Around our (Maryland) Yard in July 2012

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I got up early on the 1st to take a walk around our yard. We had been without electricity for about 18 hours and were going to go on our quest for ice shortly. A hot day was forecast but it was comfortable in the morning. The grass was heavy with dew. There were only small branches and leaves strewn across the yard from the storm that caused the electrical outage….no sign nearby of why the power was out since our neighborhood lines are underground. Our young sycamore tree with two trunks was bent over when we first got up yesterday but had righted itself in the past 24 hours.

 

The day lilies blooming last month have spent themselves; there are large buds on some others that should add color later in July.

 

The dahlia bulbs I planted in the spring have buds that are just beginning to open. I need to remember to water them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hydrangea that was just budding last month now has large beautiful pink blooms. I cut some to take into the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have gotten enough rain recently that some large mushrooms have come up next to an oak stump.

Previous Months:

June 2012, May 2012, April 2012, March 2012, January 2012 

10 Years Ago – In July 2002

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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 July 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.   

 

  1. "Power Nap" Prevents Burnout; Morning Sleep Perfects A Skill
  2. AIDS will claim 70 million by 2022
  3. U.S. millionaire Steve Fossett became the first solo balloonist to circle the globe nonstop
  4. The monuments of ancient Egypt may have stood for thousands of years in the desert sands, but now they face a new threat -- from rising groundwater.
  5. There are approximately 100,000 more wild flowering plants in the world than previously thought
  6. Sesame Street to introduce HIV positive muppet
  7. Weeks into the state's effort to kill every deer in part of southwest Wisconsin to halt an outbreak of chronic wasting disease, wildlife officials still don't know how they're going to dispose of the tens of thousands of carcasses.
  8. Glowing lava set trees afire and oozed into the ocean before dawn Saturday as thousands of spectators braved Kilauea Volcano's scalding spray to witness the spectacle.
  9. Sea temperatures around Australia's Great Barrier Reef reached record highs this year, doing major damage to the world's largest living entity
  10. During excavations last week at a Roman era palace in Butrint, Albania, researchers working in an upper level reception hall found a tiny ivory object dating to 465 AD. They believe it is Europe's oldest known chess piece.

 

As usual - the list is heavily skewed toward science and technology although the two about HIV/AIDS reflect how prominent that topic was in the news 10 years ago this month.

June 2012 Doodles

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The slideshow below is a selection of doodles from June 2012. The theme for my June doodles is dots or points. I got the idea after browsing through the 1978 exhibit book for the Point at the Philadelphia College of Art on the Internet Archive. Enjoy!

Blog Note

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My blog went silent while we were without electricity from Friday, 6/29 about 11 PM to Wednesday, 7/4 about 4 PM. The storm only lasted a couple of hours but its impact was pretty horrendous.  I’ll be catching up over the next few days and will include more about our adventure without electricity once I can be a little objective about it.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 30, 2012

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Karen Bass: Unseen footage, untamed nature - TED Talk

Put a Cork in It: Research Details Quiet Composite Material - positive results using cork instead of synthetic foam in sandwich structures…250% improvement in dampening performance with no sacrifice of mechanical properties

A Virtual Telescope Turns Back toward Earth - a blog about the WorldWide Telescope software and virtual tour

A smart-phone add-on enables at-home diagnosis of ear infections - remote diagnostics still have a doctor in the loop but no trip to the office

Louie Schwartzberg: Nature. Beauty. Gratitude. - TED Talk (time lapse photography)

Researchers Catalog Your Microbial Zoo - microbial cells outnumber human cells 10 to 1 in our bodies. An NIH study seeks to increase our understanding of them.

The Scientific Case For A Return To The Moon

First fledge from Cornell Great Blue Heron Nest - 6/26/2012 at 9:18 AM EDT…and then the next two about 30 minutes later. A summary slide show up to mid-June has also been posted by Cornell. I made a donation to support the cameras in celebration.

Waterproof butterflies mobile - made with recycled paper and coated with wax. These could work for Christmas ornaments too (or would they be too messy with the potential of wax rubbing off)!

A game that heals: Jane McGonigal at TEDGlobal 2012 - psyching yourself to emotional (and physical) health

July Celebrations

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

Independence Day in the US. The official day is July 4th. Have your own celebration with a family gathering or join your community for a celebration with a crowd. Our local celebration is a street festival followed by fireworks on July 7th. Last year we almost missed it (because we didn’t realize it was no on the 4th!) so we were looking for the flyer in the snail mail when it came. We’re set to load the lawn chairs in the car and get a great spot to relax and enjoy the show just after dark!

Summer and water. When it’s hot - getting wet is a welcome respite. Think about spending some time at the beach or the swimming pool. Alternatively - keep spray misters or water pistols handy for those times when the family is outdoors and needs a quick cool down.

Cherries. My favorite fruit for July is cherries and I keep the supply going as long as they are reasonably priced. I save watermelon for August although I like it so well that I buy it in July if the price is right. And what about the orange fleshed honey dew melons! They’ve just made an appearance this year in my local grocery although I’ve been reading about them. It’s easy to find foods for celebrating in July.

Early morning walks. It’s so hot later in the day that the early morning may be the only time to get out and about comfortably. Celebrate hearing the birds chattering - since they are usually at their liveliest in the morning.

Dallas Arboretum Chihuly - June 2012 - Part II

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Continuing the post from yesterday….some other pictures are in today’s post. The blue font below indicates the pieces that are in today’s post.

The Dale Chihuly glass was placed in interesting settings within the gardens. The Blue Icicles (they look like blue yucca or aloes to me) were the first pieces we saw before we even bought our tickets. There was a tower of yellow icicles. The Blue Polyvitro Crystals were installed in a rocky creek - like chunks of blue ice. The Red and Blue Reeds stood in water or at its edges. Some were installed where mist would rise around them or in front of falling water. The Blue Marlins were in the area of rising mists. They somehow reminded me more of great blue herons than marlins. The Dallas Star was in an allee of crepe myrtle. There was glass on boats with balls of glass floating around on the water. Some clear and white glass forms were in a pool mimicking the lotus leaves growing there. There was a fanciful piece with green mirrored glass called Mirrored Hornets. There were towers of reed pieces. Ones I liked the best were the Scarlet and Yellow Asymmetrical Towers.

Enjoy the second group of pictures below. 

Recipe of the Week: Sourdough Adventure: Sweet Potato/Pineapple Bread Pudding

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I started out to make a sourdough version of the Sweet Potato Cake Muffins that I posted about in April. But made a few too many adjustments and it turned out the consistency of bread pudding rather than cake…hence the name of this post. It is delicious and I will recreate this ‘accident’ again --- maybe as part of Thanksgiving dinner. It looks good in the Blue Tulip Depression Glass nappies and tastes yummy!

1 1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup honey

1 cup apple juice concentrate

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup mature whole wheat sourdough starter

2 cups grated sweet potatoes (note: if your sweet potato has sprouted simply cut off that piece and plant in a pot or put in water on your window sill to root then plant)

1 20 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

2 teaspoons soda

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Use a small bowl to combine the flour, cinnamon, cloves, soda and salt. Make sure the spices and soda is stirred in well.

Combine olive oil, honey, apple juice concentrate, vanilla and eggs in a large measuring cup. Whisk.

Put starter, sweet potatoes, and pineapple in a large bowl. This is a large recipe so be sure the bowl is large enough to hold everything in the end. I generally put the starter into the bowl and feed it to make enough starter for the recipe in the morning them bake in the afternoon.

Stir the liquids into the starter. After it is mixed pretty well, fold in the dry ingredients. Do not over mix but make sure all the flour mixture has been incorporated. You will notice the batter bubbling from the reaction of the soda with the acid of the sourdough and apple juice concentrate.

Pour into a large flat pan (may take more than one for the batter). Leave room for the batter to rise a bit. The picture below is what it looked like after it was cooked...but still too soft to serve a cake!

 

Dallas Arboretum Chihuly - June 2012 - Part I

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The Dallas Arboretum is hosting an exhibit of Dale Chihuly glass through November 5th. I was there earlier this month and thoroughly enjoyed both the arboretum and the glass.

The Dallas Arboretum opened in 1984 and is on the bank of White Rock Lake. We were there when it opened at 9 AM - trying to ‘beat the heat’ of the day. We walked around and saw almost everything by about noon (even making a short tour of the DeGolyer Mansion that is included in the Arboretum).

The Dale Chihuly glass was placed in interesting settings within the gardens. The Blue Icicles (they look like blue yucca or aloes to me) were the first pieces we saw before we even bought our tickets. There was a tower of yellow icicles. The Blue Polyvitro Crystals were installed in a rocky creek - like chunks of blue ice. The Red and Blue Reeds stood in water or at its edges. Some were installed where mist would rise around them or in front of falling water. The Blue Marlins were in the area of rising mists. They somehow reminded me more of herons than marlins. The Dallas Star was in an allee of crepe myrtle. There was glass on boats with balls of glass floating around on the water. Some clear and white glass forms were in a pool mimicking the lotus leaves growing there. There was a fanciful piece with green mirrored glass called Mirrored Hornets. There were towers of reed pieces. Ones I liked the best were the Scarlet and Yellow Asymmetrical Towers.

Enjoy the first batch of pictures below….there will be more tomorrow. The blue font above indicates the pieces that are in today’s post.

Water Lilies

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I managed to capture a classic water lily picture at Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum - crisp flower and black background. It looked good on the small screen of my camera but even better once I saw it on the larger monitor of my computer. So - enjoy my June 2012 pictures of water lilies from Tennessee and Texas! If you want more - check out the post from last November - Water Lilies at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheekwood’s Howe Garden

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The Howe Garden at Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum in Nashville, TN has been recently renovated so the plantings are just becoming established. There were three things that caught my interest: the rain garden, the botanical images stamped on the gates, and the thatch roof on the cottage.

rain garden.jpg

A rain garden is made to retain water with terrain and plantings. I had read about them but never seen one. The renovation to the Howe Garden included one that can be viewed from both sides of the bridge (the metal silhouettes of the bridge add to the view as well).

The botanical images stamped on the panels of the garden gate were of familiar things - lilies, lady slipper orchids, morning glories, and trilliums…and some I couldn’t name. They were wonderful images for a garden gate.

And last but not least the thatched room of the cottage. It was a thick layer of rushes, tightly layered. The underside, visible from inside the cottage looked just as neat.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 23, 2012

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

Mars Weather Report: Size of Particles in Martian Clouds of Carbon Dioxide Snow Calculated - Using several years of data…and multiple data sources

Get the Most from Your Skin Care Products: Sequence in Which You Apply Skin Care Products Influences Their Effectiveness - Cleanse, treatment/medication, moisturizer/sunscreen, makeup….but using several products at the same time may negate the benefits and irritate the skin

Antibacterials in Personal-Care Products Linked to Allergy Risk in Children - Another study that suggests that children need exposure to common pathogens to build healthy immune responses…or the immune system can become overactive to food, pollen or pet dander

Million-Year-Old Groundwater in Maryland Water Supply - Wow…Even no-so-dry places are using up ground water faster than it can be replenished

Birding In The National Parks: Top 10 Birding Spots In The National Park System - I’ve been to 4 out of the 10!

5 solar myths busted - infographic

Pralines - Follow the link in this piece if you want to try making your own pralines!

Oil and Conventional Gas Extraction Can Cause Earthquakes Too - evidently biggest risk of earthquakes is when the wastewater from those operations is pumped back down into deep sandstone or other formations for permanent disposal

Non-Antibiotic Approach for Treating Urinary Tract Infections - Promising approach….could eventually be used for other types of infections as well?

What America Spends on Groceries - Comparison between 1982 and 2012

Recipe of the Week: Road Trip Picnics

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Now that summer is here - day trips and vacations are more prevalent. The ‘recipe’ this week is some suggestions for picnics…assuming a good ice chest and some thoughtful preparation before starting down the road.

Do you want to eat while driving or at a picnic table/on a blanket?

If you need to eat while you drive - select foods that can be eaten without a lot of fumbling or mess. Vegetables and fruits that are naturally (or can be cut into) easily consumed bites without anything left over; prepare the food in serving sized containers before you set out. Keep in mind that eating one thing at a time is easiest. A moist (not crumbly) muffin can also be consumed easily while driving as can larger nuts (i.e. avoid smaller nuts like sunflower seeds since they are more challenging to handle while driving).

Picnicking with a table or blanket is easy - particularly if the ice chest can be brought directly to the area from the car. The old standby of sandwich and fruit can be prepared ahead of time or assembled just before eating. I prefer to take the ingredients separately: toasted bread, smoked turkey, lettuce, tomato, and other condiments; even though this requires a plate and a knife - there is no risk of soggy bread as sometimes happens with sandwiches prepared ahead of time. My favorite picnic lunch is a chef salad assembled on a large plate from little containers of ingredients packed in the ice chest. Or consider having food borrowed from an afternoon tea menu as a light lunch: spreadable egg salad used as a dip for cucumber slices, a muffin, and pieces of fruit.

All of these choices are nutritious and won’t leave you too sleepy to continue on down the road! Enjoy!

Cheekwood Tree Houses

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As promised in a previous post - this post is about the “tree houses” at Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum in Nashville, TN. They are all sized in a way that children can climb up into them and were very popular. There were families and groups of summer-program children all around them so it was good that they were scattered throughout the garden. My favorite is a giant fish that has recycled CDs for scales!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a conch shell, a slide that was built with a ramp and sides with every non-walking or sliding space covered with plants,

 

 

 

 

 

a ship,

 

 

 

 

 

a traditional looking house among the trees , and

 

 

 

 

ball of yarn suspended over a pond (there was a walkway into it just out of the picture).

The excitement these structures evoked from children changed the tenor of the gardens!  It was a high energy place.

Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum

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Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum was my favorite place on a recent trip to Nashville TN. The weather was near perfect and the place was full of other people (young and old) enjoying the place. There was a great-grandfather looking for the Howe Garden with his granddaughter and her two children. Groups of children in look-alike T-shirts were roaming the garden enjoying the tree houses or in art programs. I’ll post more in upcoming days about the Howe Garden and the tree houses…so the pictures below are just an introduction.

The glass bridge (1st two images in the collage below) was in the forest. The dappled sunlight enhanced its appeal. The stream with plantings along each side was lush. The sculpture of a mythical plant (a combination of several) seemed to be what Cheekwood is all about - the blending of art and garden. Finally the owl sculpture was in very bright sunlight and dessert plants. There is something to enjoy at every turn at Cheekwood.

Museum Strategies

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I’ve been visiting a lot of museums recently and discovered that I very quickly settle on my strategies for a particular venue based on my experiences with other museums of the same type. I’ve listed the ones I’m most conscious of below.

Slow and read everything or fast for ambience. If the topic of the display is something I am really interested, I read everything - pull out drawers for extra information, push a button to watch a short video or hear a noise; in other words - I do everything the curators offered. This tends to happen in historical or science related displays. An example of this strategy, was in the Frank H. McClung Museum on the campus of The University of Tennessee in Knoxville; they have a detailed exhibit on the Native Americans in that part of Tennessee and a very well done video about Cherokee perspective. In art museums I tend to move through looking at pieces rather than reading the plaques - unless it is a piece I really like; it’s not necessarily ‘fast’ but it is not following every lead the curators have provided. I applied this strategy in the Cheekwood Art Museum in Nashville; the piece I walked up and read everything about was the Alexander Calder ‘Snake’ made of hemp rope (since I had never seen a Calder work in fiber….the metal mobiles are his best known work).

Pick favorite pieces. In art museums, picking a favorite piece (or 2 or 3) makes the museum more memorable. The Calder piece was my favorite at the Cheekwood Art Museum and Reclining Dress (pictures below) was my favorite from the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga. A Caddo Indian pot was my pick from the display at the DeGray Lake office of the Corps of Engineers in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

Pictures. When museums allow pictures - they are a great way to capture the essence of the museum. The Hunter Museum allows pictures in same galleries and I captured the reclining dress along with the information about it with my camera.

Buy the museum book. If the museum does not allow pictures - consider buying the museum book. I checked the Cheekwood Art Museum book for the Calder piece; it wasn’t included….so I didn’t buy the book.

Check out the museum web page. Many museums have wonderful web pages. The Hunter Museum of American Art has particularly good ones. My favorite painting was a picture of the moon through trees titled Landscape with Moon by Ralph Albert Blakelock and sure enough - they had a page about it on their site. There was also one for the Reclining Dress by Karen Lamonte.

What are your strategies for enjoying museum visits?

Making a House into a Home - Part 3

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Today’s topic is home improvements that just about anyone can make.

 

 

 

 

Adding shelves to rooms where more storage is needed is very easy with the systems of strips, supports, and shelves available at most hardware stores. Wall space over furniture or even higher can add a lot of storage just where it is needed. Consider decorative boxes or bins for smaller items. Bedrooms/offices, garages, and even kitchens can benefit from this type of improvement.

Fresh paint always makes a room seem clean and bright. Choose colors you like but don’t go overboard. Sometimes having a white room with color on only one wall is more effective than having the whole room that color. Or consider using fabric on one wall.

 

 

What about the yard? Do you have plants that mean a lot to you? I moved miniature daffodil and day lily bulbs with me. They had originally been purchased and planted by my mother-in-law; I’ve enjoyed them in their original and current locations (dug up and separated and enlarging the bed every few years) for over 25 years now! One of my grandmothers always thought of planting fruit trees when she moved somewhere new.

Making a house into a home is a continuing activity. It doesn’t have to be done immediately but the sooner you start taking the small steps to meld where you live into the space you feel at home…the better.

Making a House into a Home - Part 2

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Today’s topic is walls, windows, and floors.

Walls can be covered by lots of small pictures, left mostly blank and bright, showcase a color that highlights the rooms purpose or furnishings, or be a giant canvas. Whatever is on them is a statement. Some people like lots of family pictures - some like posters - paintings - macramé. Things you like to look at should be on the walls. Even large swaths of fabric can be used to make a statement. My family went through a time when we liked having flags for each season outdoors but I not prefer to keep them inside and hang them from a stair banister instead (I got tired of worn our raggedy flags after one season of outdoor use).

Window treatments are for privacy and visual appeal. They can also help improve energy efficiency. Privacy and energy efficiency are for security and comfort….one of the primary requirements for the feeling of ‘home’ but the aesthetics are needed too. My favorite window treatment is one in my office - sheers with patch pockets for keepsakes over blinds to close when the sun shines in too brightly.

 

 

Of course - floors should feel clean and add to the overall comfort of the room. Are the welcome mats at the entrances to your house in good shape? These provide a useful function (wiping feet) and are the impression a person gets just before entering your home.

Tomorrow I’ll post about permanent improvements to a house that make is more of a home.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 16, 2012

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

Wood ducks - duckling paratrooper video. The ducklings leave the nest high in the tree when they are about 24 hours old.

Body Hacks for a Longer Life - infographic

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #15 - birds…and more birds

A Century of Learning About the Physiological Demands of Antarctica - severe exercise, malnutrition, hypothermia, high altitude, sleep deprivation

There Are Two Kinds of “Busy.” Is Yours the Good Kind? - excerpt from “It Takes an Egg Timer” book

Bamboo, A Beautiful and Versatile Material - It can grow 1.6 feet per hour!!!!

Does This Look Infected? Medical Procedures Then and Now - electroshock therapy, bullet removal, inflammation and the common cold, pain relief

50 Future Ideas You Really Need to Know - from Richard Watson

Top Solar Power Countries - The US is 22nd in terms of total solar power per million people, 31st in total new solar power per million people…..seems like this could result in a challenge to our long term competitiveness in the world

Solar Panel Technology Advancements - infographic

Making a House into a Home - Part 1

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What is the difference between a house and a home? A house is an empty shell. A home: 

  • Reflects the uniqueness of the people that life there
  • Meets their needs
  • Makes them feel comfortable and secure 

The objective of this blog post - and the two others in the days to come - is to provide some starting points for  thinking about refinements you might want to make to wherever you are living. I know that my home benefits from periodic tweaks because my needs and wants change; the beginning of summer is a great time to do a little reflection and take action to enhance those good feelings you want your home to evoke.

First let’s consider rooms - the floor plan of the house. Consider that static. What does not have to be held constant is how the rooms are actually used. Getting the most from every room may involve some non-traditional usage.

A dining room does not have to be used as a dining room if you never use it for that purpose. It could become a home office. 

  • Use an S hook to raise the light fixture
  • Decide what furniture will provide storage you will need in the office (since there is not a closet) 

It’s an easy conversion.

 Using a bedroom for a home office is even easier. Add some attached shelves or assemble some standalone metal shelves inside the closet and the office in the room itself can be very streamlined.

 A room intended to be a formal living room may not be needed for that purpose. In fact, any room you don’t use every day should be considered for additional use(s). What about the living room as a music room?

 

 

The contents of the built-ins in the rooms - particularly in the kitchen - should be arranged for the way you do things in the room. Spices you use at the stovetop should be near the stove top. Glasses and dishes should be convenient to where you retrieve them when you eat and to put away when you unload the dishwasher. Mixing bowls and containers for left overs should be put away in the cabinets near the place you would use need them. The top shelves that you will need a step stool to reach should  be used for items not needed very frequently.

What about drawer liners or shelf paper? That is one of the first things I do to turn a new-to-me house into my home: thoroughly clean the kitchen cabinets and then put down fresh shelf paper. There is a similar idea for bathroom cabinets.

Sunday I’ll post about walls, windows, and floors.