I used my tiny espresso cups for this shot. I am not a big tea fan. I much prefer coffee but I do love cinnamon tea and especially peppermint tea when I have a tummy ache or feel fat! It is so soothing and they say the peppermint prevents bloating.

An unforgettable sunrise, but all the more special are our dogs.

Millie in the distance nearly died 2 weeks ago (17 Dec 2019) with gastric volvulus, emergency laparotomy ( and gastroplexy) saved her life, but she has had further admissions with aspiration pneumonia. Not yet out of the woods but recovering well and back home.

Owners with deep chested dogs (as are vizslas and boxers) should read up about the risks of "bloating" and how to minimise this. There is a 40-60% mortality, even with surgery within 2-3 hours, approaching 100% if delayed.

If you have one of the deep chested breeds, the risks can be mitigated and it is well worth familiarising yourself with the symptoms !!!

Where is all this sainfoin coming from? Sainfoin is a hay crop that has many benefits for cattle farmers, especially that it is non-bloating.

Just a couple of years ago, Alberta and British Columbia set up a dozen test sites of 10 acres each, including up here in the Peace River Region.

The experts actually recommend a seed mixture of sainfoin, alfalfa and grass.

Until a couple of years ago, I had never even heard of or seen sainfoin. Now, it seems to be growing wild along the roadsides and definitely has a foot hold. I'm not sure who started to grow it up here or how it spread into the wild but the bees love it and the flowers are really pretty.

Hey ladies! Peppermint tea is the perfect cure for bloating issues. Drink a cup a day and after several days, that belly will be noticeably flatter! (Maybe it will work on guys, too!)

This non-native plant is both a striking wildflower and an important part of agricultural practice. The flower itself is a compound affair, with multiple units growing off a common short stem. The name ‘birdsfoot’ refers to the seed pods that grow behind the flower later in the season, and which resemble bird’s feet when clustered on the common stem. The ‘trefoil’ part of the name refers to the fact that three flowers are on each side of the short stem.

This flower shows part of what I find striking about them: a brilliant red flower bud morphs into an equally brilliant yellow flower. These are best photographed in early morning light or half-light, as here (you can see the dew still on the flower) thanks to the brilliance of the yellow.

It contributes to the work of farming in a few ways that are distinctive and unique. The plant is a legume - it produces seeds in pods that develop behind the flower. The roots of the trefoil host a bacteria that generates and attracts nitrogen, thus making this a self-fertilizing plant. As well, it reduces bloating in livestock, and reduces gas emissions. It is rich in protein, and so an environmentally effective way to feed farm animals in hay or pasture.

I worked on a farm in my late teens, and the sight of fields of trefoil at a certain point in the flowering stage is something I will never forget. This was an isolated wild plant growing along an overgrown field and its fence line, and it still seemed striking.

I cannot wait for the summer.

It was fun to read that most of you associated his open mouth with food but I have to disappoint you... the tree frog was changing skin!

Like some other reptiles tree frogs change skin, something I didn't know either. An interesting event of nature to witness.

In this image he's bloating to loosen the skin from his body. Remarkable to see this little fellow behaving other than lying totally still in the sun!

It was well past the bewitching hour now and fast approaching 3AM! The core is now almost directly overhead and so I decided to construct one last image, now the clouds had almost cleared, which would have to be a Vertirama for obvious reasons. Now I didn’t realise it at the time but after taking three tracked two minutes frames I then took the bottom frame untracked for my foreground but forgot to take one final tracked frame also, so you may notice some trailing beneath the clouds in the bottom part of the sky due to me being extremely fatigued not thinking straight and needing my bed! The high cloud you can see acted like a filter bloating and accentuating the colours of the star Shaula in the constellation Scorpius, the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud M24 is now clearly visible too left of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas.

EXIF

Nikon Z6ii 1.8S 20mm

4frames @ f/2 120s ISO640

Luxury feeling 😊

Enjoying a beautiful morning with my best friend ever and knowing that we can eat and have a good stressfree meal is so important.

I find being aware of how our bodies work extremely interesting.

"If you think about it, we’ve always intuitively known that our brain and our gut were somehow connected – you only have to think about the butterflies you experience when you’re nervous or excited or the sudden dash to the bathroom that you might need to make before a big exam or a performance you’re feeling anxious about. Not to mention the common phrase “go with your gut” when it comes to decision-making. But are gut feelings actually real?

Well, science tells us that our brain, our gut, and our gut microbiome (the community of gut bugs living in our intestine) communicate with each other via the ‘microbiota-gut-brain axis’. This connection allows bi-directional communication, which means your gut talks to your brain and your brain talks to your gut. This all happens through their own biochemical language – messages sent via hormones, nerves and other signalling molecules. Doesn’t it just blow your mind how amazing our bodies are?

Considering this strong connection between our gut and our brain, it’s no wonder we literally feel some of our emotions in our gut, and it explains why those with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) may notice that their symptoms worsen when they’re stressed.

Yet, many of us have become disconnected from the impact that stress and our emotions can have on our physical gut symptoms. When we experience these symptoms, we tend to consider what we are eating but not necessarily how we are eating – and both are important. In fact, our emotional state can radically impact on how we digest our food. For example, eating while we’re upset or rushing around can potentially lead to indigestion and/or bloating, as digestive processes are not prioritised when the body is churning out stress hormones.

On the other hand, it’s difficult to feel happy and content when we’re experiencing digestive problems and challenges with our gut health. Around 90% of the serotonin in our body (the substance that acts as a neurotransmitter in our brain to help us feel happy, calm and content) is made in the gut, which means that if gut health is compromised, serotonin production may also potentially be altered.

The good news is, the power to change our gut health is entirely in our hands. Our gut microbiome (the ecosystem of bacteria in our gut) changes according to what we eat. It really is quite remarkable that the bacteria in our gut can change within a few days as a result of our food choices. What we eat is that powerful!

Our gut bugs love lots of plant foods. Some of the fibres naturally present in plants act as food for our gut bacteria and when the bacteria ferment the fibre, they produce short-chain fatty acids and these nourish the cells that line our gut. However, it is important to remember that the foods that are nourishing for one person may not be nourishing for another. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve met who have continued to eat certain foods they have been told are “healthy”, despite their body sending them clear messages (often in the form of gut symptoms!) that these foods aren’t right for them.

When we begin to pay more attention to how we feel after we eat, we can learn how to identify our body’s messages and improve our instincts around what’s right for us and what’s not. This includes what we eat and how to take better care of ourselves, but also extends beyond that to having the clarity of mind to make important decisions and the ability to get through our daily tasks without feeling overwhelmed.

So, begin to pay more attention to how you’re left feeling after each meal. It can help to jot down what you’re eating and any symptoms you experience for a couple of weeks to help you identify any common denominators that might better serve to be avoided for a trial period of time*.

* Long-term exclusions are best guided and supported by an experienced nutrition professional to ensure how you eat each day is nutritionally complete."

www.foodmatters.com/article/the-gut-brain-axis?utm_source...

The Aurora displaying below the big dipper, you can see the double star system Mizar and Alcor in the handle of the Big Dipper. This image was taken using my 15mm lens, yet you can see the separation of the two stars with no star bloating.

People use the juniper berry to make medicine. Juniper is used for digestion problems including upset stomach, intestinal gas (flatulence), heartburn, bloating, and loss of appetite, as well as gastrointestinal (GI) infections and intestinal worms. It is also used for urinary tract infections (UTIs) and kidney and bladder stones. Other uses include treating snakebite, diabetes, and cancer.

I not going to try explain the laws that cause refraction because I can't - and anyway I'm a musician - good at the arty/poetic stuff and rubbish at maths and science! What I do know is I like the effects of refraction, like when you look at a face or a pattern through a glass of water.

So, here is a photo of some flowers found in the grounds of Trentham Gardens - made a bit dreamy and then given some refraction treatment by bloating the image slightly - all to make it a bit more interesting! Artistic license if you like!

Life's gone haywire. Obviously. And to add to the fun, the creatures around here provide their own form of unadulterated entertainment. There was this awesome war/battle/judgment day level thing that happened right at the entrance of my hostel. These weird ants, at some stage of their growth get wings and stuff and they go nuts, lose their common sense if they ever had it in the first place, and they swarm towards all sources of light. So, when I walked into the hostel on that particular night (2 am i think), there was this entire battalion of these stupid ant things, and there were about 10-15 frogs on the floor. Those frogs were completely intoxicated (imagine me in front of a gigantic vegetarian feast) and they just sat there, shooting

their tongues out in every direction, completely feasting on the stupid ant things. I stood there for a few minutes, transfixed by the glory of the one-sided battle. Then I stopped behaving like one of those stupid ant things and brought out my cam. Took a few shots, even though I was getting those icky stupid ant things sitting on my shirt. Sheesh, it was insane. Those frikkin' frogs were bloating up like hell. I mean, they didn't give a shite about their waistline. They were just gobbling up each and every one of those stupid ant things that came withing striking range. They themselves

were covered with stupid ant things. Next morning, under every visible tubelight in my hostel there were millions of wings belonging to the deceased stupid ant things lying around. The sweepers went home with the worst backache they could have expected. And the frogs didn't appear for a few days. I bet their tummies got so screwed, food wouldn't cross their one track minds for a few days.

Messed up most of the shots I took because I left the camera on manual mode, using the settings I had used for the last shot (the one with the drop).

All the brownish stuff you see in the background consists of stupid ant

things flying around, wings of dead stupid ant things, pieces of stupid ant

things scattered after a frog duel, and regurgitated bits of stupid ant things. The frog in the forefront is one of the smallest I saw that day.

Title Dedication : U2

"Nothing is so painful to the mind of a Toa as a great and sudden change."

Built for the Bionicle "What If...?" Contest

This was a ton of fun to build. My first concept was turning Krekka's archetype on its head, making him a smart villain rather than a dumb brute, but I'm so happy this build evolved past that first stage. When I was sure about what I was going to build, I started off with Nidhiki, I tried to make it look like he was in the middle of a horrifying transformation, with muscles and tissue mutating and bloating on the left side of his body, slowly turning into the insect-like Nidhiki we all know and love. I then put Krekka together (which was a bit of a pain not gonna lie) and then added some bits of scenery to make the two builds come together.

While Doris agreed to attend seminars on nuitrition, exercise and portion control with the rest of the drops, she remained convinced her recent weight gain was simply due to water retention.

view large

...or, if you prefer, water drops refract the image of the flower behind them. The flower's petals make up the background of the photo.

Bones: Jim! So it's true!What are you doing back on the bridge? You're not fully healed from your ordeal on Colon IV, get back to Sickbay immediately!

Kirk: I assure, you doctor, that I'm completely fit for duty!

Bones: In a pig's eye! You just don't want to take your medicine - you know it's time for your next dose and you just can't handle the side effects!

Kirk: Bones, this is rediculous! I tell you I AM FIT FOR DUTY! Spock, tell him, don't I seem perfectly healed?

Spock: As unlikely as it may seem, the doctor is actually correct, and according to regulations he does have the final say in such matters...

Kirk: Don't you quote the rulebook at me, mister!Bones, surely there has to be ...some other medicine for my "condition"? The nausia, the bloating, the vomiting, the diaherrea, the (shudders) DRYMOUTH! I ..can't ..take..it..anymore!

Bones: I'm sorry Jim, but this treatment is the only way to cure the Rigellian Clap! Maybe you should be a bit more careful about WHO you decide to spend your next shore leave with!Now, don't make me order Spock to relieve you! You've only got 2 more doses to take to complete the cure!

Kirk: Oh all right! You win! (under his breath) easy to say when you're not the one who has stuff coming out of both ends all day long!

Bones:I knew you'd see it my way! Nurse, hand me the hypospray!

Kirk: What? You're going to give it to me here...now.. on the bridge?

Bones: You've left us no choice, Jim, you're already 45 minutes late for the next dose, if we don't act now you'll have to start the treatment all over again!Don't worry, we'll get you back to Sickbay before you can have any "accidents" in front of the rest of the crew!

Kirk:(sarcastically) You're a true friend!

Another year, and another inevitable image of M31! Always a favourite to shoot as it's huge and beautiful, although not without its challenges.

I shot this target over several sessions from mid-summer in between other targets into mid-fall. Whenever I was waiting for my intended target for the evening to rise, I would shoot M31 as an intermediary target. I made sure to shoot short, medium and long exposure shots to be able to capture the full dynamic range of the galaxy.

This image is a total of almost 9 hours of combined data at various exposure times to capture the details in the different part of galaxy's disc. The stars from the image are taken from the stack of 20 second exposures to keep them from bloating and overexposing.

-= Tech Data =-

-Equipment-

Imaging Camera: Nikon Z6ii

Scope: Askar FRA300 Pro f/5

Mount: iOptron SkyGuider Pro

- Acquisition -

∙ 8H 42M of 180, 60 and 20 second exposures.

- Software -

Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor

Processing: PixInsight

Post Processing: Photoshop CC

Shot at the Dark Sky Viewing Area

Redo from March 2017 - my last attempt producing a colourless "star-mask" type background. This time, Ive kept the colour in and objects that got filtered out such as the galaxies at top right stayed in.

Set-up was a Altair Astro 480/80mm f/6 refractor with a Canon 60Da DSLR and an IDAS LPS D1 filter.

Guiding was with a SSAG/PHD combination on an Ioptron ZEQ25GT mount. The comet was in Ursa Major.

35 x 3 minute subs at ISO 800 were taken.

30 bias frames

30 dark frames

42 flat frames (LCD panel at 1/20s)

Image field of view: 41.7 x 30.6 arcmins

Image centred on: RA: 11h 49m 44.982s, DEC: +59deg 46m 03.06s

Image scale: 1.82 arcsec/pixel.

Galaxies in top left:

NGC 3894 Elliptical galaxy, 2.8 x 1.7 arcmins

NGC 3895 Barred spiral galaxy, 1.1 arcmins x 48 arcsecs

I still have some serious star-bloating going on but I think thats an issue with my Canon 60Da/LPS filter.

***************************************************************************

Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, between 21.57 and 22.21 EDT

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

* Altitude of centre of frame at time of exposures: ~56°

* Temperature 5 C.

* Total exposure time: 12 minutes

* 660 mm focal length telescope

___________________________________________

Description:

There are actually three deep-sky objects in this image: (i) the pinkish Cocoon Nebula (IC5146), (ii) the associated open star cluster Cr 470, which appears embedded in the cocoon Nebula, and (iii) stretching out to the right (west in the sky) the dark nebula B (Barnard) 168. The first two objects are located about 4,000 light years from our solar system.

The Cocoon Nebula is a star nursery, and the associated stars within Cr 470 are young, hot, blue stars ~100,000 years of age.

For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on the RIGHT side of your screen, or click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/51639702940

___________________________________________

Technical information:

Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 127is (127 mm - 5" - diameter) apochromatic astrograph, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount

Twelve stacked frames; each frame:

660 mm focal length

ISO 8000; 1 minute exposure at f/5.2; unguided

With long exposure noise reduction

Subframes stacked in RegiStar;

Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, colour balance, bright star bloating reduction)

***************************************************************************

19 x 5-minute ISO 1600 auto-guided exposures taken over 2 nights.

Modified EOS 600D & Meade 127mm ED refractor telescope.

Frames stacked in Deep Sky Stacker software. Result post-processed to increase contrast, reduce noise, adjust overall colour balance and reduce colour gradients caused by light pollution.

Feb 2024 update: Starnet++ software used to temporarily separate the stars and nebula and prevent the stars bloating when nebula contrast is stretched.

Sometimes I hear your Smile

Tried to do something different with this older photo....I've used it in a previous photo back in my Time series.......Never quite liked what I had done with it then....I like way this better, but it could be better....Will prolly re-edit it later.

Pillows underneath the dress to make it poofy.....

My hair has grown quite a bit longer since this photo was taken.....

Processing done- changed the color of the 'floor' and made it blurry, gave the dress a bit more poof by Bloating it a bit, added reflection, watermark, basic adjusting of Curves, levels, color balance, and saturation.....

----

© All rights reserved

-I've changed the description to this photo like 8 times now...bleh

The Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant (Optolong L-Enhance)

This latest capture from Grand Mesa Observatory’s system 4 (available on our subscriptions from October 1st) using a QHY367C full frame One Shot Color CMOS camera on a Takahashi E-180 F2.8 Astrograph with an Optolong L-Enhance dual-band pass Filter that we are testing for Optolong.

I wanted to compare the performance of the Optolong L-Enhance filter with the Williams Optics STC, the differences between the filters is the L-E is claimed to be capturing H-Alpha, H-Beta and OIII whereas the William Optics STC is claimed to be capturing H-Alpha and OIII

For the capture the seeing conditions were 4 out of 5 under bortle 2 skies, the WO STC was captured on a moonless night but the Optolong capture was captured with a 60% illumination (over half full)

For the comparison I acquired the exact same number and length of exposures, both were pre processed in Pixinsight using dark, bias and flat frames for each filter, no further work was carried out in pixinsight and following the stacking I saved each file as a 16 bit TIF file. I re processed the first capture using the WO STC filter and Post processed in Photoshop side by side with the Optolong filter. First doing linear stretching and balancing in levels followed by identical nonlinear stretching in curves then shadows and highlights, match color. Following this on each image I used Starnet star removal and replaced the stars for this final result.

In conclusion on this particular target I’m seeing that both filters are producing some incredible signal with the QHY367C One Shot Color CMOS camera that are comparable with images captured using monochrome cameras. It is my opinion that the William Optics filter has far more signal in OIII than the Optolong L-E but the stronger H-Alpha and H-Beta signal is obvious with the Optolong L-E.

When the moon wanes I’ll be capturing the Veil once again in Broadband for a further comparison (with only the UV/IR cut filter necessary on my sample of the QHY367C to prevent star bloating).

For comparison in high resolution:

WO STC Version www.flickr.com/photos/terryhancock/48683636067/in/album-7...

Total Acquisition Time 4.08 hours

Image capture details

By Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Dates: 7th September 2019

Color 245 min, 49 x 300 sec

Camera: QHY367C

Offset 76, Gain 2850 Calibrated with flat, Dark & Bias

Optics: Takahashi E-180 F2.8 Astrograph

Filter: Optolong L-Enhance Duo-Narrowband

Mount: Paramount GT1100S

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6.0

Pre Processed using Pixinsight

Post Processed using Photoshop CC

Some of my previous images of The Cygnus Loop

www.flickr.com/photos/terryhancock/albums/72157656480303673

About The Cygnus Loop

Containing many components such as The Eastern & Western Veil Nebulae NGC6960, NGC6992, NGC6995, IC1340, Pickerings Triangle, NGC6974 and NGC6979. Cygnus Loop is a supernova remnant, the expanding cloud of diverse elements created in the most powerful of explosions; a supernova.

As a Massive star nears the end of its life, it runs out of hydrogen fuel and begins fusing helium. After exhausting its supply of helium it begins to fuse heavier elements until finally, the star's core can no longer exert enough outward pressure and it collapses. A shock wave rebounds through the star so fierce that the star is shredded and leaves behind a small but extremely dense body; either a neutron star or a black hole.

The progenitor of this supernova remnant exploded more than 5,000 years ago and over the course of the past 5 millennia, the material has been racing away in all directions. The Cygnus loop now occupies a vast region of sky, equal to 36 full moons!

A Supernova seeds the interstellar medium with all types of heavy elements. In fact, every single atom of elements heavier than iron was created in this type of event, including many in your own body.

---Photo details----

Stacks :

20x10 min in Hα

20x10 min in OIII

6x20 min in SII (need more data... noise induced by this channel)

Exposure Time : 8hrs 40min

Stack program : Maxim DL

Stack mode : Sigma clip

Post processing :

* Linear stretching and levels adjustment in Maxim DL

Color combination in Adobe Photoshop

- tried to correct star bloating

- tried to correct magenta hues

---Photo scope---

Camera : QSI 660 wsg-8

CCD Temperature : -15C

Filter(s) used: Astrodon 3nm Hα, Astrodon 3nm OIII, Astrodon 3nm SII

Tube : Astro-Physics 130 EDF F/6

Field flattener / Reducer : Astro-Physics flattener

Effective focal length : 780 mm

Effective aperture : F/6

---Guide scope---

Camera : Lodestar (1)

Off Axis Guiding: yes

Guide exposure : 1 sec

---Mount and other stuff---

Mount : Skywatcher AZ-EQ-6 GT

Ok ladies I need to know something.

Is it just me or is it completely RIDICULOUS how "they" try to glam up feminine products?!

I love how they emphasize how pearl like the tampons above are.

Um yeah....if they WERE pearl like I sure in the hell would NOT be putting them inside of me. I would want to be wearing them out to dinner or selling them.

And there is NOTHING glam about bloating, cramps, bleeding, and bitchiness.

Just sayin.

Ladies are you with me on this or what?!

PS The commercials for these things crack me the *uck up! Well and ANNOY me.

This worked better than I hoped, given that I didn’t get many frames. 15 x 1-minute ISO 3200 exposures at f/4, taken from a nearby beach that has a dark and unobstructed view South. Astro-modified Canon 600D and Leica Summicron 50mm f/2 lens on a Vixen Polarie star-tracker.

Frames stacked in Deep Sky Stacker software. Result post-processed to increase contrast, reduce noise and colour gradients caused by light pollution and to reduce the stars (which otherwise dominate after stretching the contrast)

Feb 2024 update: Starnet++ software used to temporarily separate the stars and nebulae and prevent the stars bloating when nebula contrast is stretched.

Seen in the constellation of Cygnus.

M: iOptron EQ45-Pro

T: William Optics GTF81

C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled

F: No Filter

G: PHD2

GC: OAG: ZWO ASI120mini

RAW16; FITs

Temp: -15 DegC

Gain 200;

10 x Exp 300s

Frames: 10 Lights; 10 Darks; 10 flats; 10 Dark Flats

80% Crop

Capture: SharpCap

Processed: DSS; LR & PS

Sky: No moon, calm, minimal cloud, warm, good seeing.

I realise the bloating of the stars is due more to careless processing than major focus issues.

Version 2

This is a re-process using Pixinsight. Less contrast, better controlled stars/less bloating, over all more natural looking.

Version 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/80205804@N05/15399069138/

M39 is an open cluster made up of around 30-50 stars in the summer constellation of Cygnus the swan. It is located around 800 light years away (1 light year = 6 trillion miles) and is estimated to be around 300 million years old. These stars are very young and hot which is shown by their blue colour, compare these to our star which is 4.5 billion years old.

With the constellation Cygnus lying on the galactic plane, the cluster sits in front of millions of other solar masses that make up our Milky Way galaxy, and this is only a tiny portion of our night sky.

The aim here was to use longer exposures to try and bring out some of the dust globules in the area which you dont see captured too often. I did pick up a little but sacrificed star size.

Exposure Details:

85* 300 secs, 36* 600 secs, ISO 800, calibration frames, 805mm

Total Exposure: 13 hours

Scope: Altair Astro 115EDT

Camera: Canon 1100D

Mount: NEQ6

as the snow melts, the lake's water level rises, and the ice loses its grip on the bloating shoreline.

for the most part, this section of the lake is still frozen over, but as the hundreds of migrating geese flying over north hero today know, spring is not far away.

captured using a 0.9 hard gnd and a cpl.

thanks for looking.

My son is in the hospital with an obstruction in either his intestines or colon, They did a biopsy but we don't know anything yet. & I won't be able to get there until next week.

I was glad to speak with him, though but extremely worried. I wrote this earlier and posted it of Facebook ...but it is for ALL of my kids.

Please pray for him to go home soon and go home healthy. Thank you so much. I've been around less because I have been working more for Uber. Trying to catch up this week.

YOU ARE MY CHILD AND I LOVE YOU.

FOREVER ~

NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO,

NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY.

I LOVE YOU WITHOUT CONDITIONS.

SO WHEN YOU NEED ME,

JUST CALL MY NAME

AND

I'LL BE THERE <3

MIXED MEDIA ''MILK THISTLES''

My scanner did not pick up the bright Pink well...much brighter than this shows.

Here is my Milk Thistle story.

One year, when I was a teenager, all of the Pasture land flooded on our ranch in Northern California, in Lake County, not far from Clear Lake. Finally it dried up enough for dad to plant about 10 -20 acres of it in Alfalfa for hay.

One hot afternoon before we cut or baled the Alfalfa, about 50 of our cows broke into the field....and were eating ravenously. Cows cannot eat that much fresh Alfalfa without bloating, and it can kill them. The only choice my mother and I had was to get them out fast and no one else was home. We had to run through that field and chase those cows...I was wearing shorts...and it was horrible because, due to the flood the field was also filled with Milk Thistles....as it had been seeded with them by the flood. I was in Pain...and picked thistles out of my legs for weeks following this event. Some of their points broke off in my legs and I couldn't find them until they became sore and even infected. The thistle plants were very healthy and were about 3 or more feet tall. So I have a love/hate relationship with them....but they are so pretty.

Imaged from my astronomy club's dark site in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney, Australia

Total integration- 1.5 hours ( 5 minute subs)

nearly one hour of data was discarded due to thin cloud bloating the brighter stars.

Equipment

Samyang 135 mm f /2.4

HEQ5 pro

Optolong UV/IR filter

ASIAIR. ZWO ASI183MCpro

Software

ASIAIR app

AstroPixel Processor

Photoshop CS6 with NoiseXterminator plug in

Starnet++ v2

processing notes

the main challenge was the bright stars with halos- possibly due to cloud. Removed the worst frames but still created a processing headache.

In the end used the unstretched stacked image for star layer; clone stamped out the brightest stars in the stretched image before star removal in Starnet++.

this process left its residue unfortunately which will be apparent to pixel peepers. Edit: I probably stretched the data too aggressively. So should reprocess to eliminate or at least reduce the colour blotching.

Hopefully at some point in future can reshoot under better conditions.

It should be noted that i have made 4 previous attempts to image this object from my Bortle 6 backyard, using different filters and telescopes. Not one result was even passable. This is a very very faint object and dark skies are a must

After watching the first season of The Owl House, I knew I had to build someone from the series, and I decided almost right away on Little Miss Perfect herself, Amity Blight. She's no longer my favorite character of the show (Luz has captured my heart), but she definitely was after my initial viewing, and she's still up there. A mean but redeemable character who is also the walking embodiment of the more innocent, not-an-infringement-on-human-rights meaning of the words "gay panic"? I couldn't resist.

This build was challenging, to say the least. I didn't have the right colors to build her school uniform, so I had to go with her Grom dress instead (what a shame, I know :P ). I wound up redesigning the interior structure of the skirt twice, and the head also went through several iterations. The gem on her chest is the back end of a cherry element, the rest of which I hid with panels, hinge trickery, and vertically cut flex tubing. Then there were the eyes, which, in the interest of keeping everything 100% Lego, are not decals but rather tiny cutouts of existing Lego stickers which I've been stockpiling for this very reason. Getting the eyes right took 2+ hours, as much time as the rest of the head. I also had to cheat with tan stickers under the ears to cover a half plate gap.

For the edit, I tried to recreate the background from the Enchanted Grom dance scene as best I could, in many cases by literally copy and pasting elements over and then bloating them to adjust for perspective. I think it at least kind of worked out, but I'll probably stick to simpler backgrounds in the future because this one took many hours to complete.

I'm currently away from my collection, but I'm already planning to build at least one more character from the Owl House come December. I also have plans for Avatar, She-ra, and Steven Universe builds... can you tell how I've been spending quarantine yet? In any case, if anyone is looking for a good way to pass six hours, I can't recommend The Owl House highly enough. Go watch it's good.

Animal milk has long been claimed as the go-to source of calcium by the dairy industry, but as it turns out, milk is bad for you. Calcium from animal milk is not absorbed as well as that from plant-based sources, and it can be accompanied by a number of dangerous health problems.

1. Broken bones

In a Swedish medical study, women who consumed large quantities of dairy milk daily were more likely to sustain fractures than those who drank little to no milk.

2. Prostate cancer

3. Lactose intolerance

Cow’s milk contains a sugar called lactose that can be difficult for people to digest, resulting in symptoms such as nausea, cramps, gas, bloating, and diarrhea. It can also develop later in life and result in months of worsening symptoms.

4. Acne

In multiple studies, the consumption of all types of cow’s milk was linked to an increased prevalence and severity of acne in both boys and girls.

5. Cholesterol

A single serving of milk can contain as much as 24 mg of cholesterol, whereas vegan food has no cholesterol.

6. Ovarian cancer

A Swedish study showed that women who consumed four or more servings of dairy products each day were twice as likely to develop serous ovarian cancer as those who consumed two or fewer servings of dairy products each day.

7. Milk allergies

Unlike lactose intolerance, milk allergies, usually in young children, are characterized by potentially strong and dangerous reactions, such as vomiting or anaphylaxis.

8. Antibiotics

Many cows are pumped full of antibiotics. This practice is leading to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which may decrease the effectiveness of antibiotics used on humans.

8. Antibiotics

Many cows are pumped full of antibiotics. This practice is leading to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which may decrease the effectiveness of antibiotics used on humans.

10. Weight gain

Despite industry claims, a study of more than 12,000 children showed that the more milk they drank, the more weight they gained, and skim and 1 percent milk appeared, counter-intuitively, to lead to more weight gain than drinking 2 percent or whole milk. The study also found that replacing soda with milk did not lead to weight loss.

11. Bone loss

Instead of promoting bone health, animal protein in dairy products can have a calcium-leaching effect.

www.peta.org/living/food/reasons-stop-drinking-milk/

Some evidence suggests that the consumption of milk and other dairy products leads to an increased risk of prostate cancer. Conversely, dairy-free diets have been followed to slow the progress of prostate cancer.

Did you know that in Medieval England parents would tie rabbits’ feet around their babies’ necks to ward off illness? Doctors would also spit on wounds because saliva was believed to have healing properties.Indeed, history is replete with unfounded health beliefs, and to everyone’s detriment, the milk myth is among the most tenacious.Milk is much more than just a drink; it’s a cultural phenomenon that can be traced back thousands of years. And still today, the milk myth resonates loud and clear: in 2001, the average American child consumed 104 quarts of cow’s milk.Milk depletes the calcium from your bones .The milk myth has spread around the world based on the flawed belief that this protein and calcium-rich drink is essential to support good overall health and bone health in particular at any age. It is easy to understand that the confusion about milk’s imaginary benefits stems from the fact that it contains calcium – around 300 mg per cup. But many scientific studies have shown an assortment of detrimental health effects directly linked to milk consumption. And the most surprising link is that not only do we barely absorb the calcium in cow’s milk (especially if pasteurized), but to make matters worse, it actually increases calcium loss from the bones. What an irony this is! Here’s how it happens. Like all animal protein, milk acidifies the body pH which in turn triggers a biological correction. You see, calcium is an excellent acid neutralizer and the biggest storage of calcium in the body is – you guessed it… in the bones. So the very same calcium that our bones need to stay strong is utilized to neutralize the acidifying effect of milk. Once calcium is pulled out of the bones, it leaves the body via the urine, so that the surprising net result after this is an actual calcium deficit.Knowing this, you’ll understand why statistics show that countries with the lowest consumption of dairy products also have the lowest fracture incidence in their population (there’s more on this later).But the sad truth is that most mainstream health practitioners ignore these proven facts. I know it firsthand because when I was diagnosed with osteoporosis, my doctor recommended that I drink lots of milk in addition to taking Fosamax.

Fortunately, I did neither, because I knew that…Cow’s milk is custom-designed for calves

Thanks to our creative ingenuity and perhaps related to our ancient survival needs, we adopted the dubious habit of drinking another species’ milk. Nobody can dispute that cow’s milk is an excellent food source for calves. Weighing around 100 pounds at birth, a calf typically gains approximately eight times its weight by the time it is weaned. But unlike humans, once calves are weaned, they never drink milk again. And the same applies to every mammalian species on this planet.Also, each mammalian species has its own “designer” milk, and cow’s milk is no exception. For example, cow’s milk contains on average three times the amount of protein than human milk which creates metabolic disturbances in humans that have detrimental bone health consequences.

It’s important to bear in mind that mother’s milk is excellent nourishment for human babies, but its composition is very different from cow’s milk.

Scientific studies show that milk increases fracture risk

Many scientific studies contradict the conventional wisdom that milk and dairy consumption help reduce osteoporotic fractures. Surprisingly, studies demonstrating that milk and dairy products actually fail to protect bones from fractures outnumber studies that prove otherwise. Even drinking milk from a young age does not protect against future fracture risk but actually increases it. Shattering the “savings account” calcium theory, Cumming and Klineberg report their study findings as follows:

“Consumption of dairy products, particularly at age 20 years, was associated with an increased risk of hip fracture in old age. (“Case-Control Study of Risk Factors for Hip Fractures in the Elderly”. American Journal of Epidemiology. Vol. 139, No. 5, 1994).

And the 12 year long Harvard Nurses’ Health Study found that those who consumed the most calcium from dairy foods broke more bones than those who rarely drank milk. This is a broad study based on 77,761 women aged 34 through 59 years of age.

In the authors’ own words:

“These data do not support the hypothesis that higher consumption of milk or other food sources of calcium by adult women protects against hip or forearm fractures.” (Source: Feskanich D, Willett WC, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA. Milk, dietary calcium, and bone fractures in women: a 12-year prospective study. American Journal of Public Health. 1997).

Shocking statistics ignored by mainstream medicine

In the Save Our Bones Program one of the topics I discuss is the complete disregard of scientific evidence that discredits milk and dairy products as the best source of calcium.

One exception is Amy Lanou Ph.D., nutrition director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., who states that:

“The countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis are the ones where people drink the most milk and have the most calcium in their diets. The connection between calcium consumption and bone health is actually very weak, and the connection between dairy consumption and bone health is almost nonexistent.”

Surprised? You shouldn’t be, because as I mentioned earlier in this article…

Milk is an acidifying animal protein

Like any other animal derived protein-rich food, milk has a positive potential renal acid load (PRAL) which triggers a protective biological reaction to neutralize all the damaging acidic protein before it reaches the kidneys.

The body is designed for survival, so it sacrifices bone density to protect the kidneys and urinary tract because the latter are essential to survival. And the most readily available source of acid neutralizer is in the bones. So even though milk contains calcium, it ends up sapping your bones of that crucial mineral. But that’s not all because…

Today’s milk is a processed food

Until the end of the 19th century in Europe and the beginning of the 20th century in the US, milk was consumed unpasteurized or raw. Later on, homogenization became the industry’s standard. These processes further alter milk’s chemistry and actually increase its detrimental acidifying effects.

Raw milk advocates claim that if cow’s milk is left “as is” it is a healthy and wholesome drink. It is true that raw milk is less acidifying than processed milk and that pasteurization and homogenization may cause a long list of digestive and other health problems, but I still don’t recommend drinking any kind of cow’s milk.

Nowadays, milking cows are given antibiotics and most are also injected with a genetically engineered form of bovine growth hormone (rBGH). A man-made or synthetic hormone used to artificially increase milk production, rBGH also increases blood levels of the insulin-growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in those who drink it. And higher levels of IGF-1 are linked to several cancers.

This should not be ignored, especially in view of recent information by Samuel Epstein, MD, Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, and Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition. In an article titled “Monsanto’s Hormonal Milk Poses Serious Risks of Breast Cancer, Besides Other Cancers” (www.preventcancer.com/press/releases/july8_98.htm, June 21, 1998) Dr. Epstein concludes that:

“Drinking rBGH milk would thus be expected to significantly increase IGF-1 blood levels and consequently to increase risks of developing breast cancer and promoting its invasiveness.”

Even though organic milk is from cows that are not given antibiotics or rBHG, if you truly care about your bone health and your overall health, you should…

Avoid drinking cow’s milk

As I explain in the Save Our Bones Program and contrary to mainstream recommendations, drinking milk and eating lots of dairy products are not the answer to reversing osteoporosis. And while in the Save Our Bones Program no food is completely off limits, I strongly recommend that you explore the different milk substitute options that I will list for you here.

But first, I’d like to clarify that unsweetened fermented or cultured dairy products such as yogurt, kefir, and sour cream are acid neutral. Yogurt in particular is chock-full of beneficial qualities. As is the case with milk, organic yogurt does not have rBGH, but even several of the most well-known yogurt brands have stopped using the bovine growth hormone (rBGH). You should call your favorite yogurt company to confirm. One more clarification: when I say unsweetened I mean without sugar or any artificial sweetener. However, you can add honey or stevia, a zero calorie plant-derived sweetener that is delicious and alkalizing as well. I like to carry around stevia packets in my purse so that I’m always able to sweeten food or drinks when I’m on the go.

The best milk substitutes

My favorite milk substitute is unsweetened almond milk, not only because it is alkalizing (as almonds are), but also because it’s delicious and tastes very similar to milk. I even cook with it!

If almond milk is hard to get, you can also try rice or soy milk. I strongly suggest consuming only organic soy milk to insure it’s not made with genetically modified soy. There is also some controversy about unfermented soy products, so try to use it in moderation.

What Else Haven’t They Told You? What else have you been told about bone health by your doctor or other “experts” that is flat out wrong? What other “facts” (like drinking milk does a body good) are keeping you from optimal health? Myths like these are a big reason I created the Save Our Bones Program. To give you the straight scoop on how to deal with osteoporosis the natural way.

And remember, if you ever hear someone ask “Got milk?” smile and think to yourself “No, because I know better!”

saveourbones.com/osteoporosis-milk-myth/

WHY MILK IS BAD FOR YOU

Today we need to talk about WHY milk is bad for you and your bones. Not just any milk, but specifically any milk coming from another animal. Those who know me know that I am usually a VERY positive person, and the word “bad” isn’t usually in my vocabulary. However, my goal in this video is to make you aware of what you are putting in your body so that you can see HOW important it is to eat pure foods and to see which foods are optimal for your body. There is a LOT that society has taught us that isn’t healthy, and I want to expose some of those myths. Today, I will be sharing my take on why milk is really not good for you, and I will give you alternatives that you can enjoy that are much healthier. Ok, are you ready? Here are my top reasons why MILK is BAD for you:

MILK ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE

Today’s milk is a processed food. Until the end of the 19th century in Europe and the beginning of the 20th century in the US, milk was consumed unpasteurized or raw. Later on, homogenization became the industry’s standard. These processes further alter milk’s chemistry and actually increase its detrimental acidifying effects.

UNWANTED INGREDIENTS

Under current industrial methods, cow’s milk is often a toxic bovine brew of man-made ingredients like bio-engineered hormones, antibiotics (55% of U.S. antibiotics are fed to livestock), and pesticides—all of which are bad for us and the environment. For example, unintentional pesticide poisonings kill an estimated 355,000 people globally each year. In addition the drugs pumped into livestock often re-visit us in our water supply.

COWS MILK BELONGS TO COWS

We are the only animals on the planet who take another animals milk and drink it for consumption. We are biologically designed to drink our own mother’s milk. Would you go and put your mouth to a cow’s nipple and start drinking it? It’s not a naturally occurring desire in my mind.

The biochemical make-up of cow’s milk is perfectly suited to turn a 65-pound newborn calf into a 400-pound cow in one year. It contains, for example, three times more protein and seven times more mineral content while human milk has 10 times as much essential fatty acids, three times as much selenium, and half the calcium. Some may like cow’s milk but drinking it is both unnecessary and potentially harmful.

IT DEPLETES BONE CALCIUM

Despite popular opinion, recent studies and exposes have shown that dairy can actually CREATE osteoporosis in your bones. According to the SAVE OUR BONES CAMPAIGN and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, not only do we barely absorb the calcium in cow’s milk (especially if pasteurized), but to make matters worse, it actually increases calcium loss from the bones. This increases your risk for fractures and more.

FREQUENT MILK CONSUMPTION = INCREASED RISK OF OSTEOPOROSIS

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “The countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis are the ones where people drink the most milk and have the most calcium in their diets. The connection between calcium consumption and bone health is actually very weak, and the connection between dairy consumption and bone health is almost nonexistent.”

Do you remember the GOT MILK ads that you used to see everywhere? Did you know that they had a ____ million dollar lawsuit against that ad due to the fact that this wasn’t true?

They had to stop saying that milk creates strong bones. Many of those ads disappeared after that lawsuit.

UNNCESSARY WEIGHT GAIN

As beverages go, milk is relatively high in calories. One cup of 2% milk has 138 calories, for instance. Drinking three cups a day adds 366 calories to the diet — a lot for anyone watching their weight.

EXACERBATES ACNE & CREATES GAS

Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found an association between dairy consumption and acne. They suggest that removing milk or dairy can help to clear your skin.

IT’S AN ACIDIFYING ANIMAL PROTEIN

Like any other animal derived protein-rich food, milk has a positive potential renal acid load (PRAL) which triggers a protective biological reaction to neutralize all the damaging acidic protein before it reaches the kidneys.

What does this mean exactly? Any body that is in an acidic state is at higher risk for cancer, disease, soreness, short recovery time, and more.

DRINKING CREATES EXCESS MUCUS

There’s not much more I need to say here. Give it a try and see for yourself.

IT PROMOTES ANIMAL CRUELTY

Many of the animals today are factory farmed and abused.

Those are just a FEW of the reasons why milk isn’t the most optimal of foods for our bodies. But remember that it doesn’t stop there. Milk is found in cheeses, yogurt, non-vegan ice creams, whey protein, whipped creams, and ANY type of dairy product. I’ve put together more links and information in the description below..So I know what you are thinking..WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO EAT?! Don’t worry because I have a great substite for you! I highly recommend that you check out my Blueberry Milkshake, Fullyraw Coffee, Banana Nice Cream, Fullyraw Frappuccino, and more. And please take a look at my video below! Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments!

www.fullyraw.com/why-milk-is-bad-for-you/

The Flaming Star Nebula is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation Auriga. It located about 1,500 light years from Earth.

This is the first time I've imaged this target, and I photographed it from Oxfordshire with an astro-modded Canon 1100D fitted with a light pollution clip filter and attached to a William Optics 70mm refractor on an EQ5 Pro mount. The mount is on a permanent pier and it was tracking at sidereal rate.

89 x 90 second exposures at ISO-3200 stacked with 35 darks. I had much more data but thin cloud passing through meant I had ditch quite a few frames. This target definitely needs more data!

Processing was done in Photoshop CS2 and Fast Stone Image Viewer.

I didn't manage to fully prevent my stars from bloating so I added some star spikes to try to make them a bit better!

On Thursday Mocca had a terrible accident-he had jumped from almost the highest bookshelf, I tried to catch him but I can't tell if I managed to slow his fall or not. I wasn't at all sure if he was going to survive the night but he did and the next day I took him to the vet. I'm glad that it seems he didn't suffered any serious injury-well, according to the vet we have to watch him if he won't be showing any signs of brain bloating? and he's got hurt his fingers on a forefoot and generally was contused and shaken but he's still living and I do really hope that there won't be any complications. No need to tell you how scared and sad I was, the more as I should have known better than to let him climb in a shelf 2m above ground.

"Nothing is so painful to the mind of a Toa as a great and sudden change."

Built for the Bionicle "What If...?" Contest

This was a ton of fun to build. My first concept was turning Krekka's archetype on its head, making him a smart villain rather than a dumb brute, but I'm so happy this build evolved past that first stage. When I was sure about what I was going to build, I started off with Nidhiki, I tried to make it look like he was in the middle of a horrifying transformation, with muscles and tissue mutating and bloating on the left side of his body, slowly turning into the insect-like Nidhiki we all know and love. I then put Krekka together (which was a bit of a pain not gonna lie) and then added some bits of scenery to make the two builds come together.

Not sure this is my best image of this subject, but I was amazed to get this result from just 3 x 3-minute light frames! I couldn't get any more, as the Earth rotated the nebula behind an obstruction.

Some star-bloating towards the right again, but not as bad as the Veil image.

Manually, off-axis guided for 3 x 3-minute exposures at ISO 1600, f/4. Modified EOS 600D & Revelation 12" Newtonian reflector telescope.

Registered and stacked using DeepSkyStacker; initial curves adjusted in Canon Photo Professional; final curves & colour-balance adjusted using Paint Shop Pro; noise reduction via CyberLink PhotoDirector.

Giving up meat has given me more energy, less bloating, i don’t feel as hungry and lost 6kg in 2 months... not that the goal was to lose weight.

Try something new...

Worldwide, around 322,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague, and may not even present significantly until the cancer has advanced. Symptoms can include persistent or sudden onset of: bloating and abdominal swelling, appetite loss or feeling full quickly, tiredness, unexplained changes in weight, change in frequency of urination and lower back pain.

Throughout October I am wearing frocks to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation here in Australia. I'd love for you you to consider making a donation and you can do so here: IT HAS POCKETS

Thank you.

I wanted to make this colorful without bloating anything out. I re-edited this photo around 5 times to give it the warmt sunlight feel and the colors I think fits it well. Enjoy!

There's surprisingly little on the internets about minimal change disease and nephrotic syndrome in adults, from a patient perspective. Less still about what happens to your body. I'm writing this to explain, practically, realistically and hopefully with a sense of perspective, what happened to me - for anyone else diagnosed with it.

Apologies friends, who may know all of the below, and Tom, who's heard it all twice, thrice and more :) I rarely use my blog, and this is the next best place.

The photos above are from 20 May and 12 June.

What a difference a shitload of steroids makes.

================================================================

GP visit - 8 May, to discuss my slightly swollen feet and ankles, which I put down to a new Power Plate exercise at the gym. He thought I seemed very confident that's what the problem was, and gave me some very low dose diuretics, and off I went, clutching my prescription.

Symptoms - 8 May - 14 May, the swelling in my feet (actually first noticed 25 April), worsened, from my feet, up my ankles, then up my legs, tummy, lower back and finally, face and around my eyes, especially in the mornings.

What kind of swelling? So bad it was impossible to bend at the knees, I had to roll sideways out of bed, couldn't bend backwards, had numb toes, pins and needles. Old scars bulged and re-appeared - I guess due to the swollen cell changes. Kind of amusingly, if I slept on my side, one side would be bigger, and I had to wait for gravity to pull all the fluid downwards.

In total, I put on 15kg of water in about three/four weeks. It's called 'pitting edema', and feels and looks like memory foam, when you press the skin in.

Nausea and bloating (no room for things to move around). Couldn't eat (because of the big bloat). Breathlessness (all that new weight). Foamy wee, if it happened at all. Kind of a tinnitus / spacey feeling. Feeling 'not right'.

GP again, hospital, diagnostic tests - 14 May, initially with the same GP for an emergency appointment after waking up just knowing something was really quite wrong. He ran a urine test on seeing my alarming weight change, then packed me off to the truly wonderful Royal London Hospital for blood tests, consultation, medical history and so on. Within an hour or two of me being there, they pretty confidently said that they believed it to be minimal change disease, which is one of the most common causes of nephrotic syndrome (when large amounts of protein leak into the urine). Update: oh, I also had an ultrasound to rule out changes identifiable by eye, eg, lumps, and to check that both kidneys were present and correct.

It's common in children, less common in adults. They don't know what causes it, it's often idiopathic. Four theories are: use of ibuprofen (in the past I've taken maybe 800mg a month), or a cold / sore throat (strep) virus, that doesn't go and instead, moves to the kidneys, or an allergy or an insect bite / sting. No family history in my case.

I learn it's not life-threatening and I'm not likely to get whipped in for a transplant, and nor is this likely to happen in the long-term.

Most people should have less than 20mg of protein in their urine. I had 1,345mg. It's no wonder I went pear-shaped.

Kidney (renal) biopsy - 19 May, back to the hospital at 7.30am as a day in-patient for a pretty yukky kidney biopsy.

This is done under local anaesthetic because you need to do things when asked, and they'll generally pick the left kidney (if you've got two normal-sized ones), to avoid the one by your liver.

It was done right there on the small ward, with a portable ultrasound, some anaesthetic and a loooong needle. You lie on your front, they go in from the back. Your kidneys move from side-to-side when you breathe, so you hold your breath, then breathe in and hold, when told, to take the sample (at least, that's how I understood it). They took two cores, about half as long and wide as a matchstick - here's mine - to make sure they got a broad selection of glomeruli for the electron microscopy. No need for stitches.

Then, you lie flat on your back for six hours, to kind of seal things up. It just feels odd afterwards - you can feel where the kidney has 'popped'. I was told that I'd feel like I'd been kicked in the back, but barely any pain at all - more general nervousness at popping myself open and dying in a pool of blood in a corner of an old Victorian hospital.

You have to wee whilst at the hospital, to make sure there's no serious bleeding. I doubt they'd let you home without this check, so drink the tea, even if you are horizontal most of the day. Went home around 10pm, with a big bag o' drugs and an order to not lift anything heavy for two weeks, being particularly careful for the first 48 hours.

20 May - started treatment. Per day:

-- 60mg prednisolone (to stop the protein leak from my kidneys)

-- 80mg furosemide (or frusemide, a diuretic, to make me wee like a racehorse. I took 160mg some days, as it didn't really work to start with - previously okayed with the consultant).

-- Calcichew D3 Forte (calcium, the steroids thin your bones)

-- 20mg omeprazole, a kind of stomach liner, as the steroids can irritate your stomach lining.

-- 10mg atorvastatin, for my temporarily sky-high cholesterol levels, as a result of the changes in my blood / the protein leak / steroids - I don't know which.

I chose to stop the furosemide as soon as my weight was back to normal.

24 May - consultant. More weeing in pots, and a good chance to chat to the consultant. There's a possibility he thinks, that I may have FSGS, which is a similar condition. I'll hear later. Either way, it doesn't matter now, as the initial treatment is the same. His wise words: be patient. He says the prednisolone is generally 100% effective, then quickly revises this down a bit :)

25 May - 1 June. Holiday! To France! To the middle of France! The land that fashion forgot! I could be huge and wear maxi-dresses to my heart's content. Of the litany of steroid side-effects, I had some weird flappy whites-of-eye thing going on (could've been cholesterol, I'm not sure), chronic sleeplessness (curiously not irritating, I just lay there thinking, oh well, here I am awake again), very buzzy in the day, never tired, ever. Extraordinarily lucid. I can see how they can be addictive.

I scratched myself on a thistle or something, and the wound watered, gently and consistently, for about 3 days. Better than a tap on the knee - ba-dum tish. (There's a photo of this in this set.)

Pretty hard to walk very far, just too breathless and uncomfortable. Hard to eat much too, no room, with all that bloating.

I had some wine - maybe up to 175ml a day. The consultant said it would be OK to have one or two glasses, and I omitted to ask if this was per day, or per week... As I understand it, it's best not to mix steroids and alcohol as it can irritate your stomach lining. I imagine that will be very different in different people, particularly if you have more mental / physical side-effects from the drug, than I had / have. (So don't drink alcohol just because I chose to.)

Round about 30/31 May - whilst trying to walk around Paris - terrible, and I mean really horrible, leg pains - behind my knees, in my calves and ankles. I guess all the water was starting to shift around. My legs felt very 'brittle', ready to snap.

1 June - 4 June - the week of weeing. A lot. About two weeks into the steroid treatment, and everything suddenly started moving. I guess the protein leak was stopping, and I was losing up to 2.5kg of fluid a day. That's a bit too much really, and 1kg a day is what you're supposed to aim for. Back to more or less normal size in about a week.

7 June - consultant. More weeing in pots. Protein now trace. Which means the steroids have stopped the leak - hurrah! Now, we start to taper the steroids - very slowly, about 10mg each time. I need to see the consultant less during this time, and more later - as the chance of relapse is higher as the prednisolone drops. I should never get so big again, as all the bio-chemistry should clock a relapse well before it becomes symptomatic.

Today. You'd never know to look at me. The biopsy 'scar' looks like a little red dot. The thistle scratch has healed, but in an unusual way, and very slowly. My face has changed shape (hamster-cheeks, from the steroids). And the skin on my feet looks wrinkled and old from being so stretched. Otherwise. Fine. Somewhat ironically, my legs have never looked better, after that extended work-out.

I think I've been lucky, so far.

The lesson: if your feet and legs swell and you're not weeing, get thee to a doctor.

Update - April 2011 - gave birth to a daughter! I remained on 10mg of pred during my pregnancy, and tapered it until I finally came off them in August 2011. I was under the excellent care of an obgyn and renal consultant for the duration, too - they shared the same office, as both had an interest in the other's speciality. A very lucky bounce for me, and others like me with kidney problems and a bump to worry about.

A complete reprocess of the image from Dec 2020. The stars and nebulosity have been processed on separate layers enabling the nebulosity to be stretched without bloating out the stars. The stars are also tighter and have retained some colour.

The sainfoin that is growing in the wild here is pretty and tough. Even after several days of minus temperatures, the sainfoin is still flowering, along with some clover.

Sainfoin is a forage legume that was first imported from Russia as a non bloating alternative to alfalfa. It fell out of favor though because it wouldn't persist after a couple of growing seasons. Now there is a new strain called AC Mountainview that is said to persist when grown with alfalfa. So, starting in 2016, look for more of these pretty flowers in Alberta farm fields.

33 x 4-minute ISO 1600 exposures at f/7.1. Astro-modified Canon 600D and Canon 70-300mm lens at 200mm piggybacked on a Celestron C8 for tracking.

Frames stacked in Deep Sky Stacker software. Result post-processed to increase contrast, reduce noise and colour gradients caused by light pollution and to reduce the stars (which otherwise dominate after stretching the contrast)

Feb 2024 update: Starnet++ software used to temporarily separate the stars and nebulae and prevent the stars bloating when nebula contrast is stretched.

"Nothing is so painful to the mind of a Toa as a great and sudden change."

Built for the Bionicle "What If...?" Contest

This was a ton of fun to build. My first concept was turning Krekka's archetype on its head, making him a smart villain rather than a dumb brute, but I'm so happy this build evolved past that first stage. When I was sure about what I was going to build, I started off with Nidhiki, I tried to make it look like he was in the middle of a horrifying transformation, with muscles and tissue mutating and bloating on the left side of his body, slowly turning into the insect-like Nidhiki we all know and love. I then put Krekka together (which was a bit of a pain not gonna lie) and then added some bits of scenery to make the two builds come together.

Thought I'd take the opportunity to capture the comet, currently in Andromeda, again. The sky was less murky than last night, but it's likely to be the last clear night for a while.

22 x 30-sec exposures at f/4 and ISO 3200 with an EOS 600D and Zeiss Jena 135mm f/3.5 lens on a Vixen Polarie star tracker. The frames were stacked on the comet in DeepSkyStacker, with curves adjustment and further noise reduction in post-processing. Also Starnet++ software used to temporarily separate the stars and comet and prevent the stars bloating when comet contrast is stretched; this has revealed more of the tail that would otherwise be lost in the star background.

...a little help for my friend.

view big to see my helping hand.

mr black has been quite ill. he developed dropsy, which is bloating.

for days he floated upside down and and ate what he could from the top when I sprinkled in the fish food.

I went to the pet/fish store, and the clerk said he couldn't be treated.

but...he's been such a good fish, so I decided I had to try.

I moved him to a different container thinking that his tummy was going to blown up at any time.

I cleaned out his bowl and used scalding hot water on it.

I removed the plants.

I added fresh bottled water and epson salts as suggested online.

I made sure the bubbler was on all the time and I aimed my reading light at the tank to keep him warmer.

I went back to the pet/fish store and spoke with the owner and we looked at natural anti-bacterials [tea tree oil] and dosed him with that. [the bottle of herbal remedy was expensive so the owner sold it to me at cost. I hadn't even asked.]

she suggested giving him a couple of ground up peas so leon dug some of ours from the freezer. mr black couldn't get the pea pieces because they sank to the bottom, and he was still floating upside down at the top and couldn't get down.

I told him what a good fish he was and prayed to the fish gods.

in two days he was starting to right himself and he was trying to eat from the bottom, trying for the peas.

today, day 5, he's still a little bloated but swimming around, up and down, right side up.

I hope the fish gods keep listening.

mr black is a good little goldfish.

Sold my trusty D700 today and decided to buy a DF.

I've been playing around a little these days with my FM2 and like the feel, weight, retro look etc. The DF is Nikon's lightest full frame so I figured why not. Also I've been getting lazy with deleting, so my fat D800 images are bloating up my storage. The smaller images and better low light capabilities should suite my current needs well. I went with the black.. I have some old silver Nikon's as well but I just like the black better and I heard that back in the day the black actually cost a premium too... also heard that less black DF's we're manufactures. No idea if it's true but that's where my head was at for the black. I agree the silver looks more retro but also thought it might get marked up more easily? Both lens are a 50mm 1.8s.

5' Soft box camera left with alien bee triggered by pocket wizard plus III.