Philadelphia Flower Show

For me, Spring is the most anticipated time of the year. Winter really seems like it can go on forever, especially when it's March and it's still snowing. Luckily for us garden enthusiast in the Delaware Valley, there's the Philadelphia Flower Show right when we need it. The day that I got to go check it out, the weather was raw cold, rainy, and windy.

It was such a treat to see acres and acres of green plants, blooming plants, blossoming trees, manicured landscapes, faux gardens, world class floral designs, and even a greenhouse packed full of blooming orchids. I wandered around for hours. I did not want to miss any of it.

Just Another Reason to Grow Your Own And Buy Organic

In the spirit of learning about the human body for the sake of health and healing, I decided to analyze an article on systemic pesticides for my english class assignment. I happened to come along the article in the Spring 2011 edition of Mother Earth News, "Systemis Pesticides: Chemicals You Can't Wash Off." I had picked up the magazine for tips and inspiration on getting the veggie garden started this year. While I am always true to being organic in my own garden, I have always bought conventional produce from time to time either because money was tight or I saw no other option. It only makes sense not to buy the $3.00 zucchini or $8.00 a pound red pepper, or to not drive 45 minutes to buy an organic potato. I would just wash them off really good.

As if there was not enought to consider for the educated consumer at the grocery store, Pleasant's article will only add to concerns. Readers will rething their food purchases as they learn in her informative and eithical article about the chemicals employed by conventional farmers that are actually absorbed into the plants' tissues- inside and out. Our parents may have taught us to eat our fruits and veggies and to always wash them before we eat them, but the new generation of pesticides cannot be washed off. Not only is exposure to these chemicals inevitable when the consumer ingests these foods, but the effects are still unclear.

Systemic pesticides have been inplicated in the mysterious disappearance of millions of bees, or "colony collapse disorder." They can remain in the soil for over 500 days. Pleasant asks the reader, "Do people really want to eat pumpkins that are so full of poison that they kill every cucumber beetle that dares take a bite?" Food for thought indeed. She informs us that EPA is undergoing a comprehensive review of these pesticides, but we will not know the results until 2014. Meanwhile, California's Department of Pesticide Regulation conducted its own tests- one reveals pollen with over three times the amount of poison needed to kill bees within minutes.

As for me, I'm happy to see more organic options available at the local grocery store. I'm making a grocery list for that store 45 minutes away and adding to my piggy bank little by little for the big trip. I have seeds ready and even some baby plants for an organic garden (planned to be the best one yet.) Yes, money is tight and good organic food is hard to come by in these parts, but why settle for anything less while putting money into the hands of companies that use chemicals so toxic the things I love?

Stethoscope

Since I started schooling for a medical-related field, I could not help but to notice how many people say that a lot of their family members work in the health field. I am no exception to that trend. My parents actually met each other at a hospital. My mom was working as a nurse and my dad was installing televisions in patient rooms. In less than a month they were married.

My mom dug out her old stethoscope the other day. I was studying for an exam in Anatomy which covered the blood, the heart, and the blood vessels. The parts of the heart, the beating of the heart, and the energy moving through it came to life a little more. I listened to my heartbeat, the cat's, and the dog's. The cat's was the fastest.

Valentine Flowers, The Heart, The Blood

How fun is it to learn about the Human Heart for Valentine's Day? It just so fell together that way for me. Funny how the universe just makes things fall into place sometimes. This Valentine's Day I was able to spend time with my significant other. "What do you want to do for Valentine's Day?" he asks. "Ask me about my blood," was my reply. I had a quiz in Anatomy the next day.

He had to go to Home Depot. I went along, per his request, dragging my feet and dreading staring at a whole aisle of nuts, screws, and bolts for what I knew would feel like an infinite amount of time. It was hard for me to even get out of the car. The dork in me wanted to stay put and study flashcards. I've like the old guy who is out with his wife who is trying on clothes when I'm in a home depot. Someone please get me a bench for this fitting room.

But low and behold- defying all expectations I ever had of a home improvement warehouse was the garden center packed full with orchids. "Come find me here when you're done looking at generator parts." I walked out with a little tropical beauty, Phalaenopis Bitter Sweet, the tag reads. She is golden yellow and deep magenta.

I actually went back to the box store. Something else had caught my senses. I needed something for my mom. What else says "you are the sweetest mama in the whole world" more that a pot full of soft pink hyacinths?

They now sit on the dining room table, filling the whole room with the fragrance of spring botanicals.

-Blood is actually a connective tissue, a liquid connective tissue. The living blood cells are suspended in a non-living fluid matrix called plasma. Because blood is constantly moved by the beating, pumping heart, the elements flow as a homogenous mixture.

-Erythropoesis is the production of red blood cells, also called erythrocytes. Red blood cells are formed inside the bones, by red bone marrow stem cells.

- Each red blood cell makes a complete lap of the cardiovascular system every 30-60 seconds. the red blood cell has a life span of about 120 days.

- Hemoglobin is the oxygen carrying component of the blood. Each hemoglogin consists of 4 polypeptide chains called globins. Each globin chain is bound to a heme group. Each heme has one iron atom attached that is responsible for carrying the oxygen.

- One red blood cell has 250 million hemoglobins and each hemoglobin can carry 4 O2 molecules. That's 1 billion O2's per red blood cell and somewhere around 5 million red blood cells circulating in the human body.

New Path

It has been quite some time since I have posted anything on here. Looking at the main page, there is a lot to change. My last post was... June 8, 2010, and here it is now, February 16, 2011. If there was anyone peaking in on this blog, they have probably given up by now. I have been busy, not here, not behind the camera, not exploring the landscape- I've been hitting the books. School is what has brought me back to the blog.
Photography is on the back burner. In early September of last year I started classes full time at the community college near where I grew up. I knew that (especially with some convincing from my loving parents) I needed more education. I knew that I needed a career, not a job. I needed something with frills like health insurance, but being who I am, I had to figure out something I would be passionate about. Of course I need a decent paycheck, who doesn't? But I also had to figure out something that I could put some heart into.
When a couple of people close to me became ill with chronic conditions, I began to research their ailments and realized that I liked learning about that kind of stuff. Spending notable time in medical settings I could not help but to ponder what it would be like to work there.
Just as an artist works with his or her medium- a painter's canvas, a photographer's viewfinder, a weaver's loom... thinking back about it now, that's how all the doctors were looking at the people I cared about. They were looking for answers. The good ones, the ones determined to get it right, they had the same sort of restlessness of the soul until they knew what was wrong. I don't know how I saw it, maybe in their body language or tone of voice. I knew what that felt like. I also remember seeing it in every person who was passionate about their art. The way that they looked at their works in progress, caring so sincerely, getting closer towards their vision, but restless to find the answer.
Being practical, I knew that if I was to start over, an education for a job in the medical career might be a good way to go. What would be more interesting for someone who loves to take pictures and learn about health that to work with medical imaging? It was almost a revelation to the questions I had been getting asked over and over- how could I make a living out of taking pictures? why do you want to take pictures when the first thing people don't want in tough economic times is art?
So there I was, September, back in school, determined. Now I am in my second semester.
I have to be honest. When I was told that I had to take English Composition 1, I was irritated. I love writing, I love reading- especially the informal casual kind of stuff like my buddy's blogs or the parts of magazines that are mostly pictures with a handful of informative or inspiring stuff on the page with them. Hence the previous postings of my work. What it was that I found irritating is that I have a Bachelor's degree with a minor in Literature. English Comp 1, ENG101... "It's a degree requirement for the this program and it's not on your transcript," is pretty much what every advisor said. "But I have a BFA with a minor in literature, I have had writing published in magazines, I have great SAT scores..." It did not matter.
My first thoughts were how colleges are just businesses. Their goal is to make a profit off of me. One more class for me is more money in the bank for them. Instead of fighting it, I knew I would just have to go with the flow. I promised to keep an open mind, and the practical part of me knew for sure: of course I would learn something new.
The first day of class, the go-with-the-flow and have-an-open-mind part of me was proven right. My professor said all that I needed to hear when she was telling us a list of reasons why we might need this class someday. "What if you need to e-mail your boss?" Huh. If I ever did have my dream job, I would probably want to know how to perfect that. What about all those research papers for the big medical classes down the road? That needs some tweaking too. Art college literature professors were probably not as worried about MLA as future professors could be.
Last night we talked about blogs. I fondly thought of all the good times I have had making my little posts, more picture than word. For our assignment, we can follow one or create one. So why not make this one mine again? I've already realized that it will be an excuse to write out my thoughts, and an excuse to take a few pictures.

One of my all time favorite perennial garden flowers, the Peony. All of these images are from the Cornell Plantation's Botanical Collection, where I found a nice variety to explore. To me these flowers have always represented the true beginning of summer. The flowers are big, bold, and stately, yet delicate and ephemeral. They almost look like something from a dream, timeless, with a scent to match that of the most lovely and deepest memory...

I arrived at this bloom the same time as a native bee. This appears to be the same variety that I remember around the house I grew up in. Almost white at first glance, but the center is a soft yellow and the outermost petals are soft pink.

This last image is a Chinese Peony or Paeonia lactiflora. In Chinese medicine the roots of the peony are used to treat gastric and intestinal disorders.

Foxglove