Jasmine And Her Tousle With Poor Air Quality

Jasmine loves to take showers these days. She goes into the bathroom and takes a proper shower, and if she doesn't get a chance to do that, she splashes in her water bowl. Here she is with her tummy still wet from having taken a shower earlier in the morning.



She likes to hang out on her play station and play with her toys.







Well, she does for a short while and then she starts flying...



























...from chair to chair (and even to lamps, even though lamps aren't 'allowed').




But she never stays in one place for long...













Back to the play station...













On to the top of the air filter (this too is forbidden territory because she could reach the electrical cable and chomp on it - not a good idea!)

The air filter has always been placed three or four feet from Jazzy's cage and we thought this should work for the entire room.

But we live in an apartment block near a major road and the air quality is often poor. Neighbors use strong cleaning agents, laundry detergents and fabric softeners so that regularly throughout the day some chemical agent enters the apartment. Pesticides are used on the nearby fields to safeguard the crops. There are also at least three building sites for new apartment building complexes within one to two blocks of our place. Several times a day there is a constant stream of cars and buses going to and from the school at the end of our road. To sum it all up: that's a fair amount of pollution.

African Greys are known to have allergies and be sensitive to air quality. Jazzy already had allergies before she came to live with us. She scratches at the back of her neck, and I've noticed that this regularly coincides with when I'm experiencing difficulties with the air myself.

Recently Jazzy had become constantly very very loud and even aggressive. She has also been scratching tonnes more and, as a result, has lost even more of the little feathers on her neck, leaving soft down exposed. No matter how many toys I gave her or how much I tried to entertain her it didn't solve her dissatisfaction.

The air quality around here has become noticeably worse in the last month or so and in desperation, after weeks of enduring Jazzy's very loud and poor behavior, I put the air filter a foot away from her cage and pointed the vents under it. It's absolutely incredible how changed she is since then: she's extremely gentle, she chats but doesn't heckle, she's playing with her toys like never before. Her aggression is totally gone. She's bright and sparky again - a happy bird!

With such a dramatic change in her behavior from being so consistently difficult to transforming into just about angelic with the filter close to her, I wonder how many other pet birds there are who are having difficulties with the air quality around them? For more information about the air filter see previous post: "Air Filters For Asthma, Allergies and Chemical Sensitivity". I'm so pleased to see her happy again. She plays with her beads...




...chomps on her straw toys...










...stops to take a breather...















...and of course, does silly things for fun and to make us all laugh.

The Colors of Autumn

Colors in autumn can be vibrant.













Or more subdued...














The sunlight can be mellow and the air misty, slightly dulling the colors in the afternoon.

Lake views can be dazzling, but the light has an almost metallic cool sheen.


The pale cornflower blue contrasts nicely with the plowed beige fields.







The hills are full of color.






Looking more closely shows individual trees with more vibrant shades...




...and even more closely gives a good view of the deep brown of the bark, punctuating the yellow, orange and even slightly green of the leaves.








The brightness of these grasses peeping up over the hedge defiantly challenging the autumn cool to touch them.





The cows have come down from mountains and are lazing in the low afternoon sun.








Most of the fields are plowed over in autumn; some still display vines with turned leaves.






Brass-colored leaves frame the lake scene.














Autumnal flower baskets adorn the towns.











Wisps of autumn are apparent on the bushes.













Bright cheery berries make up for the gentler sun.





Acorns show their splendor...














Sour sweet hard apples are ready for the eating...












Individual leaves have their glory...

Each one lighting up a single tree...

















Every tree adding to the brilliance and wonder of a rock-hewn valley. It seems like the colors of autumn are harvested from the abundance of the summer sun and served up to us just before the sleep of winter begins.

Egg Tempera Painting Of Sweet Williams

This is the egg tempera painting of Sweet Williams that I completed last week. It's approximately 12 x 5 inches.


Egg tempera paint dries almost as soon as it's applied, so many short paintbrush strokes are needed to make up the picture. In addition, if it is left too thick, egg cracks when it dries, which means that the paint must be applied in thin layers to avoid cracking of the painting.

Egg is transparent, allowing light to enter the different layers of paint and be reflected back again, giving the painting greater depth and sparkle. Almost like a jewel, the picture becomes more brilliant as more layers are added, giving it more facets for light to play on. This does mean that painting with egg tempera is a time-consuming process, making larger ones that much more challenging - but it's well worth it.I'm working on a beach scene now, which is 20 x 15 inches.

The Importance of Knowing About Our Chemical Environment, Part II

Being well-informed is all well and good, but situations also occur that as individuals we may not, in the short-term, necessarily be able to do anything about. We're surrounded by materials that are proving on a larger scale and varying conditions to be more problematic to the health than previously understood.

These two articles provide a good introduction into problems that can arise:

1. Prolonged respiratory problems for oil spill clean-up volunteers
2. The 9/11 Cover-Up

The first article was published in September in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, by the American Thoracic Society and is described at EurekAlert!. The article says that researchers from Spain say that workers and volunteers who helped in the clean-up effort after the 2002 Prestige Oil spill off the coast of Galicia, Spain, exhibit prolonged respiratory symptoms resulting from their exposure. More than 100,000 people participated in the clean-up effort.

Dr. Francisco Pozo-Rodriguez, M.D., lead investigator of the study, wrote: "To our knowledge, no previous study has explored long-term respiratory effects in clean-up workers of other oil spills. Our findings suggest that participation in clean-up work of oil spills may result in prolonged adverse respiratory health effects 1-2 years after exposure. Increasing awareness of the potential chronic respiratory effects among clean up workers of future oil spills, in combination with appropriate hygiene regulations, is strongly recommended."

The second article, cited above, was published in the Special Anniversary Issue of Discover magazine in October. The online version of this article can be seen here.

This article reports that up to 70% of first responders are ill as a result of 9/11 contamination. "About 70,000 New Yorkers so far have listed themselves with the World Trade Center Health Registry, a database that tracks the health impact of the 9/11 attacks. The registry has been criticized for excluding large numbers of those potentially sickened outside a designated one-square mile area. Despite the insistent denials of city and federal officials, tens of thousands of New Yorkers were unnecessarily exposed to a chemical brew without even the most rudimentary precautions."

The article continues: "Since the attacks, various scientific studies have demonstrated that New Yorkers are engulfed in billows of illness and disease related to 9/11. First the cough and mental health problems caught the attention of local doctors. Then chronic respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions began to surface. Recently a program at Mount Sinai noted the emergence of rare blood cancers among 9/11 first responders. Experts predict that more problems will surface in the next few decades."

Later it describes: "Heat up a ballpoint pen, a computer, an office sofa, electric wire, or any other object you might find in a high-rise and there comes a point when you can inhale it. The Twin Towers contained tens of thousands of computer terminals, each housing about four pounds of lead, and an untold number of fluorescent bulbs that contained mercury. Released metal particles from the smoldering pit of the World Trade Center were so fine that they could easily slip past a paper face mask and reach deep into lung tissue, where they are poorly soluble in lung fluid. Metals and glass can remain trapped there for long periods of time and make their way into the heart."

Thomas Cahill, a professor of physics and atmospheric sciences at the University of California at Davis has led some of the most exhaustive scientific studies of 9/11-related toxins. From his studies he concluded: "The fuming World Trade Center debris pile was a chemical factory that exhaled toxins in a particularly dangerous form that could penetrate deep into the lungs of rescue workers and local residents".

The Discover 9/11 article is long and sobering, but it's well worth the time it takes to read it in full. I became aware of this article by reading a post in a really great blog called BLDG BLOG by Geoff Manaugh. His post, "Inhaling 9/11", is thought-provoking with its presentation of a new viewpoint, along with a few incredible photographs. This too is very well worth reading.

Large scale disasters present us with difficulties that sometimes are not completely surmountable without injury. But foreknowledge can empower us to make better decisions. And if, on a smaller scale, we are confronted with a home or office fire, or some other incident, we may be able to avoid exposure through making choices we might not otherwise make. Knowledge provides us with a fighting chance: the power of choice.

The Importance Of Knowing About Our Chemical Environment, Part I

These days it pays more than ever to be well-informed. Becoming well-informed is not always easy. It requires that we glean information from reliable sources and that the currently accepted facts are indeed correct.

Modern society relies so heavily on new technology, which is wonderful in itself, but is not always fully tested in its possible short-term and long-term ramifications for human health. There have been an increasing number of articles recently that illustrate this lack of knowledge in our use of different substances. It also demonstrates that we can't simply rely on retail and manufacture to ensure that what is sold to consumers is safe in terms of our health.

On October 12th, BBC News published an article: "Housework 'can cause asthma'". The first paragraph reads: "A study found using household cleaning sprays and air fresheners as little as once a week raised the risk of asthma." It continues: "Spray air fresheners, furniture cleaners and glass cleaners carried the highest risk."

The article points out that heavy use of such products has already been linked with occupational asthma, but studies now also show that even little home use increases the risk by 15% or causes asthma in one out of seven adults. If the sprays and cleaning agents were used more often than once a week, then the risk could be higher by 30-50%.

The statistics given in this article are enough to suggest that if we limit our use, or even better, if we eliminate them altogether, and pursue other ways which are non-toxic to clean our homes, we'll reduce the risk of respiratory health problems for ourselves and our families. For more about non-toxic cleaners see previous post: Cleaning With Non-Toxic Substances.

An article published by The Independent on October 21st is entitled: "Legal threat to Apple after toxic chemicals discovered in iPhone". The article states that "Greenpeace bought an iPhone in the United States in June and had 18 of its materials and components independently tested for toxic substances. Half of them tested positive for bromine, 'suggesting widespread use' of brominated flame retardants; these are suspected of a range of threats to health, and the bromine itself can cause pollution when disposed of as waste."

The article continues: "Four items also tested positive for antimony, a toxic mineral often used with flame retardants, and others contained very small amounts of chromium and lead. ... But the greatest headache for Apple is the discovery of phthalates, used to make plastic more flexible, in the cable coating. The chemicals are suspected of causing birth defects and gender-bending effects. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) says that under Californian law, products containing them must carry a warning label."

This following statement is the one I find most interesting: "Greenpeace says that all the chemicals found would be allowed under European law..." It is under the discretion of the local governing law to determine which chemicals are permitted to be used. It takes time for scientific findings to percolate through to law. In the meantime, citizens may be subjected to exposure to chemicals that are known to be injurious to the health, but that are not yet proclaimed illegal for use. And companies dealing in different countries may know this very well and exploit it to sell products in ways that suit them, rather than in the best interests of the consumer.

The particular products cited in these articles is certainly of interest, but there are other products on sale that almost certainly contain similar chemicals. As an example, soft plastics are much more widely available than they used to be even a year or two ago. And they're used in a vast range of products. If they contain these chemicals then it would be wise to avoid bringing too many of them into our routine use. If in doubt, it's worth finding out, or, if investigation is too difficult or time-consuming, to at least avoid them whenever possible rather than to blindly purchase them.

Ultimately we choose where and how to spend our money. If we select wisely we might at least minimize our risk for illness in the future. If we're already experiencing physical discomfort, such as asthma or chemical sensitivity for example, we might be able to reduce the symptoms if we stop using these and similar products.

It's hard to fathom the possibility of being ill when we're well, even if we've been ill before. It seems to be part of the human psyche to feel invincible and strong. But when something hits us, we soon realize our frailty.

Snow On The Jura Mountains, France

There's snow on the Jura mountains! It was very pretty this morning, all pristine white.

It looked like the mountains had been dusted with powdered sugar.
The air was clear and lovely to breathe.







Sometimes clouds wafted by.










The sky was dazzling blue.











The colors were gorgeous.Occasionally it seemed entire peaks would evaporate.
Snow is a wonderful thing and it brought with it a very lovely day.

Egg Tempera Painting of L'Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix Mountains

Here's the painting I finished early this week. It's a 24" x 7" egg tempera painting of l'Aiguille du Midi in the Chamonix mountains, France.


The Aiguille du Midi is the sharp pinnacle at the top of the glacier. Here you can see a close-up photo of it. A few years ago we took the cable car up to the peak in the summertime, and even though it was hot down in the valley, it was freezing up there!






The reference photo for the painting was taken a couple of years ago from the mountain range across the valley.





We were sitting out at the restaurant at Le Brevent having a fantastic chocolate cake.









Behind the l'Aiguille du Midi is Mt. Blanc, and as a result of our memorable cake we now happily, and shamelessly, refer to it as Mt. Gateau.

Jasmine Goes To Market In Her Winter Travel Cage

Just over a week ago, Jasmine went to the market in her winter cage: the Wingabago travel cage. To see her summer travel cage see previous posts: Jasmine Goes Backpacking and Jasmine Goes To The Market.






Despite the cooler weather, the market was out in full.







We raced to get roast chickens before they sold out. The owner of the stall jokes with us about Jazzy. Fortunately, Jazzy is completely ignorant of our dubious behavior with regard to these meals.Jazzy loves to come to the market because she's adored and admired from beginning to end of the outing. She has many fans and just soaks it all up. If we don't take her out as expected, she lets us know at home that we should be going somewhere!

One time we were in a hurry and couldn't stay long; we rushed in got a chicken and rushed home. We took Jazzy even though it was a short outing. For the rest of the day she was most put out by not having stopped to say hello to her friends.



We headed up the street looking at all the stalls, laden with interesting and enticing food.














There are more cheeses here than it's possible to count.













We usually only go a few paces and Jazzy meets someone new.











We passed the colorful flower stall, working our way up to the cafe.













This time there were three cups because we were lucky still to have our friend with us.


More friends come to say hi to Jazzy.

She was getting a little chilly so I had put my scarf on the top of her cage.It's loads of fun watching everyone enjoy Jazzy. Some feed her apple and banana from a container we bring with us. Jazzy loves apple and banana and we never go out without them. It's very clear that she feels no trip is complete without them.








On the way home she cozied up to Tony because he's always warm and he wrapped her cage in his coat.

The Waterfront: A Day In Venice, Italy, Part IV

Near the waterfront there was a small open market. It was nice to walk along with the trees making it very pleasant. Continuing along the walkway opens up onto the waterfront.






The waterfront was bustling with activity. There were boats everywhere docked along the sidewalk.






The harbor was also filled with boats.





Lots of people were waiting to get on boats of all types. (Click on photos to enlarge)




It's very striking to see the long line of buildings right down close to the water.The buildings on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore look majestic from here.

There are so many beautiful sights to see.










Looking closer usually brings even more interesting details of architecture and decoration.
The four cranes visible in this one photo shows that quite a bit of construction or reconstruction is taking place.
The Piazza San Marco is an incredible place. There are more archways than it seems possible to count.













The pigeons provide additional entertainment.











There were many people here, having come to visit from all over the world.


In all directions there's something grand that catches the eye.









The buildings are huge and incredibly ornate.










The attention to detail in sculpture and artwork is almost too magnificent to fully appreciate in just one visit.A proper study of the city would take dedicated enthusiasm and time.

On a more leisurely note, we sat down for a refreshing drink to absorb the atmosphere of the surroundings.













Looking to the right we could see beautiful buildings...












...and to the front, the island of San Giorgio Maggiore...














This quaint image is my most favorite of all that we saw on our visit to the city of Venice.