My dedicated photo Blog

My Photography blog is now here: http://odillesphotos.wordpress.com/ as it is a lot easier to edit for me. I don't use this blog much anymore but will post from time to time. If you want to see what I'm doing photographically, go to the new one.

Photography awards

I won 4 Bronze Awards from 5 entries in my first ever photographic competition. It was the Better Digital magazine Photograph of the Year 2009.

To say I'm pleased would be a gross understatement!

The images which won awards are:

Project 365 for 2010

I am restarting the 365 project from today. I will be taking a photo every day, and posting them whenever I can. The link above is to the album I have created on my Facebook page (Odille Esmonde-Morgan on Facebook).

If I can work out how to make thumbnails here I'll start posting them here.

I'm a pretty rotten blogger!

Well, I'm not very good at this blog stuff, am I? However, for 2010 I'm going to try harder and reinstitute the photo a day project. Hopefully I'll do better this time.

Project 365 fro Mrch 16

yes, I know it is yesterday's pic but as this is what we experienced last night from 4pm to midnight there is no way I was using the computer!

Project 365

This is a project to post a photo a day. I only heard about it today so here is yesterday's picture

Health Benefits of Herbs

This article titled "Health benefits of herbs and spices: the past, the present, the future" was in the Medical Journal of Australia.
It is extrememly interesting and looks at herbs with relevance for:

• controlling blood sugars and cholesterol in Cardiovascular disease
• replacing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory in relieving the pain of arthritis (ginger instead of ibruprofen!)
• ginger for treating glycaemia in diabetics
• as anti-clotting agents
• protection against cancers (garlic, curcumin, gingerol, capsaicin, turmeric, basil, rosemary, mint, lemon grass, parsley, lavender, cherries and mint). The cancers cited include lung, breast, colon, skin, forestomach, liver, oral cancer.

I know I'd rather eat a herb than take a drug with potentially toxic side effects.

Why isn't our medical profession investigating treatment with herbs as an adjunct to western medicine. I'm not advocating thrwoing away all our drugs - but if the doses of drugs with vicious side effects could be reduced if they were teamed with herbals, surely this is good for the patient? The Hippocratic oath (classical version) says "I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. " , so why is harm reduction not the aim of the medical profession, and why do they so rarely apply dietetic measures?

It could surely not be because the drug companies aren't interested in compounds they cannot patent and make billions from, and the fact that they are hand in glove with our medical prfoession and the government?

My Weight Loss Journey

I have been doing Atkins since 10 September 2005. I have lost 29.6 kgs and am aiming for 62-64 lgs.I put on all my weight after an accident and, after 2 years, operations to both Achilles tendons. My favoured exercise of walking (5-8 kms daily) was denied me due to the injury and after the operation, due to my weight gain, it was just as hard and painful as before! So I just got fatter and fatter.At 131 kgs, and in constant pain from ankles, knees and back, I finally decided to act. I had picked up the Atkins book and had a read, thought (idly) I could do that, and then just sat on it - the information and my fatt bum!Then, after 15 months on the dole, I got a job! I started Atkins the same day and have never looked back. I no longer have pain, my blood pressure has gone from sky high (3 eye bleeds during coughing episodes when I had the flu last May) to 110/76, I have so much energy I can harldy stand still, and I will never ever go back to eating lots of carbs.
My car accident (24/03/06) slowed me up as I cannot get to the gym (no car, I wrote that bugger off!). I was driving to work one morning and it was raining lightly. I have to go round a sharp hairpin bend, and I was only doing 45kms, and it got into a spin, did a 360 and ran off the road, became airborne, and landed 12' down in the ditch. I just sat there and said holy s**t! Al the front right hand side of the car basically collapsed in on me, but I was not trapped. However, I could not even FIND the seatbelt release to get out, and as I had dislocated my thumb it was hard to do anything. No one saw me go over, and the car was invisible from the road. So I rang trusty 000 (Australia's emeregncy number) and they had the troops there in 10 mins.They opened my door and put the seat back, and I crawled out the back door onto a stretcher (the bank was too steep and muddy for me to walk up), they hauled me up to the road, with me making a joke that it was good thing I was not still 131 kgs!
I had a bad deep tissue bruising injury to my left leg caused by the dashboard and steering wheel coming down and bouncing off it. Workcover is paying for my physio, and the lump on my thingh, whic is 6cm long by anout 2.5 wide, is finally starting to break up. I have been walking as much as I can, but this week fully expected no loss or maybe even a small gain.
SInce then I have languished a bit and been lazy over winter but am now dedicated to getting back on track now spring is here. This week to date (23/09/2006) I have lost 2.5 kgs, so I am underway again.

The Red Hatters

I have started up a chapter of the Red Hat Society for my local area. We are having our first get together on Thursday 28th Spetm,eber 2006 at saltbar and grill at Salt Resort at South Kingscliff.
The Red Hat Society is an international society of over 69,000 'chapters' for women to get dressed up in silly clothes, so long as they are purple, and hats, so long as they are red, and go out and make whooppee! I can't wait.
I'm hoping we can organiose a day out at the races (loca) for the melbourne Cup in November and lots more over the warm months.
ALso chack out www.redhatsociety.com for your local chapter.

Earth storms lead to space storms

As a weather nut, I found this really fascinating. We get lots of thunderstorms where I am too, and you can sometimes tell one is coming by the behavious of the TV!

Earth storms lead to space storms, researchers say

Thunderstorms on Earth can lead to storms in the outer reaches of the atmosphere that disrupt radio transmissions and other electronic communications, US researchers say.
The discovery could lead to more reliable global-positioning satellite (GPS) navigation and short-wave radio transmissions by improving forecasts of high-altitude disturbances that can disrupt them, University of California-Berkeley researcher Thomas Immel says.
Using data from NASA satellites, Immel and other researchers discovered that thunderstorms over South America, Africa and South-East Asia can create turbulence in two bands of electrical gas that hover 402 kilometres above the equator in part of the upper atmosphere known as the ionosphere.
These plasma bands are far too thin to be directly affected by wind from thunderstorms, but researchers found that the wind can shape the plasma bands by generating electricity in the layer of atmosphere below them.
Three of the densest sections of plasma were located directly above areas with frequent thunderstorms - the Amazon Basin in South America, the Congo Basin in Africa and Indonesia.
But researchers found another dense section of plasma above the Pacific Ocean, far from thunderstorm zones, in evidence that tropical thunderstorms have a global influence.
That may explain why the ionosphere above North America is more turbulent than other areas, disrupting radio transmissions that travel through it.
"We now know that accurate predictions of ionospheric disturbances have to incorporate this effect from tropical weather," he said in a statement.
Researchers now hope to determine if the plasma bands shift with the seasons, or during large events like hurricanes.

Peregrine falcon cam online - feeding the chicks

I have been watching the peregrine falcon cam at http://news.com.au/couriermail/extras/frodocam/default.htm.
Here are some stills of Freda (the female) feeding her 3 chicks. Taken today and the time is int he images.

The First Blog!

Well, I've finally done it and created a blog! Naturally, I'm in a tearing hurry so I shall return and post somehting D & M (if I can think of anything!