Gleanings of the Week Ending May 5, 2012

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

Live stream of Blue Heron nest at Cornell Ornithology Lab - There are 5 chicks…two cameras. I leave it on almost all the time. I love having bird noises in my office and they are so interesting to watch. The chicks are growing fast so don’t wait to take a look. The adult male has the extra plummage on his head (the female lost hers in a battle with an owl) and a missing toe on his right foot. They take turns on the nest.

New Saturn video created from Voyager and Cassini spacecraft images - Video and music

New Reservation System In Place For Firefly Viewing At Great Smokies June 2nd—10th - The fireflies that flash synchronously have become so popular that a ticketing system has been put in place. Good to know if you plan to see them this year.

About One Baby Born Each Hour Addicted to Opiate Drugs in U.S. - very sad

Arabic Records Allow Past Climate to Be Reconstructed - Weather in Iraq/Syria in the 816-1009 time period…a time with lots of cold waves in that area of the world

Yellowstone Super-Eruptions More Numerous Than Thought? - yes, it’s still a super volcano

The Library of Utopia - Another try to create the giant online library

10 Emerging Technologies - A list from Technology Review. It has a pull down so you can look at their list from previous years too

Is automation the handmaiden of inequality? - Productivity per hour has continued to climb while the hourly compensation flatten sometime in the 1970s. Manufacturing jobs in the US have declined precipitously since around 2000 while the manufacturing output has continued to increase (and this in spite of outsource manufacturing to other countries too!). Blog post + comments to get lots of interpretations of the data.

Breakthroughs in glass technology - and they’ll come on line in the next few years...I like the idea of having wall sized screens!

Road Trip in May 2012 - Goshen Pass

Goshen Pass Natural Area Preserve in Virginia is a natural heritage area under the auspices of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. We followed the directions in the fact sheet to the parking area located 1.7 miles north of the VDOT rest area on State Road 39 West. There is a swinging bridge to take across the Maury River. It was a great way to start and end the hike!

We were there in the morning and noticed that the little bit of extra warmth from the sun peeking through the clouds made the birds and butterflies more active. It was a wonderful woodland walk. The mountain laurel was just beginning to open and there were other flowers that seemed to be a bit further along in their blooming than what we saw in Shenandoah.

After the hike, I noticed more flowers blooming near the parking lot and walked over to take a look at them. The big surprise was the first hummingbird moth I'd seen this year. These are fun insects to photograph because they are big enough to see easily - but also a bit of a challenge because of their speed. Even with the coolness of the morning, this specimen was extremely active!

Road Trip in May 2012 - Virginia

We just got back from a 3-day road trip to Shenandoah National Park. It was a little cool and wet but the wild flowers were wonderful. We started out referencing the park's wild flower weekend schedule (it's this weekend if you are in the area) then supplemented it. Now that I'm home I'm looking more at their wildflower web page to identify what is in my photographs! I'll post more of my photos of Shenandoah and Goshen Pass over the next few days. The ones today are just the intro!

First are some pictures from the Virginia rest stop. I took a similar picture of the 'welcome' sign back when I took my road trip in December. This one has a lot more green in it! It was also a little warmer and I enjoyed the iris that were beginning to bloom. I also noticed that the benches have the Virginia map shape on their backs - it was too wet to sit on though!

There were not many people at Shenandoah while we were there. It is early in the season and we were there on week days. The wet weather probably kept some people away as well. It didn't rain on us while we were out but there were plenty of muddy areas. It was good that the big panoramic views from the overlooks were not our primary objective for the trip because it was way too misty along Skyline Drive. The wildflowers actually are probably better in not-to-bright weather.

Just to give you a small sampling of what we saw - I've included azaleas and trillium photos in this post.

The cool weather is also great for roses and there were some at our hotel that looked so wonderful with their water droplets that I couldn't resist photographing them.

10 Years Ago – In May 2002

Many years ago I started collecting headlines/news blurbs as a way of honing my reading of news. Over the years, the headline collection has been warped by the sources of news I was reading…increasingly online. Reviewing the May 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.    

1. The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 6 percent in April, the highest in nearly eight years
2. The 165-pound titan arum, the rotten-smelling giant of the plant kingdom, unfurled its single stinky flower after beginning a dramatic growth spurt last week
3. An abandoned South Dakota gold mine may become a new inner sanctum for physicists working to unravel the inner workings of atoms by isolating subatomic particles.
4. The lifespans of people in developed nations are increasing at a remarkably constant rate, suggesting that there is no natural limit on life expectancy
5. Famed biologist, author Stephen Jay Gould dies at 60
6. China to Launch Moon Mission in 2010
7. Yosemite Falls restoration project set to begin in June
8. Chandra Levy's remains found in D.C. park
9. The discovery of 11 small moons orbiting Jupiter brings the number of that planet's moons to 39
10. British archaeologists think that a gold earring-clad archer, found in a 4,300-year-old burial site in Amesbury, England, may have been a king during the heyday of Stonehenge. 

My interests in science is reflected in the mix (botany in item 2, physics in item 3, physiology in item 4, space in item 9 and archaeology in item 10). The other fit into a people/places/politics category.

April 2012 Doodles

I've scanned my favorite doodles from April 2012. They're all made with gel pins on black paper.

Sediment pools

Flower Birds

Harsh Path

Mired Fish

Straight Maze

Curved maze

Bird in Tulips

Rectangle Maze

Ancient Letter

Comet clutter

Eyes in Foliage

Big S

Dragonfly Feathers

Active Sun

Manta

Layers of Sediment

Eddies

Previous doodle posts: Initial and March 2012.

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!

Recipe of the Week: Sourdough Adventure: Sally Lunn

My sourdough adventures continue. My second success is making Sally Lunn. I had a basic recipe which was significantly morphed to use whole wheat flour, powdered sugar (since I somehow was out of other sugar!), and added cinnamon. Here’s the recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter (melted)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (next time I’ll use 1/3 cup regular sugar as the recipe originally called for…or honey)
• 1 1/2 cup sourdough starter (that has been grown on whole wheat flour)
• 1 cup lukewarm milk
• 3 eggs, beaten
• Pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 1/2 or 4 cups whole wheat flour (don’t let the dough get too stiff)

Cream butter and sugar. Add starter. Mix well. Alternatively add milk and beaten eggs. In a separate bowl blend together salt, cinnamon and flour. Add to sourdough mixer. Beat until smooth. Cover with a cloth. Set in warm place free from drafts and let rise until double in size.

Stir down and pour into a greased cake pan or loaf pan. Let rise again until double in size. 

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot or cold.

Notes:

I used a Bundt pan and it did create beautiful bread. We ate it with butter right after it came out of the pan then the next morning for breakfast toasted with butter and smoked turkey on top.

The down side of using a Bundt pan is it is hard to cut into regular slices to make sandwiches and this would be an excellent bread for sandwich making.

I made grilled buttered rounds with this bread to have with dinner --- yummy.

The bread definitely has a wonderful mild sourdough flavor.

Previous Sourdough Adventure Posts: Pancakes

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 28, 2012

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

Red-Rock Splendors of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks (video)

Anti-depressants likely do more harm than good - How many other drugs would come out like this is reviewed from a whole system perspective?

A serving a day of dark chocolate might keep the doctor away - A study that showed 50 grams of 70% dark chocolate was good for you. I love having it for breakfast (although I usually have only eat 20 grams)!

Surging Seas - a site that gets specific about the expected impact of rising sea level by 2020.

Almost Seven Million Birds Perish at Communication Towers in North America Each Year - a study that documented the problem…and some possible solutions (for example - making the red lights blinking rather than solid would reduce mortality by 45%!)

Building Muscle Without Heavy Weights - more repetitions with lower intensity also works!

If the food’s in plastic, what’s in the food? - Maybe we need to know more about the packaging of the food we eat

NASA Landsat Satellites See Texas Crop Circles - An image and a bit of history about irrigation and Landsat

Psychologists use social networking behavior to predict personality type - Some research results that prompts more questions than it answers

Less invasive scoliosis treatment - A rod system that is manipulated with magnets - marketed by a California Company - being tested in Hong Kong because of the difficulty getting technology approved for testing in the US

Roosevelt Memorial

A few weeks ago when we went down to Washington DC to see the Cherry Blossoms, we walked through the Roosevelt Memorial as well. It is open to the air and has lots of cascading water that blocks out other sounds most of the time.

FDR’s stature is caped and Fala is nearby. Are Fala’s ears shiny because people like to pet him?

I like the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt; the pockets of her coat look used.

There are visuals of the times in textured tiles and a bread line of statues.

The memorial seems to invite interaction. It is set up for people to stand in the bread line with the statues or to stand beside the statues of the Roosevelts or Fala. The tiles invite more than looking…they are to be touched. 

National Arboretum on 4/21/2012 (continued)

After walking through the azalea garden, we walked toward the entrance and wandered through the bonsai display

And an exhibition of ikebana

Along the way we saw some poppies, children feeding the swam of fish in the pools, some cactus that appeared to be growing rapidly, and camellias that were about done for the year.

Next time I go I’ll to focus on the wildflower garden area.

Previous National Arboretum post: Azaleas

Life History Part III - Habits

This is the 3rd of 7 posts with prompts to develop a life history.

Previous posts in this series: 

• Introduction and childhood
• Favorites

 ~~~~

This third in the series is about habits. Habits are regular patterns of behavior that may be almost automatic. They may change over the course of a lifetime so it may be worthwhile to think and talk about them in a time phased way (for example - if you are a morning person now…have you always been?). Some of these questions may have a short answer…some beg for elaboration and follow up questions. Enjoy the journey of discovery! 

• Are you usually a morning or evening person?
• When do you get up in the morning and what is your usual morning routine?
• What kind of clothes do you wear to work?
• What kind of clothes do you wear on the weekend?
• What television shows do you enjoy?
• What feeds do you look at regularly?
• What occasions cause you to dress up?
• When you get dressed up - what do you wear?
• Are you usually on time - late - or early for appointments?
• What is your biggest vice or guilty pleasure?
• What is your biggest meal of the day?
• What do you like to do while you eat?
• Do you shower or take baths?
• Do you get annual medical checkups and dental cleanings every 6 months?
• Are your meals about the same time each day?
• Do you take supplements/vitamins?
• Do you take medications/drugs?
• Do you have an 'evening' (before sleep) ritual?

Topics for the upcoming parts of the series: family and friends, the present and the future. I’ll be posting them about once a week.

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.

Dogwoods

Dogwoods are a tree I associate with living in the Mid-Atlantic region of the East Coast. They existed in east Texas - near enough to where I grew up - but I must not have been there when they were blooming. So I really didn’t see dogwoods at all until I was in my 30s. Now they are one of my favorite trees.

The native dogwoods have creamy flowers that have a hint of pink; some popular hybrids have more than a hint.  This year those hybrids were the ones that caught my eye the most at the Brighton Dam Azalea Garden. Dogwood leaves have a gentle shape and branches are so flexible that they and the flowers seem to float in the understory of the forest trees. The pictures below are from this past week.

In the fall the seeds are reddish orange and the leaves turn early to a deep red. They are a standout tree in the fall although you have to be close enough to the forest to see them hiding under the tulip poplars and oaks.

There was a disease that killed off some of the dogwoods in the forests near us and all the way to Shenandoah. Enough survived that they now seem to be coming back. I see more healthy ones every year. They are relatively slow growing trees so it is unusual to see large ones. I tend to think of those large ones as being forest treasures tht are particularly visible in spring and fall.

Recipe of the Week: Sourdough Adventure: Pancakes

I like the idea of making my own breads now that I have time - so in early April I started my own sourdough ‘starter’ using instructions from Mike Avery’s Sourdough site. All you need is whole wheat flour and water! Everything worked very easily for me and I took one of the simplest paths possible through the instructions. I find that my two cup measure with a small plate on top is ideal while the starter is outside the refrigerator.

I very quickly got to the point I wanted to use it before I got into the mode of putting it into the refrigerator to slow down the growth enough that it didn’t need feeding every 12 hours. The first thing I attempted to make was pizza dough…and that didn’t work out so well. It was too dense. I’ve already found another recipe that I’ll try sometime soon. Pancakes were my first big success.

My basic recipe is

1 egg

2 tablespoons sweetener (sugar or honey…something sweet)

4 tablespoons olive oil

Dash salt

1 1/2 cups mature sourdough starter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

~~~~~

1 teaspoon soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of warm water

In a large bowl or measuring cup with a spout (to make it easy to pour out the batter), mix sugar, egg, salt and olive oil. Mix in the sourdough starter and cinnamon. Add warm water or tea to get the right consistency for pancake batter. Set aside.

In a small bowl, dilute 1 teaspoon baking soda in 1 tablespoon of warm water. 

When ready to cook the sourdough pancakes, fold the baking soda/water mixture gently into the prepared pancake batter (do not beat). This will cause a gentle foaming and rising action in the batter. Let the mixture bubble and foam a minute or so to give the acid (in the starter) and the base (soda) time to react; this makes the air bubbles that produce pancakes with air bubbles rather than densely packed flour.

Cook on a hot griddle as other types of pancakes.

Note - Other optional ingredients could be added to the batter. Be creative. Some that I like (one at a time or in combinations): orange zest, chopped pecans, grated apples, or ginger. 

I'll continue to share my adventure with my sourdough starter. I'm working my way up to whole wheat loaves of bread and raisin buns like my grandmother used to make!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 21, 2012

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

Trekking Poles - A comparison of 3 hiking sticks. I am eventually buy a pair

Innovate or Evaporate commentary - from Norm Augustine - After a major study of the ever widening education gap, Management Consultant McKinsey and Co. concluded that "if U.S. youth could match the academic performance of students in Finland, our economy would be between 9 and 16 percent larger."

4 feet of hail near Amarillo TX on 4/11 - Wow…and then came flash flooding when it melted

Traveler’s Checklist: Petrified Forest National Park - Things to do and see

1000 Days of Infrared Wonders - 10 images from the Infrared Array Camera aboard NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (there is a ‘tornado’ nebula!)

Magnifying the Universe - Click on the graphic…and start looking at the relative size of things…from the observable universe to a hydrogen atom

Space Shuttle Discovery Flies Over the National Mall - En route to its museum home on 4/17

Atul Gawande: How do we heal medicine (TED talk)

The Worrying Consequences of the Wikipedia Gender Gap - Almost half the readers of Wikipedia are women but they make up only 13% of those that contribute…and it appears to be impacting the content

State of Flux - NASA’s images of change…mining growth in Chile, Dead Sea, plus more…in time for Earth Day on 4/22 (look at the bottom to see more before and after images…there is a series of pictures of the Dallas-Fort Worth area from 1974 to 2003)

15 Earth Day Tips that Really Make a Difference

Recipe of the Week: Cool Soups

We’re in for some warm days so I’m prompted  to think about the changes in food preferences as the weather changes. A first thought: when the weather is warm - soups should be cool. It’s a great alternative to a salad that also is a warm weather food.

For cool soups - the basic technique is to put the ingredients in a food processor, blend to desired consistency, and then let stand for the flavors to meld. It’s different than a smoothie in the sense that it doesn’t have to be all together smooth. Having some chunks in the soup is perfectly acceptable. I like to add a tablespoon of chia seeds per serving to ‘thicken’ the soup. After the chia seeds stand for about 15 minutes in liquid they form a gel; they are a ‘super food’ that have found a long list of uses in my everyday cooking over the past few months.

My favorite cool soups start with either cucumber or salsa. Or course - cucumber and salsa could be combined to make a soup but let’s start separately.

I like cucumber and citrus so the combinations

• Cucumber - lemon yogurt - orange zest or
• Cucumber - lemon flavoring - orange zest - chia seeds

Are my basics for the food processor. Spices or ingredients can be added depending on what you need to use up and the flavors you like to combine. Added grapes or apples make it sweeter.  The pulp of 1/4 lemon or orange make it more citrusy. Celery or lettuce or parsley gives it more bulk and all the benefits of leafy greens. A bit of vanilla and a packet of stevia can make it into a dessert soup. Mrs. Dash or a drop of hot sauce can make is into a spicy soup.

Starting with salsa - here are some combinations for the food processor to consider:

• Salsa - celery - lettuce - parsley
• Salsa - carrots or sweet potato - celery
• Salsa - V-8 - celery - green onions (this one you may be able to make without the food processer if you like the chunks of celery and green onions
• Salsa - bullion/broth (this could also be a hot or warm soup…but is good cold as well)

Additions to any of these could be sweet peas or broccoli chunks or cut corn from the freezer (partially thawed) or any fresh veggie that can be easily diced. 

So - as the days get warmer - consider cool soups either as a whole meal or as a side dish.

Maple Samaras Flying

The maples in our neighborhood have released their samaras. They whirl away from the tree with each gust of wind and land in the yards or collect in drifts at the curbs. It is almost like the fall of the year with the amount of stuff on the street. When it rains there are enough of them to clog gutters.

The samaras that land in the yards will have only a slightly longer life. Many will sprout and grow their first leaves only to be mowed again and again until they give up. They won’t become trees.

What would it be like if we didn’t mow for a season? Would a little forest of maples trees spring up in all the yards? The oaks have big and small years for their acorns but the maples always produce a huge number of samaras and they seem to sprout quite easily. The samara can whirl around to get itself well away from the parent tree.

BeforeAfterThe maple that I see from my office window is looking considerably greener with its samaras going and gone. The tree always starts the spring looking reddish…then rust…then a golden brown. The change from golden brown to green happened over a couple of days this year. I kept thinking it would happen earlier because of the samara color and the stiffness of the breezes. But they weren’t quite ready. Now all the maples in the neighborhood are letting their samaras fly.

Previous posts on Maples:

Maple Sequence - Spring 2012

Life History Part II - Favorites

This is the 2nd of 7 posts with prompts to develop a life history. The first one (and intro) can be found here.

~~~~

The second series is about favorites. Some on this list are probably more important to you or have a more dominate favorite…or there may be whole categories of favorites to add. The idea is to capture an individual’s preferences. Maybe some of those preferences have changed over time and that is worth a conversation rather than the short answer. Or maybe there really is not a favorite (i.e. if you choose a different flavor of ice cream every time you buy some…maybe you simply like almost all flavors of ice cream!).

Here is my starter list for ‘favorites’: 

1. Animal
2. ColorColor
3. Food
4. Nut
5. Ice cream flavor
6. Flower
7. Kind of vacation
8. Vacation destinationVacation destination
9. Jewelry
10. What do you most enjoy doing outdoors
11. Tree
12. Car
13. Thing to do when you have time
14. Home architectural styles
15. Furniture
16. Stores
17. Restaurants
18. Kind of music/performer
19. Movie
20. Book
21. Friend

Topics for the upcoming parts of the series: habits, family and friends, the present and the future. I’ll be posting them about once a week.

Bulb Project - Phase 1: Planting

I have a bulb planting project this spring. In the past I focused on bulb planted in the fall that would then bloom in the early spring. This year my focus is on bulbs planted in the spring that will bloom in the summer…and summers to come.

The first bag contained 60 blazing stars (liatris spicata) that produce a spire of purple flowers that blooms in mid to late summer. The instructions said to plant the bulbs 5 inches apart and 4 inches deep. I used a big shovel to dig trenches along the back of the flower bed, just in front of the bushes. I planted as many as I could in that trench before using my hands to break up the clods of dirt as I refilled the depression. I ended up making several more trenches. 60 is quite a large number of bulbs! In between plantings - when my back did not want to be bending over any more, I used the nippers to trim the bushes a bit. In a little over an hour I’d planted the bulbs and filled a big trash bag of clippings from the bush and some weeds I’d pulled before I even started the bulb planting.

The bulbs were dried up brownish knobs packed loosely in wood shavings. Most of them had beginnings of roots on the fat end and a few had a tiny sprout on the pointed end. It was easy to tell which end should be planted up most of the time. I don’t think they’ll appear to be in a perfectly straight row when they come up but they’ll still look good in front of the bushes. The bushes are between 5 and 6 feet high so these flowers that can get up to 48 inches will be a nice stepwise progression from then. In front of the blazing stars there is some vigorous foliage of day lilies. I have some wire stakes around them because last year the deer invaded just before the buds opened; I had very few flowers! If they manage to bloom this year - the flowers will show up nicely against the lavender of the blazing stars.

The next day I planted 16 dahlia bulbs. The instructions said to plant them 1 inch deep and 12 inches apart. I dug some shallow holes before I opened up the bag. Surprise! Dahlias have big bulbs with multiple finger sized tubers with each one. It took bigger and deeper holes. Most of the bulbs had a healthy looking sprout that I could leave peeking up through the soil after I covered the rest with soil. The dahlias are positioned in the front of the flower bed since I plan to cut at least some of them for inside the house if they do well. I took time out to finish trimming the bushes behind my bulb bed too.

I am really looking forward to the flowers of summer!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is new enough that the first time I was down at the national mall since it opened was for the Cherry Blossom festival in March. The memorial is right on the tidal basin - the statue of Dr. King looks out over the water. Looking at it across the tidal basin, the Lincoln Memorial is behind and too the left of it.

We were there on a week day and there were buses of students on spring field trips. A large group of high school aged students all wearing the same T-shirts were at the memorial as we arrived. Many of them had their phones in their hands but they weren’t texting or talking on them. They were using them to take pictures. They were paying attention to what they were seeing. The tones of their voices were not loud or strident. The monument seems to encourage a reflective demeanor more than anything else.

We walked around reading the quotes at our own pace. Some that I photographed are below. They are etched in the low wall to either side of the statue itself.