Gladiolus

A few days ago I looked down on the back yard from the deck and noticed some small mushrooms in the grass. As I went down the stairs to take a closer look, there was a gladiolus with a spire of near perfect blooms in our overgrown garden! It was promptly cut and taken upstairs to my office.

Gladiolus are flowers that I’ve enjoyed for a long time. My grandparents grew them in their garden when I was a child. A large vase of them stood on the tea cart under my grandmother’s portrait all during the summer season.

I planted the bulbs years ago in my Maryland garden and then ignored them. Their hardiness is one of the things to like about them. The blooms lowest on the stalk unfurl first; when cut just after the first one begins to open, the stems will draw enough water to support the opening of all the buds - which makes for a long lasting display. I prefer a single stalk with a few leaves in a bud vase. There is something quite elegant about the tall slender shape.

I am celebrating gladiolus today.

Saguaro National Park - East

The eastern section of Saguaro National Park was not far from our rental house when we were in Tucson in June. We got up early and headed over before the day got too hot. There is a loop to drive around that climbs a little ways into the Rincon Mountains.

The nature trail and lookout from some rocks were along the drive but we stopped at most of the turnout points as well. The high point of the nature trail was finding the cicada that was singing in the tree beside the trail. The saguaros were past the peak flowering but that made it even better because we were able to see the fruits in various stages of ripeness. Looking down into the canyon from one of the higher turnout points showed the deep erosion from the water pouring down from the mountains although it was very dry when we were there since the monsoons had not started. The bright green of the lichen on some of the rocks was starting; most of the other desert plants are a duller shade.

Enjoy the slide show of the park below! 

Free eBooks - July 2013

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

Toronto Art League. Calendar for the year 1901. Toronto: Musson Book Co. 1901. Available here. 1901 was the year one of my grandfathers was born. I collect books that give me a perception of what the world was like then. How different the world was!

Verner, Dorte (editor). Reducing Poverty, Protecting Livelihoods, and Building Assets in a Changing Climate : Social Implications of Climate Change for Latin America and the Caribbean. World Bank. 2010. Available here. I was taking two different Coursera courses - one on Latin American Culture and the other on Climate Literacy; I’m not sure which one listed this as a reference. It makes the point that the progress made in developing countries can be undermined by climate change. 

Musson, Spencer C. and Lewis, John Hardwick. La Cote d'Emeraude. London: A and C Black. 1912. Available here. History of a place before World War I and art work rolled into one. I like the picture below of a bridge. 

Frontier Texas! In Abilene

Frontier Texas!  is a combination rest stop and museum - just off Interstate 20 in Abilene. The building is patterned after a frontier fort complete with a parade ground with adobe structure with overhands to provide shade. There are picnic tables in that shade! The buffalo silhouettes on tall poles turn in the wind; the flag flutters.

Inside the sculpture of Longhorns driven through water at the entrance was the first indication that this was more that we had anticipated: two theaters - one in-the-round - and holographic speakers talking about their lives with lots of more traditional museum displays in-between. The multiple perspectives this museum offers into the frontier history of Texas are more diverse than in older museums; they include:   

- The Indian with family dead or scattered,
- The woman that survived capture by Indians and admitting in her later years that if she had known what it would be like she would not have to Texas,
- The former slave turned teamster,
- The bar tender than had been a lawman, and
- The cowboy. 

The slaughter of the buffalo is emphasized with a large display and a pile of skulls with a red light shining down on them. The last stage of the museum is the theater in the round. The seats are sections of tree trunks so it is easy to turn all around to see the various parts of the unfolding stories: a stampede….and Indian raid. 

Frontier Texas! offers a view of the time that attempts to be realistic rather than romanticized. Well done!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 20, 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 world likes the US slightly more than China - Infographic displaying data from recent Pew Research Group poll. Is it any surprise that the Middle East views China more positively than the US?

Intricate Hand-Cut Leaf Designs Reflect Wonders of Nature - I’ve always liked the delicate cut-paper art. Using leaves rather than paper is an interesting idea…and the leaves themselves add another shape to the work. My favorite is the owl in the tree.

12 Tips for Staying Optimistic in Tough Times - From Marlo Thomas

HD Video of Niagara Falls - Awesome! Shot via a remote control device hovering over it all.

Ice Chalk - Doesn’t this sound like a fun project for summer?

Family Resemblances - A series of images created with half the face from one person and half from a near relative (brothers, mothers/daughter, fathers/sons). The images show the similarities and also highlight what happens as faces age.

Sea Level Rise in Maryland - Sea level is rising 2-3 times faster in the Chesapeake Bay than the global sea level rise. Includes interactive maps.

Road of the Future - Infographic. There are some that are already being used in a few places (dynamic paint, glow in the dark road markings, and anti-icing).

Solar Prominences put on a strange and beautiful show in the Sun’s sky - From the Royal Astronomy Society

The Abominable Frogman - From the Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique.

Clark Gardens in Texas

Clark Gardens is located between Mineral Wells and Weatherford, Texas - a short side trip from the Interstate 20. What a treasure to find on our way back to the Dallas area from Tucson!

The high point of the visit for me was watching a Great Blue Heron stationed on a platform in one of the ponds. I’ll do a later post with more of my pictures. My sister insisted initially that the bird was a statue and it did stay very still for a long period of time - until it moved into this hyper-alert stance.

We were the only visitors to the garden on the day we were there. This jewel is not well-advertised. We probably would not have seen the snake on the pavers of the formal garden area had there been more people around. We simply walked way around him - letting him soak in the warmth of the June day.

I always enjoy water lilies but the added bonus I observed in this garden was a dragonfly laying her eggs in the pool.

I’ve included a slide show with the best of my other pictures. The model trains were a very pleasant surprise. They are depicting trains that were common to this part of Texas….and the use of natural materials to build the trestles and scenery around them was enchanting.

Clark Gardens is a place I’ll want to visit again. 

The Joys of New Paint - Part II

It’s done! I posted mid-way through the project last week (here). After I posted, the crew put in a 12 hour day since rain was in the forecast for the rest of the week. The forecast was right! Two days of rain prolonged the job but as soon as the skies cleared and the deck dried, the crew re-appeared. The last of the repairs, painting, and staining was finished in about 4 hours. About three hours later, the rain started again.

Here is a before and after of a window repair. The house is as close as it can get to looking like new.

The big surprise of this exterior painting experience was the deck. It’s about 20 years old and the wood is showing a few ravages of time; in some places the grain is ridges because of previous power washings. This crew used a gentler wash and then brushed on stain. Wow! I find myself drawn to have breakfast on the deck among my plants every morning (when it is still cool and shady).

Since then we have been thoroughly cleaning screens and putting them back in the windows. The hardware store will replace the screen material in 4 screens (that had developed significant holes in the past few years). The new address plaque needs numbers and then installation beside the door. We likely won’t be as fast as the painters in getting our chores complete!

Today - I am celebrating the newly painted house that is home.

Mint and Orange Zest

Yesterday was full of wonderful smells: mint and orange peel.

I harvested two baskets of mint from pots and a reused turtle sandbox on my deck. The cuttings were clipped into segments that fit into my food processor. The processed mint is now on two trays on the kitchen counters. I’ll stir them several times a day until the mint is thoroughly dry ---- ready to use with black tea. There will be another harvest before the end of the season - enough mint to use now and last through the winter.

While I had the food processor out, I decided to make orange zest with the six oranges in the refrigerator and freeze the orange sections. During really hot weather, frozen orange sections are wonderful in smoothies so this was a good plan for the fruit and the zest. Only the white part of the orange peel ended up in the compost. I used a sharp knife to cut the outermost peel from the oranges- making long curls into the bowl of the food processor.

This is the first time there has been a bit of mint with the orange zest. I’ll enjoy that!

Cardinal Flower in a Big Pot

I received a cardinal flower as a gift late last week. I decided almost immediately to put it in a pot since it likes to be kept very wet - wetter than any area stays in my yard. The plant was already beginning to droop in the small pot from the nursery because the water drained away so quickly.

I bought a large pot for the deck that I could keep soggy even in the hottest weather. The shells from South Carolina went into the bottom. Next - every partial bag of potting soil, vermiculite, and sphagnum moss in the garage went into the pot (what joy to finally be using up all cobwebby bags!). The plant was positioned in the pot - and watered.

I’m looking forward to the plant beginning to bloom….anticipating hummingbirds and butterflies.

Brookside Gardens - July 2013

Brookside Gardens in July - full of lush green backdrop to colorful blooms. I’m starting off this post with critters rather than plants - because I was so pleased with the images I captured. The first was a dragonfly perched on a water lily flower that was just beginning to open. Instead of darting away, it seemed to pose for a picture.

The hummingbird moth on the butterfly bushes was always on the move. This one was red and black and a little larger than the one on my Blazing Star flowers included in my July 10th post. I had seen this same type of moth at Brookside in 2011 but had missed seeing one last summer.

And finally - there were robins everywhere. I took a few pictures and was surprised to discover when I got home and reviewed my images on a large screen that one of the robins was banded - on both legs!

There was a bit of whimsy in the pool with the lily pads: toy ducks. Two of the little ones looked to be sinking. The large one had been given a straw hat.

The lotus plants were full of large leaves. The white flowers were close to the railing - positioned well for photographs.My favorite was one that showed a flower with a seed pod just beginning, a seed pod that had already shed the rest of the flower and a bud. I'll check the lotus patch every time I go to Brookside until frost! A flower with pink edges nestled among the leaves almost hidden from view.

And now for the slide show with the rest of the best from my July walk around the gardens.

Reading the Landscape (Texas)

The landscape in Texas is quite varied. Let’s see what we can tell from looking at this image of the area in the western part of the state.

At first glance - it is flat. Are there some low hills in the distance or is it a trick of the moisture in the air? The billowing cloud and the darker haze underneath gives the promise of rain ahead. Will it reach the ground?

The plants near the highway are predominately straw-colored rather than green. Further from the road, there appear to be green clumps of scrubby vegetation. Once disturbed, the soil does not support the vegetation that it did before.

Perhaps the area along the road is just the most recently disturbed (from the building of the road) and the area further away was disturbed early by grazing cattle. The original vegetation may be long gone.

Is the straw colored vegetation an invasive plant? Does it burn more easily than the more varied vegetation further from the road?

On the positive side - this is landscape of a wide open space. It is impossible to feel claustrophobic when the horizon is so far away! 

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 13, 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.

Authentic Happiness - Start with the home page of the Director of the Positive Psychology Center at University of Pennsylvania and then look through the site for information and do some or all of the well-being questionnaires.

Urban Observatory - Compare various aspects (like population density, senior population, traffic, etc.) of three large cities (16 of the largest cities in the world to select from) by looking at them side by side.

Powerful African Wildlife Bursts out of lively Landscapes - Enjoy the art of Karen Laurence-Rowe from Kenya.

The Joy of Old Age (No Kidding) - Read Dr. Oliver Sacks thoughts on becoming 80 years old - his mercury (element 80) year.

Technology Foresight - Think about the ‘Futuresaurus’ timelines coming out of Imperial College technology foresight event and posted by Richard Watson on his blog. I was intrigues by the items projected to disappear.

Watch North American City Skylines Sprout In 3-D Video, From 1850 To Today - Cube Cities combined commercial real estate data with Google Earth to provide these videos of midtown Manhattan, Chicago, San Francisco, Calgary, Downtown Los Angeles, and Toronto,

A View from The Overlook: A Virginia Farmer - I could not resist adding this post about Mount Vernon from National Parks Traveler to this week’s gleanings. I enjoyed my visit to the place a few weeks ago.

Disruptions: How Driverless Cars Could Reshape Cities - I like the projections of driverless cars being available by the end of the decade!

Stanford students capture the flight of birds on very high-speed video - Watch the video - the birds are amazing. The high speed video provides a window into flight that we cannot get with our unaided eyes!

10 mindblowingly futuristic technologies that will appear by the 2030s - How many of these seem plausible to you? Back in the 1960s - many thought we’d have a colony on the moon by 2013. With technology, know-how is not the only requirement.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 13, 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.

Authentic Happiness - Start with the home page of the Director of the Positive Psychology Center at University of Pennsylvania and then look through the site for information and do some or all of the well-being questionnaires.

Urban Observatory - Compare various aspects (like population density, senior population, traffic, etc.) of three large cities (16 of the largest cities in the world to select from) by looking at them side by side.

Powerful African Wildlife Bursts out of lively Landscapes - Enjoy the art of Karen Laurence-Rowe from Kenya.

The Joy of Old Age (No Kidding) - Read Dr. Oliver Sacks thoughts on becoming 80 years old - his mercury (element 80) year.

Technology Foresight - Think about the ‘Futuresaurus’ timelines coming out of Imperial College technology foresight event and posted by Richard Watson on his blog. I was intrigues by the items projected to disappear.

Watch North American City Skylines Sprout In 3-D Video, From 1850 To Today - Cube Cities combined commercial real estate data with Google Earth to provide these videos of midtown Manhattan, Chicago, San Francisco, Calgary, Downtown Los Angeles, and Toronto,

A View from The Overlook: A Virginia Farmer - I could not resist adding this post about Mount Vernon from National Parks Traveler to this week’s gleanings. I enjoyed my visit to the place a few weeks ago.

Disruptions: How Driverless Cars Could Reshape Cities - I like the projections of driverless cars being available by the end of the decade!

Stanford students capture the flight of birds on very high-speed video - Watch the video - the birds are amazing. The high speed video provides a window into flight that we cannot get with our unaided eyes!

10 mindblowingly futuristic technologies that will appear by the 2030s - How many of these seem plausible to you? Back in the 1960s - many thought we’d have a colony on the moon by 2013. With technology, know-how is not the only requirement.

Around our (Maryland) Yard in July 2013

Our July has included enough rain to keep the yard very lush. I took a series of pictures looking up through the trees in our yard. The foliage in all the trees is in prime summer condition. I’ll do a similar collage in the fall.

Another series I am starting this month is watching the maturing of the tulip poplar seed pods. There is finally a branch low enough on our tree to watch the developments every month. The image on the right is what the two green pods will look like next summer.

The rest of the walk  around our yard is captured in the slideshow below. I appreciate the dahlias, blazing stars, zinnias and hydrangea bush this year because the day lilies have been so thoroughly enjoyed by the deer; the buds get eaten right before they open! I’ve included the green pyracantha berries; they’ll be a glorious orange in the fall.

The Joys of New Paint - Part I

Last year we had the inside of our house painted (posts: one, two). This year the exterior is being painted. It has only been about 5 years since the last time we had it painted but there were enough problem areas to get it done again and the painters we found for the interior were available for the job. There is not all that much to paint -- the front is brick and the siding is not wood (and does not need repair or painting). There is more than just simple painting of the house trim that the painters are providing though:

Replacing rotten wood around a couple of windows

Caulking

Cleaning and staining the deck

Washing the siding (all the dirt and stains are gone - and it is beautifully white again)

Painting the exposed walls of the basement in the back of the house

Repairing framing around the front door - which now looks like new and the new address plaque to the right of the door will soon be ready to be attached

I’ve been enjoying the daily progress. The crew got off to a fast start the first day; the weather was cloudy but dry and they put in a full day. The second day they ended about noon - the day cut short by rain. Will it all get done this week? It all depends on the weather!

As last year - I am impressed by the painters cleaning up at the end of the day. It is the same this year. During the day their painting supplies and ice chests are all over the front yard but when they leave their ladders and a few supplies are neatly stowed under the deck but otherwise there is no sign that there is painting in progress. 

Blazing Stars as Insect Magnets

My bulb project from April 2012 is quite lush this summer. The Blazing Stars are almost always full of bees, butterflies, and hummingbird moths. There are more plants this year and the heights seem more varied. And - best of all - the deer do not seem to find them palatable at all! The slide show below captures my favorite visitors to the Blazing Stars for the past month or so.

Feathers

A feather on the ground always catches my attention. I learned to be on the lookout for them when my daughter was young and carried an old bread bag that contained her feather collection with her on every outing. It was surprising to me how frequently we found a feather to add since I had never really looking for feathers before. Now - almost 20 years later - I still find myself noticing feathers. These days I simply photograph them and leave them wherever they are -

Battered in beach debris

Pristine in the sand....matted on harsh concrete

Fluffy on a tile floor...Arcing on top of the water

On the top of water - held aloft in relative dryness....and beginning to get wet

Standing at attention in the rocks

What is it that is so fascinating and appealing about feathers? 

• Is it their relationship to flight
• Or their shape
• Or their structure - the central bib and fine barbs
• Or simply that they are so different from any part of us? 

A Year of Travel Keepsakes

I posted more than a year about earrings as travel keepsakes. I’ve continued that preference over the past year. Here are the keepsakes acquired since June 2012:

From Tennessee in June 2012 (Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville)

From New York in October 2012 (Watkins Glen and Corning)

From Arizona in March 2013 (Kartchner Caverns)

From South Carolina in April 2013 (Charleston)

From Virginia in May 2013 (Chincoteague

And Richmond and Norfolk)

From Arizona in June 2013 (Tucson)

And finally - from New Mexico in June 2013 (White Sands and I-10)

These small items are easy to fit into luggage…and great memory joggers for years to come. Here’s to remembering happy times!

Brookside Gardens ‘Wings of Fancy’

One of the Brookside Gardens conservatories is currently dedicated to the annual live butterfly exhibit - ‘Wings of Fancy.’ It was very warm on the day we were there. The butterflies were very active but I didn’t linger as long as in previous years.

Butterflies are calming and invigorating at the same time. They are calming because they are so beautiful in their coloring and shape and the way they move. A better name for them would be ‘flutterbies’ to describe their motion. They are invigorating because they are in motion most of the time on warm days. Many of them open and close their wings even while they rest.

But they are short-lived creatures. Their wings become battered in a short while even in the relative protection of the conservatory. We know their life cycle: egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly - with the near magical metamorphosis taking place in the chrysalis phase. Enjoy the slide show from my walk through the 2013 Brookside Wings of Fancy!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 6, 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.

18 Jaw-Dropping Ocean Photos - Aptly named BuzzFeed posting

Can city farms feed a hungry world? - Experiments in urban farming around the world….the future of food in the cities may depend on their success.

Stunning Shots of Reine, the Most Beautiful Village in Norway - Snowy pictures for a hot summer day!

Modern Technology Aids Repairs to 14th-Century Kiva at Bandelier National Monument - Bandelier is probably my favorite place in New Mexico. I’m glad it’s getting needed repairs.

Oral History….DNA from Ancient Tooth Tartar - Bacteria in the mouth have changed over time (large changes with transition from hunter/gatherer to farmer (more soft foods) and then with the advent of refined carbohydrates and concentrated sugars).

Amount of Dust Blown across the Western U.S. is Increasing - The technique that they use to determine how much dust is blowing is the most interesting part of this gleaning.

Magical Long Exposures Photos of Fireflies in Japan - It is easy to image fireflies as fairies in these forest images.

X-ray images of women in corsets show skeletons in a bind - I am very glad corsets are in our past rather than our present or future!

Opinion: On Living Longer - A thoughtful piece about memory loss and aging.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #44 - As usual, I can’t resist the bird photographs. My favorite in this group is last one - of the southern carmine bee-eaters aerial ballet.