Ten Days of Little Celebrations - August 2013

A year ago I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations;’ here are my top 10.

Hummingbirds. The zinnas and cardinal flowers on our deck have been magnets for hummingbirds all during August. I love watching them from my kitchen window. They are the flying jewels of the garden.

Laurie Colwin. I had read most of her books years ago but finally read Home Cooking this month. I celebrated the books she wrote - wishing she had lived to produce more.

Declining weight. It is a wonderful thing when a diet has the desired effect. I celebrated a major milestone with a piece of cheesecake and each lower weight with small piece of dark chocolate. Of course - those celebratory calories have to be included in the total for the day….no backsliding allowed.

Goldfinches. The seeds on the blazing stars are ripening enough to be attractive to goldfinches. I am anticipating that we will see more of them as it gets cooler.

Gardening. It is unusual to have the flowerbeds weed free at the same time. I’m celebrating the accomplishment…..and the room it gives me to try propagating the overgrown hydrangea bushes.

Flip flops. I found 2 flip flops in my size on sale - and it was the sale tax free week too!

Open window. It was wonderfully cool on quite a few mornings this August and I opened my office window to the sounds of the outdoors. How much more connected people were with the outdoors before air conditioning!

Morning snack ritual. I enjoy sitting outside while eating my fruit at mid-morning. The deck is in heavy shade at that time of day and I light the shelf fungus wick in a plate of oil. The large, bell toned chimes add to the sounds of insects and birds with every little breeze.

Coursera History of Humankind. It is probably the most thought provoking course I’ve taken so far….and I am celebrating that it lasts for 17 weeks!

Fresh mint tea. I have harvest mint twice this summer already and there will be another harvest before frost. My favorite beverage is made with a chopped mint leaves and black tea in the filter of my tea maker (a coffee maker that has never made coffee). Most of the crop is dried but the pots made with the freshly chopped leaves are always the most fragrant and flavorful.

Chicory - the Blue along the Roadside

One of the botanical surprises when I move from Texas to Maryland many years ago were the small blue flowers that grew in the weeds at the roadsides: chicory. Sometimes chicory grows between segments of curb; a crack in the pavement is enough to give them purchase. They bloom profusely in our area after rains or heavy dew throughout the summer. Even in the places where the weeds are mowed, the chicory survives. The plants simply grow low - spread out rather than up - and continue to grow new buds and bloom for all the warmer months of the year.

I walked to a weedy area to take these pictures and got an added bonus for the walk: seeing one of the few monarchs of the season. It celebrated while taking a picture of it. The monarch butterflies are not as common in our area as they were years ago. The milkweed plants that they like to lay their eggs on are not seen as frequently either.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 24, 2013

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

Restricting Food and Fluids during Labor Is Unwarranted, Study Suggests - I can remember being very thirsty with only rationed ice chips when I had my daughter years ago. And I was ravenous by the time she was born (and only offered a rather stale boxed lunch since it was out of the normal food service hours in the hospital). Hopefully this study will be a starting point to change the food and liquid restriction rules.

These alien-looking ice sculptures formed all on their own - A collection of images from some very cold places. What a cooling post for August!

Astronomers Take Sharpest Photos Ever of the Night Sky - Using adaptive optics that have been developed over the past 20 years at University of Arizona.

Creative Fashion Illustrations Made with Leaves - Sparse lines - and then leaves. They work together to create appealing images. My favorite is the first one.

Fascinating Friday: 80 Maps That Explain Everything - Pointers to collections of maps from Buzzfeed and The Washington Post. It turns out that maps are good ways to display lots of data in an intuitive way.

State of Flux Images of Change - Pictures of the changes in the earth over day, months or years from NASA.

Iron Is at Core of Alzheimer's Disease, Study Suggests - Yet another reason why we shouldn’t get higher doses of iron. The foods I normally consume easily get me to 100% of the iron requirements - so fortified cereals and iron-contain multi-vitamins are of my grocery list completely.

Fall in the National Parks: Some Great Activities to Put On Your Calendar - Includes the following national parks: Voyagers, San Francisco Maritime, Acadia, Capitol Reef and Grant-Kohrs Ranch.

Amaranth: Another Ancient Wonder Food, But Who Will Eat It? - Chia - quinoa - amaranth - nutritious options abound.

The Common Cook's How-Many Guide to Kitchen Conversions - Very handy for the kitchen!

by ShannonLattin.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Spider Web Drama

Earlier this week, I noticed a garden orb-weaver spider web under the eve of our covered deck. I could see it from above through the window from where usually I sit to create my blog posts. It was dusk and the spider was just completing a meal - the morsel tightly wrapped up in silk. I managed to get downstairs and outside to take a picture before the spider retreated to the cutter support above the web. By the next morning the bundle was gone and the web was repaired.

Earlier this week, I noticed a garden orb-weaver spider web under the eve of our covered deck. I could see it from above through the window from where usually I sit to create my blog posts. It was dusk and the spider was just completing a meal - the morsel tightly wrapped up in silk. I managed to get downstairs and outside to take a picture before the spider retreated to the cutter support above the web. By the next morning the bundle was gone and the web was repaired.

A few days later - again at dusk - I noticed a larger insect struggling in the web. It appeared that it had already been bound in silk but was still very much alive. I saw the spider come down from to the moving bundle. By the time I got outside, the struggling insect had torn away some of the silk and had grabbed the spider. I watched the struggle wondering whether the insect or spider would survive. It didn’t take long before the answer was known: a small bundle that was the remains of the spider fell away.

The aptly named assassin bug was the survivor.

Cicada Found in the Grass

I found a recently dead cicada in the grass beside the garden. I picked it up to exam more closely. It is an annual cicada - not one of the red eyed 13 or 17 year periodical ones. It got a little dirt from my grubby glove but is otherwise is good condition - a worthy object for photography.

There is a surprising amount of color. Behind the head is a black and orange pattern. The eyes are green and there is a lot of green in the head and on the upper parts of the legs.

The joint of the wing with the body is rimmed with green.

The wings have sturdy veins but are otherwise clear. They had collected some moisture from the grass.

Now that I’ve finished photographing it - back outside it goes. It will be a little jewel in one of the flower pots on the deck.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 17, 2013

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

Distracted Driving Video - 35 minutes…three vignettes…the message: don’t text and drive

Fall in The National Parks: Some Other Park Fall Drives Not To Overlook - Some ideas for a fall foliage road trip

Why do we laugh? - James May with a very straight-faced explanation

Park Score Index - Compare ranking of cities based on parks

Photos from Restored Wetlands - From the Prairie Ecologist. My favorite is the paper wasp on the swamp milkweed.

Why aren’t more girls attracted to physics? - It’s all about seeing possibilities.

A History of the World: The 100 British Museum Objects - There are several images for each object and a narrative. Note the little symbols beside each thumbnail and click on the thumbnail to take a closer look; the images with a magnifying glass have annotations (I prefer to click on the thumbnail, go to full screen, then look at the annotations), listen to the short videos for the ones with the ‘play arrows.’ A bit longer audio (originally for a BBC radio program) is available as well.

How a 'Deviant' Philosopher Built Palantir, A CIA-Funded Data-Mining Juggernaut - The good and bad of the state of the art in mining information from huge amounts of data.

Great Blue Heron Highlights 2013 - From Sapsucker Pond in Ithaca NY. I didn’t watch much of the season ‘live’ this year but enjoyed these highlights.

Three Ways Cooking has Changed Over the Last 300 Years - It’s more than cooking….it’s the history of what people ate. Some ingredients are not common now…others are common but prepared quite differently.

Around our (Maryland) Yard in August 2013

August has been cooler and wetter than usual for us. The plants are growing vigorously. The butterflies enjoy the cone flowers and mint. Both plants will be in bloom for the rest of the season. I did a sequence of cone flower development from petals just unfurling to the beginning of seed pod development.

The blazing stars that were attractive to butterflies earlier in the season are developing seeds now. I’ve already seen a few goldfinches enjoying the earliest harvest.

The hydrangea is fading although some of the blooms will simply dry on the bush.

The chives are getting ready to bloom. In September they will be a highlight of the garden. There are some that came up too near the edge of the garden that I am pulling up and enjoying in salads.

And last but not least the dahlias. They are attractive in just about every way…large, robust flowers….glossy green foliage…there for butterflies and bees and wasps to enjoy.

Brookside Gardens - August 2013

Our stroll through Brookside Gardens this month was the shorter circuit - similar to last month - because of the construction around the large ponds and the tea house that wouldn’t be finished until sometime this winter. There was a still a lot to see. Like last month - flying insects were enjoying the garden. I photographed a dragonfly resting perched on some straw on stone edge of a pool and a tiger swallowtail feeding on a flower.

The rose garden is better than usual for August because the weather this year has not been hot for prolonged periods. I like the ones that are several colors the best.

Of course the larger views of the garden are lush this time of year. In this image - the sycamore towers in the distance with green hedge and plants with colorful foliage and flowers growing vigorously in raised beds.

I noticed the zinnias and realized that the ones I have in pots at home are hybrids that have gone native. They have a single row of petals rather than the dense rows on these flowers. I still like mine with their delicate color - different on the top and the bottom of the petal. And the butterflies and hummingbirds like them too.

The bloom time for the lotus is past and the seed pods are all that remains. Even the seeds are already gone.

The pendulous Angel Trumpet (Brugmansia) has many flowers and they sway with each little breeze. In past years these plants were primarily in the conservatory but they are in several of the outdoor beds this year.

I noticed some new looking shelf fungus on a stump visibile through the foilage. It will be interesting watching them grow and mature in upcoming visits.

And those are the highlights from the walk around Brookside.

Zooming in the Garden

Ordinary things become quite different with the ability of modern cameras to magnify. I’ve collected some recent favorites below.

Do you see the pollen on the bee?

What about the veins in the tiger swallowtail wing? They almost look like pleats.

The jumble of curves of pink lilies.

A glorious white on white of a gardenia flower.

The red hues of a hibiscus petal.

The fractures of a drying lotus seed pod.

The spiral of an unfurling rose.

The alien looking center of a water lily flower.

Cardinals in the Desert

A male cardinal survey the yard from a particular bush every morning we were in Tucson in June. He stayed around long enough to be photographed. The favored bush had seeds that the cardinal particularly enjoyed. One morning he was content to simply gorge.

The next morning he brought a female friend and proceeded to offer her part of the bounty.

The last morning he ate quickly then posed - back and then with upraised tail - before he flew off for the rest of his day in the desert.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 10, 2013

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

Giant Maya Carvings Found in Guatemala - There are traces of red, blue, green and yellow paint; at some point they should be able to create an image of what it looked like before it became part of the buried foundations of a rectangular pyramid.

Women in Space: A Gallery of Firsts - Historical perspective. The first was way back in 1963….and from the Soviet Union.

Length of Human Pregnancies Can Vary Naturally by as Much as Five Weeks - Previously everyone assumed the variability was from not knowing exactly when ovulation and then implantation of the fertilized embryo occurred …. But this study revealed that even using technology to determine precisely when these events occur, there is still significant variability.

Hot Lava Hits Seawater and Forms Black Sand Beach - Images from Hawaii

Healthy Cooking Oils: 8 New Picks To Try - I’m going to try avocado oil at some point….once I come to terms with how much it costs!

Top 10 College Towns 2013 - These places have appeal to more than just students! Also take a look at the Cost of Living calculator provided by nerdwallet.

Cactus-inspired material cleans oily water - Deep understanding of how nature works can be quite useful - in this case, a potentially new type of filter. It turns out that it may work for aerosolized oil as well.

Baby Owls Sleep like Baby Humans: Owlets Spend More Time in REM Sleep Than Adult Owls - This study confirmed that the generally held notion that birds, like mammal, spend a lot of their sleep time in REM sleep when they are first born and that it declines over time. The correlation of sleep pattern with other aspects of the owls ‘growing up’ was also studied. I particularly liked that the observations in this study were made with sensors on wild owlets that were not harmed at all by the study and the potential the findings have for understanding the impact of sleep patterns in our own species.

Top US States For Solar Energy - The top 5 are: California, Hawaii, Arizona, Maryland, and Delaware. The article provides the criteria used to assess the states.

The Science of Mummies - Technologies applied to studying mummies….many of them non-invasive and non-destructive.

In the Mood for Classes Again

This time of year I always am looking forward to classes starting again. It’s been a lot of years since I finished my formal schooling but I’m still in the annual rhythm that was established when I was in school then reinforced by my daughter’s school years (and she is still in graduate school).

Coursera lets me indulge….and it’s even better for my needs that a tradition class because it is

• Free
• The material can be viewed any time and any place that is convenient - as long as reasonably good internet connectivity is available.

The only challenge for me is - I am interested in so many of the offerings that it is hard to choose. I’ve decided I can handle 4 but will have to be very organized to keep up during any travel weeks during the courses. The courses that I have selected that start over the course of the next month are:

• A Brief History of Humankind from Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Animal Behavior from University of Melbourne
• New Models of Business in Society from University of Virginia
• A History of the World since 1300 from Princeton University 

I’m always impressed with the number of partner organizations (mostly universities but some museums are showing up now as well). The quality of the courses is generally quite good. There may come a time when I want to experience an old fashioned class with the teacher and students all in the same place at the same time- but, until then, I am thoroughly enjoying Coursera!

Swimming Pool Surface Images

Sometimes the camera captures more than we can see with our eyes. Both of the images in this post are in that category.

The wasp landed on the surface of the pool and bent to get a drink. The surface tension of the water held it out of the water although the picture above shows the slight indention of the surface where it touched the water. It took off again quite easily.

On another day - wind blew small pieces of nearby vegetation into the pool. When it calmed, aggregates of the debris collected into mats that floated about together. This is my favorite because of the variety of shapes - pine needles, the old flowers, leaves.

Hummingbird at the Cardinal Flower

A few days ago - l looked out onto the deck from my kitchen window and saw a hummingbird enjoying our cardinal flowers. The bird stayed there long enough for me to sit in the breakfast area and take pictures through the window.

Ruby throated hummingbirds spend the warm months in Maryland and I was pleased that the bright cardinal flower had attracted the attention of this female. She was a blur of activity - holding still at each flower for a very short time before moving to the next one. After making the complete round of the flower spike, she flew up to rest for a few a seconds on an empty plant hanger then flew off into the cloudy day.

There are more spikes of the cardinal flower forming so I am looking forward to her return.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 3, 2013

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

The electric car is here to stay - Infographic showing the history of electric cars.

New Rockies GigaPannery - 8 geology related panoramas from the Rockies allowing zoom in to the various parts of the image. One is a road cut (a typical stop on a geology field trip!).

Kid Friendly Dyeing - Making your own play silks - My daughter and made tie-dyed silk scarves many years ago with Kool-Aid. We didn’t achieve the really bright colors but I still have some of the pastel creations. One is tied to the handle of my purse this summer!

Dew on Dandelions - Turning weeds into things of beauty. I’ve always liked the puffs of dandelions but I haven’t caught them with dew (see my ‘best’ photo to date to the left).

What do supernovae and salad dressing have in common? - Watch the video!

What can we do to make cities less lonely for the elderly? - Use the arrows to bring up annotations on the city scenes. Many things that make is less lonely for the elderly also make it better for everyone else too!

Inca Children Got High before Death - Mummies of three children sacrificed about 500 years ago and discovered in a high altitude cave in 1999. The hair analysis showed consumption of alcohol and coca in the year before their deaths. That consumption spiked dramatically in the weeks before their deaths.

Boys with Autism or ADHD More Prone To Overuse Video Games - Technology is a mixed blessing. There is a challenge that all people have to use it effectively - rather than becoming addicted or overwhelmed. Evidently autism and ADHD make the challenge even higher.

Living Longer, Living Healthier: People Are Remaining Healthier Later in Life - This is certainly what we hope is happening and will continue.

8 tips to make your life more surprising, from Tania Luna, Surprisologist - Cultivating the ‘surprise’ in life is well worth the effort. I wrote down my answer to ‘What surprised you today?’ for several years and then transitioned to recording the ‘little celebrations.’ There is definitely an overlap between the two!

Butterflies on the (Blooming) Joe-Pye Weed

The Joe-Pye Weed at the Robinson Nature Center is blooming and full of insects right now here in Maryland. The most noticeable insects are the butterflies: Easter Tiger Swallowtail and Spicebush Swallowtail.

There are so many of them it is quite easy to get some excellent photographs of the insects!

Great Blue Heron

There was a Great Blue Heron that seemed to be posing on a platform in the small lake at Clark Gardens. At first it was a still as a statue. 

I sat down on a bench to watch. The heron moved its neck slightly then turned toward me as if acknowledging my presence - a silent communication that seemed to say ‘be still.’ 

About a minute later, the heron went to alert. He’d seen a fish in the water. About 30 seconds later, he jumped into the water - went completely under. He got his fish and was back on the platform very quickly. The slide show below shows the heron recovering his good grooming while swallowing the fish. This is a time when I wished - after the fact - that I’d been using the video feature on the camera rather than just taking pictures!

Tucson Botanical Gardens

I am just now finding a day to post about my visit to the Tucson Botanical Gardens in June. In looking back through my photographs, I found it very difficult to select a small enough number for this post.

The Gardens are an oasis in a heavily populated part of Tucson. It is obvious that they have been getting better and better as the many years of their existence have gone by. One of my favorite features was a water fountain that had water coming out of a yucca pod shaped sculpture.

There was a dinosaur garden complete with dinosaur figures and types of plants that existed during that time period.

I’ve never seen so many art bird houses. I took many pictures of the creations. The one to the left is one of my favorites.

The Japanese rock garden looks right at home in Tucson. It works well in a desert and looks as soothing as it would in a totally different climate.

There were plenty of lizards - doing pushups and eying the people in their space too. This one looks quite haughty.  

Decorative tile is used on benches and for some signage. It too fits the desert - durable even in high heat. 

The best of the rest are in the slide show below. I realize now that these gardens will be on my list of ‘things to do’ every time I go back to Tucson.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 27, 2013

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

A New Check-Up on the Health of U.S. Rivers - An article from National Geographic prompted by the recent release of a report from the USGS available electronically here. A lot of progress has been made in recent years to clean up our rivers….but there is still a lot to do.

Researcher Digs Into the Contested Peanut-Allergy Epidemic - We know surprisingly little about how widespread peanut-allergy is … but there are extreme measures to limit exposure.

16-foot dinosaur tail unearthed in Mexico is in perfect condition - Does every child think they want to grow up to discover something like this?  

See The 10 States With The Fastest Internet Connections - They are all in the northeast….with the exception of Utah.

Collaborative Origami Installations by Mademoiselle Maurice - A different kind of community project - temporary but beautifying collaboration.

New Key to ‘Switching Off’ Hypertension - Looking at the way that the body controls blood pressure…and ways that drugs could use the same pathway could lead to treatment without the serious side effects of current antihypertensive medications

The great global food gap - I saw some of these pictures in the nutrition course I took via Coursera - but this is a more extensive set of images of families’ weekly groceries. There is quite a range of cost and of foods.

In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters - A map of the US that shows the change a child raised in the bottom fifth rose to the top fifth.

Exploring National Parks through The Lens of Steven Bumgardner - The article includes an interview and several videos. My favorite video is the one about Frazil Ice.

Breathtaking Monochromatic Photos of Iceland - Sometimes the addition of color would not add anything at all.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - July 2013

Back in August 2012, I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations;’ here are the top 10.

Starting the day outdoors. For years and years I was always heading off to work or errands as soon as I was able in the morning. It is such a luxury to be able to enjoy the outdoors on July mornings when the heat of the day is yet to become overwhelming and the birds are at their most energetic. What a great way to start my days.

Watermelon. I still think the large watermelons with seeds from many years ago had a better flavor than the smaller, seedless varieties in the stores today - but, even these watermelons are a hallmark of summer for me.

Cheesecake sampler. Don’t they always look tempting in the store? Always being on a diet means that I had not succumbed to the purchase until I had a dinner party with enough people to eat most of the pieces in a single sitting. So - I celebrated when I finally found a cheesecake sampler (at the third store I checked) and thoroughly enjoyed the one piece that I permitted myself.

Butterflies on the blazing stars. Flowers and butterflies - easy images to celebrate. See my earlier post here.

Credit for the electric bill. One of the days the exterior of our house was being painted was also an electricity conservation day (our electric utility gives us a credit based on the amount we reduce from a baseline day of similar temperature). The windows were open anyway for the painters - so we turned off the air conditioner and ate picnics (i.e. no cooking). We got at $46 credit! Hurray!

Cardinal flower. Plants are one of my favorite gifts (to give or receive). I celebrated receiving a cardinal flower and enjoy its blooming stalks (increasing rapidly in its big pot) every day. See my earlier post here.

Exterior house painting complete. The house looks wonderfully refreshed….I celebrated that the crew finished in spite of a significant rain delay! See my earlier posts here and here.

Into ‘normal’ weight range. Shouldn’t this be a goal for everyone? I am celebrating getting into the range…and closer to the ultimate goal (another 10 pounds to go).

A quiet day without internet or cable. A storm came through and the service people don’t work on the weekend…so we were without connectivity for almost 48 hours. I found that there was a new quietness about the house to savor…although I also celebrated when the connection was restored too.

Pecans in buttermilk pancakes. I celebrate the goodness the dusting of pecans adds plus the memory of learning to sprinkle the nuts onto the batter as it cooks from my mother.

What have you celebrated today?