More Farmer's Market Goodness

It was another absolutely beautiful day at the farmer's market and as I had my camera on me I enjoyed taking lots of photos.

















Above: My loot on the kitchen table, unpacking when I got home.
Below: I use every part possible, even chopping up and sauteeing the stems of the Swiss chard and dandelion greens.

Friday: Typical Ithaca Weather

Above: I took this beautiful shot of the view at the end of my street on Friday afternoon. Just minutes earlier the view at the end of the vet school entrance at the intersection of Tower road and Dryden/Route 366 looked like this-- typical Ithaca sky:

Then the sun broke through the clouds and the same scene looked like this:

At the bottom of Dryden road, turning to go to East Hill plaza:


Heading back from East Hill plaza:

And although I didn't manage to cut the power lines out of this image, I think this photo captures best the dark greyness that permeates Ithaca so much of the time, especially contrasted with the blue skies and sunny weather we've been having lately:

Southside

I had a fabulous time tonight at Southside, the low income vet clinic run by Cornell vet students. I've been going quite a bit lately-- four times since I've come back from California this summer. Tonight my classmate and I saw six patients between the two of us, not too bad for beginners...

Soaking Up The Sun, Rolling With The Punches

Above: Me relaxing with a first year's puppy on the lawn in front of the vet school.

Today was back to summer, a gorgeous hot, sunny day. I didn't spend much time studying, instead choosing to hang out and spend lunch with my classmates and then run errands downtown.

Although it was perfect weather, I had a bit of a rough start. I couldn't fall asleep last night because my throat hurt and then I woke up at 5 am (and my alarm wasn't set untill 6, sometimes I just wake up early, wide awake) which meant I got a total of about 3 hours of sleep. Ouch. I was barely awake for the first two lectures of the morning, which is a shame because they were both excellent professors (the first was the Poisonous Plants class I am auditing and the second was an endocrinology lecture). So at 9 am when we had a ten minute break, I went up to the bake sale in the hospital and bought 2 (!) brownies and a large chai tea. Coffee gives me an incredible headache and so does chai tea sometimes (unless it is decaffeinated) but I needed something to keep me awake. The huge sugar rush and small kick of caffeine did the job. This isn't something I would have even considered doing last year-- I mean who eats 2 brownies early in the morning? But this year I am much more pragmatic and simply do what I need to in order to get by. Rolling with the punches, making life as easy as possible when vet school is intrinsically difficult.

The exhaustion kicked in around 4 pm and I napped from around 5 to 6 (which is a shame because I had hoped to get in a bike ride then but needed the sleep more) then went back to school for a shelter medicine lecture. I came back home and ate dinner with IntrepidHomeImprovementMom and TennisStar and then we went out to Purity ice cream in honor of TennisStar's first day of high school.

It's late now and I am about to head to bed but it is such a perfect evening. The air feels like it is caressing your skin, it just started to rain and there is a fresh, earthy smell in the air. Makes me think of the lyrics from one of my favorite Indigo Girls songs, 'Mystery':

Oh you set up your place
in my thoughts
Moved in and made my
thinking crowded

Now we're out in the back
with the barking dogs
My heart the red sun,
your heart the moon clouded

I could go crazy
on a night like tonight
When summer's beginning
to give up her fight

When every thought's a possibility
And voices are heard,
but nothing is seen

Why do you spend this time
with me
May be an equal mystery

I know I haven't written much about my school work and what I'm learning but I plan to... soon. For now I am going to fall asleep listening to the soothing sound of a late summer downpour.

All Of A Sudden It's Fall

All of a sudden it's fall. Just like that, overnight, on labor day weekend the weather changed from downright hot to having a cool, crisp fall nip in the air and the beginning of the moist dirt smell of falling leaves. I was loving the summer weather, but fall is quite nice too. On Saturday I went for a lovely bike ride on my new bike, a hybrid that I purchased off of Craigslist. The corn is much taller than me now (above). My bike ride took me through some beautiful, though relatively deserted, countryside. There were farms in the distance (below):

And when I came upon the few scattered houses, they were often beautiful in a rustic way that reminds me of old Deerfield, MA, near where I went to college:


I ended my ride coasting down Ellis Hollow into the sunset. Ithaca is quite bike friendly, as you can see from the caution, watch for bikes sign!

I also spent some time outside studying in the glider:


I've been letting my cats out in the small enclosed side yard area off my private entrance. I didn't think they would be able to catch anything in such a small space but Simon surprised me by killing a shrew that ventured out from under the stone steps. I was horrified. Luckily, he killed it under a minute and a half so at least it was a quick death for the shrew. I guess they are extra vulnerable lacking eyes...



Above: Simon carrying his kill in his mouth. He played with it for hours and finally deposited it in my sandal of all places. Yuck!

I tried to show IntrepidHomeImprovementMom the shrew but she was busy cooking an amazing arugla and tomato pesto pasta sauce and was grossed out. I forget that she isn't a vet student and doesn't want to look at dead things while she is eating.

Below: Another amazing farmer's market dinner, this time prepared by IntrepidHomeImprovementMom:

Fall Bounty: Farmer's Market Bliss

Last weekend I did something I've been wanting to do for years: I joined a CSA (community supported agriculture). You basically buy a share in the farm. I joined Early Morning Organic Farm. They sell at the Ithaca farmer's market Saturday and Tuesday and when you buy a share you can pick up as much food as you can eat in a week. It's been absolutely awesome! And I got my landlady to join too. It's a great way to support local farms and get lots of super fresh food at a great price.

More farmer's market photos:



Above: Cooking my bounty. I cook everything-- the leaves from the beets, the stems from the Swiss chard. Waste not want not. Below: my refrigerator after a trip to the farmer's market.

Ithaca on a clear, sunny day:

I Get Around: Taking It All In

I set a new record for attending rounds this week. When I was on my emergency rotation one of the residents told me that my role as a second year was to be like a sponge and soak up as much information as possible (and also to talk as little as possible according to her). I went to:

1. Radiology rounds 7:30 Monday morning. Saw a case I had seen on my emergency rotation, a dog that presented with extreme respiratory distress, was very difficult to intubate and radiographs showed a severely constricted trachea. I learned that the dog was probably bleeding into not only its lungs but also the trachea and that this constellation of signs indicates rat bait toxicity. The owners didn't know of any exposure but the dog was free roaming.
2. Large animal rounds 7:30 Wednesday morning. Saw two fawns with presumed aspiration pneumonia and a cow with a broken back.
3. Community Practice Service rounds 7:30 Friday morning. Discussed a case of feline hyperthyroidism. Learned that the current thinking on why there has been an epidemic of feline hyperthyroidism in the last twenty years is that it is likely due to either the chemicals in flame retardants or chemicals in fish diets like tuna flavored cat food.
4. Anatomic Pathology rounds noon on Friday. Saw a wallaby that died of toxoplasmosis. Learned Australian marsupials are very prone to toxoplasmosis. Saw a woodchuck that died of hepatocellular carcinoma that ruptured and caused a bleed into the abdomen. Apparently hepatocellular carcinoma is very common in woodchucks.
   
5. Clinical Pathology rounds 1:00 pm Friday. Saw a cat that succumbed to a yeast infection, there were tons of yeast in the urine. Learned yeast infections are not uncommon in patients on long-term antibiotics, and this cat was also on dexamethasone (a steroid that suppresses the immune system) for IBD.