I see images like this and I think to myself, "Damn!", and immediately feel inadequate. I want to learn to capture images like this. The light, the stillness of the water. If I focus intently on the image, I can almost feel and smell the air. The image is simply stunning and I have a long way to go before I start capturing imagery like this.
Tag: Spring
The Dawn Phenomenon
Some of my readers may know that I have a chronic progressive illness, Type 1 diabetes. Managing Type 1 diabetes is one of those things that is easy to learn but difficult to master. It's not as simple as what I ate. One of the reasons I am writing today is to help you, the reader, understand something about Type 1 diabetes. To educate you so that you can stop saying stupid things to your friends with diabetes. Stupid things like, "Should you eat that?", or "But you're not fat!". Today I am going to explain to you a bit about the Dawn Phenomenon.
The dawn phenomenon, also called the dawn effect, is the term used to describe an abnormal early-morning increase in blood sugar (glucose) — usually between 2 and 8 a.m. — in people with diabetes.Mayo Clinic
Yep. Isn't diabetes a hoot? It seems that even when I don't eat, when I asleep, fasting, my blood glucose (BG) will increase. Just because. Well not really.
Some researchers believe the natural overnight release of the so-called counter-regulatory hormones — including growth hormones, cortisol, glucagon and epinephrine — increases insulin resistance, causing blood sugar to rise.
Ok. So wait. Not only do I have to fight diabetes while I'm going about my day but it's battling me even in my sleep -- even when I'm not eating? Why would nature do such a thing? Why?
The body prepares for waking up by secreting several different hormones.
First, between 4:00 and 6:30 a.m. it secretes cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrin. You may recognize these as the hormones involved in the "fight or flight response." In this case, their job is more benign, to give you the energy to get up and moving.
Besides giving you a burst of energy, these hormones raise blood sugar. You aren't going to be able to make any kind of energetic response if you don't have fuel, and after a long night's sleep, the fuel your body turns to to get you going is the glucose stored in the liver.
So after these stress hormones are secreted, around 5:30 a.m., plasma glucose and, in a normal person, insulin start to rise.
Though the normal person gets a rise in insulin to help cells use the morning glucose, people with diabetes don't, so instead of giving their cells a dose of morning energy, all they get is a rise in blood sugar.Jenny Ruhl
Oh! It's not just me. It's all of us. You, the person without diabetes, it happens to you too. It's a survival tactic. When we were more primitive, before fire and housing developments, we used to have to get up in the morning and go find our food. Without the rise in BG, our bodies would not have the energy to do this. We would starve.
That still works for you. But for me, it's another thing I need to think about. It's another thing I need to adjust for. It's not as simple as thinking about what I eat.
Round-lobed Hepatica
Bhavana and I went for another hike this afternoon in the Somerset County Sourland Mountain Preserve. The hike, a Wildflower Walk, was organised by the Sourland Conservancy Stewards. The hike was led by Jared Rosenbaum of Wild Ridge Plants, LLC. Jared is a naturalist advisor to the Sourland Conservancy’s Sourland Stewards program. We had met Jared's wife Rachel Makow. Rachel led a wild edibles walk through the Rock Mil Preserve two years ago, and we were a part of that.
Kiran and Shaan were supposed to come with us, but Shaan forgot he had a birthday party and bailed. Kiran had the sniffles, which she thinks is from allergies, so she stayed home.
The air was crisp and refreshing, but we soon warmed up as we stumbled along the rock-laden pathways. We traversed the rocky landscape while Jared shared his knowledge of the season’s first wildflower blooms. I don't remember the names of all the flowers Jared showed us, but this one was my favourite. I kept calling the trout lily, a yellow wildflower, the striped salmon. The group laughed every time I got it wrong.
I spotted the round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Nobilis var. obtusa) while walking, looking down as I moved along. It was one of two poking out from beneath the dry leaf bed. The ornate and mottled leaves are visible year-round. The furry-stemmed flowers arise in the earliest spring; fur on the stems and new leaves protects against April cold fronts. Solitary bees pollinate the hepatica, and forest ants disperse the seeds.
The variegated and mottled leaves are visible year-round. The furry-stemmed flowers arise in the earliest spring; fur on the stems and new leaves protects against April cold fronts. Solitary bees pollinate them, and forest ants disperse seeds.
I rented the same Tamron 90mm f/2.8 SP Di VC USD Macro that I used for the vernal pool walk. I lit the flower with my Nikon SB-600 and a Rogue Flashbender.
Do ants disperse them? I never knew that ants were involved in the life cycle of flowers! You can find the entire photo set on my Flickr.
