Around our (Maryland) Yard in October 2012

October is the key fall month in Maryland. The leaves are turning and falling. The onions blooming in September now have seed heads. The dahlias are still going strong and there are more puffballs that ever. There were lovely pink mushrooms growing in the grass. There is a new group of caterpillars on the parsley that may not get to chrysalis stage before it gets too cold. Enjoy my October slide show below!

Shelf fungus

Puffballs

Tulip poplar leaf

Sycamore leaf

Hydrangea

Pink mushroom in the grass

Maple leaf

Maple leaf

Maple leaf

Pyracantha

Dalhia

Black swallowtail caterpillar on parsley

Posts from previous months are here.

Recipe of the Week: Chili

Cooling outdoor temperatures prompt thoughts of foods that are warming. Chili is one of my favorites. There are many good chili seasoning kits on the market; the Wick Fowler’s 2 Alarm is my favorite. Of course - I make my own modifications:

• Add 1 can of pinto beans or the equivalent of home cooked pinto beans
• Only half the salt packet
• Entire red pepper packet
• No Masa flour 

I like to serve chili over multi-grain rice or egg noodles rather than with crackers. My husband eats his in carb balance tortillas - again without crackers.

Chili also can be dipped with wedges of pepper or celery.

And what about toppings: cheese or chives or diced tomato/onion (salsa!) or guacamole.

Chili is a hearty meal in a bowl (or tortilla) that warms a cool or cold day!

US Botanic Garden Conservatory in Early October

The conservatory of US Botanic Garden in Washington DC always has beautiful plants. On a visit early this month, the shapes and colors drew my attention the most. 

The spirals of the unfurling fiddlehead - along with the pink and green coloring.  

Bromeliads with blooms that are splashes of vibrant color and thick fitted curves.

Petals that are paper thin

Flowers that look like they’ve sprouted wings

The pattern of fibers on a tropical trunk

A flower petal that looks like a spider is attached

A slipper with just a touch of color

The unfurling of a tightly pack bud in purple and pink

Once a Technical Woman - Always a Technical Woman

I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference this past week In Baltimore. The core audience for the conference was computer science or information technology students, academics, and early career professionals. I’m much further along - being in the field for 40 years and now starting down other paths. Still - the sessions prompted some reflection on my part and I’ll be doing several blog posts over the next week as I get my thoughts organized and written down.

The first key take away (for me) is that once a technical woman….always a technical woman. 

It doesn’t matter if I am working in the field or if I have gone on to other things. Being technical is entwined in everything I do. It’s blended with the way I choose to live and incorporated into my role as a matriarch. Here are some things that have happened since I left my computer-related career.

• I’ve transitioned to use my Kindle or other electronic media for an increasing amount of my reading. My piles of physical books are going to be a challenge to finish!
• I no longer use paper grocery lists. Instead I use the OurGroceries app on my Kindle (and PC).
• I still enjoy science and technology articles….they dominate the news feeds I have set up for myself. It is a luxury to set all the priorities based on my own interests rather than making choices based on what I needed to learn for my career or employer. The ‘gleanings’ for my Saturday post come from the news feeds I read regularly and always include quite a few technology or science related items.
• When I looked through the courses offered on Coursera there are so many of interest….I still tend to migrate toward technical ones. It’s exciting to have this new way to take a class. I’ve signed up for one that will start in a few weeks. The price is certainly right (free)!
• If I had to choose a favorite STEM (Science, technology, engineering, math) topic at this moment it would be botany. I haven’t done the stats - but I image almost half my blog posts have some linkage to plants.
• When I travel - I enjoy knowing science and technology related info about the places I visit (geology, physical geography, flora and fauna, power generation and meteorology) 

So - I am pretty sure that for me

Once a technical woman….always a technical woman

is true now and for the rest of my life. Later this week I’ll talk about a second reflection prompted by the conference: the distressing statistics about women in science and technology…..and why we should care.

The Beauties of Early Fall

As we walked around the Smithsonian Mall and the US Botanic Garden in Washington DC, the plantings were representative of ones that are truly at their best in this area just before the leaves turn and then fall. The roses like the cooler weather. The grasses have full seed heads. The asters show their blue and purple color liberally. The dogwoods lead the color change and the winterberry has bright red berries that contrasts with the green leaves still on the bush. There may not be as many butterflies but the ones that are still around may be easier to see because they don’t flutter as rapidly in the cooler temperatures. Enjoy the slide show of these beauties of early fall and celebrate fall!

Monarch butterfly

Grass

Dogwood

Persimmon

Winterberry

Aster

Rose

Flower glow illusion

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 6, 2012

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:

Sunrise time lapse at Havre de Grace

Earthworm invasion: Aliens causing more harm than good? - Did you know that there are different kinds of earthworms….and they influence what kinds of plant grow?

America’s Greenest Presidents - Teddy Roosevelt tops the list….but Richard Nixon is second!

Celebrating the Remarkable Mark Catesby - the man that published the first scientific description of the New World’s plants and animals….his first trip to America was in 1712. Several of his illustrated books are available online via Botanicus

6 Futuristic Sci-Fi Gadgets That Actually Exist - hurray for self-driving cars!

15 Ways to Enjoy the National Park System This Fall

2012 time lapse of Aurora Borealis from Denali (video)

100 Million to Die by 2030 If World Fails to Act on Climate - and more than 90% of those deaths will occur in developing countries

Nantucket Cranberry Cake - I’m going to make this rather than cranberry sauce this year!

Is it green to be green? - infographic comparing costs of ‘green’ vs ‘non-green’ choices over a life time

National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Now that summer is over - it’s a great time to visit museums. On a recent Saturday, I enjoyed the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. I still bought tickets for the IMAX film I wanted to see when I first got there (just before 10:30) before wandering around to look at the planes, rockets, gliders, and shuttle. There are docent led tours periodically but I had been to the museum enough times to enjoy looking at things on my own. The weather was sunny so the view from the tower toward the Blue Ridge and Dulles Airport was quite good. Enjoy the slide show of my favorite pictures below!

Recipe of the Week: Baked Apples

Apples are in season again…..and there are so many ways to enjoy them. One of my favorite and simplest recipes is for baked apples:

Cut apple into chunks and place in a microwavable dish. (The apple - at the left - I chose for my treat was a Ginger Gold.)

Microwave for 1 minute.

Sprinkle with cinnamon. Add some butter. Decide if the apples need extra sweetening; if so drizzle with molasses or honey. (I used cinnamon, ginger, butter and honey on mine - at the right.)

Microwave for 1 minute.

Stir the apples. They may already be soft enough to eat. I tend to want my baked apples to be hot and just beginning to soften - not turned to mush.

This works very well for one serving. If you are making baked apples for a crowd - use a conventional oven, a larger baking dish, put all the ingredients in the pan at the beginning. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the softness you prefer.

Some other apple recipes I’ve posted are:

Sautéed apples as a pancake topping

Apple Crisp

US Botanic Garden - Insectivorous Plants

The insectivorous plants exhibit at the US Botanic Garden runs through October 8th. We went to see it this past weekend. The exhibit is a clever mix of sculpture and real plants. I can remember being fascinated with Venus Flytrap plants as a child. The pitcher plants (at right and included in the slide show) were the highlights of this exhibit for me - particularly the outdoor sculpture grouping of them. The sculpture of the Venus Flytrap was mechanized; push a button and it snapped shut!

There are several more posts from the Botanic Garden visit…they’ll come out over the next week or so. I posted about the landmark building models in the conservatory at the US Botanic Garden last November.

10 Years Ago – In October 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 September 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10. 

1. A Florida man who was lost at sea for more than two months was rescued 40 miles off the coast
2. Canada plans to create 10 huge new national parks and five marine conservation areas over the next five years to protect unique landscapes and animals 
3. Enrollment at major Canadian schools by U.S. citizens has risen by at least 86 percent over the past three years, to about 5,000 students.
4. King Tut - an abnormal curvature of the spine and fusion of the upper vertebrae, a condition associated with scoliosis and a rare disorder called Klippel-Feil syndrome, which makes sufferers look as if they have a short neck.
5. Sniper keeps D.C. area on edge
6. Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize
7. Peruvian archeologists have discovered a complete mummified human skeleton in the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu
8. Bacteria found in a 2,000-year-old piece of cheese could be the final evidence that this food was a continuous source of infectious disease in the ancient Roman world.
9. All 115 hostages killed in the raid that ended a Moscow theater standoff died of health problems stemming from the gas used by Russian forces to end the siege
10. About 150,000 years ago, an anomalous ice age was triggered by an increasingly salty Mediterranean Sea, a development that's occurring today and may start new ice sheet growth in the next few decades

September 2012 Doodles

I graduated to more color (pencils and markers) and the use of fabric for some of my doodles in September. The fabric was a lightweight, fused (rather than woven) fabric - somewhat like interfacing. I found strips of it while I was cleaning out - not sure what it was originally purchased for. The first three items in the slide show below are the ones on fabric. The others are on paper. Enjoy the September doodles!

Doodle posts from previous months are here.

Celebrating October 2012

What do you celebrate in October? Here are some ideas:

Apples and squash. The new harvest is in and apples are at their best. There are a large number of varieties to try other than ‘Delicious’ – so experiment and find a new favorite! Many communities host festivals that feature the produce of fall and fresh apple cider or apple butter.....and all those colorful squashes.

Foliage. Take a drive or a hike through a forest of deciduous trees. Timing it just right is always a challenge – but easier now that there are so many web sites that predict the peak color and even have pictures of areas.

Leaves. Play in piles of leaves. Yes – the raking is a chore…but make it into a fun activity while you are at it.

Cooler weather. After the swelter of summer and even September – October has some very welcome cooler days. Celebrate with some outdoor activities and enjoy a picnic.

Halloween. Buy those bags of candy and be prepared to offer a treats to all those goblins that come knocking! We purchased a plastic jack-o-lantern that looks like the real thing years ago; turned out to be a great purchase to decorate the front porch for the big night.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 29, 2012

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:

Speaking of Science: September 2012′s selection of notable quotes

Gender Bias when Hiring Scientists - Both male and female researchers are less likely to hire a female candidate than a male candidate with the same experience.

Pictures: Fire "Tornado" Spotted—How Do They Form? - from National Geographic

Flatworld Knowledge Catalog - online that textbooks that can be read online for free

Chia Seeds - more ideas from VegKitchen on incorporating chia seeds into your diet every day

Cloud Collector’s Reference - from the Cloud Appreciation Society

Lighter-than-air craft rise again - made possible by advances in materials and computer control systems…potential for transporting freight, big enough to be a hotel, casino or spa

Snacking Outside the Box - geared to children…but these are good for adults too

Of Frogs and Embryos - micrographs that could be art

Chip Kidd: Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is. - Book cover designs you’ll recognize and how they came into being

Dahlia and LED Water Light Photographs

Seeing the Bruce Munro light installation at Longwood Gardens inspired me to do some experimentation with LED water lights. We purchased a package with a submersible LED light that changed colors and came with 100 clear acrylic pieces to reflect the light in the Longwood gift store.

Looking around for a subject - I decided that my dahlias were prolific enough this year to sacrifice one for the project.

The first series is of the whole flower - positioned over the light and crystals. Just as in the Bruce Munro pieces, the longer exposure for the photograph intensifies the color.

The second series is of petals. The crystals are more visible. The petals almost give the image a painting type texture.

Of Hot Tea and Mugs

Now that the weather is occasionally cooler, I’m migrating from iced tea to hot tea.

I like to make a pot (in my coffee maker that has always been used for tea rather than coffee) of homegrown mint and stevia with white tea every morning. The brew smells and tastes wonderful alone or with a splash of unsweetened almond milk. Sometimes I make a second pot by just adding a Bencheley’s Apricot tea bag (black tea) to the basket on top of what is already there. The smell of tea is an important aspect of its appeal. It is the prelude to drinking tea and lingers in my kitchen - invigorating and comforting at the same time. Isn’t it nice to have a ‘comfort food’ that is low (or no) calorie?

I never drink small cups of tea…because I like a larger amount to drink and because I have such a wonderful collection of mugs. Some of my favorites are in the photograph above. There are holiday ones - the Santa with the beady eyes from an office party ‘secret Santa’ many years ago, the poinsettia, the valentines - which I use around those holidays. There are reminders of vacations or events - the Texas bluebonnets from a family, the Chesapeake birds, the green and white mug that was a gift for judging at a high school science fair, the silver travel mug that used to have a Cornell emblem on it. Last but not least there is the oldest mug of the bunch - one with a botanical theme in white and green and rust - that was a gift from over 35 years ago when I first decided that I really wanted something larger than the cups that came with our set of dishes!

Recipe of the Week: French Toast Bread Pudding

Want the smell and taste of French toast but need it for a crowd? Try this baked version.

For each serving: 

• 2 slices of bread
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Cinnamon and other spices to taste 

Spray the baking dish with cooking spray. The dish must be large enough to not boil over if the liquid bubbles while cooking; place it on a large cookie sheet if there is any doubt. Cut the bread into pieces. Whisk the other ingredients then pour the mixture over the bread. This can all be done the night before and the whole thing put in the refrigerator overnight. Put in the oven then turn it on to 350. Cook for about an hour. Serve hot drizzled with maple syrup.

Some modifications to try: 

• Use flavored coffee creamer in place of milk (skip the sugar, vanilla and spices).
• Substitute 1 tablespoon chia seeds for 1 of the eggs.
• Use sweetened almond milk to replace the milk and sugar.
• Use molasses or honey to replace the sugar.
• Make individual servings and let people add their own spices, dried fruit, or sugar. Note - as pictured above made in a Corningware grabit (I used molasses for half the sugar, added raisins and orange peel, replaced one of the eggs with chia seeds….yummy). 

Brookside Gardens in September

Brookside Gardens in September is making the transition to fall. We went first thing in the morning; the temperature was decidedly cool. Here are the highpoints of what we saw: 

• Red magnolia seeds
• Fall crocus
• Coleus - some in bloom
• Dogwoods turning and one already in full fall reds
• Roses - they always get a second wind as the temperatures get a little cooler
• A walking stick on the ‘switch grass’ sign 

Enjoy the slide show!

New Foods

Usually when I do my grocery shopping, I focus just on what is on my list and, since I am very familiar with the grocery store I go to every week, I don’t look at anything else. Just this past week I was distracted in the aisle where the nut spreads (like peanut butter) were displayed and found a lot of spreads I didn’t recognize. I decided to try one with the very long description: “Lemony Flaxseed Spread with Ginger and Honey.” It sounded like it would be good on toast or pancakes.

I got home and decided to slather some on the last of the sweet potato bread.

Wow - it had more kick than I anticipated!

Maybe the combination of ginger and chile pepper is even greater that the spices individually?

Whatever the case - this is a successful experiment in the sense that I am using less butter on toast (i.e. this replaces the butter) and I’ve also used it instead of maple syrup and butter on pancakes.

Maybe one of the keys to eat less fat and sugar is to lean toward more ‘spice’!

Black Swallowtail Caterpillars

A few weeks ago I found caterpillars on my parsley plant. They were easily identifiable as black swallowtail caterpillars so I decided to sacrifice the plant to have the caterpillars as photography subjects and increase the next generation of black swallowtails. There were four caterpillars and they ate about half the rather large plant before they made their chrysalises. They will probably overwinter in that form since the temperatures are definitely cool at night already and there is not enough time for the cycle to get from butterfly to egg to chrysalis again before it is too cold. 

The caterpillars eat rapidly…then go into a food coma…shed their skin. They have stubby feet that grip the stems of the parsley but can lift themselves off the stem too. They sometimes sprout yellow orange horns if they are threatened but not while they are in a food coma. Enjoy the caterpillar slide show below.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 22, 2012

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:

Another Way to Think about Learning - from Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the One Laptop per Child Foundation

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #22 - from the Wild Bird Trust

Antlion  - otherwise known as doodlebugs…find out what the ‘bug’ at the bottom of that conical pit really looks like?

Antietam 'Death Studies' Changed How We Saw War - 1862…. photography of the aftermath of the battle at Antietam

Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?

New Test House to Generate More Energy than It Uses - a stereotypical suburban house that can generate as much energy as it needs to run

U.S., Russia Move Closer To Sharing Their "Beringian Heritage" - Beringia National Park in Russia to be linked with Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and Cape Krusenstern National Monument in Alasak

Crews Uncover Massive Roman Mosaic in Southern Turkey - 1,600 square feet of mosaic….from a Roman bath

Rx Guide for High Blood Pressure - BP medications are currently failing millions. The author of a new book on the topic says “Despite their best intentions many physicians continue to place their hypertensive patients on blood pressure medications, drug combinations or doses that may not be the best treatment available to them”

Give peace (and quiet) a chance - Is there any place to hear the early morning bird song without the backdrop of traffic?