May Celebrations

May begins tomorrow. What is there to celebrate? Here are some ideas.

Spring. Yes - spring is already well along in most parts of the US - particularly this year. It is still worth celebrating. Spring Festivals or May Day celebrations are held in many areas of the country. Take advantage of a pretty day and spend some hours enjoying the new greenery outdoors.

Memorial Day. Toward the end of the month - there is the three day Memorial Day weekend that officially kicks off the ‘summer’ with the opening of swimming pools. Of course - the holiday also has a serious side too: honoring all those that fought and died serving in the US Armed Forces.

End of School Year. Anyone still in school has the end of the school year to celebrate. College students my end their spring semester by mid-May and most K-12 school systems are ending at the end of the month or in early June (so the end it well within sight in May). Whether or now it is a ‘graduation’ year….consider a “school’s out” celebration.

Farmers Markets Opening. Look around for your local farmers’ market. Generally they open in May. There may be early crops - like strawberries - at your local ‘pick your own’ farm. I know the sign near me says the strawberries are going to be early this year (mid-May versus end of May). Hurray for Strawberries!

National Arboretum on 4/21/2012

We went to the National Arboretum (Washington DC) last Saturday. The weather was so wonderful that we parked in the overflow parking because there were so many people that had the same idea. The azalea walk was at or near its peak as you can see from the montage below.

Growing among the azaleas were May apples that all seemed to be blooming under their umbrella of leaves.

And an unusual jack-in-the-pulpit type plant.

I’ll post pictures of the bonsai display and the exhibition of ikebana from our trip to the Arboretum later this week.

Brookside Gardens Turtles

Back in mid-March we had some very warm days here in Maryland and the turtles were very active in the pond at Brookside Gardens. Some of them still had a layer of mud on their shell from being buried in the silt. One hauled herself out onto the rocky shore and surveyed the scene. Have you ever noticed that turtles have no chin and that their eyes protrude? It gives them an ancient look.

This turtle was one of the larger turtles in the pond and had an entourage following her as she swam near the surface. Was she climbing onto the shore for a few moments of solitude?

It was not to be. Soon there was another turtle headed for the same rock.

With great effort, he pulled himself out of the water.

Are they posing for a picture or sending us a message that they want us gone?

Do they look more annoyed here in profile - as they turned to get back in the water?

They slipped back into the water and, presumably, continued their spring-time games.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 31, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Wind map - a (nearly) current map of winds in the continental US. This is an artwork and quite a learning opportunity for how the winds change over time...I find myself looking at it several times a day. 

Step inside the millennium seed bank - a video that walks through the science facility that stores seeds from 10% of the world’s plants

The Beginnings of Dr. Seuss - An Informal Reminiscence - A short piece done for Dartmouth (where he went to college) and made available online recently.

13 Nature Photos with water reflection - Enjoy! My favorite is the spoonbills (the second one).

Nature and Wildlife Photography Tips Center - from National Wildlife Federation

The Psychological Effects of Global Warming in the US - More people will experience weather extremes than ever before…and many more will develop anxiety disorders

Wind Farm in San Gorgonio - A striking picture of wind turbines in a pass in the mountains east of Los Angeles

Regular Chocolate Eaters are Thinner, Evidence Suggests - Just more data that supports my 2 squares of dark chocolate for breakfast habit!

How Animals See the World (infographic)

First Day of Spring (40 pictures) - From around the world

New inverter design shrinks size/cost of connecting solar panels to the grid - Company that created them will start selling them in May. Could shave $0.15/watt from a solar panel installation. There is a lot happening in the solar energy field right now. It's very exciting.

Re-inventing the toilet (turning human waste into power) - A Gates Foundation project. Watch the video.

April Celebrations

April is just about here. What is there to celebrate? Here are some ideas:

Wild Flowers. This is the time of year that many wild plants bloom; hikes to photograph then are a beautiful way to celebration spring. Don’t forget the flowering trees as well - dogwoods and redbuds are my favorites. Information about the wild flower festival in Smokey Mountain National Park can be found here. The one in Shenandoah National Park is planned for early May but the program schedule is already published and could be used to plan your own hikes in the park in late April.

Kites. March is the month most associated with kites but many communities hold kite festivals into April and early May when it is a bit warmer and still breezy.

Palm Sunday on the 1st, Good Friday and Passover on the 6th, and Easter on the 8th.  Observe the days in April that sustain your spiritual health.

Gardens. Formal gardens are greening in April too. Depending on the area of the country - there could be rows and rows of tulips or iris just getting ready to bloom of camelias. This time of year orchards are quite beautiful as well - full of blooms. Just as with the wild flowers - noticing the unfurling of spring is a great way to celebrate spring time.

Spring Break. Some schools have already taken a spring break…others have it early in April. A mini-vacation before the sprint to the end of the spring semester is always welcome. Celebrations can be as simple in a picnic in a local park on a warm day. In many parts of the country, showers are frequent in the spring so have a backup plan for if the day turns rainy and cool (or cold!).

Earth Day on the 22nd. Some communities have celebrations or festivals associated with Earth Day. One in my area is at Brookside Gardens.

Tulip Library in Washington DC - March 2012

When we went down to see the cherry blossoms last week - the tulips were blooming as well. The beds arch in an areas near the tidal basin at Independence Avenue and Maine Avenue. There are so many different kinds and colors. The two slide shows below show some of my favorites: the classic tulips, the ruffled petals, the fringed petals, the double and triple petals, the multi-colored...they were all there. 

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My all time favorite color combination in tulips is green and pink - like the 6th one above - although I'll have to admit the sunrise/sunset colors in the 7th one below comes in a close second. I guess this year the ruffle petals appealed to me too.

Maple Sequence - Spring 2012

The samaras are ripening on the maple in our backyard (Maryland). I started taking pictures of the buds in mid-February and have enjoyed continuing to photograph the tree as the samaras developed. They are drying now - having lost most of their rosy red color. Enjoy the collage of photos below! I’ll post again when the breezes swirl the samaras away from the tree.

Daffodils

The annual blooming of the daffodils is near its end in Maryland. They’ve bloomed alongside hyacinths - after the crocus and before the tulips. There are much larger numbers daffodils than any of the other spring bulbs. Everyone recognizes their familiar blooms.

The bulbs are planted in yards, along roadsides, at the edge of forests or rocky creeks…just about any place that is not swampy. Sometimes they are in small clumps, sometimes they make a neat row, sometimes it is easy to tell that small clumps have merged into an amoeboid shaped profusion of blooms. The daffodils seen frequently are all yellow or yellow and white. They can be miniature - a few inches high - to a foot high; the taller ones sometimes lean over after a rain because the water catches in the flower and makes it too heavy for the stem.

They bloom year after year with little tending. Their bulbs do not attract squirrels or other rodents so the gardener need only dig them up and enlarge the bed periodically to keep them from getting too crowded - it’s easy to tell when this needs to be done because they stop blooming as profusely.

Robins of Spring

Spring officially starts tomorrow…but the robins have already arrived in Maryland and they are a big part of spring. They are birds frequently seen over most of the continental US and easily recognized with the red plumage of their breast and charcoal feathers on their wings, back, and head. Their eyes are often lined in white. We get large numbers of them in the Maryland spring as they make their way north.

Sometimes they look very trim…almost skinny…when they arrive. But the spring rains bring fat worms close to the ground surface and the robins have feasts that quickly fatten them up.

Sometimes on cold mornings they fluff their feathers and the ‘red breast’ becomes even more conspicuous

As the days warm, some will continue northward while others will stay to lay eggs and raise their young. We almost always have a pair that builds a nest under our deck. Our cats can hear them from the screen enclosed portion of the deck; hours and hours of close scrutiny through a crack in the flooring ensue.  The robins enjoy the safety of the high rafter and the cats get to watch the drama of birds coming and going.

Quote of the Day - 02/29/2012

Everything mourns for the forgotten, For its own springtime dream - Anna Akhmatova in The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

~~~~~

We are forging into springtime (in the northern hemisphere) - the grand reawakening of all outdoors after the ‘sleep’ of winter. It’s is easy to spot something growing fresh and new…to be caught up in the wonder of the present and lean toward to make the future…warm summer fruits and bountiful harvest of fall.

In the midst of this waking dream of springtime, we sometimes have a niggling at the edges of our thoughts for things not quite remembered or maybe not known at all. This brings an overlay of nostalgia to springtime. For me ‘mourns for the forgotten’ does not exactly describe it. It is a savoring of what I do remember and recognition that there are some things I will never know. I’ll never know any details of my great-grandparents relationship or what really happened to my grandfather’s older sister that died as a teenager or my great-grandmother’s feelings about leaving behind all her family in Europe or how my great grandfather’s fiddle playing sounded.

March Celebrations

March is just about here. What is there to celebrate? Here are some ideas:

St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th. You don’t have to be Irish to enjoy the green. My favorite green drink is a mint chocolate milk shake but there are plenty of others. Celtic fiddle music and dancing also are popular ways to celebrate the day.

Kites. March is breezy and the temperatures getting a bit warmer make is easier to indulge in outdoor activities. March is a great month to dig out the kites from the closet and enjoy their flutters overhead. Many communities have kite festivals during March. The one in Washington DC is associated with the Cherry Blossom Festival and will be held on 3/31.

Cherry blossoms (and other flowering trees). Washington DC is celebrating 100 years of the gift from Japan this year so there are a lot of extra events from March through mid-April. The dogwoods and fruit trees will begin to bloom in many parts of the country in March … so take a walking or driving tour through an area where they grow.
 

Early flowers. Crocus, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips…the early blooms of the year. Celebrate spring in a garden - either your own or a public one.

Brookside Nature Center and Gardens - February 26

It was cool but sunny at Brookside Gardens and Nature Center in Montgomery County Maryland today. The nature center held a Maple Sugar Festival...complete with tasting of the clear sap from trees as well as ices made with the finished maple syrup. The contrast in sweetness between the sap and the syrup is pretty dramatic. The day should have been good for sap dripping into the buckets on the trees (cold nights, warmer days) but none were dripping while we were there. The event was well attended; we were fortunate to find a close in space in the parking lot for the Gardens visitor center. 

There are the beginning of spring in the garden with some fruit trees blooming...and the very early blooming bulbs (snowdrops and crocus). Lenten roses are blooming too. Daffodils are starting but now near their peak. The tulips have barely sprouted. At this time of year the shelf fungus on fallen trees is particularly noticeable because there is no foliage to hide it.

I'll post some photos from the Brookside Gardens Conservatory later in the week. It was a great day for for an early spring photography outing.

The Edge of Spring?

There seem to be a lot of signs of spring already. The winter has been very mild here in Maryland so far and there seemed to be a lot of birds singing as I made my way around the yard this morning.

The hyacinths are up and one is blooming.

The maple buds are just about ready to burst (all the buds on the lower branches have already been eaten by the deer).

Tulips are peeking through the mulch. Even the lilies are sprouting (the ones in the photograph have not been discovered by the deer yet…a clump a few feet away have been nibbled to the ground).

Are their signs of spring in your neighborhood?

January Extremes in Howard County, Maryland

Within less than a week, we’ve had the extremes of weather for January. The first was a few days in the 20s with wintery mix on the ground. As it started to slowly warm up there was lots of fog in the neighborhood and back into the forest. The deer were in the yards noshing on the grass and anything else that wasn’t covered by the ice.

The warming trend culminated in a day that was more like March than January; the temperature actually reached 60 degrees F and the flags were fluttering wildly in the wind as I walked into my local library. There is a new-to-me mural on the side of the building near the athletic fields. Looks like spring…but it’s not quite that time yet.