people away.

In the coming days, the focus of the news will turn to the investigation of who is responsible for this crime. Of course, we all want to understand how something like this could have happened. But it will be worthwhile for all of us to take some time away from that story to remember the other story, about people helping each other.

But some studies say that’s exactly the wrong thing to do. In her Boston Globe column, Deborah Kotz says there’s good evidence that paying attention to physical and mental sensations—even unpleasant ones—can have positive results.

She’s talking about mindfulness therapy, a concept rooted in Buddhist thought and tested with modern scientific studies. The idea is to focus on exactly what is happening in the moment rather than dwelling on past events or planning for future ones.

Therapy based on this concept can be as effective as medication for preventing relapses of depression. Even more impressive in some ways, there’s evidence it can also help address pain we don’t usually think of as mental.

Kotz quotes one patient from Jamaica Plain who gave up running because of persistent back pain and, 10 years later, began using mindfulness techniques to “be present with the pain instead of clenching against it.” Over two months, he went from painful 200-yard jobs to running five miles without pain.

Kotz provides a list of Massachusetts mindfulness resources on her blog, but the core concept is so simple that it’s possible to adopt some helpful techniques without any specialized training. For example, while walking out to the mailbox, be aware of the breeze against your skin and the feeling of your feet striking the walkway. The idea is to experience what’s happening in your body and mind without judging whether it’s good or bad. Many of us already do this, without thinking of it as mindfulness, by stopping to savor a cup of coffee, watching the steam rise and feeling the heat of the cup.

To practice mindfulness throughout your day, you could ask a friend, or your home health care aide, to remind you to stop and focus on the present moment every now and then. Or, you could get a smartphone app that serves the same purpose. The Mindfulness Bell plays a tone occasionally throughout the day as a gentle cue to consider what you’re doing and your state of mind.

Whether that appeals to you or not, it’s interesting to consider that distracting yourself from pain may not be the best way to make it go away.

To make the most of a visit to the doctor, it’s a good idea to plan for it in advance. At the website for Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Primary Care Services director Doctor Mario Dominguez offers some good advice for how to do that.

Dominguez said one problem is that some patients come into an annual visit with a long list of concerns, making it hard to address everything properly. To avoid that situation, he said, it’s better to see your doctor as the concerns arise. That way he can consider just one issue at a time—plus, it prevents problems from growing in the months before your next scheduled visit.

On the other hand, Dominguez said, some of his patients have the opposite problem. Instead of talking about too many concerns at once, they clam up about symptoms or don’t provide the full story. One important piece of information is any prescriptions and supplements you’re taking. Because appointments can be stressful, it’s not a bad idea to make some notes ahead of time showing both the medications you’re using and any key problems you want to discuss. A home health care aide or private duty nurse can help with this.

Then, at the appointment, make some more notes—and make sure you ask your doctor to repeat any instructions that you’re not sure you’ve understood. Even better, repeat them back to him so he can make sure you’ve got them exactly right.

After all, while doctors are busy people, you’re busy too. Make sure your appointment is a good use of time for both of you.

The County Health Rankings & Roadmap, released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, puts Norfolk County in third place in the state, after Dukes and Middlesex. That’s based on a variety of measures of personal health, including early mortality, smoking and obesity, as well as social and economic factors like poverty, the ability to access medical care and environmental matters like drinking water safety.

Among the state’s 14 counties, Plymouth places 10^th, while Bristol is 12^th. Still, Bristol ranks in the top 10 percent of counties nationwide for its motor vehicle crash death rate, access to recreational facilities and mammography and diabetic screenings. Like the state as a whole, it also ranks far higher than the nation at large in health insurance coverage.

One area in which Bristol County, and Plymouth as well, did less well is the availability of primary care physicians and dentists. On both measures, the two counties scored below the Massachusetts average and below the top ten percent mark for the nation as a whole. That suggests that people on the South Shore may sometimes have trouble getting doctors’ and dentist appointments when they need them.

Fortunately, there are ways of filling that gap, including private duty nursing, which lets patients get the care they need without waiting around for an appointment with a doctor. Private nurses can help with regular tests, medication, wound care and other support. Like home health care and other services offered at Independence Home Health Care, it’s a question of both personalized care and convenience.

So there are two reasons for South Shore residents who are part of the Independence Home Health Care family to be pleased with their situation when it comes to health. They’re in a region that generally gets good marks for residents’ ability to stay health, and they can count on extra support when they need it.

Whether you’re a lifelong vegetable grower or you struggle to keep a few perennials alive each year, now is the time to get excited about the spring growing season. And if you’ve never gardened before, there are good reasons to give it a try.

For one thing, any activity that gets us moving has loads of health benefits. Even if you can’t—or don’t want to—spend hours digging and hoeing, a little light weeding can get you on your feet and away from the couch, and that helps your health all by itself. People with limited mobility, or limbs that protest against kneeling on the ground, can have their own garden with the help of a raised bed since they can be built to any height.

Even if you live in an apartment, there’s no reason you can’t have a few basil plants growing in the window, or tomatoes planted in buckets on the balcony. Or you might be able to get a spot in a local community garden like the ones in Attleboro and Duxbury. Besides letting you grow some great vegetables and flowers, community gardens offer a way to meet neighbors and pick the brains of other gardeners.

If the notion of gardening seems intimidating, you might start out by connecting up with one of the many gardening clubs on the South Shore. These groups tend to be full of knowledgeable, friendly people who can help you with anything from figuring out when to start seeds indoors to fighting off a nasty beetle infestation.

And, remember, aside from all the other benefits, one of the great things about starting a garden is that you can spend rainy March days paging through seed catalogs or gardening websites and dreaming about August.

The coming spring weather and the start of daylight savings time may give some of us a reason to get out and move. But if you need more convincing, check out Boston Globe writer Deborah Kotz’s collection of some intriguing findings about the relationship between exercise and brain functions.

Kotz starts out by explaining a recent analysis that found kids and young adults could boost their concentration with a 10 to 40 minute burst of exercise. If you’ve got any sort of test, job interview or brain-taxing event coming up, this might convince you to take a brisk walk or do a few jumping jacks before getting to the task at hand.

For more long-term results, Kotz points to previous studies that found regular sustained, moderate exercise can ward off depression and help prevent memory loss. That means things like walking the dog, gardening or just spending an hour or two cooking and cleaning can help keep your mind working at its best.

If you’re less interested in those kind of routine ways of moving, there’s great news for you too. Getting out of your comfort zone and learning a new sport or dance style may improve concentration even better than sticking to a familiar workout, according to another study Kotz mentions. Making your body learn to do new things puts some stress on your brain and helps with growth, just like lots of valuable exercises put stress on your muscles to help you get stronger.

Whatever your personal interests, if you haven’t been exercising lately you might want to ask your home health care aide, or your doctor, for suggestions about ways to move that will work for you. But the good news is, whatever you get out there and do, there are studies to show it will probably help your brain as well as your body.