Road Trip Preparation

Being ‘on the road’ for 11 days requires some planning. Even though I’ve done it enough times before that I should be ‘experienced’ there is always a niggling worry that something might be forgotten. The usual things are on the list: 

• Pick up tourbooks from AAA.
• Check the travel times between destinations with Google maps.
• Load the lodging reservation information details onto my Kindle - and print the summary.
• Plan the food for ‘picnic’ meals. I am making Pumpkin and Ginger Scones the day before we leave and will take the ones left after we enjoy them fresh from the oven. Also on my list are hummus and veggies, nuts (cashews, peanuts, soynuts). This has been a great year for apples so they’ll be the primary fruit for the road.
• Arrange for house/cat sitter.
• Water the house plants right before we leave. I have a sweet potato that sprouted recently; I planted it in a large pot indoors and have a grow light for it; it is growing very rapidly. My plan is to baby it through the winter and then plant it outdoors in the spring….so that next fall I’ll have quite a crop of sweet potatoes - but it needs to survive our being away.
• Look at forecasts for destinations before packing. Weather is pretty changeable this time of year…and where we are going is generally warmer than Maryland….but is it warm enough to get out the warm weather clothes again?
• Checkout ebooks from the library and make sure they are transmitted to the Kindle. I am not taking any paper based reading material on this trip!
• Create a mindmap for quick reference and re-plans while travelling. The goal is to get the most pertinent information (destinations, addresses, availability, travel times) condensed into a one page reference. Most of the time we can look up information on a smart phone if we need to - unless we are somewhere without cell phone coverage. 

Usually the things we forget are easily remedied - either with a quick purchase or by deciding that it wasn’t so essential after all!

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 23, 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.

Bob and Evelyn’s Seven Decade Dance - A short biography of a couple that met and married during World War II

Monday macrobug: milkweed bugs on milkweed pods - Milkweeds are probably my favorite wild plant.

The Future of Travel - It’s not about destination as much as it is about purpose. The larger version (easier to stare at) is here. From Richard Watson.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #52 - I can’t resist including these in my gleanings. My favorite of this batch is the macro shot of the Indian peacock’s head….although the spotted owlets are a close second.

Oklahoma vs. Texas (Water, Not Football) - Oklahoma has set its target to recognize the limitations of its water supplies, and the adaptability of its people, Texas has defined its dwindling water supplies as a problem in need of money. It’s good that the governments of both states are recognizing the challenge rather than ignoring it.

America’s First Amphetamine Epidemic 1929–1971 - This article is from the American Journal of Public Health in 2007...but I just found it recently. The author writes that “consumption of prescribed amphetamines has also reached the same absolute levels today as at the original epidemic’s peak.” Scary observation.

6 trashy exercises: Robin Nagle on thinking more creatively about garbage - How many of these have you tried? I’ve done 1, 2 and 4…but they are exercises that are easily repeated.

Increase in U.S. State Government Expenditures for Research and Development - Usually articles about R&D funding are grim…but the trend is upward for state governments. As our economy improves maybe there is more strategic thinking at the state level - at least in some of the states.

Stunning Portraits of Colorful Siamese Fighting Fish - In lieu of visiting an aquarium…a fishy feast for the eyes

Is Solar Worth It? - The answer is ‘it depends.’ This article identifies a way to figure out the answer for your situation.

3 Free eBooks - November 2013

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for November 2013.

Gusman, Pierre.Pompei, the city, its life & art. London: W. Heinemann. 1900. Available from the Internet Archive here. Pompeii still fascinates us today. This book has drawings and color illustrations - for tourists of more than a century ago.

Smith, Watson; Woodbury, Richard Benjamin; Woodbury, Nathalie F. S. The Excavation of Hawikuh by Frederick Webb Hodge: report of the Hendricks-Hodge Expedition, 1917-1923. New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. 1966. Available from the Internet Archive here. Hawikuh is located near the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico. Since I had just visited the Southwest in October - the images in this book prolonged the experience once I got back home to Maryland. The book contained many drawings of the designs from pots that reminded me of the pots at Edge of Cedars State Park.

Japanese decorated silk. 1700. Available from the Internet Archive here. This is a digitized version of a swatch book - decorated pieces of silk mounted in an accordion-type folder. The images on silk are elegant glimpses into the skill of the Japanese in 1700; no wonder the silks were in high demand.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 16, 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.

Researchers Regrow Hair, Cartilage, Bone, Soft Tissues: Enhancing Cell Metabolism Was an Unexpected Key to Tissue Repair - The key finding: enhancing mitochondrial metabolism can boost tissue repair and regeneration. This may become a foundational strategy for helping our bodies stay healthy as we age. It is appealing to think of treatments that address the root cause of age related issues ---- reducing or eliminating the need for medications that address the symptoms.

Purring Monkey? Flamboyant Lizard? New Amazonian Species Are Totally Wild - The variety of life on this planet….always fills me with wonder. Hopefully - we are not on a path of our own construction to be the last large species standing.

Gorgeous Turquoise Pools of Pamukkale, Turkey - I found an old tourist book about Pamukkale at a used book sale several years ago. It was from a time when people were still allowed to move all over the pools (there was not a single picture without people in it). I’m glad the access is more controlled these days and that the beauty of the pools is preserved.

A Mesmerizing Interactive History of the High-Rise - Take a different perspective on history - via interactive media….through a narrow lens. Think about how much the elevator changed thinking about how many floors a building could have.

Flower Research Shows Gardens Can Be a Feast for the Eyes – And the Bees - Tuck this idea away for your our planning your garden for next year: planting pollinator-friendly flowers is a no-cost, win-win solution to help the bees. The plants attractive to bees are just as cheap, easy to grow, and as pretty as those that are less attractive to insects.

Discovery of a 2,700-Year-Old Portico in Greece - A long, open structure that often housed shops and delineated public squares from the city…deserted after the area was conquered by Philip II in 357 BC. Over 450 students from University of Montreal have learned excavation techniques and analysis of archaeological material from this site….and the excavation is ongoing.

Amazing Hand-Tinted Photos of Egypt from the late 19th century - The annotations provide an indication of which ones were moved before the Aswan High Dam was completed in the 1960s. There is an image of sand up to the shoulders of an Abu Simbel statue.

Spectacular Lightning Show Over the Grand Canyon - Sometimes catching an image is about being in the right place at the right time….and having the skill to capture what is happening.

High Dietary Intake of Polyphenols Are Associated With Longevity - The headline was typical of many nutrition research articles. What I found more interesting was that this study used a biomarker (total urinary polyphenol concentration) rather than relying on study participants logging their food intake….a positive trend toward making nutrition related research more objective.

Civilizations Rise and Fall On the Quality of Their Soil - About 1% of global land is degraded each year. That can’t be a good thing if we want to feed all the people in the world.

The three waves of disruptive trends - Emerging…differentiating…business value - the waves just keep coming!

Clearing away ‘Stuff’ - November 2013

The theme for this month is intentionally using up items from around that house - that have been around way too long and will be around forever without conscious effort to use them. Here’s my list.

Picnic supplies. I have paper plates that are over 10 years old! And there is a box of plastic spoons that is over 5 years old. There are multiple reasons they have been around so long; the primary ones are: 1) I forget that I have them and 2) recently I’ve started taking reusable plastic containers and packing food in a way that I don’t need utensils at all. On the next vacation, I plan to use the plates and the spoons.

Pads of paper. I have accumulated quite a few pads of paper in various sizes. They come from a variety of sources: charities as a ‘gift’ in the mail, goodies handed out at meetings or conferences, or hotels. I have several on my desk with different kinds of reminders…and it thrills me every time I use one enough to tear off a sheet to go into the recycle….and it’s even better when a whole pad has been consumed. At the rate I am going it will still take several years to reduce the pile (and it seems like more come in all too frequently.

The wrong kind of paper towels. A few months ago I bought a less expensive brand of paper towels. They are less absorbent - so much so that my husband refuses to use them! I’m taking them to use as napkins on our next road trip. It may still take a long time to finally use them up.

Do you have things in your house that will take conscious effort to use up?

Hike to the Patapsco River

I joined a group to hike from the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm to the Patapsco River (Patapsco Valley State Park). We hiked along the farm's cut grass trail, then through a field of cut hay…to the forest. 

A stone marker from 1800 shows the boundary of the Mt. Pleasant Farm.

The undulations of the path took us up and down but averaged ‘down’ on the way to the river and ‘up’ on the way back.

The leaves had fallen - obliterating the trail and smaller fallen limbs. We scrambled over larger deadfall and churned the deep leaf mulch on the inclines. The moss was so green against the dulling brown of the leaves that it sometimes seemed to glow. In fact - any bit of green is eye catching in the late fall forest.

The river view was on the other side of railroad tracks. We listened for a train whistle but only a maintenance vehicle came along the track while we were there. Horsetails grew through the rocks of the rail bed on the river side. Sycamores grow along the river - taking on their white ‘ghost tree’ look of winter now that their leaves were gone.

There were a few examples of shelf fungus that I noticed on the hike back.

The beech trees with their smooth bark were the most frequent tree along the streams down to the river. Some of the trees still held a few leaves. I like the look of the tree trunks of varying sizes in the forest nearly devoid of foliage.

Butler Wash Ruin - October 2013

Butler Wash Ruin is a short walk through washes and across slickrock to an overlook of the ruin. It was a cool day in early October when we were there. The lower part of the ruin was obscured by trees but the ruins in the cliff face were unobscured. The people that lived here had used every space the cliff provided for storage or housing. The area of the ruins looked like an oasis compared to the mostly rocky area of the mesa top.  Where dirt accumulated on the slickrock, flowers were blooming; there must have been some recent rains and the fall temperatures meant that the moisture did not bake away immediately.

There was a good ‘feel’ to the place. The climate in southeastern Utah would have always been challenging - but this place must have provided a measure of stability for the people that inhabited it. They found what they needed.

La Sal Mountains - Utah - October 2013

It was cold the morning we drove up into the La Sal Mountains in southeastern Utah. The peaks had snow and the edge of the pond was icy.

The grass and seed pods around the pond were coated with thick frost.

But the lower slopes were covered with colors of aspens and pines.

We watched cattle being herded by men on horseback; it was the time of year to move to lower pastures. And over it all - we heard birds (and sometimes saw) birds enjoying the forest before the big freeze of winter.

Fall Reflections from Centennial Park - Maryland - November 2013

The walk around Centennial Lake in Howard County, Maryland is a treat in the fall. Last weekend, the breeze was light enough to make the reflections of the fall foliage quite spectacular. In fact, for most of our walk around the lake the sky looked bluer in the reflection!

I like the little distortions in the reflections. Sometimes the water is a perfect mirror and other times it distorts the image.

The real trees and reflected trees take on a surreal look when the water is perfectly smooth…and the symmetry is perfect.

And what about the closer looks - where the colors look more vivid in the reflection than in the actual branches?

Enjoy the 'best of the rest' in the slideshow below.

Valley of the Gods - October 2013

Having enjoyed Monument Valley so much (getting there and rock formations), we decided to try for more views of unusual rock formations in Valley of the Gods. Even the drive to the place  in southeastern Utah was scenic - the highway winding through road cuts as it meandered southward.

Valley of the Gods is a seen from a loop drive (gravel road) through a BLM area. The road was in better shape than the one in Monument Valley! Some of the rock formations are named. Do you see the ‘Seven Sailors’ above? There are certainly seven of them - but I’m not sure about the sailor part. They look too chubby. Maybe 7 toddlers dressed up as sailors?

Some parts of the drive are very sandy rather than rocky. It is quite powdery and throws up plums behind vehicles; our black SUV is dusted with it almost immediately just as it was in Monument Valley.

Sometimes plants manage to hold on long enough to stabilize the sand. The floor of the valley is tenuously covered with vegetation.

There are some rock formations that take on the look of ruins - rocks with layers that take on the appearance of mortar. But these ruins have lasted much long than anything humans have made.

Even the debris from the erosion around the base of a ‘mitten-like’ rock formation has been their long enough to develop its own erosion pattern.

One formation was labeled with two names. We found out it all depends on your perspective. We saw the ‘Lady in a tub’ first (above) and then drove on a little further to see the ‘Balanced Rock’ (below).

Needles Overlook - October 2013

With Canyonlands National Park closed in early October, we enjoyed the view into its Needles District from the Needles Overlook. The wide expanse of rock formations - as far as the eye can see - made the sparse vegetation seem welcome in contrast and I’ve skewed the slide show with photographs I took that included plants.

It is difficult to sense the scale of the vista from pictures. The most deceiving of all is the one that looks like an arch but is really a hole in the rocks (image 12) - barely big enough for a squirrel to run through.

 

Wilson Arch (Utah) - October 2013

With Arches National Park closed with the rest of the government in early October, we stopped by Wilson Arch on US Route 191 south of Moab several times. The first time was in the early afternoon. My husband and father climbed up to rocky slope and discovered that the wind through the hole in the rock was quite brisk. My husband sat down to take his pictures and my dad took a few quick ones and started down. Later in the afternoon we pasted by the arch again so I got the early and late afternoon pictures below on the same day.

A few mornings later, we happened to come by the arch just as the sun was shining through the hole in the rock.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 2, 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.

Pumpkin and Ginger Scones - New York Times Recipes for Health - Yum! The prospect of the melding flavor of pumpkin, ginger, and maple syrup seems to suit my mood for this season. Since I cooked a whole pumpkin this past week, I have plenty of pumpkin to make these scones.

London’s Health - There is a new website that organizes historical ‘Medical Officer of Health’ reports for London from 1848 and 1972. There are several ways to search. I looked for ‘smallpox’ references as my first search.  

Inside the American Kitchen - An infographic about kitchens. Did you know that the three most popular features for kitchen projects are: islands, roll-outs/pull-outs, and drawers?

Cornell Lab FeederWatch - If you get the urge to enjoy birds at a feeder but don’t have one of your own - enjoy the one at Sapsucker Woods near Ithaca NY. There are almost always birds around (and if they aren’t at the feeder there are bird noises that indicate they are nearby).

Massive 80-Room Tree House Stands Almost 100-Feet-Tall - I enjoyed visiting this Tennessee tree house in summer of 2012….and took some very similar pictures (the one below is mine). It is so large that it is hard to capture the entire structure!

Thawing Permafrost: The Speed of Coastal Erosion in Eastern Siberia Has Nearly Doubled - Coastal erosion in areas there permafrost and sea ice were the norm for large parts of the year until recently is increasing rapidly. The materials used for the article include more graphics about how it occurs.

Take a trip over the surface of Mars - A 4 minute video presentation of images from Europe’s Mars Express that has been orbiting Mars since 2004.

The World's Strangest and Most Magnificent Gardens - I love gardens so couldn’t resist including this on the ‘gleanings’ list for the week.

Message From a 50-Year-Old Flamingo - A conservation success story - for now….but there is a lot that could still go wrong for the flamingos left in this world.

Restoration: Another Layer of History - Some examples of industrial/military areas that are repurposed into more public spaces.

Brookside Gardens - October 2013

Brookside Gardens was full of fall last weekend - colorful foliage and the display of mums in the conservatory. I was a little disappointed that they did not have pumpkins and gourds on display as they have in the last few years - but it was interesting to see the preparations for the lights in the gardens that begin at Thanksgiving.

Indoors there is always the draw of lush tropical foliage in the conservatory and the literate frog sculpture in the visitor center.

 Outdoors the colors of fall abound - with some of the trees completely changed (like the dogwood) and some still mostly green (like the ginkgo).

And take a look at both directions from the entrance bridge of the conservatory parking lot:

Of course there was more...so the rest of my photo picks from my October walk around Brookside Gardens is in the slideshow below.

Zooming - October 2013

The ‘zooming’ post for the month has become one of my favorite posts to create. I enjoy selecting the images and getting them clipped perfectly…the arranging them in the post. My picks from my October photographs are below.

September 2013 Zoom

August 2013 Zoom (garden)

Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah - Oct. 2013

Dead Horse Point State Park is south west of Moab UT. The park is on a mesa that looks down into canyons and a gooseneck of the Colorado River. The potash evaporation ponds in the canyon are a vivid blue.

There are some easy hikes that cross cairn marked areas smoothed rock with potholes of water; it had rained recently enough for tadpoles to be swimming in the deepest ones.

The mountains in the distance held snow.

And everywhere the layers of exposed rock marked Earth’s time just as tree rings mark the much shorter duration of the lives of plants.

We were glad we got to the park early since, with the National Parks still closed that day, this state park was the destination of the day for many vacationers.

Enjoy the slide show of Dead Horse Point State Park sights!

Vacation Sunrises…and a Sunset

Catching images of sunrises and sunsets is a typical ‘vacation’ activity. Our recent trip to Utah (and transit of Colorado) was no exception. I was up well before dawn every morning - transitioning to Mountain Time but keeping to my regular morning routine which usually starts between 5:30 and 6 AM; this time of year that means that I am ready for photography before dawn.

The first morning there was a thin bank of clouds to catch the morning color of the dawn in Monticello UT.

The second morning there was snow on the ground and I used the early morning light to capture my favorite tree on the golf course below.

A few days later the clouds gathered at sunset to capture the last color of the day.

And then the sunrise on the last day of vacation from the hotel near the Denver International Airport - full of celebration for the new day and a wonderful vacation.

Around our (Maryland) Yard in October 2013

Our Maryland fall has been muted this year. Most of the trees have not achieved the brilliant colors of years past; the few that do are flashes of brilliance that provide a splash of color for a few day and then drop all their leaves to the ground. I find myself appreciating the play of light through oak leaves this year and the splotches of color on maple leaves that fill a tree that looks ‘green’ from a distance.

The front flower bed is mostly gone to seed. I haven’t seen the birds easting the seeds of the blazing stars but the bare rib of some of the seed plums is evidence that the feast is not going totally unnoticed. We’ve had freezing temperatures for the past few mornings but there is still a dahlia blooming - resting on the sidewalk that probably retains enough heat to keep it warm.

The tulip poplars are losing their leaves and their seeds without becoming the blaze of yellow. They tower over our yard and their leaves wave in the wind….and whirl away.

Last but not least - the onion seeds are scattering as the wind shakes them like at rattle out of their cases. I hope some of them come up next spring as new plants.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 26, 2013

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

Genome Digest - A summary from The Scientist of recent research findings. I like these summaries both for their specific content and the ‘overview’ comparison they sometimes stimulate. Did you know that chimpanzees/bonobos have 2.9 billion base pairs; a cyanobacteria has 4.7 million base pairs; cucumber has 245 million base pairs?

Did You Forget to Have Fun? - How long has it been since you actually did whatever your answer is to “If you had all the time in the world, and weren’t always working, what would you do for fun?”

Driverless Cars Are Further Away Than You Think - Read the comments as well as the story. Time will tell as always. This is a technology that I am really looking forward to so I hope this naysayer is wrong.

The Gorgeous Fjordlands of West Norway - Beautiful wild places

How Are Open Access Publishing and Massive Open Online Courses Disrupting the Academic Community? - So far - is appears that MOOCs have been more disruptive than OA.

Mountain Lion Facts - Did you know that baby mountain lions have spots and blue eyes?

Ancient tattoos may have been used as medicine - Tattoos on Otzi the Iceman

Winners of the Landscape Photographer of the Year 2013 - More feasts for the eyes…UK landscapes.

Why Abraham Lincoln Loved Infographics - A map that showed the density of slavery was well used by Lincoln (it ‘bore the marks of much service’). This article also highlights William Playfair’s role in the development of data visualization; he was the inventor of pie charts and bar graphs in his “Commercial and Political Atlas which he published in 1786.

Improving Weather Forecasts - Forecast accuracy…and how the forecast is presented and interpreted. There’s always room for improvement.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - October 2013

Over 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 for October 2013.

Everything fit into the suitcases. Once the packing is done….the realization that everything needed for a vacation actually fit into the suitcases is worth a celebration.

Utah. Actually this celebration lasted for 8 days. Even though the national parks were closed there was still a lot to enjoy: the aspens in the Abejo Mountains, Edge of Cedars State Park, Monument Valley, Dead Horse Point State Park, Wilson’s Arch, La Sal Mountains, Needles Overlook and Valley of the Gods. Travel expands horizons - in more than just the physical sense - and provides a myriad of opportunities for celebration.

Home again. Much as I enjoy traveling, coming home is always savored.

Rainy day. I’m not sure why - but a rainy day that keeps be indoors after days away from home is just perfect. I celebrated with a good book and hot tea….while moving the loads of laundry from suitcases to baskets to washer to drier.

Caught up with Coursera courses. There were 4 courses that were ongoing while I was in Utah which meant there was a lot of lecture and resource review once I got back. I felt a real sense of accomplishment once I caught up - and celebrated with some dark chocolate.

Hot tea laced with apple cider. Some beverages seem to go with fall. Apple cider is one of them for me. It’s too sweet at full strength so I use it as sweetener for hot tea. It’s another way to celebrate the season.

Out and about. The fall is one of my favorite times to be out and about the local neighborhood. This year the trees seem to reach peak color and then drop their leaves very quickly. I celebrate when I see a tree full of yellows and reds - knowing the vision is a transitory one.

Vicarious celebration. My daughter achieved a milestone in graduate school. The celebration was hers….but I celebrated vicariously.

Cranberry orange relish. This is another fall favorite. I use the recipe from Wegmans with some modification: two oranges instead of one and stevia instead of sugar.

Finding a dental discount plan. My dental insurance expired…but my dentist suggested a discount plan available from the dentalplans.com site....and I had a good checkup too!