Brookgreen Gardens

Brookgreen Gardens, located south of Myrtle Beach, SC, is more than plants. It has many sculptures spread throughout the garden areas and in museum type displays. There is a Butterfly House (photos in an upcoming post) and opportunities to learn about the history of the area which was colonized as indigo and rice plantations.

We were too late for most of the azaleas and camellias but the iris were beginning along the edges of the water. There was lush greenery and the black masked squirrels abounded.  There was sculpture everywhere - sometimes as the center piece of the garden and sometimes almost hidden in foliage. My favorite was of a dancer with swirling skirts.

I found myself interested in the faces of the pieces and picked some of the best for the slide show below.

The tickets for Brookgreen last for a week and I found it was well worth taking more than one day to see the place.

Maryland Sunrise - May 2013

It is good to be home again. I was up in time to catch the sunrise yesterday. The picture above was taken a few minutes before sunrise at 6:03 (sunrise was at 6:09). This time of year the view of the eastern horizon from our house is obstructed by trees. The oak tree in the foreground is full of blooms and rapidly growing leaves. But the clouds captured the color of the day’s beginning. What a difference from the sunrise over the Atlantic from a South Carolina beach I posted about a few days ago!

Observing sunrise is one of my favorite ways to start the day. The more beautiful it is - the more positive I feel about the rest of the day.

Peacock Images

On my first day in South Carolina, I saw a peacock sculpture at Brookgreen Gardens - marking a path into the gardens near the visitor’s center. The sculpture captures the haughtiness of the real bird that I saw the next day at Magnolia Plantation & Gardens. The bird displayed for visitors standing in line to get tickets. The patch of grass and nearby fence was its stage. Periodically he screeched and was answered by peacocks elsewhere on the property. He seemed to enjoy the attention of people but needed the connection to others of his kin.

Peacocks must be one of the most dramatically plumed birds on the planet. Their feathers are long and lush with color and pattern. Did the idea for long trains of formal gowns (and the bustle that was fashionable at one time) come from the peacock’s tail (see the picture of the peacock on the fence at the right)? The color is structural rather than from pigment so it does not fade. I have some peacock feathers that are almost 30 years old and, while physically fragile, they still have their brilliant colors.

South Carolina Sunrise

Last week I was in South Carolina and managed to get up early one morning to catch the rise as the nearby beach - Surfside Beach, between Charleston and Myrtle Beach. We checked weather.com for the sunrise time the night before and got to the beach about 6:20 AM which was just before the sunrise. The moon was still out.

The sky was full of oranges and reds when we arrive but the sun  had not broken the line of the sea at the horizon. It was clear so the light simply filled the sky above the waves. The sun peeked over the rim of the ocean and the reds faded away to oranges and pinks.

We walked along the beach, picking up shells. The morning chill and damp kept us away from the water but the damp sand made walking easier.

There were other things to notice: the people surf fishing (they did have their feet in the water), walkers that briskly made their way along the beach, birds feeding at the boundary between sea and beach, pelican skimming the waves flight in formation toward the north, seagulls chattering, and at least one other with a camera there to capture the sunrise like me.

It was an excellent way to start the day.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 27, 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.

The Cancer Tradeoff - Robert Austin argues that cancer is a natural consequence of our rapid evolution

Dinosaur Embryo Graveyard - From southern China

Like People, Bees Learn From Watching One Another

Breathtaking Photos of Colorful Rock Formations in China - Vibrantly colored exposed rock layers

Plant DNA Largely Unchanged - We have a tulip tree at the edge of the forest in our backyard….and it is pretty much the same as trees that grew in the time of dinosaurs!

Nanoparticle Disguised as a Blood Cell Fights Bacterial Infection - An idea about what comes after antibiotics for bacterial infections….something completely different

Breathtaking Photos of China's "River of Poems and Paintings" - Seems like China is a theme for this week….this is the second gleaning about that country

Research Aims to Settle Debate Over Origin of Yellowstone Volcano - Mantle plumes near subduction zones are more complex that the previous models depicted

Light Paintings Created with LED Wakeboards - Even the photographs show the motion of the athletes…but watch the video too to understand how much work went into the production.

Snowcano - Volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula…and I see that ‘volcanoes’ is another theme for this week although Yellowstone and Kamchatka are quite different.

Desert Collages - March 2013

Today is a savoring of the vacation I had back in March in Arizona. I’ve made some collages of desert images.

Barrel cactus, lizards, cholla fruit, the edges of aloe, lichen. The eye searches for anything that is not the color of sand. The very sparseness of the desert highlights the shapes and colors.

The sky seems bluer in the desert. The tall spires of the desert spoon are not colorful but their shapes are classics of the desert.

And what about the saguaros and aloes. All the shades of green are there. One even has leaves outlined in white.

So - hear I am more than a month after the vacation - still enjoying the time in this place very different from the lushness of Maryland.

Travel Planning

I am more comfortable when I have a plan. It gives me a feeling of security that whatever I am embarking upon is getting my best effort toward reaching the goal. Travel is no exception.

On the flip side - there is a value to serendipity when it comes to travel and over the past few years I’ve honed my strategy to ‘plan…but not too much.’ Here’s how I go about it. 

• I start a mindmap that will turn into the plan. At first I just put the activities I want to do around the center of the map. References such as AAA tourbooks come in handy but I do a check via the Internet on just about everything. The addresses, costs and notes about each activity are the ‘leaves’  on the map.
• Most of my vacations are skewed to outdoor activities - hiking, gardens, beach combing. However, I always add indoor venues on my list so that I can make a quick change if the weather does not cooperate.
• Then I start grouping. Sometimes the grouping is by day but I have gradually moved to grouping activities that are in close proximity - color coding the indoor ones.
• The result is a one page summary (mindmap) of the things that appealed to me about the location I am visiting. I still need some other reference material but the one page is what is use to make most activity choices.

Now - how does this still allow the flexibility for the wonderful serendipity finds of travel? The key is to have more activities that can possibly be done in the time allowed. Make the choice first thing each morning and adjust. And enjoy the vacation you planned…but no too much.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 20, 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.

Bald Eagle Nest in Washington DC webcam - The chicks hatched in March. The nest is on the grounds of the Metropolitan Police Academy. The nesting pair has used the site for several years and successfully fledged young birds.

Clever Designs Built With Repurposed Egg Shells - I love the idea of starting seedlings in egg shells!

Mining Books to Map Emotions through a Century - Emotional archaeology through the written word

Former NBA player recalls the time he saved a dolphin by reaching his arm down its throat - Sometimes the serendipity events of life have tremendous meaning

Computer Scientists Develop Video Game That Teaches How to Program in Java - A trend for teaching in the future?

Radical Roads Drive Robot Cars - Autonomous cars….changing highways

Geography in the News - Maple Syrup Time - A rite of spring!

NASA May Be Towing an Asteroid to a Planet near You - Wow! Really?

Gaining and Losing Shares - Population distribution by region, 1790 to 2010 from the US Census

Rare Disease (infographic) - from TED

Crystal Clear Snowflake Photos by Don Komarechka - In celebration of the end of winter weather!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - April 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:

A friend from 40 years ago. What a joy it is to be in contact with a friend after so many years in different parts of the country!

Tile art. The nature center where I volunteer has started a fundraising effort that involves children making squares of art that will be transferred to tiles. The children and parents have such fun making the images. I can hardly wait to see the walls of these unique tiles.

First spring day. It was a little late this year. Everything was delayed and then suddenly - spring sprung!

New azaleas. We finally filled the bed in front of our house where some bushes had died. The azalea bushes evidently love their new home; they started blooming almost immediately.

Flicker. There was a flicker investigating the forest at the back of our yard. Maybe there will be a nest!

Steak. We don’t have steak all that often and this time we thought it had burned on the grill - but it was very tender - and tasty. Celebrate!

Butterfly. It was pretty cold but there was a brave butterfly on the plum tree. It was the first of the season.

Deciduous magnolias and cherry trees. These are the two early bloomers in our area. This year they peaked together.

Travel plans. I enjoy planning for travel. It’s the preparation of the mind to maximize the experience of where I go. The anticipation is worth savoring.

Dark chocolate. This should be on my list every month. 

3 Free eBooks - April 2013

The Internet has a growing number of online books…and many of them are free. This is my monthly post highlighting 3 that I have enjoyed most this past month.

Gray, Asa. The Forest Trees of North America. Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution. 1891. This is really the plates prepared for a book. The work was done between 1849 and 1859. It is available in PDF form here. The first three images hooked me for the rest of the volume: magnolias and tulip polar. The tulip poplar in our back yard is just getting ready to bloom…and the image captures the look of the tree quite well.

Redoute, Pierre Joseph. Les Roses. Paris, De L’Imprimerie de Firmin Didot. 1824. There are actually three volumes available on the Internet Archive: 1817, 1821, and 1824. All three contain pages and pages of botanical prints of roses. I was prompted to look for these books when I saw a reference to them in May Theilgaard Watts’ Reading the Landscape of Europe.

Sale, Edith Dabney Tunis (editor for James River Garden Club, Richmand). Historic Gardens of Virginia. Richmond, William Byrd Press. 1923. Available from the Internet Archive here. The book includes the birds-eye view of many gardens as well as a few vistas from ground level. It is tempting to see how many of these gardens still exist!

Brookside Gardens - April 2013

In mid-April - the deciduous magnolias were the highlight of Brookside Gardens. They come in many varieties although they are generally pink or white. The petals are generally large although there is one that had petals that curled like ribbons. Many times the petals are pink on the outside and white on the inward facing surface. Healthy trees are dense with blooms on otherwise bare branches.

The grounds were covered with new growth. Fiddleheads and native plants are coming up through the mulch everywhere in the gardens.

The tulips were just beginning to open and many of them looked like they had been damaged by the extremely cold weather in late March. I am always drawn to the blending of the yellow and orange tulip petals in the sunlight.

Cherry Blossoms 2013

The weather caused the cherry blossoms to open late - and explode into bloom when some warm days finally came in April. The buds were already in evidence in early March; the picture on the left from our yard near Columbia, MD was taken on March 3. Then we had some very cold weather and the buds were only beginning to open on April 9th (picture on right).

By the 10th it was obvious that the blooms were imminent.

And then the 11th was the very best day for our cherry tree in 2013! The slide show below are my picks of the many pictures I took.

I was thrilled to have observed our tree during these days because I did not manage to get down to the see the trees around the Tidal Basin in Washington DC before the rains and wind took the blossoms to the ground.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 13, 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.

Be Out There - The Forecast Calls for Play - A guide from the National Wildlife Federation about being outdoors on the not-sunny days. The guide was produced in response to the statistic that 61% of parents said the weather was the biggest barrier to playing outdoors.

Sundew - external digestions - Image of a sundew plant curled around an insect

Take a Virtual Hike Along String Lake In Grand Teton National Park - An eHike…17 pictures

Best science and technology pictures of the week - From BBC Future dated 3/29

Versailles Gets Spiffed-Up On Its Day Off - What happens on Monday when Versailles is closed? It is a lot of work.

Psychedelic Bacteria - Sometimes photomicrography looks like art

New Mathematical Model Shows How Society Becomes Polarized - Applying ‘biased assimilation’ model

Spectacular Aerial Shots of International Airports - Newark Liberty and JFK Airports from above

Women computer science grads: The bump before the decline - Observations but not explanations

Utah’s Breathtaking Blue Hills and Painterly Desert - Hmmm --- this could be a great ‘next vacation’

US Botanic Garden - March 2013

The US Botanic Garden is one of my favorite places in Washington DC. I make it part of just about every visit. It is located on the Smithsonian Mall side of the US Capitol building. There were a lot of people around for the Kite Festival the day I was there in March; it was beginning to feel crowded by the time we finished our walk around the conservatory an hour after it opened. The warmth and lush vegetation of the conservatory were a welcome contrast to a blustery spring day!

Outdoors the birds were fluffy in the cold.

The pitcher plants still had some color but were showing the ravages of winter as were some of the other plants in the garden.

The tables and chairs were out in the gardens but it was too cold to be comfortable sitting in them. The sounds of the water in the First Ladies Water Garden were soothing --- no warmth though! At least the miniature iris and daffodils were blooming.

Washington DC Smithsonian Mall

A few days ago I posted some photographs from the kite festival held on March 30th. Some of the other sights that day are in this post.

The buffalo dancer sculpture in one of the gardens beside the National Museum of the American Indian was new to me. The stance of the figure was exotic but the face looked familiar.

Washington DC is full of classical columns. The photo of Ionic columns is from the National Gallery of Art. Another feature of the city are the fountians. They are often tucked away in small parks or courtyards between the buildings; for example, there are fountains on either side of the main entrance to the National Gallery.

The curves of the National Museum of the American Indian - both the façade and embedded in the glass of the doors at the entrance - are soothing and welcoming at the same time. They evoke the natural world in the middle of a city. 

We walked the length of the Smithsonian Mall - the Capitol at one end and the White House to the side. The Washington Monument was surrounded by scaffolding - still under repair for earthquake damage.

Around our (Maryland) Yard in April 2013

We’ve had a cold spring in Maryland. The plum and cherry trees are not yet in full bloom so I’ll wait to post photographs of them later. The hyacinths and daffodils have been blooming for over a month. Perhaps the cold has kept them vibrant for longer than usual.

The iris, tulips and lilies are up. The deer have eaten the tulips to the ground and the lilies are only looking a little better because their foliage grows rapidly after the deer have eaten the above ground parts. The iris either have not been found by the deer or are not tasty enough for them. 

The chives and lemon balm are up in the garden. It’s been too cold to do the usual garden clean out so I tell myself that the old leaves make good mulch for the tender plants.

The edge of the woods has waning daffodils and spindly forsythia.

 

The maple branches have been trimmed so high that the only up close view of the blooms is finding a recently downed twig in the grass. The tree itself seems to be blooming unevenly this year. There are lots of red tuffs at the crown of the tree and only sparse ones in the middle and lower part of the tree.

Spring is here…getting more established every day. A few warm days will get us all out working on cleaning out our garden beds!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 6, 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.

The “50+ Market”: A Few Fab Facts

Are they (cicadas) coming to town? - There’s a brood of the 17 year cicadas coming to my area of Maryland this year!

Trends in Iceland - recession = good?

20+ Dramatic Shots of Lenticular Clouds - unusual clouds

Photos of Famous Authors as Teenagers - How many books of these authors have you read…and how many of these people aged well?

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #40 - My favorite of this batch are the flamingos in flight

Hollow chocolate Easter eggs - It’s too late for Easter this year but this is such a great idea, I’m including in my gleanings list….and looking around for another occasion to try it.

New Gullies Found in a Young(ish) Crater on Mars - Somehow knowing that Mars is not as static as we once thought makes it seem more like Earth too

Glowing Millipedes Accidentally Found on Alcatraz - The place….the organism….found when they were really looking for rats!

Teasing Out New Teeth - And how long will the research and refinement take before it begins to transform dentistry. No more implants or false teeth.

Seahorses

There is a small aquarium room as the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. It was not open when we first entered the museum; it was on out ‘must see’ list since it had been added to the museum since out last visit. The seahorse tank drew my attention. There were two different kinds and they clung to the water grasses with their tail or gracefully drifted to a neighboring plant. They seemed alert but never hurried or nervous.

When I got home, there was a picture on The Scientist website showing how the seahorse’s bony plates are configured to make it hard yet flexible. That serendipity prolonged my ‘Zen of the seahorse’ thoughts!

Too Early for Cherry Blossoms

When I made the reservations for a cruise on the Potomac to see the cherry blossoms on 3/24, the projection was for them to be near peak on that day. Then the area has some cold days that turned into a couple of weeks of colder than usual weather and the cherry blossoms were delayed. We opted to go on the tour anyway.

The day was cold and damp. Everyone stayed in the enclosed part of the boat. There was a birthday party next to us. They gave us desert parfaits to make up for the noise the little children were making; it was a nice little treat and the children actually were making happy noises making the day brighter even without the sun.

Being on the river provides a different perspective than fighting the traffic on the roads around Washington DC. The scenery slides by: Haines Point, the National War College, the capitol, the Washington Monument, the 14th Street Bridge, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, National Airport, and a flock of seagulls as we get close to our pier.

We’ll have to try it another year when the cherry blossoms are blooming.

Fiddleheads

The fronds of ferns emerge rolled up - in a tight spiral that unfurls to turn into the greenry that always seems so luxuriant on the forest floor. I saw fiddleheads in biology textbook pictures long before I saw them growing. They were on the list of plant forms to look for along with horsetails and Indian pipes; none of them were easy-to-find in the part of Texas where I grew up because of the dryness and the city landscape. I found horsetails in Oklahoma and the other two in close succession when we moved to Virginia in the early 80s. The fiddleheads have become a continuing favorite for me over the years.

The shape is appealing. Spirals are like infinity into the past or into the future. The translation of that shape into violins and other stringed instruments is a reminder of the continuing importance of plant designs into our own creations; the pleasure in that shape must be deeply etched into the human psyche.

The tight components of the frond as they unwind have a gracefulness about them too. The compactness of the fiddlehead next to the mature frond is extreme. Mother nature is full of design tutorials that are effective and beautiful. Let’s hope that human engineers can approach their challenges with the same finesse.

The slide show below is a collection of fiddleheads from conservatories (Brookside Gardens most frequently) and our local woods.