Road Trip in December - Arizona

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Arizona in December can be cold. It may warm up in the afternoon or the chill can linger. I was only in the southeast quadrant of the state (Tucson) but it certainly lived up to my expectations: beatuiful blue skies or interesting cloud formations, pre-historic rock art, cactus,and birds.

The pictures below show a rocky mountainside at the rest stop about an hour east of Tucson (upper left), fluttering flags at the rest stop (upper right), the motif on the top of the building at a rest stop (lower right) and a very cold bird at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

The pictures below show a grouping of cactus on the left (including saguaro that were the topic of a previous post), a spiral etched into a rock on the upper right and an open milkweed pod on the lower right (lots of Monarch butterflies come through here on their way to wintering grounds in Mexico).

Some of the plants struggle with the lower temperatures. At Tohona Chul Park, there were syrofoam cups and paper bags over some of the organ pipe and young saguaro cactus to protect them from the lows at night.

This is my previous trip to Tucson was in August. Although I was not touring during that visit, the heat would certainly have encouraged only early morning excursions. In December, coats may be required in the morning; they can usually be shed in the afternoon. 

Saguaro Variations

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The saguaro cactus - a symbol for deserts, inhabitant of the Sonoran desert. I took a number of pictures of them in the area around Tucson, AZ recently.

The first picture (above) is of a saguaro 'forest' on a rocky hillside. The pictures below are a reminder of the wildlife - particularly birds - that depend on the saguaro for food and homes. Note the way the plant tissue hardens/heals around the hole made by a woodpecker (right pcture below).

The pictures above show on unusual saguaro growing on the campus of the University of Arizona. It formed a very different structure at the top than the normal branches. There is a small branch near the base of the cactus (shown in the right picture) that looks more typical. In the pictures below, there is an atypcial saguaro on the left (unusual apex, holes where 'eyes' might be....think 'octo-saguaro'!) and a close up of the beginnings of a branch on a more typical saguaro.

Fort Worth Botanic Garden Conservatory

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The Fort Worth Botanic Garden has a small conservatory that is a good place to wander through on a cold winter day....full of moist warmth and lush plantings. I selected some of the macro photos from my visit for the montage below.

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I also enjoyed the gift shop and holiday decorations of the Garden Center building. The holiday decorations will be the topic of my posting tomorrow.

Book of the Week: Old Time Gardens (from 1901)

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The black and white pictures in Old Time Gardens by Alice Morse Earle were the ‘hook’ for me. The Internet Archive has if you are willing to read it online; it’s the way I perused it - primarily for the pictures. There is also a version of the historical book published in 2005 and 'in print' from Amazon

Early on there is a photograph of the gardens at Mount Vernon (George Washington’s home) and I knew I would want to look all the way through. I found myself checking to see if some of the named gardens/locations still existed as gardens. One was a farm that was going through restoration - although the house was mentioned more prominently than the garden.

The other thoughts I have when looking at books of this vintage are historical. The book is a perspective of what the world was like for our great grandparents or great - great grandparents. It is heartening to understand that gardens in 1901 are something that gave joy then and the same types of places today are still pleasurable.

Model Train Displays in Gardens

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Model trains are a popular display in garden conservatories at Christmas time. I've visited two recently: The US Botanic Garden in Washington DC and Brookside Gardens in Maryland.

The display at the US Botanic Garden is supplemented with magical habitats (castles and fairy houses) and models of well known buildings like Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and George Washington's Mount Vernon. There are traditional looking trains, Thomas engines and small cars that buzz very rapidly around their tracks.

2011 12 US Botanical Garden trains.jpg

The display at Brookside looks more traditional at first glance. Then little items like a yoda watching the train (upper right image below) begin to be noticed. There is a model of the Brookside conservatory included in the exhibit and it has a tiny model train running in a loop inside.

2011 12 Brookside trains.jpg

Trains among the foliage of a lush and warm conservatory is very appealing on a cold December day. Visiting one is a great December tradition to sustain or begin!

Road Trip Preparation - Reading

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I am planning an extended road trip that will involve driving more than half way across the US and back. Along with plotting routes, checking info on the internet, and making hotel reservations, I’m doing some focused reading to prepare myself for the journey. Building up my knowledge about what the natural world holds has always been an interest of mine and a theme for much of my traveling.  Here are the favorite books I’ve collected through the years and am referencing now.

 

  • Roadside Geology Series. This series of books came out in the 1980s and offers geological notes by mile marker along major highways. For the first half of the trip, I’ll be on my own so won’t be able to reference the books while I drive. Still – I’ve perused them enough to observe the geology along the highway crossing the Appalachians then the Mississippi River; skirting the hot springs of Arkansas then onto the relative flatness of a prehistoric seabed in Texas; climbing to the Edwards Plateau passing sand dunes of silicon then gypsum; crossing the Rio Grande rift.  On the way back, I’ll have a sidekick and the person not driving can provide geological commentary as we move along the interstate highway.

 

     

  • Audubon Field Guides. The one I am looking at the most right now is the Field Guide to the Southwestern State. This well formatted book with lots of illustrations gives information on habitats, flora, invertebrates, and vertebrates. This is not the optimal time of year for botanizing….but whatever there is to see, I’m primed to see it.

  • Field Guide to the Birds. The Field Guide to the Birds of Texas and Adjacent States by Roger Tory Peterson is the one I am looking at now. The copy I am referencing is probably over 30 years old --- used frequently in the past and still worth taking.

  • The Off the Beaten Path series of books is also on my bookshelf but I’m not referencing them much this time since I am sticking to the interstates to get to my destination as quickly as possible; maybe they’ll be a primary reference when I can spend more time off the main highways.

 

Have you done this kind of theme reading before a trip? If so – what was your theme and favorite book?

10 Cosmetics from the Kitchen

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A well stocked kitchen has many ingredients that can be used as toiletries as well. I've made a list of my favorites.

  1. Olive or almond oil - Great to use as oil for your skin and probably better for you than petroleum based oils. Almond oil has almost no smell but it seems to go rancid more quickly that most olive oil.
  2. Baking soda - This one has a myriad of uses…in the bath, a paste to brush your teeth, a slurry to cleanse your skin.
  3. Honey - While it is sticky - it also feels really good on your skin (try a honey facial mask!) and can be used with ground oatmeal to make a wonderful, exfoliating scrub for your face.
  4. Tea - After you use the bag to make tea, let them cool rather than throwing them in the trash and use them on your eyes while taking a 10 minute break lying down. A spray bottle of strong tea can be quite refreshing in the summer time but be careful to not get it on anything besides your skin because tea can stain.
  5. Oatmeal - Did you know that the 'juice' from oatmeal is great for your skin? You can put it in a small back and use it in your bath - squeezing out the milky juice but keeping the oatmeal from clogging the drain. It can be processed in a small food processor and used with honey for a facial scrub as well.
  6. Cucumber – Cucumber slices feel great on closed eyelids for a 10 minute break lying down. It can also be used as another ingredient in your honey/oatmeal scrub…just process it in the food processor after the oatmeal.
  7.  Salt - Can be another ingredient for a scrub…it dissolves relatively quickly so is actually very mild when used for this purpose. Dissolved in warm water, it can be used as a mouth rinse and helps heal any mouth soreness.
  8. Lemon juice - When I was growing up we sprayed our hair with lemon juice then went out in the sun to let it bleach; it only bleaches a little but is easy on the hair while it does it. It can also be mixed with water to make a great rinse for oily hair any time of the year.
  9. Vinegar - Used similarly to lemon juice. It also can be used as a spray for sunburn; it has great cooling properties. The apple cider variety is the best for your skin, but be careful not to get it on clothing that it could stain.
  10. Vanilla - A teaspoon in bathwater along with some unscented oil or Epsom salts on a winter's night - lovely. Vanilla is one of my favorite winter scents.

US Botanic Garden - Landmark Building Models

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There is a wonderful display of models of the landmark buildings of Washington DC on display at the US Botantic Garden surrrounded by the lush plantings of the conservatory. Their architectural details are created with dried plant materials like bark, pine cone scales, willow twigs, grapevine tendrils and acorn caps. If you are in the Washington DC area between 11/24 and 1/2, it is well work seeing. 

Here is my picture of the model of the Washington Monument. It even has the windows and red lights on top!

A slide show of the Supreme Court building, the Jefferson Memorial ,  the Smithsonian castle, the Museum of the American Indian, the Lincoln Memorial, and the White House is below.

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Book of the Week: The Botanical Register (1815-1828)

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The 14 volumes of The Botanical Register that Botanicus has scanned and made available online are my featured ‘book’ this week.   The botanical images in The Botanical Register are well worth a look and there are approximately 90 of them in each volume. It is easy to look at just the ‘plates’ using the Pages list on the left side of the page. On the right side of the page is a control panel for zooming in or out and downloading. It is easy to move around the image by simply dragging the view window.  I am gleaning images for my desktop slideshow to play on my second monitor while I write!

Botanicus is a freely accessible, Web-based encyclopedia of digitized historic botanical literature from the Missouri Botanical Garden Library. There is a wealth of material on the site. A short list of some others I’ve enjoyed recently includes:

Orchid Albums from the late 1800s

Journal et flore des jardins

Abbildung und Beschreibung blühender Cacteen

The Botanist's Repository for New and Rare Plants

Rumphia

Historia fisica, politica y natural de la isla de Cuba

Annales de Flore et de Pomone