Walk around Centennial Lake

Yesterday morning was cold but sunny - a good morning for a brisk walk around Centennial Lake in Columbia, Maryland. There were quite a few other people that took the opportunity to get outside after the previous rainy days.

Of course - the park is still mostly in the grips of winter. The trees and their reflections were full of browns and grays. The paddle boats were stored on the dock. The birds were the ones acting as the harbingers of spring: 

• Red wing blackbirds were calling back and forth from their trees

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 23, 2013

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.

It’s Getting Hot in Here, So … What, Exactly? - Strategies for adapting to a warmer world

Magnificent Frozen Waterfalls around the World - And people trying to climb them! My effort to capture a winter photo of Taughannock Falls from a few years ago is at the right.

Next-Generation Lithium-Ion Battery Designed - Projected to hold more than 3 times the charge and recharge in around 10 minutes…and available in 2-3 years. In this design the current graphite anodes are replaces with porous silicon nanoparticles.

Photography in The National Parks: Capturing Moonbows in Yosemite National Park - I felt lucky to see a moonbow at Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky….glad someone is skilled enough to photograph them and that they happen at Yosemite

What does 200 calories look like? - Lots of pictures….a way to gain perspective on the importance of portion size

Field Guide to National Parks App - From the National Parks Conservation Association; for iPhone and Android. I have not tried it yet and the reviews are mixed. I like the idea of it though.

Global Health Observatory - From the World Health Organization. The map gallery is a good place to browse.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #37 - My favorite images are the Anna’s Hummingbird and the Storks (in silhouette)

5 examples of how the languages we speak can affect the way we think

The How-To Guide to Windows 8 - A series of articles (organized by this page) from CIO magazine

Brookside Gardens Conservatory - February 2013

The Brookside Gardens Conservatory is a warm, lush place for a pleasant winter afternoon. There are lots of colors to enjoy - dominated by greens. I always look for the spirals of ferns unfurling. There was some construction going on at the main door when I was there so it was more noticeable than usual that the smaller plants are moved around.

The tropical fruits I noticed in January - pineapple, bananas, and chocolate - were still there. And I noticed the star fruit ripening. The begonias always seem to be blooming and the variegated crotons fill their corner with their bright leaves. Camellias were full of buds - and a few early blooms. They’ll be spectacular in March. I even found myself appreciating the lettuce for its translucent green leaves with reddish margins. I usually photograph the bird-of-paradise flowers that are dominated with orange but this time I tried the white ones instead; they are very large and produced by one of the oldest plants in the conservatory.

As I was leaving Brookside an older woman ask me what there was to see at the gardens and I recommended the conservatory as a richness of plants to see and an easy walk. She was in her 90s! I hope she enjoyed her outing to Brookside Gardens.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 16, 2013

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.

Bird-of-Paradise Project - from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology - lots of videos of the birds and how the images were captured too

Image of the Day: ‘Goose Bump’ Muscles - mouse hair follicles

Hans Rosling shatters the myth of “developed” versus “developing” nations - TED talk

Videos From Northeast Blizzard - National Geographic’s pick of 6 videos

Amazing Animal Hearts - heart trivia from the National Wildlife Federations. Did you know that a blue whale’s hear beats only 7 times per minute?

Geocaching - technology supported treasure hunting

Thousands of Merged Photos Display Sun's Surface

Desalination Seen Booming at 15% a Year as World Water Dries Up

A US high speed rail network shouldn't just be a dream - Wouldn’t it be nice to have the option to go high speed rail rather than airplane?

Table of Trends and Technologies for the World in 2020 - A thought provoking list of ideas from Richard Watson. His blog posts about the table is here and here (the second one provides a list of references).

Self-Assembling, Origami-Inspired Particles - lots of nanotechnology potential….how long until truly useful reality?

Brookside Gardens Outdoors - February 2013

Much of Brookside Gardens is still in winter mode when I was there earlier this week - lots of browns, mulch washed onto the walkways from the last rains. It was a sunny day and large sycamore was at its winter best against the blue sky; it’s easy to identify these trees in winter with their white trunks. The snowdrops were up but most of the other bulbs were just peeking through the soil.

The small trees that were the highlight of my walk were the witch hazels which were blooming. There were at least three different flower colors - two of which are shown below.

Arizona Senna and Solanum

My daughter sent me senna and solanum pictures. I am appreciating that technology makes it so easy to increase the vicarious experience. I’ve been hearing about these plants since last summer when my son-in-law obtained them for his study of native pollinators and the pictures have taken the experience to a new level!

They have been moving the plants into their apartment during the frosty nights in Tucson this winter. This is quite an undertaking since there are over 20 pots of senna (yellow) and solanum (purple); the pots must fill in almost all the available floor space in their living room. Fortunately it has only been a few nights. And the plants have survived and thrived - blooming continuously.

Enjoy the senna and solanum flowers in the slide show below….little bits of weedy color when seen along the roadsides….cheery in macro photographs.

senna_covessii

senna_covessii2

senna_covessii3

solanum_tridynanum_female2

solanum_tridynanum_male

solanum_tridynanum_male3

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 09, 2013

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.

Google Street View Now Covers Grand Canyon Hiking Trails - take a virtual hike in the Grand Canyon

Voyager into Stardust - short video

How Much Do Americans Pay for Fruits and Vegetables? - from National Geographic

HMS Beagle Voyage - visualization for the UK’s Natural History Museum

Frogcicle - a video of a frozen frog thawing…and hopping away!

Color from Structure - structural colors of peacock feathers, butterfly wings, fish and squid outer cells, hibiscus flowers…color producing nanostructures

Little House Books' Mary Ingalls Probably Did Not Go Blind from Scarlet Fever, Study Says - not that scarlet fever was not prevalent during the time…but it does not cause the symptoms (and blindness) described

Tulip fields - patchwork of color from the Netherlands

Coal Cooling Towers Come Crashing Down - 2 videos: one slow motion, the other with cartoonish faces on the towers

BugGuide - a site about insects of the US and Canada hosted by Iowa State University Entomology

Organized Paper Butterfly Installations Evoke Energy - beauty created with small papers

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 2, 2013

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.

Masterful Textured Oil Paintings of Ships at Sea - from Polish Artist Justyna Kopania

Health and Environment: A Closer Look at Plastics - trying to balance risks and rewards

The Whirlpool Galaxy

Morning Glory Muffins - nutrition rich - to start the day

Population Density in the US from 1790-2000 - from Stanford University’s Spatial History Project.

Simon Beck Snow Art - this post is almost a year old…but I only found it recently

Test for Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals Gets Global Seal of Approval - both the international Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the US Government ….good that they are agreed on how to test for the chemicals

Silhouettes and Moonrise in Real Time - video of a moon rise from a New Zealand mountain top

Archaic Native Americans Built Massive Louisiana Mound in Less Than 90 Days - At Poverty Point…the largest mound was built between rains; the hunter gatherers must have been a lot more organized - and in larger numbers - that previously thought

Romantic Textured Paintings of Couples Walking Together - just in time for Valentine’s Day

Chocolate and Pineapple (at Brookside)

I check the banana palms every time I visit the Brookside Gardens conservatories; they usually have bananas in various stages of development. This past visit two other plans from warmer climes were bearing fruit as well:

Pineapple. I had seen pictures of the plant but had not actually seen one before. The fruit was well along in its development.

Cacao (chocolate!). I had seen a tree with the pods in another conservatory but finding one at Brookside almost hidden in the other tropical foliage was a pleasant surprise. The change in color that comes as the pods ripen was clearly visible.

Both plants are so different looking than plants that are native to Maryland. What a delight on a winter’s day to feel the warmth and be surrounded by tropical plants in the Brookside Gardens conservatory!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - January 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. Here are some ‘little celebrations’ I’ve noted this month:

Reorganized kitchen. I helped a family member re-organize their kitchen and was surprised at how easy it was to streamline their everyday cooking. Now maybe I should reorganize my own kitchen and celebrate again!

Home again. After being away for more than a month - I celebrated being at home for more than a week after returning.

Brookside Gardens. Always one of my favorite places but this time the conservatory was the celebration….flowers and lush greenery in winter.

A cold day indoors and indulging in all those introvert favorites - reading a good book, watching birds from the window, sipping hot tea laced with chocolate.

A sliver moon above the sunrise. Starting the day with a scene of beauty is such a joy.

An uncrowded grocery store. I go early to get my shopping down before a lot of other people are about. It easier to relax and read labels to buy exactly what I intend.

A sunny day. It seemed like January was going to stay cloudy, dim and cold…and then there came a sunny day. I sat in a sunny window and celebrated the brightness.

Snow. I like seasons. Snow is my favorite aspect of winter and I celebrate the beauty of it before the plows come…before the deer track up the yard.

Cream of tomato soup. Even when trying to take of some weight, good food is something to celebrate. Homemade soup is one of my favorites on a cold day.

The first day of a class feels special - so full of potential...exciting to be starting something new.

Previous ‘little celebration’ posts can be found here.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 26, 2013

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.

How Much Unsubsidized Solar Power is Possible? - interactive map showing increase incost competitiveness of solar power in the US

World's Largest Natural Sound Library Now Available On-line ... And It's Free - the Macaulay Library archive…a 12 year project to digitize the entire collection has been completeed!

Woodpecker inspires cardboard bike helmet - it absorbs 3 times as much force as polystyrene helmets and is 15% lighter

Hello Robots, Goodbye Fry Cooks - what about the impact of the robotics revolution on human employment/

Vouching again Creationism - a rant about the relationship between school vouchers and the teaching of creationism...how religious teaching is becoming publically funded

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #34 - The last one surprised me….the Indian Robin does not have a red breast like our North American robins

Exploring The Parks: Grand Canyon National Park, A Winter Wonderland - Some year I’ll get to the Grand Canyon in the winter

To Surf a Hundred Million Stars - intro to a zoomable photo of the Milky Way center….spend some time zooming the image (and the others available from the GigaGalaxy Zoom project also linked from this article).

Interior Department Nominates Poverty Point National Monument For World Heritage Site Designation - specifics about Poverty Point but also general information about the World Heritage Site designation

Museum Collections (National Park Service) - the site has been revamped. Take a browse through the collection highlights (click on one that looks interesting and a whole series of items from that same location will appear0. Or use the pull down to select your favorite park!

The rise and fall of artificial gravity - Why has no one built a space station with artificial gravity?

Opinion: The Successes of Women in STEM - there are still roadblocks. Karen Purcell articulates some of them.

Details Seen in Photographs

In my last walk around Brookside Gardens, I took my usual large number of pictures - and then enjoyed the detail of what I captured after I got home and could look at the images on a large screen.

I didn’t notice the imperfections in the succulent pictured below when I took the picture; the colors and the frame filling shape of it was what caused me to take it. Now - it is the imperfections that cause it to be one of my favorite images from this visit to the gardens.

I held my camera upside down and took the picture below blindly - pointed upward into the angel trumpet flower. The light from the conservatory roof was bright enough to give the flower a central glow. The delicate fibers within the flower show through. The green core of the flower looks like an asterisk pinned to the stem by the flower parts and framed by the fused petals.

Did I say that it was a sunny day? The photo below is the only image in this post that was taken outdoors. The shadow and burn out areas are what makes this image a favorite for me.

Last but not least, the coiled fronds in the center of a fern. I always like to catch the spirals of nature since they are never that way for long; they’ll unfurl into the outer ring of green while new fiddleheads form in the center.

Brookside Gardens Conservatory Flowers - January 2013

The conservatories at Brookside Gardens are lush with greenery and flowers - a welcome contrast to outdoor vegetation this time of year. Begonias and bird of paradise…crown of thorns and petunias. Today is a celebration of the flowers!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 19, 2013

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.

Where US R&D dollars go

Geometric Sculpture by George W. Hart - the ‘skinks’ is my favorite

Tap into the 2013 Natchez Trace Parkway Visitors Guide - available in PDF

What You Don’t Know About Home Burglaries - infographic. 65% of burglaries happen during the day and other factoids

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #33 - my favorite is the Indian peafowl

Australian Heat Wave Is Literally Off the Color Scale

Marc Goodman: A vision of crimes in the future - TED talk

These Days, Darwin Would Need To Know More About Jupiter - What Can Astronomers Teach Biologists? - 4 perspectives

Americans Have Worse Health Than People in Other High-Income Countries; Health Disadvantage Is Pervasive Across Age and Socio-Economic Groups - from the National research Council and Institute for Medicine. Full report can be found here.

 Human Numbers Through Time - the graphics show population growth over the past 2 millennia. It was created in 2004 but I just found it this past week

Spectacular Macro shots of Underwater Corals

Around our (Maryland) Yard in January 2013

The temperature was in the 20s on the morning I walked around our yard this month. There was still frost on the ground - coating the hardest of weeds that are green (lower left). The cairn of rock and shells (upper right) has been knocked over by foraging deer; I left the toppled pieces for another day. Most of the seeds from the onion have scattered (upper left) and the seed casings are tattered. Surprisingly the tulip poplar (middle left) seems full of the dried remnants of flowers and seeds from last spring. The trunk of our oak tree (bottom right) has smooth areas from its younger self.

Winter is the starkest of seasons. Every color that breaks the monotony of browns is appreciated: the blue of the sky, the green of a weed, the white of an old shell. Now, as I write this post, I am looking at the maple from my window and noticing a little movement of the branches from a breeze and am glad I am in the warmth of the indoors.

Dallas Airport Mosaics

I photographed the mosaics near my gate in Terminal D of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. It was a last interlude after being in the Dallas area for a month…finally on my way home to Maryland.

I had seen some of the medallions before. The one I saw first several years ago is still my favorite: Cypress Trees by Arthello Beck. The slideshow below shows different parts of it.

I didn’t walk the whole terminal but there were other mosaic medallions nearby.

A bird

Concentric circles

Golden shapes and geometrics

There were a few other people that paused to look at the mosaics. They too made the circuit around each one to take in the images created from the small pieces of color. Most people hurried along their way - focused on their destination rather than the art under their feet.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 5, 2013

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.

Frosty Morning Walk - photographs from the Prairie Ecologist

Your Amazing, Aging Brain - from Lynne Spreen

2012: The year’s science and tech news in one graphic - from the BBC. How many of these did you spot during the year?

Rita Levi-Montalcini has left the building - the Nobel-Prize winning neurologist died recently at 103

Stunning Satellite Photos of Earth From Outer Space - my favorite is the one of Painted Desert, Arizona

12 Awe-Inspiring Photos of Lightning - the very first one (of the Eiffel Tower) was the one that caught my attention…but all of them are spectacular

Should Jerry Brown Just Ignore His Cancer? - too much medicine?

Tomorrow’s world: A guide to the next 150 years - from the BBC

Gorgeous Otherworldly Photos of Colorful Forests

Antarctica’s Adorable Emperor Penguins - my favorite is the one with the larger chick with a wing/flipper around the small chick next to it

Can You Spot These Camouflaged Animals? - maximize the window before you start to look. Some of these are really tough.

The First of 2013

I did not stay up to celebrate the first minutes of 2013. I enjoy getting up to see the first sunrise instead (although it was cloudy so I took the picture at the left of wind chimes and winter trees at the time of 'sunrise').

New beginnings are so full of potential. Just as sunrise is a prompt to review the plan for the day, New Year’s day is a good prompt for writing some goals for the upcoming year. This year I am using a start - stop - continue grouping. I’ve learned over the years to include specific ways to measure the goal in the goal statement itself or as an associated note.  Here are some examples from my list for 2013.

Start 

• Losing the last few pounds to get down into the ‘normal’ range for my height by April 1.
• Upgrading landscaping and garden around the house by early summer

Stop 

• Drinking soft drinks (diet Pepsi is my downfall!)

Continue 

• Volunteering with the Friends of a local nature center (4-8 hours per week).
• Reading about even numbers of fiction - history - arts/social - technical books at about the same rate as previous years.
• Writing 3000 words per day when I am at home.
• Gardening in pots on the deck
• Using travel or hosting guests to break up the year.
  • Monthly visits to public gardens or conservatories
  • Tucson in the early spring
  • House guests in the early spring
  • South Carolina in the early summer
  • West Virginia in the fall