View allAll Photos Tagged bloating
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 !!!
© Leanne Boulton, All Rights Reserved
Street photography from Glasgow, Scotland, captured in January 2025.
A few of you have asked how I got on with the Long Covid Clinic a week or so ago and I am grateful to you for caring, thank you.
I received some useful advice that I hadn't considered in managing my symptoms.
One is conservation of energy, even on the occasions where I feel relatively okay. This means that I should consider doing things sitting down instead of standing up such as brushing my teeth, chopping vegetables, doing the dishes, showering etc.
Another is micromanaging my time with a 2:1 rest ratio. For example, spend 5 minutes doing the dishes and then rest for 10 minutes, then return to the dishes for 5 minutes and rest for another 10 minutes etc. This is less practical and it would take an hour to do a few dishes and need many changes of hot water and dish soap, which would be a cost consideration.
Another piece of advice was to never "push through" when I have a flare-up of my symptoms.
I get occasional flare-ups where my ongoing symptoms ramp up to 11 and come along with a cluster of other symptoms. I don't know the trigger yet but stress and lack of sleep are certainly factors. Perhaps something to do with my immune system getting even more run down than it is with Long Covid. These flares seem to come along every few months and last from a week ,to three or four weeks.
A flare-up started last week. Frequent headaches, joint and muscle pain, constipation, bloating, insomnia, extreme fatigue, ectopic palpitations, ectopic arrhythmias where my heart can skip every 4th, 3rd or 2nd beat and last for hours - leaving me sometimes with a pulse as low as 30bpm, an increase in intensity of my tinnitus and difficulty concentrating.
In a rather stupid act of rebellion in being told that I need to restrict my life even more, I "pushed through" the early stage of this flare-up and went into Glasgow with my camera last week. I have deeply regretted that decision.
I have spent 4 days in bed except for essentials such as getting simple food or feeding the cat etc. Brutal fatigue where every inch of my body hurts, flutters, feels weak and heavy, and where there are times I simply can't keep my eyes open.
Post-exertional Malaise or PEM, along with fatigue (which is nothing like simply feeling tired), have been the symptoms that have really crippled my activities since early last year. I can't stress enough how much I hate it and I am one of the lucky ones. Many people with this are entirely bedbound and dependant on care.
Every single Covid infection does damage to you internally, even if it is 'mild' or if you feel that you have fully recovered. Every single infection. Cumulatively.
FFP2/3 respirators, ventilation and HEPA filtration are the only protections from airborne infection. Covid, Flu, RSV, Measles, Chickenpox, Adenovirus, Enteroviruses, Strep Pneumonia, TB and more are all airborne pathogens. They spread in tiny aerosols that we simply breathe out. They hang in the air like smoke for hours in unventilated indoor spaces.
Hand washing and surgical masks will not protect you against airborne disease.
Hundreds of millions of people are known to have Long Covid already - many more than the official number too because most don't connect the dots, especially if they do not test for Covid.
The rate of Long Covid in the general population is currently around 30% and growing.
Protect yourself. You don't want this.
Thank you for reading this.
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!)
El Oro de la Tierra: Manzanilla
La manzanilla (Matricaria chamomilla) es mucho más que una simple flor silvestre; es uno de los remedios más antiguos y venerados de la herbolaria tradicional. Con sus pétalos blancos que se inclinan hacia atrás para dejar brillar su corazón amarillo, parece capturar la esencia misma del sol.
Beneficios y Usos Medicinales
Poder Digestivo: Es la aliada número uno para aliviar pesadez, gases y espasmos estomacales.
Calma Natural: Sus propiedades sedantes suaves ayudan a reducir la ansiedad y facilitan un sueño reparador.
Antiinflamatorio: Se utiliza tanto en infusión como de forma tópica para desinflamar tejidos y calmar irritaciones en la piel o los ojos.
The Gold of the Earth: Chamomile Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is much more than just a wildflower; it is one of the oldest and most revered remedies in traditional herbalism. With its white petals that tilt back to reveal its yellow heart, it seems to capture the very essence of the sun. Benefits and Medicinal Uses Digestive Power: It is the number one ally for relieving bloating, gas, and stomach spasms. Natural Calming: Its mild sedative properties help reduce anxiety and promote restful sleep. Anti-inflammatory: It is used both as an infusion and topically to reduce inflammation and soothe skin or eye irritations.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanilla_(hierba_medicinal)
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...
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
...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.
"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.
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.
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
---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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
"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.
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...
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
"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.
Astro modified Canon R6, RF 15-35 @15mm. Tantalising glimpse of the bejewelled Milky Way aligned with Twr Mawr lighthouse on Ynys Llanddwyn. Vega (top right) and Altair (mid left) bloating nicely with the thin cloud cover.
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.
...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.