I have no idea what kind of flower this is but I thought this looked like what a bee might see on his approach, or perhaps like sea serpents swimming in a sea of yellow in some alien land which hot pink shores...
bees or serpents... I'm going with serpents!

David and I?  Enough said!

I guess in order to blog, one must write something at least once in awhile.  So, I've had my 'permanent' implant inserted and a little work done on the right side as well...  no, the above is not a picture of me... it is of my sister's dog Ben taken while we were down in Wareham visiting her and her husband.  I love this picture of Ben, think it is quite appropriate as a lead-in to Halloween... he looks just a little spooked here.

Okay, secondly, I did not know there was such a thing as Toad lilies... but guess there are (at least according to my sister), and there are three pictures of that flower!  I love how the petals are attached to the stem... and the whirlamagig thing that sprouts out of the top.  Oh, and the color... love the color.

Am reading a very good book at the moment, Slow Boat to Purgatory.  I discovered this book one evening while dining with friends at a great restaurant named Papa J's (the best salmon ever and other great food)...
The owner chef dropped by our table to see how we enjoyed the meal and admitted that the stack of books neatly arranged on a table by the entrance had, indeed, been authored by him and were available for sale.  Anyway, am a little over half-way through and am enjoying the journey very much.  It is a suspense story much in the Dan Brown style.  So, if you like The DaVinci Code or Angels and Demons, give this book a try.  You can get it at the restaurant, Amazon, Barnes and Noble as well as elsewhere I'm sure.  The author is named Vernon J. Baker.

That is enough for a periodic blogger... my fingers grow numb and my brain likewise.

It was raining.

How does one entertain oneself if it's raining?

An obvious solution is to hang a hummingbird feeder by the house and then practice taking photos of the little birds as they come to feast at your 'table'.

I recently purchased a Canon 70-200mm 1:2.5 L IS II USM lens and wanted to try it out. So I mounted it on the front of the Canon 7D, placed both on the tripod and shot away. I was very happy with the bokeh produced by the lens when I opened up the aperture of the camera. I was also very pleased with the quality of the images. I did process these through camera raw and Photoshop CS5 with some editing using Topaz software (not on all the images but some).

Mammograms don't tell the whole story

On February 9 of this year I was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), sometimes called infiltrating lobular carcinoma. The key factor here is that this type of cancer is not detected by mammograms. I have been very faithful in having annual mammograms and since these always came back with a 'you are fine' indication never worried about contracting breast cancer. These cancers do show up in ultrasound and MRI scans.

ILC is the second most common type of breast cancer after invasive ductal carcinoma (cancer that begins in the milk-carrying ducts and spreads beyond it). According to the American Cancer Society, more than 180,000 women in the United States find out they have invasive breast cancer each year. About 10% of all invasive breast cancers are invasive lobular carcinomas. (About 80% are invasive ductal carcinomas.)

Invasive means that the cancer has “invaded” or spread to the surrounding breast tissues. Lobular means that the cancer began in the milk-producing lobules, which empty out into the ducts that carry milk to the nipple. Carcinoma refers to any cancer that begins in the skin or other tissues that cover internal organs — such as breast tissue. All together, “invasive lobular carcinoma” refers to cancer that has broken through the wall of the lobule and begun to invade the tissues of the breast. Over time, invasive lobular carcinoma can spread to the lymph nodes and possibly to other areas of the body.

Although invasive lobular carcinoma can affect women at any age, it is more common as women grow older. According to the American Cancer Society, about two-thirds of women are 55 or older when they are diagnosed with an invasive breast cancer. ILC tends to occur later in life than invasive ductal carcinoma — the early 60s as opposed to the mid- to late 50s.

Some research has suggested that the use of hormone replacement therapy during and after menopause can increase the risk of ILC.