Rose Bouquet

A dozen roses wrapped in cellophane and tissue paper…or maybe in a large crinkly glass vase with a florist's bow.  I like the ones that: 

• Are the colors of the sunrise. There are so many colors to choose from and it is not even necessary to use a florist; larger grocery stores have a selection.
• Smell like roses. This is more challenging. Somehow the breeding for beauty and durability has reducing the fragrance in most cases.
• Start out as slightly opened buds and then unfurl. The partially open flower is the most beautiful to me but I also like the flowers to unfurl and drop their petals so that I can scatter them in a favorite flowerbed.
• Have healthy stems. It is always a disappointment when the stem begins to bend just a few inches below the flower - either from the weight of the flower or because of some damage to that part of the stem. I cut the stem past the flower end of the bend and float the flower with its shortened stem in a bowl of water.

They are a welcome occasional gift; I’d not appreciate them as much if they were bought too frequently. As it is, I get them once or twice a year and they act as a spark to remember the event.

I like roses on their bush even more. I enjoyed a trek through the rose garden in Tyler, Texas a few years ago even though it was a very cold morning (and I did not have a coat with me). And the rose garden is one of my favorite parts of Brookside Gardens….but that will be another post and will have to wait until the roses start their 2012 blooming.

Quote of the Day - 2/21/2012

The very air here is miraculous, the outlines of reality change with the moment.  The sky sucks up the land and disgorges it.  A dream hangs over the whole region, a brooding kind of hallucination. – John Steinbeck, 1941 as quoted in John Annerino in Canyons of the Southwest: A Tour of the Great Canyon Country from Colorado to Northern Mexico

~~~~~

I’m remembering vacations in the southwest…both the visual and the warmth…while I am in Maryland with the outdoor temperature in the 20s and the trees still leafless.

The Steinbeck quote evokes the place quite well.

Maybe in all places ‘the outlines of reality change with the moment’ but it is easier to see in the canyons with the ratio of rock to vegetation so high. The shadows have more significance. Consider that ‘the moment’ may be elastic rather than finite time element depending on perspective. What is a moment in the geologic timeline of a canyon?

And the sky. I am drawn to the southwest by the sky as much as anything else. The daytime blue seems so pure…the sunlight so bright. The light bleaches during mid-day or adds golden color in the morning or evening - changing the scenes. The nights are not so polluted with light that the stars blink out. Does just about everyone spend more time looking at the night sky in the Southwest?

Personal Rhythms - Annual

This blog item is the fourth in a series about the rhythms we choose for our lives. Today the topic is annual rhythms.

~~~~~

What activities do you do every year? I find that putting these on a calendar (either electronic or paper) is very worthwhile - so that I don’t forget. I’ve listed some examples below.

• Birthdays/anniversaries/other yearly celebrations. I set up a re-occurring item on my electronic calendar for these.
• Vacation. Taking at least a week off to do something completely different than the other weeks of the year helps sustain your focus on what is truly important in your life. Generally I reserve the days on my calendar well before I know for certain what I am going to do.
• Physical/medical checkup. Most medical plans encourage some kind of annual checkup. Use the data to make appropriate life style changes (and minimize medication over the long term).
• Thorough house cleaning. Many people still do ‘spring cleaning’ because it works to keep the home in great shape. Some elements of thorough house cleaning (that aren’t part of weekly or monthly cleanings) might be:
  • Cleaning windows inside and out
  • Taking everything out of a storage area, cleaning it, putting back only what is still needed, donating/trashing the rest
  • Getting all the spiderwebs and debris from the garage floor and ceiling
  • Cleaning under furniture (may involve moving the furniture)
  • Checking the pantry for old/forgotten/expired cans or boxes of food
  • Emptying the refrigerator, cleaning the shelves (hopefully not finding any long lost items that should have been eaten or thrown away long ago)
• Resolutions. Most people do this at the beginning of the year but it can be done any time. The idea is to set some longer term goals…and the ways you will measure them for the next 12 months.

 Are there other things that should be added to this list for annual consideration?

~~~~~

Previous posts in this series about personal rhythms can be found here: monthly, weekly, daily.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 4, 2012

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

Magnetotactic Bacteria found in Death Valley National Park - evidently these bacteria are unique because they can biomineralize both greigite and magnetite; they may prove enabling to mass produce these minerals

Severe Python Damage to Florida's Native Everglades Animals Documented in New Study - Near complete disappearance of raccoons, rabbits, opossums in the southern part of the Everglades where the pythons have been the longest (11 years)

Learning-Based Tourism an Opportunity for Industry Expansion - lifelong learning and personal enrichment travel increasing among affluent and educated people

Are Diet Soft Drinks Bad for You? - A study finds that the answer is ‘yes’ if you drink one or more a day.

The National Mall gets more efficient LED lighting - Note the paragraph at the end of the article about the phase-out of incandescent bulbs

Snowy owl Invasion - Video from the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory

iRobot ventures into Telemedicine - The company that makes the Roomba robo-vacuum is entering the hospital robotic arena

Innovation without Age Limits - More complex innovation takes more training…and that often takes time.

Yellowstone in winter (video) - a short video just over 4 minutes…full of vignettes of animals…snow…mists

Evolution of the Businessman (infographic) - Does the very bottom (Today’s Businessman) jive with your observations?

Brookside Gardens Conservatory - Feb. 1

The conservatory at Brookside Gardens in Montgomery County, Maryland is a warm moist building full of plants that need protection from winter. It is one of my favorite plant places, particularly when the plants outdoors are still mostly dormant from the winter. Yesterday was warm enough to enjoy outdoors but the plants were still braced for winter….so the conservatory was the place to get the ‘green plant’ fix. One side of the conservatory was somewhat in disarray…not quite recovered from the model train exhibit that is always there for the winter holidays. Even with that work going on, the conservatory is a mass of greenery. There are orchids and bananas and bird of paradise; there is even a corner of cactus. The water trickling through and the smells of lush vegetation make this a place to savor. Enjoy my photos from yesterday!

 

Pictures from the outdoor part of Brookside Gardens posted here.

Brookside Gardens on Feb. 1

It was a sunny, spring-like day in Montgomery County, Maryland - a perfect day for a walk around Brookside Gardens. Crews were out trimming trees and taking the holiday lights off bushes and trees. The beds of bulbs were covered with nets to keep the squirrels at bay. Enjoy the photos from my walk. I’ll share photos from the conservatory tomorrow.

Lacy and wonderful even after exposure to the winter cold. This kale actually looks better now than it did earlier in the season.

The only tree blooming profusely....doesn't this scream 'spring time'?

I've been taking pictures of this shelf fungus growing on a stump since last fall. I love the green in it.

Soon there will be loads of daffodils but there are only a few this early. These were in a sunny but protected bed along one of the forest paths.

Brilliant colors...before the leaves appear.

Like the kale - the nandinas have been through the winter and still look beautiful.

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.

Quote of the Day - 1/28/2012

Art is a method of laying claim to the physical world. - Joan Aiken in Morningquest

~~~~~

Maybe this is why I enjoy photography so much. It has become a favorite method for me to ‘claim the physical world.’ I know that with camera in hand, my attention is more focused on details of light and intensity (or not) of color. And then when I look at it later on a large screen, there is often more in the image than I realized.

Fortunately for me, digital cameras are a technology that has advanced rapidly; it no longer takes a lot of fiddling with technology to capture the images I want. Being in the right place and composition are the challenge. The camera I’ve enjoyed for the past year of so is a Canon PowerShot SD4500IS 10 MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD, Brown . All the problems I’ve had with it have been self-inflicted (leaving the SD card in the laptop or the battery in the charger). It’s small enough that I carry it in a padded area of my purse or a pocket of my travel vest; it’s always near at hand to capture an image I want to keep in more than my memory. The only extra purchase I’ve made is a second battery for a long day/lots of images captured.

What is your favorite ‘method of laying claim to the physical world?’

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 28, 2012

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

• Psychology of Color infographic - Hmm…never paint a baby’s room yellow because it will cause them to cry more…other factoids. A snapshot (unreadable) version of the infographic is at right...follow the link to get more explanation and larger size (if it still isn't large enough on your monitor - click on the graphic to enlarge further)
• Food Combining - for optimal health and weight - Goodbye meat and potatoes in the same meal (not a good combination). This article is an easy read with good embedded graphics. Maybe what we eat is not as bad as how we combine it?
• 2011 was 9th warmest year on record - A video that shows global temps from 1884 to 2011 from NASA
• Paper Models of Polyhedra - Wow…lots of shapes you can make with paper with templates to help you do it.
• Smithsonian fire in January 1865 - report and pictures of the event…lessons from that fire applied to the restoration of the building and other museums.
• Nutrient Lists - From the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory. Lists of foods either alphabetically or sorted by content for common nutrients.
• American Verse Project - An electronic archive of volumes of American poetry prior to 1920. If you are in the mood for poetry and don’t have a book already bought, this a great place to go.
• The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway - Lots of photographs from during the Blue Ridge Parkway construction. This site is also an example of richness of presenting information digitally where it can be accessed from many perspectives rather than in book form.
• Great Meals with Great Grains - a blog about using whole grains to ‘provide culinary excitement without hours of labor.’ I’ve tried amaranth, quinoa and rolled oats; maybe it’s time to try some others too.
• How to store fruits and vegetables without plastic - A fact sheet from the Berkeley Farmers’ Market
• Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing (TED talk) - Is this the future for manufacturing in America?

Quote of the Day - 1/22/2012

There is a hint of desert in the yellow plains, a measure of openness and the suggestions of surprises. - The Kookaburras' Song: Exploring Animal Behavior in Australia, 1st Edition

~~~~~

This quote is from a book about Australia but it could just as easily be about ‘yellow plains’ anywhere in the world.

I am familiar with the yellow plains in North America. The ones that I think of first are the seemingly endless fields of ripe wheat. The wind ripples through the grain creating waves and eddies that are visible nearby but further away the eye smoothes the vision. The vastness of the wheat field is the same as the fastness of the blue sky above. Both appear infinite. And so it is that anything that breaks the monotony of the field or the sky will be a surprise - a hawk…a row of telephone poles…a combine beginning the harvest.  You notice these things more when the background is just the wheat and the sky.

The other area is the high plains of the Texas Panhandle where scrubby grass grows. It is green when the rains come but turns to a straw yellow when it is dry. In this land there are miles and miles of very flat land broken only by the highway and the yucca along the fence rows. There may be some occasional cows and derelict grain elevators along railroad tracks. And then, the biggest surprise of all, Palo Duro Canyon.

Do you have images of ‘yellow plains’ in your memories…what were surprises for you?

Gleanings for the Week Ending January 14, 2012

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

Where the tech workers are - Percentage of computer, engineering, science workers in the adult civilian workforce by state collected by the American Community Survey

Shifts in Employment - Jobs are reduced by information technology at a faster rate than new ones are being created.

Getting Things Done - the collection of David Allen’s free articles detailing tips for how to organize yourself better

The Sands of Time - The 2011 collection at The Poetry Porch edited by Joyce Wilson; in honor of Julia Budenz

Colorado Mountain Hail May Disappear in a Warmer Future - A new model predicts the hail will fall as rain instead

Insect Macro Photography - A collection of photos…also includes pointers to some how-to guides (insectography and DaveWilsonPhotography)

Big Bend National Park - This is a park I have not visited…but would like to. This is a good summary of what it has to offer.

Cape Code Soft Molasses Cookies - these sound yummy…something I’ll try for the next special occasion at our house

Flavor Pairings - pointers to multiple lists…a great resource for trying out some now-to-you food/spices pairings

Community Supported Agriculture - find a farm near you that sells produce through ‘shares’…something I am considering for the upcoming growing season. There is one very near where I live.

Earrings as Travel Mementos

Spoons, shot glasses or mugs are popular mementoes of travel. I've chosen earrings. They don't have the state or country name emblazoned on them...but they bring back good memories quite well. Some other advantages they have as mementoes:

• they're small so easy to pack
• they're relatively inexpensive, and 
• I get reminded of a travel adventure every time I wear them! 

Some of my favorites are shown below.

From Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico in the past decade...but also reminding me of earlier visits. The first was in the 1970s.

From the Black Hills of South Dakota more than a decade ago. It was an early summer visit: baby buffalo, pink granite outcrops, pine pollen dust everywhere, delicate crystals in a cave, gold mine.

From Corning and Ithaca, New York. Many trips in the past 5 years.

From Falling Water (Frank Lloyd Wright house) in Pennsylvania. It was a road trip taken when my daughter was learning to drive - a stop on the homeward bound part of the loop.

From a very short visit to Key West, Florida with my sister. We were late driving down from Fort Lauderdale but the drive back across the causeway the next afternoon was glorious.

From a quick trip tour of Phoenix, Arizona. It was one of the few times I took an afternoon to tour before catching a plane home from a business meeting. These were from the Heard Museum.

From Stillwater, Oklahoma. These are from a mid-1970s wedding held outdoors. 

From Tucson, Arizona purchased during my last road trip.

Quote of the Day - 1/11/2012

To say nothing is out here is incorrect; to say the desert is stingy with everything except space and light, stone and earth is closer to the truth. - William Least Heat-Moon

~~~~~

When we think of deserts, sand dunes are likely the first image we have…space and light…sand (a phase of stone turning to earth dust)…the blueness of the sky a welcome change from the mono-color of the sand.

Another image is of a lone saguaro cactus. I’ve made several trips to locations within the Sonoran desert (the saguaro’s desert) over the past year; while the saguaros don’t grow as closely as trees in deciduous forests, there are indeed forests of them. And there are lots of plants growing in the rocky soil around them. It would be hard to walk cross country and not be caught by the thorns almost all the vegetation seems to have. The vegetation creates a fortress for the land. There is a beauty in these places that hold their own before casual interlopers.

Do we look at land and see ‘nothing’ because it isn’t in a form we know how to exploit - to grow food, to generate energy? The desert is a place to recognize that too often we decide to change something before we understand it. 

Art in the Tucson Airport

Airports are usually hectic, stressful places. There is a lot of 'hurry up and wait' going on prior to finally getting on a plane. Our mental checklists for boarding pass, drivers license, easy off/on shoes, to check or not check luggage, food, etc. often consume our attention.  

There comes a point that the checklists are satisfied as well as they can be; rather than diving immediately into escapist reading - take a deep relaxing breath and a look around. I'm highlighting what I saw in the Tucson airport recently in the pictures below...but just about every airport has art. Does it ameliorate the stress and chaos of the airport? Maybe not completely but is certainly is a step in the right direction and I appreciate the airport authorities that have made it available.

 

The picture above is the front and back of a shirt in a zippered suitcase sculpture -  tucked under an escalator near the baggage claim area. I almost walked past it because the lighting is so subtle and its shape fit into the slope of the escalator. After a few steps past, it registered that it was something a bit different and I went back to look at both sides of it.

The group of pictures below shows glass, stone, and wood grain close ups.The top two are simply panels on walls. They are practical art. I've always liked looking at wood grain because of the suggestions the grain makes for other images. Iridescent glass tiles appeal to me too. Their color changes with different lighting. Photographing them from different angles provided some artsy moments for me! The pictures at the bottom were from a mual made of polish shells, stones and glass. The overall mural depicted elements of Arizona (birds, fossils, cactus, etc.); I enjoyed the whole but chose my favorite parts to photograph.

Gleanings for the Week Ending January 7, 2012

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

• 26 Abolished National Parks - Sometimes they don’t go on forever…for many reasons. The one I’m most aware of is Platt National Park and it is still part of the system but no longer by that name.
• 2011 National Park ‘By the Numbers’ articles - This is a summary of the 2011 articles with statistical tidbits about selected National Parks. For example - which National Park is larger than Yellowstone?
• Stalk-eyed Flies in Kenya - The pictures say it all. This fly could substitute for an alien in a science fiction story.
• Top 10 states ravaged by extreme weather in 2011 - These all were in the news prominently when they happened…but seeing them all in one article is a good review of the year.
• Cool Whip - It’s got a rich history. I haven’t used it any time recently and, after reading this article….never again.
• 10 Gluten Free Grains - A quick description of amaranth, buckwheat, corn, millet, oats, quinoa, rice, sorghum, teff, and wild rice. How many have your tried?
• Patagonia Pictures - A posting on ShutterSalt of wild places in Patagoinia
• Examples of Black and White Portraits - Color is not always better….take a look at these examples from ShutterSalt
• New trends for 2012 (compilation) - Hmmm…lots of people making lists at the beginning of the year. This is a compilation from various sources.
• 5 Baby Animal Photos - Squirrels, bear, raccoon, bobcat, bison.

Quote of the Day - 1/7/2012

It is a mark of success in a park, public lobby or a porch when people can come there and fall asleep. - Christopher Alexander in A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Cess Center for Environmental)

~~~~~

This quote is from the mid-1970s. Much has changed since that time. In 2012, when an adult is asleep in a public place, the linkage is often to ‘homeless’ rather than a ‘mark of success’ for the space. Public places are intended for wakeful activity rather than sleep.

But - the underlying meaning of the quote has less to do with sleep than with people feeling secure in the place…that bad things will not happen there…that it is OK to relax and not be on alert. Even in the best of our public spaces, the design of the space is not enough. For over 10 years, the news media and our education system has trained us to a heightened vigilance - particularly in public places; we are often warned about our technical gadgets that draw our attention, sometimes to the exclusion of our surroundings.

Think about a public place you deem to be ‘successful’ - and what are the main elements that cause it to be that way.

The Smithsonian Mall in Washington DC is my example. The open area of the mall is heavily used throughout the year; there are always people about. The picture below was taken on a Sunday in November 2011 - not the peak of tourist season. The Park Police walk the fine line between intrusion and security. Many of the people are there as individuals - enjoying the ‘alone but not too alone’ of a public place. Some are passing through - walking between museums. Some are walking or jogging…not there for the museums at all. It is not a place a go frequently, but when I do it is enjoyable and I don’t feel the need to rush through it to be safe.

That doesn’t mean that I would sleep there.

Desert Botanical Images: Spines

Spines are a dominant feature of desert plants. They appear in a myriad of colors and shapes. The images below were captured on a recent trip to Arizona so these colors are the ones that show in winter.

Packing your ‘Look’ for a Road Trip

Now that I have returned from an extended road trip - I have some notes about what worked well for me. It is easy to expand to taking the ‘kitchen sink’ when you have a whole car to hold it. Here are my top 10 notes about how to pack items that sustain your ‘look’ on a road trip:

1. Pack in several small suitcases or tote bags rather than having all clothes in one large suitcase.
2. Know what you will do with clothes after you have worn them. A laundry bag in the trunk (or multiple laundry bags pushed to the very back) can work quite well.
3. Pick your main three colors so mix and match is possible. In my case - I always go with black, red, and turquoise….with black being the color for most of my slacks/pants/jeans.
4. Choose layers sufficient for the coldest place you will be. In December, it was not ‘hot’ anywhere I went so the layering in addition to my regular indoor clothing included fleece/sweatshirt and a coat with gloves in the pocket!
5. Pack shoes in their own bag (best if the bag is unique and recognizable for each; plastic bags from stores work well). These bags can be tucked into a small space in the trunk or even partially under a seat.
6. For items that need to be on a hanger, I prefer to lay them on top of the items in the trunk. Hanging them in the car often reduces visibility…not good while on a road trip.
7. For cosmetics, I generally round up on a road trip. This might be a reaction to the rounding down when traveling by plane (and not checking luggage). At least I use multiple ziplocks so it is easy to get out just the items I need. If you are going to be a guest in someone’s home and sharing a bathroom, it is often a good idea to take a tray or bowl to keep you toiletries contained and easily transported back to the guest room rather than packing them back into the suitcase each day.
8. A small suitcase for toiletries, underwear, socks and one/two days of clothes worked well for me so I could leave the bulk off my clothes in the trunk while I was actually in transit.
9. Plan to do laundry for road trips of more than 10 days.
10. Find a small container for jewelry that has a good lid and is just big enough for what you want to take. My favorite is a heart shaped tin that I got as a valentine’s present several years ago. It is just the right size for earrings and rings. Bracelets can often fend for themselves in the suitcase.

Road Trip in December - Texas

The road trip across Texas was a long one - from Texarkana to El Paso with a side trip toward Oklahoma City from Dallas. It was easy to see the vegetation trend across the state from forest to mixed forest/grasslands to grass lands then sand dunes/desert to rocky desert. There are rivers to cross too: the Red, the Trinity, the Brazos, the Rio Grande. The terrain goes from hilly to flat to a climb up onto the Edwards Plateau to flat again then the mountains.

I wrote about the rest stop mosaics in west Texas in an earlier blog. The rest stops in Texas were all clean and well maintained; the ones in west Texas were the same temperature as outside so were very cold when I passed through. There was at least one where the construction of a new facility was already started, presumably one that will be heated and cooled. 

The pictures below are from the welcome station between Texas and Oklahoma on the Red River (two on left), the wind farms that seem to be more numerous every time I come through west Texas (lower right) and then the mountain ranges that appeared on the horizon to break the monotony of the sand dune part of the state.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 31, 2011

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

To those who are lonely at Christmas - a poem from Joanna Paterson....it applies to other special holidays as well.

Birding in the National Parks - National Parks Traveler summary of articles on this topic during 2011

eBird - A site hosted by the Cornell Ornithology Department and National Audubon Society. I found it via a ‘Birding in the National Parks’ article. The site is well organized and useful for serious birders as well as more casual observers.

Holiday Guide to Ruse and Recycling - Now that the holiday is waning….time to clean up.

Was 2011 the Year of the Mega-Fire? - A retrospective the large fires of 2011 and a look at the future potential for mega-fires

7 Actions for Becoming More Like Yourself in 2012 - Food for thought as you plan your 2012

Visualizing Asian Energy Consumption - Good graphics showing worldwide energy consumption.

Traveler’s Checklists for 11 National Parks - If you are planning a trip to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, Kings Mountain National Military Park, Crater Lake National Park, Fort Sumter National Monument, Zion National Park, Wright Brothers National Memorial, Gettysburg National Military Park, Cape Lookout National Seashore, Petersburg National Battlefield or Jefferson National Expansion Memorial…these can help you get the most from you visit.

Circumnavigating the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Circle - Longish post with lots of pictures and associated commentary